NEW BRIATIN, CONN.- The New Britain Museum of American Art announces NEW/NOW: JOE FIG, a solo exhibition that presents a series of sculptures and paintings by Joe Fig representing the studios of some of today’s leading contemporary artists, including Petah Coyne, Tara Donovan and Ursula Von Rydingsvard. All of the artists represented are women working in the New York area, and each portrait reflects the intimacies and subtleties of who they are as people and what they do as artists. NEW/NOW: JOE FIG is on view April 19–July 20, 2014 with an opening reception on Sunday, April 27 at 3:30 p.m., remarks be the artist at 4 p.m.

When walking through a museum it is easy to forget that the perfectly hung paintings and well-lit sculptures are products of a long and arduous process. They are the end results of many moments of creative inspiration, but also a myriad of physical and logistical details. It is these details—aspects of an artist’s daily routine—that motivated the artist Joe Fig to embark on a life-long exploration of the working lives of his fellow professional artists.

Fig visits and interviews each artist in order to fully and accurately document their process. This allows for a rare look into the self-made universe of the artist’s studio. As he explains, “The resulting artworks are both a celebration of the wonders of the creative process and a revelation regarding the rather mundane tasks involved in making art.” Fig’s process of documentation and translation—which includes building miniature, diorama-like models of the studios with a scale of one foot to one inch, using wood, polymer clay, paper, oil, and acrylic—gradually evolves into a portrait of the artist and her creative process.

Joe Fig's studio is in Collinsville, Connecticut. His work has been exhibited extensively throughout the United States and his sculptures, paintings and photographs can be found in numerous museums, including the Parrish Art Museum, the Norton Museum and the Fogg Art Museum. His acclaimed book Inside the Painter’s Studio explores the day-to-day practicalities of 24 leading contemporary artists and is currently in its sixth printing. He is currently working on a second publication that will feature works shown in NEW/NOW: JOE FIG. He received both his BFA and MFA from the School of Visual Arts and is represented by Tierney Gardarin Gallery in New York.