FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Please List
“Members Only”
January 28- February 22, 2020
Opening Reception: Thursday, January 30, 6–8PM
Closing Party: Saturday, February 22, 4–6pm
Renee Borkow * Ellen Burnett * Henry Coupe * May DeViney * Kiffi Diamond * Bernice Faegenburg * David Fitzgerald * Alan Gaynor * Wally Gilbert * Chris Tucker Haggerty * Maki Hajikano * Yu Huang * Kazuo Ishikawa * Kat King * Marco Lando * Ron Moore * Pavel Muller * John Nieman *
Srividya Kannan Ramachandran * Bruce Rosen * Susan Sills * Virginia Evans Smit * Angela Smith *
Robert Smith * Toto Takamori * Bob Tomlinson * Frances Vye Wilson * Ana Guraieb Chahin *
Sarah Jarrett * Gentry Pack * Deborah Sudran * Dorothy Braudy * Carol Brookes *
Chelsea NY: Viridian Artists is pleased to present an exhibition of outstanding art by artists who are represented by Viridian. The show extends from January 28th to February 22nd with an opening reception on Thursday, January 30th, 6-8PM and a closing party on Saturday, February 22nd, 4–6pm.
The web tells us that the top 5 related words for "members only" are: closed shop, exchange, exclusive, just, and private. And yes, this exhibition is devoted exclusively to artists who are committed to creating and sharing their work as it grows & progresses.
Viridian Artists have always prided themselves on being open to a wide variety of art styles, disciplines and media. We are not focused on realism or abstraction, nor do we favor painters over collagists or photographers over sculptors. Our current stable of artists reflects these diversities with pride and curiosity.
It’s not often at Viridian that only members’ work is shown for we often invite guest artists: some we know, some we are just getting to know. But this time, it’s Members Only! Some are new to us like Frances Vye Wilson who creates fascinating garment and plant-like sculptural structures of natural fibers from the East. And the photographers Marco Lando & Pavel Muller whose works are vastly different: Lando’s filled with emotional overtones & Muller’s cool and graphic.
Photographers Robert Smith and Alan Gaynor also see the world uniquely. Gaynor’s images often architectural, make us conscious of the lines of beauty in buildings and Smith notices the minutia of life, like the soft breeze through an open window. In a totally different vein, Angela Smith & Srividya Ramachandran both work with digital photography, but Ramachandran has created her own AI who makes images while Angela Smith explores drawing on her photographic self-portraits. Wally Gilbert transforms his digital photographs by breaking them down into colors and shapes whose beginnings are barely recognizable.
Viridian artists who are primarily painters include Bob Tomlinson, Henry Coupe, Yu Huang, Bruce Rosen, Toto Takamori, Virginia Smit and John Neiman. Each have their unique approach to technique & subject matter. Coupe’s paintings are small and gestural portraits, Tomlinson’s theatrical with collaged elements, Takamori’s with layers and layers paint that takes months to dry and Huang’s paintings are realistic explorations of history. Bruce Rosen’s abstract paintings are akin to meditations while John Neiman mixes a fascination with art and popular culture in his paintings. Virginia Smit has explored a wide variety of printmaking techniques and mixes her prints with collage, drawing & paintings that often focus on nature.
Sculptors Kat King and Ron Moore both work in metal but King casts most of her work from sculptural maquettes while Moore welds and paints his steel figures. Maki Hajikano’s glass abstractions come from another sculptural world. David Fitzgerald is an artist who combines fascinating structures playing two -dimensional imagery against three dimensional objects incorporating unique encaustic techniques. He was a winner in a recent juried show and is currently fascinated with owls.
Mixed media artists May DeViney, Ellen Burnett, Kiffi Diamond all work with found objects, each uniquely transforming discards and fragments into compositions that are their private interpretations of reality, sometimes with psychological overtones and frequently with humor. Chris Tucker Haggerty came to Viridian as a juried competition winner and combines drawing, painting and mixed media in her art making.
And there are the mixed media artists Susan Sills, Bernice Faegenburg, Renee Borkow and Kazuo Ishikawa who might be considered primarily painters but Sills paints on wood cutouts, Borkow and Faegenburg mix in collage with their drawing and painting. Differently, Kazuo Ishikawa creates his assemblages of cut bits of color in plastic and metal which he calls “constructive layered painting”.
Viridian has begun a number of programs to give more artists an opportunity to show their art. Our Young Artist program is for artists who are under thirty years of age & in the early stages of their careers. Last year we offered one young artist, Ana Guraieb Chahin, who weaves her art, a Barbara K Schwartz scholarship. Sarah Jarrett and Gentry Park, both young painters, explore personal themes in their work.
And “last but not least”, are Viridian’s Alumni Artists, Deborah Sudran, Dorothy Braudy and Carol Brookes who were once fully represented by the gallery. Though they no longer are, they continue to participate in group shows.
We look forward to sharing exciting new works by these outstanding Viridian Artists.
Gallery hours: Tuesday through Saturday 12–6pm
For further information please contact Vernita Nemec, Gallery Director at 212-414-4040 or viridianartistsinc@gmail.com
or view the gallery website: www.viridianartists.com