Top l-r: Pastor Isaac Scott, Jil Novenski, Pat Gericke; Bottom l-r: Maureen Chen, Michael Davis, Rick Perez
The artists showing work in We Bend, Not Break have each interpreted the theme of perseverance in unique ways. This video provides a peek into the creative process of six of our artists.
Click Here to view the video, We Bend, Not Break: Artist Interviews
America’s history has been faced with 400 years of perseverance starting with the Jamestown Settlement. Taking people from their homelands and placing them in shackles for the sake of sowing land is an old story but continues in other forms of bondage. We hope this exhibit will enlighten our visitors to the plight of African-Americans and other historically and currently marginalized groups.
Nine Gallery35 and four guest artists are showing works which dramatically depict both the struggles and triumphs of oppressed peoples in a variety of media and styles: Cari Clare, Denisha Wright, Pastor Isaac Scott, Jil Novenski, Jody Leight, Kevin H. Maxwell, Maureen Chen, Michael Davis, Pat Gericke, Rick Perez, Thadine Wormly-Herndon, Valerie Lynch, Virginia Asman.
l-r Michael Davis, Sharecropper Family; Rick Perez, Man in a Hoodie, Woman in a Head Wrap
Michael Davis’ oil on canvas, Sharecropper Family circa 1870, was painted from a reproduction of a daguerrotype or other early photographic process. Sharecropping was a form of agriculture that began mainly after the Civil War as an alternative to land grants of 40 acres and a mule in which a landowner allowed a tenant to use the land in return for a share of the crops produced on their portion of land. It was widespread in the South but fell out of favor in the mid-20th Century when mechanized farming became the dominant form of agriculture.
Head coverings are prominent in two thought-provoking paintings by Rick Perez—Man in a Hoodie and Woman in a Head Wrap. The hoodie has become an emotionally-charged article of clothing from its still strong association with the wrongful shooting of Trayvon Martin. This portrait of a white man wearing one resonates with some of the many contradictions that characterize our attitudes towards race in this country. A head wrap accentuates the sense of dignity of a proud woman. She looks ahead decisively and purposefully and with a sense of fearlessness in being able to confront the obstacles put in her path.
l-r Maureen Chen, Learning to Read; Virginia Asman, Fabric of Progress
Learning to Read by Maureen Chen is a calligraphic rendering of two quotations from the autobiography of the leading abolitionist and author Frederick Douglass. As a slave, Douglass overheard his master warning his wife against teaching Douglass to read, which made him more determined to learn on his own.”
Virginia Asman is showing two digital collages—Fabric of Progress featuring heroes of the civil rights movement and The Struggle Continues, incorporating slogans that have inspired various groups as they seek full participation.
This exhibit is also being presented as part of the arts festival of The Community Service Society of New York (CSS)’s 2019 conference, Full Participation is a Human Right—Moving Beyond Punishment, at Community Church, October 17-19.
Gallery35 At Community is pleased to have had our Opening Reception for BLUE videotaped by Odelle Abney for his NYC Gallery Openings online listings. Gallery35’s video can be viewed at https://youtu.be/QO2Ntu4Kerk
Several of our artists speak about their work and a representative piece from each artist is highlighted!
Speaking about their art on the video: Row 1—Kevin Maxwell, Denise Fryburg, Lois Ross; Row 2—Ellen Mandelbaum, Michael Davis; Row 3—Patricia Garbarini, Juanita Gilmore, John Connors
BLUE is the third in a series of exhibits which move around the color wheel. Earlier exhibits featured Green (2012) and Red (2018). In this exhibit, artists explore the rich possibilities of the color blue from blue moods to beautiful blues.
Details of artwork by (l-r) Marsha Peruo, Ellen Mandelbaum, Patricia Garbarini
A few of our artists talk about their artwork for BLUE.
