Body Language
Text. Dr. Lily Fürstenow
In contemporary figurative art, the tradition of nude painting finds new life through the fluidity of pastels and water colors, where the body is both a landscape and an intimate narrative. Echoing the sensuality of dancers by Matisse and the opulence of Eugène Delacroix’s figures works by Tom Kenny, for example, reinterpret the human form with dreamlike washes of pastel blues and greenish hues, juxtaposed with the raw intensity of reds interrupted by contrasting silhouette lines.
Barbara Herzfeld’s bodies on the other hand some with stark black contours, others rendered in vigorous tones are intriguingly dynamic. They have something in common with expressionistic energy reminiscent of Egon Schiele yet filled with special attention to detail that only female artists have. Her audacity of colour compositions creates unexpected harmonies, depicting humans in unusual postures, crouched or languid, relaxed or tense but always sincere and filling it all with their unique presence.
Stefan Weber’s torsos and bodies embrace the weight of flesh with sombre, almost sculptural colorings, while others dissolve themselves into ephemeral, near-abstract compositions, with restless and expressive lines. Some are like Lucian Freud’s contemporary visions of nudity as they reject conventional ideals of beauty, celebrating instead the fluidity of body language—curved, twisted, or reclined in defiant or vulnerable postures.
There is an experimental tension in the works of all three artists participating in this exhibition, where color melts into skin, and forms oscillate between presence and disappearance. This dialogue between materiality and transience speaks to a modern perception of intimacy and self-exploration, reflecting our shifting relationship with sensuality, privacy, and identity in an era of digital exposure and personal reclamation. Body language is common to all human beings irrespective of race, gender, nationality and borders, something we all share and need to learn anew.
Exhibition views by Stefan Weber.
Work List:
Stefan weber
- from the series insta people. Felt pen and watercolour on paper. 20×30 cm
- from the series insta people. watercolour on paper. 20×30 cm
- turn around. acrylic on canvas. 60×60 cm
- from the series insta people. acrylic on canvas. 20×30 cm
- from the series insta people. Felt pen and watercolour on paper. 20×30 cm
- frenzy and madness. after a sculptor in the Bodemuseum Berlin by Caius Gabriel Cibber. eggtempera and ink on chinese paper 30×40 cm
- torso. acrylic on paper, digital blend.
- from the series insta people. watercolour on paper. 20×30 cm
- from the series insta people. watercolour on paper. 20×30 cm
Barbara Herzfeld
1. Audrey . Acrylic on Gessoed Cardboard . 18 x 12 cm. 2025
2. Audrey . Acrylic on Gessoed Cardboard . 18 x 12 cm. 2025
3. Audrey . Ink, Pastel . 18 x 12 cm. 2025
4. Eliza . Acrylic on Gessoed Cardboard . 16 x 12 cm. 2023
5. Mike . Pastel on Paper . 18 x 12 cm. 2023
6. Rebecca . Acrylic on Gessoed Cardboard. 16 X 12 cm. 2025
Artists Biographies
Barbara Herzfeld
is an American painter and drawer whose engagement with the figure is characterized by the movement and force of her body to express her self and her sexuality. Drawing from the model is a passionate part of her practice, but academic considerations take a backseat to color, composition, and developing a visceral language for flesh. She has been deeply influenced by the German Expressionists.
Barbara was raised in New York and received her BFA from Washington University in St. Louis in 1974. Post college, she became a textile designer for Home and Apparel in NYC, and developed her eye for color and pattern. She now has a full-time art practice and resides in the Hudson Valley of New York State. She is represented by The Carter Burden Gallery in NYC.
Tom Kenny
Queens Museum, New York City
BWAC, Brooklyn, New York
Gabrielle Bryers Gallery, New York City
Bernal Gallery, Chicago
118 Gallery, New York City
UpStream Gallery, Hastings on Hudson
New York Studio School, New York City
Bard College, Annandale On Hudson
MFA, San Francisco Art Institute
Tiffany Foundation Scholarship for tuition
Certificate: School of Visual Arts
National Endowment for the Arts Award
STEFAN WEBER. Artist’s Statement
„Detail is always welcome“ Vladimir Nabokov
„Was für Kunst gehalten wird, ist eine Übereinkunft. Und nichts davon ist wahr.“ Rick Rubin
Ich zeige digitale Arbeiten auf der Basis von Originalarbeiten in Eitempera und Acryl, die für diese Serie eingescannt wurden. Mittels Techniken von Überlagerung, Überblendung und Collagierung im digitalen Raum wurden haptisch-figürliche Arbeiten mit Eitempera-Klecksereien bzw. -Abklatschen konfrontiert. Der kreative Funke entzündet sich an Strukturen, wie sie im freien Kräftefeld zwischen fett- und wasserhaltigen Bindemitteln, Pigmenten und starken Untergründen zufällig entstehen, und misst sich an der emotionalen Dringlichkeit expressiver Farbverläufe. Des Menschen größtes Organ, seine Haut, Schnittstelle zwischen innen und außen und noch jeder Sensation zugeneigt, projiziert in diesen Bildern seelisches Erleben auf glattgebügelte Oberflächen.
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