Ellen Burnett: Finalist Award Winner in the 50th International Artavita Competition
Ellen Burnett: “We are, after all, brave” : 12"h x 15"w;Mixed Media including watercolor, acrylic paint, sand, ink, bronze powder.
Photography by Alan Gaynor featured in New York City's International Art Fair (IAF)
Press Release: David Fitzgerald: "No Escape"
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"No Escape"
DAVID FITZGERALD
February 15 - March 12, 2022
Opening reception: February 17, 6-8 PM & Closing reception: March 10, 6-7 PM
Masks required
Chelsea NY: Viridian Artists is pleased to present an exhibit of new work by David Fitzgerald. The exhibition opens on February 15 and continues through March 12, 2022, with both opening & closing receptions. The opening reception will be on February 17th and the closing reception will be on March 10th. Both are from 6-8pm. In addition to seeing this exhibit in person, you can view the work online at www.viridianartists.com.
David Fitzgerald’s practice has changed recently. For many years, he focused on making sculptural pieces but when the pandemic struck, the process involved felt exhausting and overwhelming. In the past, his three-dimensional work had incorporated photography. Over the past two years, he began to use his own photographs and appropriated imagery, drawing on a sheet of paper placed over the photograph and then fusing the sheets of paper with epoxy. The work is painterly and visually provocative. Many of the images were shot out of the window of his Brooklyn studio during the lockdown. They echo the sense of entrapment that we felt during those early days.
It’s Rear Window without the murder. People are observed doing the most ordinary things, reading, listening to music, smoking a cigarette. There’s a poignancy to these images, a yearning.
Fitzgerald grew up in New York City and moved away for many years, but he recently returned to Brooklyn. During the pandemic, he was reminded that as a city dweller you are really never alone. “There are always people in the street or outside in the backyards of the brownstones on our block,” he writes. “Home a lot, I began to take photographs of them. In a sense the images are voyeuristic, but they’re also empathetic.” Fitzgerald also includes work that features a July 4th Celebration during the pandemic at Rip Van Winkle, a miniature golf course in upstate New York, and other-worldly images taken in Taos, which was the last trip he took before the world shut down.
Viridian’s first encounter with Fitzgerald’s work was a juried competition at the gallery which he entered with three dimensional dioramas incorporating photography inside box-like structures and was selected for the Director’s Choice digital presentation that occurs simultaneously during the exhibit. With “Director’s Choice” alongside the juror’s choices, Viridian emphasizes the reality that everyone sees art in their own way and each juror selects different favorites. Subsequently, Fitzgerald became a Viridian Artist. This is his first solo exhibition at the gallery.
For further information please contact
Vernita Nemec, Director or Jenny Belin, Assistant Director
visit Instagram @viridianartistsinc, see us on Facebook & YouTube at Viridian Artists Gallery or visit our website at viridianartistsinc@gmail.com
Press Release: "Artful Realities"
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"ARTFUL REALITIES"
January 18th – February 12, 2022
Closing reception pending pandemic
Brett Poza * Joshua Greenberg * Sarah Riley Barbara Hillerman Lieske * Kathleen Shanahan
Charles Hildebrandt * Jenny Belin
Chelsea NY: Viridian Artists is pleased to present an exhibition of outstanding art by artists who are part of Viridian Artists' Affiliate program. The show opens January 18th and continues through February 12th, 2022 and includes Brett Poza, Joshua Greenberg, Sarah Riley, Barbara Hillerman Lieske, Kathleen Shanahan, Charles Hildebrandt and Jenny Belin. In addition to seeing this exhibit in person, see this fascinating exhibit on the Viridian Artists website at www.viridianartists.com.
What is reality? When we share experiences with others, often there are differing opinions of what happened. Artists see reality uniquely and in a variety of ways, focusing on different aspects of experiences and sites that few record in the same way, even when working realistically. Greenberg’s photos of abstracted reality are very different than Hillerman Lieske’s images of coffee shop table arrangements, but they are each expressing a version of reality. Brett Poza’s portraits using MRI’s, cat- scans, etc. are unlike the usual concept of portrait as are May DeViney’s portraits of Madonna’s which she portrays as ordinary women. Riley and Shanahan take printmaking to different places as do Hildebrandt and Belin take painting.
