Artist Lecture 2

April Gertler

April Gertler studied at BARD in San Francisco. There, she experimented with the medium of collage and studied abroad in Berlin. In 2005, she moved to Berlin and currently resides there. At first, she struggled with her artwork, but on her 38th birthday, she made a plan that would kick-start the process. Gertler created “The 38 Project”, where she would create a new work every week for a year. She posted each work to her blog every week and sold them for $38 a piece. Most of the pieces were collages of found photographs of people with some written text. After the year was up, she took on a new project where she found families in Berlin, collected their photos and recorded their personal stories. She took the photos and stories and created a series of pieces based on these families. Gertler has participated in many residency programs; one in particular was in Cork, Ireland. There, she worked on a show called “Prisoner of Damp Patches.” It showcased many collage pieces that were connected by
a common “thread”. She also began creating giant chalk murals right on
the gallery walls. In recent years, Gertler has been focusing much of her energy on a project she started called “Picture Berlin.” It started out as a critique group of Berlin artists, but has since transformed into a
hybrid residency/art academy for artists who practice photography. For a month during the summer, students work intensely on their photography, participate in multiple critiques, visit galleries, and meet other successful artists, gallerists, and curators.