Betsy Podlach

"Self-Portrait with Pink Hat" by Podlach - Bright Red and Pink Self-Portrait

2021

Betsy Podlach was born in New York in 1964. She studied painting while earning her BA at Harvard University with William Reiman and Alfred Decredico, as well as literature and fiction writing with Carlos Fuentes and the playwright William Alfred. She then attended the New York Studio School in New York, NY. At the Studio School, she studied with members of the New York School of Abstract Expressionism who had studied with Hons Hoffman, Nicolas Carone, Mercedes Matter, and Ofra Shemish. Podlach paints landscapes, still-lifes, and figures. Her primary focus is on figurative images, nudes, couples, and portraits of women and sometimes men, with and without an imagined animal or several animals. These are created through a process of trying to create a person who didn’t exist before, who comes into existence for the first time as the painting develops in a dialogue with the emerging subjects. These women, men, animals, and imaginary settings are both intense in their imagined past and future and in their presence depicted as a moment in time, a moment in which time is stopped - vulnerable, sexual, strong, and engaged in the fullness of life, love, pain, and joy. Podlach has exhibited extensively in both the US and Europe. Her work is in both public and private collections all over the world, including that of Pfizer Inc, and NYU. She seeks to combine the elements of the great Venetian painter, Titan, and the expressionism of Jackson Pollock into a contemporary aesthetic of physicality, sexuality, intimacy, and mystery. She has studied, lived, and painted independently in Italy, Paris, and Provence thanks to grants, scholarships, and the generosity of Donatella Borghese and Nicolas Carone. She resided in New York City for many years and now lives and works on Eastern Long Island, near Southampton New York.