Ellen Mandelbaum:
Blue Skies forever: a tour de force, huge water color painted on a huge piece of arches paper—the best that money can buy, 100% rag. I began painting with ultramarine blue then bought tubes of cobalt and cerulean and kept on painting until it was a large field of the color blue. On the top of that I imagined three houses (or three boats) and some arced lines like foliage. All in all it was great fun to paint and should also be enjoyed by all.
Juanita Gilmore:
Blue Moments – Occupy WS 2012: a blue mood describes the prevailing atmosphere during the time period of Occupy Wall Street. The blue mood was not only the frustration of people but also the expression found in literature and the arts.
Details of artwork by (l-r) Michael Davis, Juanita Gilmore, John Connors
Michael Davis:
Long Island City: a view that was painted quickly as the skyline is bound to change again soon.
Brooklyn: a blue man group of one longing to be anywhere but Brooklyn. Maybe in the East River.
View from The Highline: blue skies, smiling on me, nothing but blue skies do I see. All the time, everywhere; not a cloud in the sky, and the Highline is sunny all day.
White Tulips on Purple: if the flower were a rose, this would be a purple prose.
Patricia Garbarini:
As In a Blue Dream: an expression of the way the artist feels when she goes to a quiet place in nature to find stillness and time for reflection. The setting in nature becomes a dreamlike sanctuary…
Virginia Asman:
Blue Dog Blue Moon: inspired by my life in the New Mexican high desert, where coyotes live amongst us.
Blue Footed Boobies: those amazing birds that I photographed in the Galapagos Islands. Their striking blue feet stand out in a stylized montage.
Bluesy Boogie: a distortion of my drawings of musicians I have encountered in various venues and locations, blended together artistically in an imaginary blues session.
Details of artwork by (l-r) Denise Fryburg, Virginia Asman, Susan Harris-Demmet
Now that you have seen some “teaser” details from the exhibit, visit the gallery to see the entire show of 30 outstanding works by 15 artists inspired by all things BLUE!
EXHIBITING ARTISTS: Cari Clare, Denise Fryburg, Ellen Mandelbaum, Jil Novenski, Jody Leight, John Connors, Juanita Gilmore, Kevin H. Maxwell, Lois Ross, Marsha Peruo, Michael Davis, Patricia Garbarini, Susan Harris-Demmet, Valerie Lynch, Virginia Asman
NATURE
March 3–May 5, 2019
Artists’ Reception: March 16 6-8pm
Closing Reception: April 27 6-8pm
All my life through, the new sights of Nature made me rejoice like a child—Marie Curie
Our gallery35 artists have looked upon the natural world and created artworks as varied as nature itself!
(l-r) Patricia Garbarini, Denise Fryburg, Michael Davis, Susan Harris-Demmet
Patricia Garbarini: The brilliant colors and the forms I saw within this gorgeous rose in New York Botanical Garden made me think of a flamenco dancer in motion–and so I titled this closeup abstract image of a rose Spanish Dancer!
Susan Harris-Demmet: This is my third painting titled Environment. After the title Environment I always add the year in which it was completed, so here we have Environment 2018. I worked on this painting on and off for 2 years. This oil painting was done while listening to music and thinking about water. As with most of my paintings, the brush strokes served as a setting to explore my feelings about my life.
(l-r) Ellen Mandelbaum, Cari Clare, Denise Fryburg
Denise Fryburg: After the Storm depicts the changing sky and landscape after a snow fall, with bright blues, pinks and oranges pushing through a winter gray.
Michael Davis: During the warm weather, I am always painting in Central Park. The Beresford and Two Paths were started in the park and then finished in the studio. The Roses and Grapes painting was done in the studio a few weeks ago; definitely a cold weather project. Since then, the roses have succumbed to time and died, but I have continued to paint them, as the shapes became very crinkly and interesting. Now I have a series of paintings I call Addams Family Flowers. Look for them in a subsequent show, maybe for Halloween.
(l-r) Virginia Asman, Marsha Peruo
Virginia Asman: In Wings of Flight—butterflies and moths arranged on the color spectrum— is a digital montage of photos I took of the most dramatic mounted specimens of butterflies and moths I could find in a spectacular museum collection. This piece is joined by two other montages—Pining Away and Of Lilies and Lizards—inspired from my nature shots taken during a trip “down under.”