Thematically speaking, Kathleen Shanahan’s works are layered with meanings and associations. Mixed media works that are heavily reliant on print making processes and practices, these works also include collage materials that are byproducts of the print making processes.
Short order or informal dining is ingrained in American popular culture. “Still life” table arrangements including condiments, interior design, and restaurant name all define the personality of the establishment. Through her work Barbara Hillerman Lieske highlights what may otherwise be overlooked in her environment while these same elements may engender memories of similar experiences.
Charles Hildebrandt’s paintings in this exhibit were inspired by the many trips he has taken over the years across the Tappan Zee bridge. To look down at the Hudson River below and see the infinite distance of cliffs and water with a fleet of sailboats in the foreground is to him a wondrous site and the source for many of his works.
Brett Poza created these portraits from medical images; MRI's, X-rays. CT scans, Ultrasounds- technology generally used to diagnose and create interventions for healing. “Not anonymous, people close to me donated their records for this body of work. Some indicate illness, some ended up being perfectly normal. Representing people of different ages, ethnicities and race, they are portraits that reveal everything and nothing- pictures of people from the inside out.”
These images by Sarah Riley started with a photo of a palm tree from Gulf Shores, Alabama. “I added the flamingo. A flamingo proudly preens, reminding me of a cowboy I once knew. With these characters in mind, I combined photos and scans of my drawings, prints and paintings on the computer to create these montages. The two figures together bring to mind contradictory partnerships such as Mrs. Dalloway and Peter Walsh (from the Virginia Woolf novel), or the real tensions between artists Camille Claudel and Auguste Rodin.”
Jenny Belin’s focus this past year has been a body of work she calls 100,000 Flowers: an ongoing series of paintings to commemorate victims of COVID-19 and to raise funds for healthcare workers. Half of the proceeds from sales have been and will continue to be donated to New York- Presbyterian: Brooklyn Methodist Hospital. In June, she began creating digital images with intricately collaged elements from her flower and cat paintings.
Joshua Greenberg uses abstract photography to create contemporary art. In the Abstract Still Life series, he uses discarded items under an elevated railroad track to show the beauty in everyday objects. They appear as natural, but unfinished still life compositions, baked with sunlight. Discarded metals, wood, string and shoelaces covered with ivy, grass, and weeds, waiting to be discovered. This series illustrates how photo-based prints combine elements of photography with digital processing to create abstract art.
Viridian has created several programs to give outstanding “underknown” artists an opportunity to have their work seen. Our Affiliate program gives artists an opportunity to show a small series of artworks annually. Sadly, in these times of the Covid Virus, seeing art virtually is the safest way for all and thankfully websites and social media are making it possible for more & more individuals to have alternative opportunities, but people are nevertheless invited to come to the gallery to see the work in person wearing masks, of course.
For further information please contact
Vernita Nemec, Director or Jenny Belin, Assistant Director
visit instagram @viridianartistsinc or our website at viridianartistsinc@gmail.com
Press Release: "Expressions"
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“EXPRESSIONS”
RENEE BORKOW . HENRY COUPE . MAY DEVINEY.
KAT KING . KAZUO ISHIKAWA . BRUCE ROSENSUSAN SILLS . SHEILA SMITH . TOTO TAKAMORI
December 28 – January 15, 2022
Opening reception :Pending pandemic status
Chelsea: Viridian Artists Inc. is pleased to present an exhibition of recent art by RENEE BORKOW, HENRY COUPE, MAY DEVINEY, KAT KING, KAZUO ISHIKAWA, BRUCE ROSEN, SUSAN SILLS, SHEILA SMITH and TOTO TAKAMORI. The show runs from December 28–January 15, 2022 with an opening reception Thursday, January 6, 6–8PM. Because of ongoing pandemic developments, please check gallery website for reception status.
“EXPRESSIONS” is an exhibit gathering the art of outstanding Viridian Artists not having a solo exhibit this season. For each, we are sharing a small selection of their works, an appetizer for the solo show some will have in 2023 or 2024. The art of Bruce Rosen (1931-1996) and Henry Coupe (1924-2015), still speaks to us, as if each were still living among us and sharing the beauty & meanings expressed in their art.
