Friday, October 17, 2025
BEAUTY: Painting--Fran Shalom
The compelling work of Fran Shalom is...well, compelling me. I love how the shapes and colors engage me. They are so primal and primary yet they seem to contain so much. She alludes to that Zen-like feeling in her Artist Statement below:
"I am a modernist abstract painter with a pop sensibility and a penchant for improvisation.
My work balances the formal with the playful, paring down shapes and ideas into their most basic forms. To counter the chaos of everyday life, I instinctively gravitate towards elemental shapes, with defined edges resulting in an appearance of control and order (however illusionary it may be).
The shapes reference the human body but are open to interpretation. Animated by bright, cartoony colors and figure/ground relationships, I think of the paintings as ambiguous characters who inhabit my studio keeping me company and often engaging in silent conversation.
I love ambiguity and have learned to be comfortable with not knowing. In Zen there is a wonderful saying: Not knowing is most intimate.”
It suggests approaching something with open-minded and whole-hearted curiosity. I try to begin my paintings in this way, with a willingness to be present with uncertainty, and with the confidence that the process will result in work that both satisfies and inspires.
– Fran Shalom, 2024"
Top to bottom: Backbone; Bon Vivant; Holding On; Incognito; Lighten Up; Shoot the Breeze; four untitled pieces; Witness
https://www.franshalom.com/
"I am a modernist abstract painter with a pop sensibility and a penchant for improvisation.
My work balances the formal with the playful, paring down shapes and ideas into their most basic forms. To counter the chaos of everyday life, I instinctively gravitate towards elemental shapes, with defined edges resulting in an appearance of control and order (however illusionary it may be).
The shapes reference the human body but are open to interpretation. Animated by bright, cartoony colors and figure/ground relationships, I think of the paintings as ambiguous characters who inhabit my studio keeping me company and often engaging in silent conversation.
I love ambiguity and have learned to be comfortable with not knowing. In Zen there is a wonderful saying: Not knowing is most intimate.”
It suggests approaching something with open-minded and whole-hearted curiosity. I try to begin my paintings in this way, with a willingness to be present with uncertainty, and with the confidence that the process will result in work that both satisfies and inspires.
– Fran Shalom, 2024"
Top to bottom: Backbone; Bon Vivant; Holding On; Incognito; Lighten Up; Shoot the Breeze; four untitled pieces; Witness
https://www.franshalom.com/
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