Vija Doks presents paintings created with chalk, colored pencil, and oil on black ground that showcases the diversity and beauty of animal life in Animal Instincts. The figures emerge in ghostly and luminous white, creating a striking contrast between subject and background, which emphasize their fragile position in our present man-made environment. Doks states, “Through these works, I hope to stir in the viewer a sense of joy and wonder and awaken them to the magic of animals. I am an environmentalist and animal lover and I hope to raise awareness of our interconnectivity through my art.”

New York-based artist Vija Doks was born in a displaced persons camp in Germany of Latvian parents. She grew up in Kalamazoo, Michigan and received a BA from Western Michigan University. Relocating to New York City in 1976, she received a MS in Library Science from Columbia University and worked as a Law Librarian until her retirement in 2016. Doks pursued her art career in the 1990s, by taking courses at the School of Visual Arts where she studied under Nancy Chunn, Georgia Marsh and Judith Linhares. Her exhibitions include a solo show at the Brooklyn Parsonage Latvian Center, NYU's Small Works Shows, Exit Art, CurateNYC, Hudson Guild among others. Her painting Red Ibis was featured in the 2012 movie, The Oranges. In addition, Doks has published a cartoon cookbook Letts Eat, and her writing has been published in Paragraph and Law Lines. She is currently working on a series of portraits of notable Tennessee women in collaboration with singer songwriter Candace Corrigan.

Artist Jeanne Finkelstein Goodman introduces colorful, lively drawings from the series Creatures of the Book in her first exhibition with Carter Burden Gallery Animal Instincts. The large drawings are inspired by the folktales of Goodman’s childhood told to her by her grandparents, where each animal has its own story to tell. These fables, like those from Yiddish writer Isaac Bashevis Singer frequently included animal characters that embodied human qualities. Goodman states, “Like the fabulous creatures in my grandparents’ stories, each animal in my drawings - bulls, goats, and sheep - has its own story to tell. I call them Creatures of the Book, both holy and secular since they are inspired equally by biblical and temporal tales.”

Jeanne Finkelstein Goodman grew up in New Rochelle, NY and received her BFA in printmaking from Syracuse University. She had a graduate fellowship at the University of Massachusetts in 1974. Later Goodman studied at SUNY Buffalo with Harvey Breverman and with Terry Allen at California State University at Fresno in 1977. Goodman’s work is part of the permanent collection of the National Association of Women’s Art at the Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers University. Her drawings are included in numerous corporate collections, universities and college galleries. She has been published in several volumes and magazines, including New American Painting, Creative Colored Pencil, Art Business News, and International Artist. Goodman has exhibited and received numerous awards in juried exhibitions across the nation. Most recently her work was included in the Maryland Federation of Art’s juried exhibition, “Art on Paper,” in 2018.