Bruce Rosen, both a poet and a painter, first showed at Viridian in the 90’s though his career spanned three decades with exhibitions in New York City and the East End of Long Island. Joan Krawczyk, former art editor of The Paris Review, independent curator and former director of Viridian, wrote about Rosen’s art in a 1997 statement: “Rosen’s paintings, like the artist himself, are small and quiet, at first. They reveal themselves slowly. First the color, definite and infinite. Dry, matte surfaces, like a skin, are creased, scratched and scarred… It is as though we are seeing a passage of time and an accumulation of experience… The works mirror the artist whose life integrated the noble poetics of two languages, the written and the visual.”
At the time of the juried exhibit at Viridian in which Henry Coupe won Honorable Mention, he was 90 years old and had fallen into a coma, finally succumbing at the age of 91 in December of 2015. But his art is alive still and continues to show us portraits of people we will never meet, but that remind us of those we have known. Henry Coupe spent his life creating small paintings, most under 24”, executed in strong, simple strokes, of people in landscapes. His people are shown both alone and in small groups. Tiny in scale, his delicate oils are filled with feeling and speak of love, portraying life’s simplest and most important moments, shared with others or experienced in solitude.
Kathleen King employs a layered approach in these mixed media paintings by first fashioning small figurative models from plant detritus. She then photographs these models into compositions and further develops her fantastic subjects with painted passages of acrylic and oil over the digital print on canvas.
Sheila Smith’s newest series of collages were created from photos she has taken over the years. Combining various fragments of these photographs of all sorts of objects and scenes that she rejected as finished art, the artist has re-created her latest series into a mixed bag of collaged abstract imagery. A prolific artist whose art usually begins with photographs, Smith works in her contemporary Photoshop darkroom, continually altering her images digitally until she feels they have reached that decisive moment of acceptance.
Living in the suburbs of Tokyo with forests, mountains and nature nearby, Kazuo Ishikawa feels his senses stimulated and that nature enters his consciousness and his art. He feels that his task is to sense abstract information from nature and symbolize these unseen systems in his art. About his creative practice, the artist says that “I think art is a missing piece of myself and might be lost forever. Every day I try to enter this space to find it. Throughout the pandemics, I am galvanized against the tragedies of the world and my creative juices are stirred. I was reminded again that I cannot live without nature. In a forest, for example, all of my senses are stimulated and the surroundings are ever-changing.”
Susan Sills is most known for her wooden cutout paintings and portraits but for this exhibit she decided to show ink on paper drawings the artist makes without any pre-conceived notions of what she will draw. Coming from her sub-conscious and done freehand, she begins these automated drawings with chance being the guiding force behind each opening gesture that forms the final image that emerges.
Toto Takamori spends months creating his tiny 4x6 or 5x7 paintings. His paintings consist of layers and layers of oil paint, sometimes as many as 70 layers says the artist, but we must take his word for it. The paintings often take months to dry, but the wait is worth it.
About her creative process Renee Borkow says that “color is a major focus, along with line and shape, in my work. My images are mostly based on composition and the slowness or immediacy of the moment.” The artist has immersed herself in history starting with the Greek Gods & Goddesses and filled her works with images and words some might think possess traditional female associations – corsets, diamond rings, bows – things that at first glance are not considered necessarily strong but which have perhaps acted over the centuries as objects of sublimation of the female-ways to woo her and overpower her.
May DeViney is an artist who uses feminism and politics as a starting point for her art making by recreating conventional ideas with images that visually clarify her interpretation of their meanings. “Butcher Madonna” is part of a series of works envisioning the image of the Madonna – the “perfect woman”- as a modern woman with a modern profession, carrying on an ordinary life. Can a woman be judged by standards of perfection when faced with daily toil and struggle? In “Yet He Remained Unmoved” we are surrounded by major social and environmental concerns that can be overwhelming and emotionally draining and yet there are those who seem entirely oblivious to these concerns. It is dumbfounding that they are able to remain unmoved.
Work by Jenny Belin is included in “Cat Daddy” : a Group show at AHA Fine Art, Brooklyn, NY.
