New Viridian Artists and Affiliates Exhibition
December 28 - January 15, 2011
Reception: Saturday, January 8, 2011 4-7pm
Mary Wells * Carol Brookes * Katherine Ellinger Smith * Sheila Smith * Lynne Johnson * Lynne Mayocole * Rosemary Lyons * Bernice Sokol Kramer *
Chelsea, NYC: Viridian Artists is pleased to present new work by new Viridian Artists & Affiliates. The exhibition features a wide variety of art by these exciting artists recently represented by Viridian Artists. The exhibit opens Tuesday, December 28th and extends through Saturday, January 15th with a reception Saturday, January 8, 4-7 PM. Each artist in this exhibit has been given approximately 10 linear feet of wall space to present a mini solo of their recent art. Carol Brookes and Mary Wells are yet to have a solo show at Viridian, so this will give viewers an introduction to their work which will be featured in solo exhibits next season. The other six artists are Viridian Affiliates, some like Rosemary Lyons, Katherine Ellinger Smith and Lynne Johnson returning to the gallery roster. The works by Carol Brookes are from her Construct Series, a group of frame-like boxes which are in essence wall sculptures, material driven and inspired by everyday objects. When arranged together, these ordinary materials are transformed, becoming precious and jewel-like. Katherine Ellinger Smith is showing 2 large scale polyester film images, one entitled "WATCH OUT FOR THE DEER", inspired by an article about deer attacking students at Southern Illinois University Carbondale who were supposedly taking shortcuts through a wooded area where the deer resided... "I find it amazing how similar we are to animals, emotionally, in some ways...there goes the image of deer as being non-violent and disney like…" Mary Wells creates paper mosaics of cut acrylic painted papers, which because of their intricacy and realism, appear at first glance to be photographic images. These delicately precise collages go far beyond the usual concept of cut paper and roam into the realm of ultra-realism. Bernice Sokol Kramer creates sculptural works of recycled newspapers and other mixed media sometimes painted, sometimes not. Her standing and hanging forms speak both of the figure and all that covers it. Lynne Mayocole usually thinks of her art as a sort of story. This one features "Screaming Mimis", small wall sculptures, scattered around watercolors celebrating the vibrant summer last year in Provence. "Are the "Mimis" celebrating a season seen last year but far in our snowy future? My stories leave interpretation up to the viewer!" Sheila Smith's digital photographs are from a series of images taken of New York City at night that often approach the abstract. The series is entitled "N.Y.C. After Dark", but the light that the artist has captured, speaks of the movement and excitement of the city at night. Lynne Johnson's prints and drawings focus on texture and on the many forms line can take, both in the natural landscape and in the man-made landscape of waste and recycling. She is concerned in her work with those forms & textures that bear witness to the effects of nature and time passing, as well as the odd juxtaposition of discarded objects of humans with natural forms which she feels mirror the randomness of life. Johnson was also a winner in Viridian's last Juried Exhibition. Rosemary Lyons, a Buffalo NY artist, has been making contemporary illuminated manuscripts with political overtones for a number of years. The four in this exhibition are among her most recent comments on culture and language.