Calling figuration and abstraction “meaningless distinctions,” Tatiana Berg combines the two, producing paintings that burst with the boundless physical energy of their making. She draws inspiration from art history, her “contemporary painting heroes” Dana Schutz, Nicole Eisenman, and Amy Sillman, social media, and television, especially the Mad Men series. As evidenced by the fat, gestural brushstrokes and trickles of paint that fill her canvases, Berg works rapidly and intuitively, discarding what displeases her, while continually pushing out compositions ranging from entirely abstract to loosely figurative. She works in two- and three-dimensions, building tent-like sculptural pieces out of individual, painted canvases. Of her muscular, vigorous process she states: “I need a one-to-one connection from my body to the thing that I'm making, and a paintbrush is really close. […] It's the most mainline avenue to connect brain, eye, and hand.”

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Shown: Sticky, 2015, acrylic on canvas