Jenny Belin’s Cat Art is included in “Cat Daddy”: a group show at
AHA Fine Art
56 Bogart St., Suite 109
Brooklyn NY 11206
Click here for more information about the show
”It’s a Daisy Age!” by Jenny Belin: 14” x 14”, limited edition print
Press Release: Viridian Artists & Friends : “THE GIFT”
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Viridian Artists & Friends
“THE GIFT”
November 30 – December 23, 2021
Opening reception Thursday December 2nd, 6–8pm
-Masks must be worn
Renée Borkow * Ellen Burnett * Chasity Colón * Henry Coupe * May DeViney * Bernice Faegenburg * David Fitzgerald * Alan Gaynor * Wally Gilbert * Kazuo Ishikawa * Kat King * Marco Lando * Bruce Rosen * Susan Sills * Virginia Evans Smit * Robert Smith * Sheila Smith * Toto Takamori * Bob Tomlinson * Marie-Ange Hoda * Dorothy Braudy * Sabine Carlson * Arlene Finger * Joshua Greenberg * Chris Tucker Haggerty * Barbara Hillerman Lieske * Charles Hildebrandt * Rosemary Lyons * Stacey Clarfield Newman * Shawn Marshall * Nancy Nicol * Brett Poza * Michael Reck * Laura Rutherford Renner * Sarah Riley *
Karen Roth * Kathleen Shanahan * Meredeth Turshen * Jenny Belin * Vernita N’Cognita * Kelynn Z. Alder * Angelique Ellyn Anderson * Ayako Bando * Annaliese Bischoff * Kasmira Cade * Irene Christensen * Elizabeth Ginsburg * Ed Herman * Halona Hilbertz * Miho Hiranouchi * Yasmine Iskander * Bernice Sokol Kramer * Angela M. LaMonte * George Ludway * Sai Morikawa * Alla Podolsky * Mayumi Nakao * Len Rosenfeld * Jane Talcott * John Lloyd * Melissa Schainker * Victoria Webb * Myrna Minter-Forster * Vanessa Brown * Lori Horowitz * Jill Kastner * Susan Reed * Jon Melnick * Susan Grabel * Michael Drakopoulos * Chikako Nunome * Gocci * Yuuichi Tanaka * Megumi Matsukawa * Miwako Kashiwagi * Monzo Watanabe * Jenifer R. Stern * Lynne Mayocole * Sam Wiener * Ed McCormack * Sharon Wybrants * Jeffrey Nowlin & others
Chelsea: Viridian Artists Inc. is pleased to present an exhibition of art-gifts by Viridian Artists & friends, entitled “THE GIFT”. The show opens December 2nd and continues through December 23rd, 2021. You are invited to meet the artists and celebrate December, throughout the month and especially at the opening and closing of this exhibit on Thursday, December 2nd & December 23rd, 6-8pm.
December is a month of multiple celebrations and holidays of various religions and rituals throughout the world. For many, the most important aspect of this holiday time is gift-giving and getting, which is partly why this show called “The Gift”. But just as important perhaps are the other kinds of gifts we have, such as the creative gift artists have to convey an idea or image that inspires or calms and offers a respite from the dailiness of life.
In Lewis Hyde’s “The Gift: Imagination & the Erotic life of Property“ he talks about the Shamanist power of the gift-giving someone a gift gives the giver power. But there are many kinds of gifts. Talents are gifts, intuition is a gift & artistic ability is a gift. Original artwork and art objects are gifts that keeps on giving the ad man might say, but it’s true. But for a moment, reminders of the real meanings or manners of celebrating December holidays...
Christmas, which originally celebrated the birth of Jesus, has become a much more commercial holiday of gift giving, tree decorating and dinners of turkey, celebrated in different and unique ways in various countries. It is rumored that in Japan, a traditional Christmas dinner consists of KFC- “commercial” Kentucky Fried Chicken. America’s influence reaches far still.
The winter solstice is the shortest day and longest night in the Northern Hemisphere. Yule, the Pagan celebration associated with it is a 12 day festival beginning December 21st and still celebrated by modern Pagans with caroling and a Yule log; once of wood, now of chocolate.
Sometimes known as the 12 Days of Christmas, the Epiphany or 3 Kings Day is celebrated after those 12 days to commemorate the birth of the baby Jesus. In Puerto Rico, the children leave a box of hay under their beds to hold gifts. In France, bakers put coins or tiny gifts in King cakes.
Hanukkah or the Festival of Lights is a Jewish festival running for 8 days in November and December, celebrated with the lighting of the candles of a menorah to the story of a time when one day’s worth of oil lasted for 8 days in the Second Temple of Jerusalem. Special foods and gifting accompany the celebration.
