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In 2011 Robert Berlind spent five months in Japan in and around Kyoto. An extensive group of paintings followed somewhat different from the work he has been known for in the past. For many years Berlind has painted lush passages of foliage or views of light-struck rippled water which occupy an undefined territory between realism and abstraction. Berlind is a realist with a strong modernist bent. His seductive close-up views of the natural world lifted free of circumstantial context stretch across the entire visual field often on very large canvases. The image ends abruptly at each edge. The space is shallow the picture surface is emphasized forms may overlap or recede but not very much. Depending on the imagery depiction can differ greatly. Though his focus has been deliberately limited over the years he has pursued a seemingly inexhaustible visual investigation while varying this approach. Berlind writes frequently about art. He has published articles about Mangold Held Zapkus Nozkowski and Pollock among other abstract artists and has much to say on the subject of abstraction. Japan presented Berlind with a new way of looking at the world. The unfamiliarity was important he says. There was so much new stimulus. Especially the architecturethe temple complexes and rice paddies right in the city in vacant lots. Five of the paintings in the current show depict young rice plants set out in neat rows in contained flooded areas. The rice is planted in the spring or early summer the size of the rice plants varies from