Andrea Belag

Visual Arts professor Andrea Belag leads a multifaceted and busy life. A New Yorker, born and bred, Belag commutes between Princeton, where she teaches an advanced art class and New York City, where her home, her studio and her current exhibition at the Mike Weiss Gallery in Chelsea are located. She is equally dedicated to both aspects of her dual life.

"At 17, I knew I was a painter," she said, but also emphasizes that teaching gives her the satisfaction of "creating a dialogue with the next generation." A member of Belag's advanced studio class, Nina Cronan '08 confirmed this zeal for interaction and involvement, saying, "[Professor Belag] tells us exactly what she thinks and we all love her for it."

Belag is adamant about giving her students an appreciation for and an understanding of the contemporary art world. Her own work was "influenced by the collection at MOMA," she said, so her class involves trips to modern art collections in New York and assignments based on current exhibitions. Most recently, Belag required her class to pick an artist from the 2006 Whitney Biennial and create a piece reminiscent of that artist's style. The exhibition itself has met lukewarm reviews, but Belag said it was worthy of her class' attention because it presented a different and "dark view of the world."

As a professional painter, Belag brings energy and dedication to her work equal to that she exhibits in the classroom. She began her professional career in 1988 with concurrent shows in New York and Cologne. Since then, she estimates she has mounted at least 15 one-woman exhibitions.

Belag's work has been greeted with rave reviews from critics, including one from David Cohen of Gallery Going, who cited her "expressive potential" and deemed her work rife with "the kind of expansive imagination that thrives within reduced means." He added that "her paintings have a voice of their own, [both] tough and quirky."

A review in Art in America magazine of Belag's 1998 show at Bill Maynes gallery suggested that the light coming "from behind or underneath her semitransparent bands of color ... [gives] a sense of the light of the cinema." This cinematographic quality is influenced by her self-proclaimed "interest in Film Noir."

When asked who her favorite painters were, Belag said she is most interested in artists who were on the cutting edge of their own generations. Henri Matisse and Philip Guston, she said, "had the biggest impact on [her] development." She was specifically "drawn to their use of both representation and abstraction, [a] practice [which is] just coming into the mainstream of contemporary art."

This melding of representation and abstraction is best exemplified in one of Belag's own works — a piece she did in 2001 and now considers one of her favorites. Entitled "Afterward," the 72 inch by 66 inch oil-on-canvas is composed of royal blue, mustard yellow and dark brown rectangles. The varied textures incorporate gritty, dense and smooth patches.

Belag explained that the painting was inspired by her return to her studio after September 11, 2001. She lives and works "about seven blocks from Ground Zero" and had to evacuate for a week after the terrorist attacks. When she returned and looked at some of her watercolor paintings, Belag said, they "now resembled the collapsing structures I had witnessed." Moved and inspired, she immediately did a new series of works, one of which was "Afterward."

Despite her success as a painter, Ms. Belag found Princeton's visual arts program irresistible because of its "distinguished history of inviting abstract artists to teach and be part of the community." She now balances working in New York with teaching in Princeton two days a week.

According to her students, when asked if she loved her paintings, Belag responded that to love something meant to say it was complete. At a time when art is continually changing, and artists are constantly looking for something new and fresh, Belag cautions against haste. "Young artists need to be nurtured," she said, "and to think of their careers as a lifetime commitment."