Marked with processions and concerts, Santa Lucia Day honors a 3rd century martyr and saint who is seen as a figure of light on the darkest part of the year. On December 13th in Scandinavia, young women dress in white with a wreath of burning candles on their heads. Dancing and singing, they wake their families bringing coffee and buns called Lucia cats.
Krampusnacht is a centuries-old Christmas tradition celebrated on December 5th in Germany and other European countries. A beastly demonic creature called Krampus (who is the polar opposite of Saint Nicholas) arrives to reward good children and take the bad ones away to the underworld.
A spiritual holiday, Kwanzaa was first celebrated in the 1960s. Meaning “fresh fruits,” Kwanzaa is celebrated from December 26th to January 1st and is based on ancient harvest festivals and honors the ideals of family life and unity in African-American history. Dressing in special garments and lighting a candle holder called a Kinara, African Americans decorate their homes with fruits and vegetables, with performances and dancing that culminates in a communal feast.
And so, now that you have a bit about the various December holidays of gift giving, think about giving art as a gift... and the power it will give you...
Gallery hours: 12–6 Tuesday – Saturday or by appointment
For further information please contact Vernita Nemec, Gallery Director at viridianartistsinc@gmail.com
or view the gallery website: www.viridianartists.com
Marco Lando: Solo Exhibition in Urbino, Italy
MARCO LANDO
FRAGMENTS
GOBBIPHOTOSTUDIO GALLERY
VIA RAFFAELLO 101 URBINO (PU)
11.18.2021 - 01.09.2022
Opening reception: Nov. 18th 6PM
Open Tuesdays through Sundays 4 - 7:30 PM
tel. 0722324214
WHATSAPP +39 3939483951 mail@gobbiphotostudio.it
Marco Lando solo show presents two important and connected projects in the artist's production: Specter of belief and Alchemy.Specter of Belief is the natural evolution of his previous project, entitled Alchemy, where we find deranged aerial scenes of the heavens where architectural images, old and new, float amid stormy skies and portentous moons.
Lando adapts the ancient Byzantine tradition of mosaic to his own conceptual ends in photo-based compositions, using the idea of fragmentation juxtaposed with the whole.
This series references the renowned 5th and 6th century mosaics of Ravenna, created when the city was the western capital of the Roman Empire, and the contemporaneous Tomb of the Julii, with its mosaic depiction of Christ as a pagan sun god.
Composed of loosely arranged tiles that simultaneously coalesce and break apart, the crowned figures that emerge evoke emperors and popes. With gaping mouths and apprehensive expressions, these fragmented, dissipating forms loom large amid dark starry skies. These constellations of half-formed, recycled powers from ancient Rome shape-shift their way through space and time, lost and searching. Contemplating the enduring potential of myth, they offer us the specter of belief and the lost promise of tomorrow.
Marco Lando has most recently shown his work at the Site: Brooklyn Art Gallery and at the Viridian Artists Inc. both in New York City, and at the Studio Psacaropulo Museum in Trieste. He won the 2021 “Special Prize” for photography and digital art at the DeSidera Art Festival, and was a finalist at the 2016 WAC in Wells, UK.
Representing gallery: Viridian Artists Inc. - 548 W 28th Street, New York 10001.
Artist website: www.marcolando.org
www.gobbiphotostudio.it
mail@gobbiphotostudio.it
+ 39 0722324214
+39 3939483051
Viridian Goes to the 14C Art Fair in Jersey City: Come & say hello... we are at booth D3..
Kiffi Diamond: Gallery & Studio Review
Press Release: Kiffi Diamond: "Found Inspiration"
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KIFFI DIAMOND
“FOUND INSPIRATION”
November 2- November 27, 2021
Opening reception: Thursday November 4th, 6-8pm
Closing reception: Saturday November 27, 4-6pm
Chelsea: Viridian Artists Inc. is pleased to present an exhibition of assemblages by Kiffi Diamond entitled “FOUND INSPIRATION”. The show opens November 2nd and continues through November 27th, 2021. You are invited to meet the artist and celebrate the opening on Thursday, November 4th, 6-8PM.
