Talya Baharal: Excavating the Shape of a Language On view at Cove Gallery, 37 Rocky Neck Avenue, Gloucester, MA, August 7-17, 2025

Gloucester, MA Talya Baharal’s paintings explore the evolving journey of an artist finding and refining her abstract voice. Each work reflects her deep engagement with the visual world—unintended compositions seen, absorbed, and reimagined through the language of abstraction.

From asphalt repairs and fractured ice sheets to a humble mended seam or a mangled wire in a trash heap, these everyday moments are transmuted into abstract forms. They become part of Baharal’s imaginary landscapes—a vocabulary that speaks of fragility, transformation, and quiet resilience.

“Excavating and disturbing surfaces—whether metaphorically or physically—has been an ongoing theme in all my work. Revealing visual remnants of the struggles and discoveries is at the essence of my painting path. I paint for those moments of clarity. I paint for the times I find the courage to destroy and rebuild. I paint to feel alive.”

Previously known for her work as a sculptor and studio jeweler, Baharal’s sculptural sensibility and fascination with decay and containment remain foundational. Her attention to vessels, structures, and imagined terrains carries into her paintings, which are rich with layered meaning and form.

Using acrylic paint, ink, and mixed media—including torn paintings and photographic images of earlier sculptural work—Baharal activates each composition with a dynamic interplay of gesture and collage. Lines emerge, disappear, and re-emerge across the surface, creating an armature that holds the visual narrative together.

Her process is one of excavation: revealing, concealing, and reworking, until the painting speaks with authenticity.

Baharal lives and works in the Hudson Valley, NY. Born in Tel Aviv and raised between Israel and London, she moved to New York City in 1979. Over three decades, she has gained recognition for her work as a studio art jeweler and sculptor, receiving a NYFA Fellowship and other honors. She has served as a juror for the NYFA sculpture/craft panel and curated a book on contemporary art jewelry. After several years in Maine, where she began painting exclusively, she continued her studies at the New York Studio School. Recent solo exhibitions include Raw Ink - Blue Paint at Five Points Art Center (CT), Shape of a Language at First Street Gallery (NYC), Triangle Gallery (ME), and Lulo Gallery (CA). Her work has also appeared in numerous group shows across the Northeast.

Cove Gallery, located in the heart of historic Rocky Neck in Gloucester, Massachusetts, is part of the Rocky Neck Art Colony. The gallery showcases the work of member artists through an evolving schedule of solo and group exhibitions throughout the season. It is a welcoming space for contemporary art lovers and visitors alike, offering an intimate view into the region’s vibrant creative community.