Sylvia Naimark | Zimzum

We are happy to present Sylvia Naimark’s first solo exhibition at Berg Gallery, titled Zimzum.

Naimark’s paintings are the result of an intuitive yet controlled process. She works with the physicality of the material, carefully adding and subtracting. In her primarily abstract works, one can occasionally discern forgotten places, creatures, and objects.

A sense of coherence permeates Naimark’s works. Her pieces evolve organically into a cohesive yet non-linear ouevre. The motifs emerge slowly during the the act of making, where the personal interweaves with universal experiences of otherness, change, loss, and the search for meaning.

The Kabbalistic concept of ”zimzum” (also known as ”tsimtsum” or ”tzimtzum”), from which the exhibition lends its name, translates roughly to ”withdrawal” or ”contraction”. In Jewish mysticism, this term is used to describe the withdrawal of light preceding the act of creation, the genesis.

It all starts with emptiness. A mysterious void imbued with an unknown energy capable of being present in its absence, simultaneously immanent and transcendent.

The same kind of liminal state can also appear in Naimark’s works. The subject matter of her paintings constantly straddles the line between form and figuration, representation and abstraction, presence and absence.

The exhibition is accompanied by a new essay written by Jonatan Habib Engqvist (curator, writer, and editor of the magazine Ord&Bild).

Sylvia Naimark (b. 1955, Malmö) lives and works in Stockholm. She holds a BFA from Konstfack University of Arts, Crafts and Design, Stockholm, and an MFA from Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, Jerusalem. Her work has been exhibited in numerous solo and group exhibitions, most recently at Marquee Projects, New York; Berg Gallery, Stockholm; Konstnärshuset, Stockholm; Nancy Margolis Gallery, New York; Färgfabriken, Stockholm; and Galleri Ping-Pong, Malmö. Naimark is represented in the collections of the Public Art Agency Sweden, Region Stockholm, Landskrona Museum, Västra Götalandsregionen, and The Swedish Association for Art (SAK), to name a few. In 2018, a monograph of her work – Sylvia Naimark: Paintings 2008–2018 – was published with the support of The Foundation Längmanska Kulturfonden in Stockholm. 

Download text by Jonatan habib engqvist