Cari Clare: I created Future Pets from old information catchers. This is my vision of what can happen if we don’t protect Nature.
Exhibiting Artists: Cari Clare, Denise Fryburg, Ellen Mandelbaum. Jil Novenski, Jody Leight, Juanita Gilmore, Lois Ross, Marsha Peruo, Michael Davis, Patricia Garbarini, Susan Harris-Demmet, Valerie Lynch, Virginia Asman
Our newest exhibit, INTERIORS, provides a doorway to the artists’ visions of what lies within.
John Devaney is showing two paintings inspired by the bedroom scene from King Kong (1933). In Midtown Suite, there’s a monstrous intrusion into the dreamlike, lush interior. In Midtown – The Male Gaze, the two lovers are seemingly safe insidewhile a dark terror looms just outside.
John Devaney, Midnight Suite (top) Yolande Heljnen, Studio
Understandably the workplaces of artists are prominent. Both Yolande Heljnen and Denise Fryburg are showing pieces titled Studio and In the Studio. And while not included in the exhibit, a detail from John Devaney’s Gallery can be seen on the show’s poster
In a different vein, Virginia Asman is exhibiting digital renditions of photographs she took of the interior of a Ra Paulette man-made cave she visited after moving to New Mexico. Ra Paulette is an American cave sculptor based in New Mexico who digs into hillsides to sculpt elaborate artistic spaces inside mountains. Since he began sculpting in 1990, he has dug over a dozen caves in New Mexico, this one a livable space with electricity and running water.
Denise Fryburg, In the Studio Virginia Asman, Ra Paulette Cave
Bev Thompson’s Nightdawgs was inspired, as was Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks, by a diner. Hopper’s diner (since demolished) in Greenwich Village portrays people in a diner late at night. Thompson’s diner (still in existence) gives us a similar vantage point uptown where two streets intersect at 100th and Broadway. Dogs line up at the corner of the Metro Diner, eyeing the diners inside. The exhibit gives cats equal time with a kitten taking solace in the interior of a carton in Jody Leight’s photograph, Boogie, Thinking Inside the Box.
Exhibitng artists are Bev Thompson, Cari Clare, Denise Fryburg, Ingrid Sletten, Jody Leight, John Devaney, Juanita Gilmore, Lois Ross, Valerie Lynch, Virginia Asman and Yolande Heljnen.
In this exciting new exhibit, Gallery35 artists’ find inspiration in iconic sites and unexpected places around the city.
Central Park at Dusk by Patricia Garbarini is just one of the artworks featured in this exhibit. While Garbarini says, “Dusk can be a magical time in Central Park,” John Devaney is excited by “the dizzying parade of faces, bodies, storefronts, and inexplicable shapes that swirl around me every day.”
Teresa Hommel, Dahlia Bouquet
Marsha Peruo finds inspiration in “years of Manhattan’s never ending construction – sidewalk bridges, scaffolding, beams pipes, concrete….” and Teresa Hommel is intrigued by the flowers in the Union Square Greenmarket, especially the dahlia bouquets.
Ellen Mandelbaum, October Skyline
Bev Thompson, SPOT
Bev Thompson has been portraying man’s best friend at Gallery35 for the past ten years. SPOT– her latest pencil, graphite, and china marker piece—portrays a 30-foot Dalmatian dog balancing a taxi on his nose outside NYU Langone Children’s Hospital at 34th and 1st Avenue, the creation of American Sculpture, Donald Lipski.
Exhibiting are Bev Thompson, Cari Clare, Denise Fryburg, Ellen Mandelbaum, Jil Novenski, Jody Leight, John Devaney, Kevin H. Maxwell, Lois Ross, Marsha Peruo, Nina Kovalenko, Patricia Garbarini, Susan Harris-Demmet and Teresa Hommel.
