Goldenberg One-man Show Opens in Portsmouth The Union Leader, Manchester, NH Weekend, July 6-9, 2000 By Laura Pope, NH Weekend Arts Correspondent

Portsmouth—July is a most appropriate month for Portsmouth to spotlight one of its most talented painters, since the artist's singular brave and adventurous works on canvas evoke similar sensations of color, defiance, and courage as that of this month's Independence Day holiday.

Ten paintings by Portsmouth's own Roger Goldenberg went on display this week at Portsmouth's newest gallery, the upscale Nahcotta Gallery at 100 Congress Street, and will remain on view throughout July. An artist's reception is set for Thursday, July 6, from 6–8 p.m.

Goldenberg's works in oil are distinguished by a radiant palette, tightly woven abstract construction, and bold, improvisational composition. They reflect his work of the last three years and may be classified, said Goldenberg, "as nonobjective expressionist, which loosely equates to abstract."

Goldenberg brings a world of diverse experience to his works. A native of Berlin, New Hampshire, the artist earned a degree in geology at the University of New Hampshire in 1981, and ventured twice to Antarctica with the leading ice core scientist Paul Mayewski, who led research expeditions from UNH.

Interests in science gave way to an eight year career in woodworking and cabinetry, though by 1989 Goldenberg realized his true calling and went back to UNH to earn his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. Later, with two fellowships in hand, he attended the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, where he received his Master of Fine Arts degree in 1995.

By chance, Goldenberg was hired in 1995 as a part-time instructor of painting and drawing at UNH in Durham upon completion of his studies in North Carolina, where he also taught art history as a teaching assistant. He finished his UNH teaching stint in 1999 and today works full-time as an artist in a studio he keeps at the Button Factory on 855 Islington Street in Portsmouth,NH.

The scientist-turned-woodworker-turned-artist agrees that his earlier interests inform his work: "The striations and layering in rock are part of the process and you could say that having a hands-on feel for fine woodworking can be seen in the way I compose a painting. My woodworking could even be considered a misplacement of energy that I eventually directed to the canvas. So yes, geology and woodworking are part of it, but so is jazz." Goldenberg is also a longtime trumpet player who performs with Portsmouth's R & B/New Orleans dance band The Jumbo Circus Peanuts.

"The work I did during my BFA years was narrative work that told a story, often described by nudes in interior spaces or remembered environments. I often came back to the same thing, a group of figures in conversation. At first I drew these figures clothed, but toward the end I painted them nude, trying to get to the bare bones of the story."

The move to attend grad school was not immediate, even after he had turned toward art as a career and earned an art degree. "The real wake-up call for me came after my mother contracted breast cancer in 1985, later succumbing to the disease in 1990. I realized then that I had to be an artist. I had been putting it off for 15 years and I knew that this decision required a commitment and certain sacrifices. I knew I would have to give up many material things and live without certain comforts and that it would affect my personal relationships, too."

It was during Goldenberg's two years in North Carolina that his newer style emerged. Gone were the narratives and the nudes, to be replaced by vivid colorscapes, constructed or intertwined in a blaze of movement. Rather than capture a static snapshot of life in a narrative or still life, the artist now gravitated toward personal expressions relating to the constant flux of the world in the form of "metaphoric vignettes of remembered visual and felt moments that link thoughts and emotions like a movie to its subtitles."

Observers have noted a brave streak in Goldenberg's personality that surfaced in his adventures as a geologist and continues to surface in his paintings. "There is a certain bravery in putting down the personal on canvas for others to see; there is a bravery about choosing a less-chosen, more austere life and lifestyle. I live in an environment that challenges me and pushes me to work all the time. Art was the most challenging thing I could ever think of doing. I try to work at jobs for money as little as possible; having the time instead of the money gives me time to think and time to paint."

The widely adventuring Goldenberg revisits many of the same shapes in his painted vocabulary. He said his sense of color comes from "a certain joy for living, an expression of jubilance."

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