Gloria Garfinkel celebrates color unabashedly in her vibrant, abstract paintings. She has traveled extensively in Japan where she has found much inspiration. Japanese kimonos are endlessly fascinating and fresh to her. While some of her paintings, such as Orange K and Ginza Kimono # 73, may refer to the juxtapositions of color and gracious shapes of ancient kimonos, she adds a tension of forms and beautiful color which make these works entirely contemporary. Luminous oranges, bright yellows, magentas, blues and greens animate the surface and seduce the eye.

In the paintings, Ginza #11 and Ginza #18, Garfinkel shares her joy in pattern and texture, treating the viewer to a dense and rich feast. Ms. Garfinkel combines eastern and western traditions, the past and the present and the result is lyrical, vital and filled with joy.

Gloria Garfinkel has had solo exhibitions at the Mary Ryan Gallery, the Schiller-Wapner Gallery, and the Suzuki Gallery, all in New York, and the Haggerty Museum at Marquette University in Milwaukee; the Emerson Gallery Museum at Hamilton College in Clinton NY; and at Porto Seguros, São Paulo and Brasilia, South America. Her group exhibitions include The University of Pittsburgh Art Gallery; the DeCordova Museum, Boston; Art in the Embassies, Norway; Albright-Knox Museum, Buffalo; and many others. Her works are in the permanent collections of the New York Public Library; Worcester Art Museum; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Haggerty Museum at Marquette University; Reader's Digest, Pleasantville, NY; Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Warton & Garrison; Marsh & McLennon Co; Price & Rhoads and many others. Ms. Garfinkel lives and works in New York City.

Elizabeth Levine A.P.A.A.