American Portraits | Still Point II | THE Painting Exhibition | Geometric Abstraction | The Serious and Playful Sides of Light | Autumnal Tints
Great achievements are not born from a single vision but from the combination of many distinctive viewpoints. Diversity challenges assumptions, opens minds, and unlocks our potential to solve any problems we may face. --Unknown
This exhibition celebrates diversity in America through the genre of portraiture. Artists were encouraged to think about diversity in America in its broadest sense. The result is what you see...portraits of elderly men and women, children at play, people from different racial and ethnic backgrounds, people with different lifestyles, different pastimes, different issues, different blessings. It's like a walk up Fifth Avenue, Chicago Avenue, Hollywood Boulevard, or Bourbon Street. Lots of individuals...no two are alike.
Artists of Distinction for this exhibition are Ara Koopelian, Anselm Skogstad, and Angela Young. Be sure to take a good look at their work in the gallery.
This will remain online until August 10, 2011.
Enjoy!
Christine
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One way of thinking about visual art is that the artist finds or discovers something - be it inside or outside of the artist - and, through art, holds it still. A photographer captures a moment in time with a click of the shutter and that moment is locked in stillness. A painter paints a scene using oils on canvas and that scene exists forever in a motionless state. A sculptor molds and shapes details of a human body, and that body stands frozen...never to age...never to change.
Still Point II is the second annual exhibition focused on exploring those things that artists, through art, hold still.
Artists of Distinction for this exhibition are Heike Ludewig, Jerry P. Park, Elizabeth Patterson, and Tetiana Zakharova. Be sure to see their work in the Gallery and read about them in the Blog!
Enjoy the show!
Christine
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The art of painting involves a tool, a substance, and a surface. These are the materials of painting. While the materials of painting may appear to be largely functional, the contribution made by these materials to the work of the painter is far more than functional.
Painting is not just an activity, it is a way of life; a painter lives in and through painting. As the materials of painting are not just part of the process by which the work happens, but part of the end-product as well through their transcending this distinction between means and ends, they are the very way this aspect of the painter's being both manifests and realises itself. They are the vehicle through which the painter's life as a painter happens, unfolds itself, realises itself. This manifests itself back through the materials. The realisation of the materials through the painting is the realisation of the painter through them. His potentiality is their potentiality, and their potentiality his. Thus, his being drawn towards certain materials is his being drawn towards a certain potentiality of his own. --Nigel Wentworth, The Phenomenology of Painting
While this exhibition is limited to painting, it offers boundless opportunities to explore the various media within painting as well as to look at and enjoy the work of painters who have relied upon this medium to unfold the mysteries of their lives.
Enjoy the Show!
Christine
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The work in this show represents a tremendous variety of media - painting, photography, digital art, mixed media, metal, glass, acrylic, fabric, clay, wood, and ceramic! Amazing artists...fabulous art...inspired by shape, abstraction, geometry.
Geometry - squares, triangles, circles, ellipses, cones, cubes, and polygons ... length, area, and volume. Geometry frames our world and shapes our world. It brings order, organization, balance, symmetry, and asymmetry to our surroundings. Geometry is used by carpenters and astronomers as well as theoretical mathematicians. The concept of geometry is so simple and appealing that even young children seem to intuitively draw squares and circles and rectangles. Yet the concept of geometry is so complex that mathematicians and physicists may spend years studying applications and theories of one tiny aspect of geometry. Then there is the artist. When an artist's unique view .. of the world, of the self ... incorporates geometric shapes or focuses on natural or man-made geometric shapes, the result may be an amazing display of shape and color. Geometric abstraction can be daring, imposing, powerful, stark, complex, bold, or rhythmic.
Be sure to take a good long look at the work of Regina Davidson, Isabelle Hope Grahm, Susan Farrar Parrish, and David Stelle. They are this show's Artists of Distinction and will be showing more of their work as Gallery Artists in 2011. Read about them in the Gallery Blog.
Enjoy the show!
Christine
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The Serious and Playful Sides of Light
Think about light. We need light to see, to find our way in the dark, to brighten our day, to cast hope upon despair. Think about light again. Consider the fun of bouncing the light from a flashlight around a room or using your hands to make shadowy characters in front of a bright light projected against a screen or white wall. Isn't it exciting to light candles on someone's birthday cake and watch the birthday girl's or boy's eyes light up too? Light. There is always such joy to realize that the shortest day of the year has come and gone and there will be more daylight in the coming weeks.
Artists think about light...a lot. Artists work with light...study light...appreciate light...play with light. This exhibition is intended to explore the many ways that artists show their understanding and use of light...the serious and playful sides of light.
Some of the art works in this exhibition will amaze you, some will warm your heart, some will surprise you, and some will bring a smile to your face. Light has such power...such importance, and it takes a very skilled and attentive artist to present light in ways that are true to its nature. You will meet such artists in this exhibition.
The work of three artists is particularly noteworthy - Pete Cosenza, Joe Krawczyk, and Gary Paul Stutler. They were named this exhibition's Artists of Distinction. Be sure to look at their work and read about them in the Gallery Blog.
--Christine
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The idea for this exhibition was inspired by Henry David Thoreau's essay of the same name.
"I believe that all leaves, even grasses and mosses, acquire brighter colors just before their fall. When you come to observe faithfully the changes of each humblest plant, you find that each has, sooner or later, its peculiar autumnal tint." --Henry David Thoreau, Autumnal Tints
This exhibition, though, is not solely about a time of year. It is about color...the plush, sometimes fiery, sometimes soothing and subtle, colors of autumn. The artists whose works are shown here seem passionate about color. Through paintings, photographs, ceramic, and mixed media pieces, artists have indeed shown both the fiery and the subtle colors of autumn.
This exhibition is truly a treat to be enjoyed slowly. On one page you will see lively, bright colors that will brighten your day and put a smile on your face, while on another page you will see deep, rich colors that feel like velvet to the eye. On another page the colors seem simple and weightless, like a slight autumn breeze. Move to another page, and the colors explode into reds, oranges, yellows, purples, and greens. There are so many ways to explore autumnal tints.
Be sure to take a good long look at the work of Leslie Anderson, John R. Math, and Kathy Winstead. They are this show's Artists of Distinction and will be showing more of their work as Gallery Artists in 2010.
Enjoy!
--Christine