From My Window: Jason Berger At Home Abroad

One can see the lineage of Boston painting in Berger’s work—evidence of both his training at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts and the influence of his fellow Boston artists. Yet, his work is also uniquely his own, the result of direct observation, memory, and careful attention to particular elements of a landscape. His repetition of key themes—gardens, butcher shops, flags—in varying mediums and colors, becomes vital in understanding Berger’s process. This exhibition focused on Jason Berger’s artistic return to familiar subject matter spanning his travels throughout New England and Europe, with particular attention to sites in France and Portugal. Works in multiple media, including painting, drawing, printmaking, and sketchbooks, provide a fuller picture of the artist’s attentiveness to subject and reinterpretation of a scene. His expressive brushstrokes and vibrant palette bring each motif to life, from the view from his studio window in Brookline to a celebration of Bastille Day in Normandy. The exhibition included works from the last decades of Berger’s career, when he spent considerable time traveling and returning, by plane or by palette, to favorite subject matter, for home was wherever the artist was painting.