Zipora Fried at Sikkema Jenkins & Co

Though her lined-based, labor-intensive drawings have been described as resisting language in favor of the emotional potential of color, Zipora Fried’s own words best describe the inspiration for her latest work.  She explains that the ‘sky and mud colored lizards, soft-toned cicada shells, sunsets echoing exploding worlds…,” the tides and sands of Lamu Island, Kenya prompted her vivid color choices.  Short repeated pencil strokes and tonal variety make each image appear to shimmer in an unfixed meditation on her experience of the island.  (On view in Chelsea at Sikkema Jenkins & Co. through Jan 18th).

Zipora Fried, To Those Who Know How to Laugh, colored pencil on archival museum board, 80 x 54 inches, 2019.