BIOGRAPHY

Brenda Goodman (b. 1943, Detroit, MI) has relentlessly explored the physical and psychological limits of abstraction and figuration throughout her illustrious career. Regarded as a “painter’s painter” for her inventive handling of paint, Goodman’s paintings range from thick impasto to thin veils of color, creating deep, interior spaces of personal confrontation and reflection. Between 1994 and 2007, Goodman created a series of ground-breaking self-portraits which critic John Yau called “one of the most powerful and disturbing achievements of portraiture in modern art.” The series combines her expressionist tendencies with figuration to reveal the innate vulnerability and power within one’s own mortality. Goodman received her BFA from the College for Creative Studies, MI, from which she also holds an honorary doctorate. Goodman has exhibited at the Cranbrook Art Museum, MI; Detroit Institute of Arts, MI; Grand Rapids Art Museum, MI; Institute for Contemporary Art at VCU, VA; Jacksonville Art Museum, FL; Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, IL; Museum of New Art, MI; Rutgers University, NJ; and Whitney Museum of American Art, NY, among others. Her work is in the collections of the Carnegie Museum of Art, PA; Detroit Institute of Arts, MI; Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, IL; and Museum of Modern Art, NY, among others. Goodman is based in Pine Hill, NY.