NEW YORK, NY.- Betty Cuningham Gallery presents the Wound is the Place the Light Enters, October 14 through December 6, 2024. The exhibition and online viewing room features 5 paintings and 8 works on paper by Jake Berthot. The selection focuses upon Skulls, a subject that Berthot returned to intermittently up to the time of his death in December of 2014.

Throughout his 45-year career, Berthot held on to the geometry of the grid (all his sketches are grids) and the poetry of an indeterminate space. Twisting the grid to achieve several vanishing points allowed him to realize, as he would call it, “a Rothko-like space”.

In his early abstract work, the central, deep space is framed by a painted edge. In the ‘80’s, the oval enters, tautly fixed by the grid, confronting the viewer as a portrait. After Berthot moves from the city in the 90’s, trees, mountains, or simply light find their location in the darkness, locked in place by the grid.

The Skull is a subject that appears throughout art history, representing a multiplicity of meanings. Berthot’s Skull paintings, of which there are very few, stand among his most powerful works. The grid is revealed and the Skull by its very nature is laid bare, offering the steps to understanding as well as the pain of the unknown.

The title of the exhibition and viewing room, The Wound is the Place the Light Enters, is taken from a newly published book by Howard Norman. Together they mark a joint celebration of the life, work and wisdom of Jake Berthot.

The exhibition will be available online and at the gallery by appointment. The Wound is the Place the Light Enters by Howard Norman, published in September 2024 by Texas Tech University Press, is available online through the University and the gallery or on Amazon.