Sheldon Berlyn has been creating abstract paintings for 40 years, with radically simplified forms and just a hint of lithe, cartoonish agility. Giving pleasure on the immediate level, his paintings challenge us to take abstract-expressionism seriously without the angst. The Buffalo News entertainment section says of him, "For all the direct emotional contact
that he establishes, Berlyn might as well be Tom Swift welding his electric squeegee."

 Berlyn states: "The act of painting holds the most excitement for me. It is the juxtaposition of form and color which produces unexpected relationships and order which challenges me. I place myself among current abstractionists who are dedicated to the reinvention of abstract form."

  His paintings draw attention to the physical activity by which they were made. The presence of the artist is felt through the form rather than by a represented scene. "Form in my paintings derives from human kinesis. Color has substance and is chosen to express emotion, light and optical space."

 Berlyn, a long-time academic, is a veteran of many one-man and group shows in the Northeast. His paintings are in the permanent collections of Buffalo's Albright-Knox Gallery, Burchfield-Penney Center, Dayton (OH) Art Institute, Worcester (MA) Art Museum, and many corporate collections. Berlyn, with his wife Diane, an art restorer, have located their studios on Vine Road overlooking Keuka Lake.