Kiffi Diamond has been collecting all her life. Her passion for ephemera from the past began when she was just 8 years old and was given an old Victorian scrapbook. Diamond’s assemblages exemplify her ongoing fascination with detritus and ephemera which she combines into both fascinating and at times somewhat frightening creatures and scenarios.
Many of Diamond’s works become visual narratives as she creates series that follow predators and symbolic ancestors through the adventures of her creative imagination. Both humor and cynicism play equal roles in her works, but the works in this exhibit have become more “painterly” than her earlier assemblages. Disasters, insects, guns de-volving, sunny days and secrets are all given equal representation by the artist who creates evocative stories from old objects, rusted and filled with their own history that she then translates into her own.
Sometimes she is surprised by the creatures that emerge from assembling of fragments that at first are unrelated but begin to take on new personas as she works with them. “Ancestral Reckonings” are pieces quiet in nature while other works are more disturbing, reflecting the panic and anxiety that has been created by the Pandemic. The environment is a real concern for Diamond and she feels she is expressing a love for the earth as she rescues a rusty bit of detritus from the trash and combines it with fragments from other trash creating an idiosyncratic artwork that hopefully will never be discarded.
Her works have been featured at museums and galleries across the country including Attleboro Museum, National Collage Society, Moorhead State University, Hiram Blauvelt Art Museum and The Katonah Museum of Art. Diamond was educated at Chouinard Art Institute in LA, the Rhode Island School of Design, School of Visual Arts, and The New York Botanical Garden.
In addition to a life-long pursuit of the creative arts, Diamond also nurtured robust careers early on in graphic design and, later, in landscape design. For a decade ending in the 1980s, she ran her own design studio, working for a variety of clients from book and music publishers, to Memorial Sloan Kettering Center. In the early 2000s, Diamond parlayed her love of gardening into a full-fledged landscape design business, maintaining her belief that “landscape is like a living collage.” Since 2015, Diamond has devoted her energy and spirit to creating collages and assemblages full-time.
Gallery hours: Tuesday through Saturday 12-6PM
For further information please contact Vernita Nemec, Gallery Director or at 212 414 4040 or viridianartistsinc@gmail.com
or view the gallery website: www.viridianartists.com or instagram @viridian artists
"THE WEIGHT OF PAPER: ENDLESS JUNKMAIL SCROLLS " : An exhibition of work by Vernita Nemec currently on view at Rowan University Art Gallery.
Endless Junkmail Scrolls by Vernita Nemic:
The Rowan University • 201 Mullica Hill Road • Glassboro, New Jersey 08028
THE WEIGHT OF PAPER: ENDLESS JUNKMAIL SCROLLS
Vernita Nemec a.k.a. N’Cognita
Exhibition Dates: October 18 - December 17, 2021
Opening Reception: October 28, 5 - 7 pm
Click here for more details
The Weight of Paper: Endless Junkmail Scrolls is a response to the complexities surrounding the paper industry and the production of junk mail waste. Junk mail waste continues to be a problem for our landfills and contributes to deforestation. Reducing unwanted mail helps to conserve natural resources and decreases reliance on landfills and incineration.
Vernita Nemec a.k.a N'Cognita began the Endless Junkmail Scrolls project in 2006 as an environmental statement about the oppressive amounts of junk mail produced every year. It has now grown to over 400 ft long. As a feminist and activist artist, recycling has become an important component of her practice. In 1969-70, she co-curated “X12”, an important early feminist group exhibition, and worked with Art Workers' Coalition (AWC), Women Artists in Revolution (WAR), and Artists Meeting for Cultural Change. She began to use the pseudonym N’Cognita, to honor under-recognized artists. She is currently the director of Viridian Artists, an artist-owned contemporary gallery in New York City.
Rosemary Lyons is Exhibiting work at the Crary Art Gallery in Warren, Pennsylvania
Viridian Affiliate, Rosemary Lyons is exhibiting work at the Crary Art Gallery in Warren, Pennsylvania: October 2nd-31st.
There will be an open house on Saturday, October 2nd from 12-6pm.
The Crary Art Gallery is located at:
511 MARKET ST. WARREN, PA
Click here to be directed to the gallery’s website.
