BIO

Jill Krutick (b. 1962) is an American contemporary abstract expressionist who painted privately for over 30 years and studied at The Art Students League of New York. In 2010, she began publicly exhibiting her work. She has been praised by world-famous art critics and has had multiple solo museum exhibitions and scores of group exhibitions.

As a young painter and pianist, later as a Wall Street equity analyst, media executive and board member, Ms. Krutick has spent her life dedicated to the arts and entertainment industries. Painting emerged as her greatest passion, which she now pursues full time in her studio in Westchester, New York.

Her work is in over 100 private and public museum collections as well as the permanent collections of the Coral Springs Museum of Art, in Coral Springs, Florida; Yellowstone Museum of Art, in Billings, Montana; The Longwood Center for the Visual Arts in Farmville, Virginia; and the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.


STATEMENT

My paintings trace my joyful path of self-discovery and creative exploration. Using only texture, form, and color, I try to capture intense beauty and the constant flux of nature: galaxies, skies, blossoms, and tides. I combine abstract expressionist gestures, impressionist luminosity, and personal symbols of change on textured surfaces that contrast light and dark to achieve pictorial balance.
My recent work explores the eco challenges facing the world. What began as an escape to peaceful, imaginary fantasy worlds, like my Dreamscape, Shangri La and Aurora Borealis series, has now become an art practice exploring the impact of climate change on our earth and sea.

I now use a complex interplay of watercolor, oil paint, and acrylic mediums, together with various paper collage and plastic materials. Through the use of new applications, drying techniques, and materials, I have uncovered practices that connect my materials to a philosophical spirit about protecting the environment. I have negotiated an "alliance" between my materials and the subject matter itself. My work has advanced from being merely illustrative to structurally aligning it to eco-based themes. The work is becoming more open, fluid, and reflective of the aqueous effects of water as well as the debris that clutters it.

These new techniques have given me the freedom to explore the world's largest organism and complementary biosphere, coral reefs. Coral bleaching and the growing pollution from plastics and other toxicants threaten our coral reefs. This fragile structure literally builds and maintains itself once all the correct conditions exist, but is in great peril worldwide largely because of global warming. Without coral reefs, fish die and the eco system unravels. Coral reefs have become the language in which I communicate as an artist. As a diver and self-proclaimed “eco warrior,” I see the world through a lens of underwater coral and sea life. The shapes, colors and movement are central to my work, and are designed to raise awareness about the threats to this natural wonder.