alan neider

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“My work has always been about painting. I built out from the surface of my first paintings because the forms needed to come out into space. Some early paintings were free standing 3-dimensional forms. Some of the forms I have built and painted include: chairs, lamps, curtains, dresses as well as dimensional abstract paintings that hang on the wall. I create/build difficult and challenging surfaces to paint. I believe these surfaces in conjunction with the inherent textures wood, fabric, ceramics lead to a richer, complex experience.” - Alan Neider

Alan Neider was born in Norfolk, VA. He was highly influenced by his grandparents. His grandmother did number paintings and crafts while his grandfather painted the outside of their house every summer and the interior every winter.

Six years after moving to Los Angeles he enrolled in El Camino Jr. College. The school had a great art department that woke him up to possibilities of being an artist. He then graduated from California State University-Long Beach in Ceramics. He received an MFA in Sculpture from Washington University in St. Louis.

While in graduate school, he received a Robert Rauschenberg Work Grant. Neider worked as medical illustrator for five years before moving to Chicago where he continued his painting practice while completing several large scale public art works.

Moving to the east coast the output and scale of his work was smaller as he earned a living in commercial illustration. As time progressed the illustration took a back seat to his 3-dimensional paintings. His art has from the beginning been about creating difficult and challenging surfaces and forms to paint on and into.

For the past three years Neider has been sewing textured fabric on and painting into U-Haul moving blankets. The Blanket Paintings are his first encounter with blankets as a substrate to paint. They hang, fold and drape exposing some or parts of the painted surface. Neider next felt the forms needed more structure. He built frames and stretched the blankets, with sewn fabric, over the frames. This led to a project of forty paintings utilizing the blankets and the same size frames. There are four groups of ten paintings each.
His current work involves quilted blankets, fabric and paint. These paintings are free hanging with paint being handled in an expressive and gestural manner.

ARTIST BIO 

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

Gallery L, Montclair, NJ, Paint & Tar, 2018
ART 3, Blanket Paintings, New York, NY, 2017
Dressing Up: Recent Works, New Haven, CT, 2013
Curtains & Dresses: The Fall Collection, 305 Gallery, CT, 2011
Henri Gallery, Washington, DC, 1988
Henri Gallery, Washington, DC, 1985
Nancy Lurie Gallery, Chicago, IL, 1981
Jan Cicero Gallery, Chicago, IL, 1980
Illinois Arts Council, Chicago, IL, 1977

Two-Artist Exhibitions

The 490 Atlantic Gallery, Brooklyn, NY, 2019
The Carter-Burden Gallery, Chelsea, NY, 2019
University of Wisconsin, Eau Clair, 1997

Selected Group Exhibitions

Galerie Kremers, Berlin, Germany, 2019
Creative Arts Workshop, ‘Matters’, New Haven, CT, 2019
Blanket Statements, Overlook Gallery, Chicago, IL. 2017-18
Bound By Matter, Licthundire Gallery, New York, NY, 2017
Summer Sex 2, Licthundfire Gallery, New York, NY, 2017
SHIM/Apexart, Bushwick, NY, 2016
Artists Equity, New York, NY, 2016
Red Valentine, Concepto Gallery, Hudson, NY, 2015
Whole Foods Pop-Up Gallery, New York, NY, 2014
Disturbing the Comfortable, New Haven, CT, 2013
Torn Papers, Brian Morris Gallery, New York, NY, 2013
Dress Stories, Norwalk Community College, Norwalk, CT, 2012
Paint is Thicker Than Water, Local Project, Queens, NY, 2012
Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition, Brooklyn, NY, 2012
Fashionista Show, Center for Contemporary Art, CA, 2009
Submission Show, Sarah Bowen Gallery, Williamsburg, NY, 2007
CT Commission Gallery, Hartford, CT, 2002
Arc Gallery, Chicago, IL, 1995
Fabrications, Lowe Museum, Coral Gables, FL, 1980
Group Show, Laguna Art Museum, Laguna Beach, CA, 1968