Samantha Bittman

The bold, patterned paintings of Samantha Bittman elevate the textured visuals of Op Art and geometric abstraction. Painstakingly layering acrylic paint over hand-woven textile, the artist creates intricate lines and shapes that toe the line between flat and three-dimensional surface. Distorting the perception of her viewers, the artist considers her handloom a means through which repetitive numerical data can be processed into visual patterns. Optically frenzied, and at times overwhelming, Bittman’s large-scale installation works often involve patterned wallpaper, transforming each space into a parallel world of stripes and shapes—and obscuring the traditional architecture of the room.

Bittman has had a number of solo and two-person exhibitions including Andrew Rafacz, Chicago, Longhouse Projects, New York, Greenpoint Terminal Gallery, Brooklyn, Thomas Robertello Gallery, Chicago, and Flash Atölye, Izmir, Turkey.  Group shows include Guererro Gallery, San Francisco, Morgan Lehman Gallery, New York, and the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design, Milwaukee, among others. In 2011 Bittman was awarded a Skowhegan Fellowship and in 2012 received an Artadia Award from the Fund for Art and Dialogue in Chicago.