The Closing Reception for Juried 31 featured on Design Arts Daily
Press Release: Alan Gaynor: “MOROCCO”
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ALAN GAYNOR
“MOROCCO”
October 5- October 30, 2021
Opening reception Thursday October 7th, 6-8pm
Chelsea: Viridian Artists Inc. is pleased to present an exhibition of photographs by Alan Gaynor, entitled “MOROCCO”. The show opens October 5th and continues through October 30th, 2021. You are invited to meet the artist and celebrate the opening of this exhibit on Thursday, October 7th, 6-8PM.
Alan Gaynor’s interest in photography arose from his interest and training in architecture and urbanism. In 1974, he founded his architectural firm with a vision of a working environment free of convention. His interest in buildings continues, but now he explores their structure through the medium of photography.
Gaynor is the sort of photographer who translates his passions into images that convey the beauty of human-made structures, whether they are the concreteness at the heart of urban Manhattan or the mosaic artfulness of the mosques of Morocco. Creating his images of places in series, he previously has explored the subways of New York City, the buildings of Manhattan and the ancient structures of India.
Gaynor states on his website that he loves the mathematical bases of all Islamic design. Gaynor’s photography of both contemporary structures and structures of the past all conveys a sense of the still majesty of buildings. That he rarely includes humans in his images that might distract our attention helps us to see more clearly what we do not see when walking the streets of Manhattan or Morocco. Often his focus has been on the layering of the buildings but in the Morocco images the focus is the intricate layering of patterns and the profusion of color and intricacy of design.
Gaynor, whose work explores structures, lighting, and space has become an award-winning photographer after studying with some of the acknowledged masters of the photographic medium. He has received many awards for his photography including a Bronze Award in the 2012 International Loupe Awards, Terabella Media Urban Landscape, Epson International, Tank Photo Award and many others. His work has been featured in publications including Best of Photography 2012, The Photographer, CoverArt and Photo Review to name just a few.
Gaynor has been exhibiting his photography since 2000 at many galleries, including FotoFusion, Spectra '07, Saf-T-Gallery, Black Box Gallery, Camera Obscura, Soho Photo and others. This will be his third solo exhibit at Viridian and we look forward to sharing with you these arresting images of the beautiful structures of Morocco.
Gallery hours: Tuesday through Saturday 12-6PM
For further information please contact Vernita Nemec, Gallery Director or at 212 414 4040 or viridianartistsinc@gmail.com
or view the gallery website: www.viridianartists.com or instagram @viridian artists
Press Release: Viridian's 31st International Juried Competition
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Congratulations to the winners of Viridian’s
31st International Juried Competition
Susan Harris, Juror
September 7-October 2, 2021
Closing Reception Thursday, September 30th 6-8PM
1st prize – Lexus Giles 2nd prize – Heidi Brueckner 3rd prize – John Humphries
Honorable Mention: Blair Treuer & Jacqueline Donadeo
Norman Aragones * Steffani Bailey * Emmett Barnacle * Saba Besier * Carol Blum * Lesley Bodzy *
Amy Broderick * Zoe Brown-Weissmann * Susan Bruce-Feinsod * Jasper Knight Champion * Jeanne Ciravolo Pam Cooper * Barbara Dirnbach * Fatima Franks * Tom Gehrig * Deneece Harrell Ham * Melissa Holmes * Susannah Israel * Steven Kratka * Aliona Kuznetsova * Nayana LaFond * Roberta Levitow *
Susan Miller Zelenak * Paul Murray * Hillel O’Leary * Carol Paik * Brett Poza *
Laura Rutherford Renner * Brad Silk * Dorian Skelton * Ko Smith * John VanDewerker*
“The art and artists whose works I’ve included in this exhibition demonstrate a sophistication in their
selection and handling of materials, an unwavering eye in scrutinizing humanity and individuals’ inner and outer realities, and a yearning to connect with something larger be it nature, religion, spirituality or even the absurd.” Susan Harris
Chelsea: Viridian Artists Inc. is pleased to present our 31st International Juried Exhibition curated by Susan Harris. The exhibition opens September 7th and continues through October 2nd, 2021. In celebration, both a live & virtual closing reception will be held on Thursday, September 30th, 6-8pm, though we ask that those who attend the gallery reception, wear masks and show proof of their Covid vaccination. If you are unable to attend the reception physically, we hope you will be with us virtually at our zoom reception. We are especially pleased to present cash awards to the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winners of this important competition that brings the art of emerging and under-recognized artists to the attention of museum curators.
We are honored to have Susan Harris act as juror for this competition. She is not only an independent curator and writer of contemporary art in New York City, but also is on the Executive Boards of Art Critics Association of America (AICA-US), Printed Matter and The Brooklyn Rail for which she is a contributing editor. She was a founding Board member of Exit Art and Managing Editor of Unfinished Memories: 30 Years of Exit Art. She was an Assistant Curator for The American Century: 1950-2000 at the Whitney Museum of American Art. Her large-scale, curatorial projects include monographic exhibitions and catalogues on Frank Moore, Pat Steir, Jim Hodges, Nancy Spero and Richard Tuttle.
Harris states:
“Powerful, forthcoming, vulnerable, penetrating and searching are words that come to mind characterizing the works of art I’ve been privileged to view and select for Viridian Artists 31st International Juried Exhibition. Looking at 1100 digital, visual submissions by 258 artists was an endeavor I undertook with respect and rigor. (Hurricane Henri played its part in ensuring I had no other distractions.) Overwhelmed at first, I trusted in the images to speak out--and express their truths they did. A vast array of media, processes, strategies, perspectives, intentions, and purposes is not reducible to a few convenient categorizations or soundbites. As an aggregate, the works manifest and ruminate on the extremely complicated, challenging, and deeply poignant moment we are living in. The art and artists whose works I’ve included in this exhibition demonstrate a sophistication in their selection and handling of materials, an unwavering eye in scrutinizing humanity and individuals’ inner and outer realities, and a yearning to connect with something larger be it nature, religion, spirituality or even the absurd. Each artwork discloses something(s) personally and collectively illuminating and enrichening that I, in turn, want to share with others. Thank you to all the artists who submitted works. I am grateful to you for sharing your visions.”
As always, Viridian makes a concerted effort to expand the opportunities for outstanding artists’ work to be seen and exhibited. Consequently, the gallery director, Vernita Nemec, also selects artwork from those submitted to the Juried competition. We feel it important to tangibly demonstrate that curatorial choice is often as much about personal taste as it is about the "quality" of the art for "quality" in art is often open to opinion. Images of “Director’s Choice” winners will be on view in a digital presentation during the duration of the 31st International Juried Competition Exhibition:
Morgan Anderson * Lexi Arrietta * Steffani Bailey * Emmett Barnacle * Kerrie Bellisario *
Saba Besier * Gregory Bryant * Ellen Burgin * Mary Eileen Carson * Helena Chastel * Jeanne Ciravolo *
Marcia Conlon * Julie Fisher * Carissa Heinrichs * Christy Hengst * John Humphries * Susannah Israel *
Clark Leonard * Patrick Luber * David Murgio * Paul Murray * Hiroko Ohno * Lauren Packard *
April Dawn Parker * Lisa Pincus * Esther Reid * Miroslava Romanova * Leonard Rosenfeld * Karen Roth *
Laura Rutherford Renner * Marc Schimsky * Veronika Schmude * Brad Silk * Abbey Stace * Glenn Strachan * Kharam Suruma * Megan Thorne *
(Artists whose names are in bold, were selected by both the juror & the gallery director.)
Gallery hours: Tuesday through Saturday 12-6pm & by appointment with masks
For further information please contact the gallery at viridianartistsinc@gmail.com
or view the gallery website: www.viridianartists.com
Congratulations, Barbara Hillerman Lieske!
Gallery and Studio Arts Journal will be publishing the work of Affiliate, Barbara Hillerman Lieske, in their 2022 calendar. Congratulations, Barbara!
You can see more of Barbara’s work on our website: please click here.
Viridian’s 31st International Juried Competition
Congratulations to the winners of Viridian’s 31st International Juried Competition, Juried by Susan Harris.
Here is the list of the winning artists!
1st prize – Lexus Giles 2nd prize – Heidi Brueckner 3rd prize – John Humphries
Honorable Mention: Blair Treuer & Jacqueline Donadeo
Norman Aragones * Steffani Bailey * Emmett Barnacle *
Saba Besier * Carol Blum * Lesley Bodzy * Amy Broderick *
Zoe Brown-Weissmann * Susan Bruce-Feinsod *
Jasper Knight Champion * Jeanne Ciravolo * Pam Cooper * Barbara Dirnbach *
Fatima Franks * Tom Gehrig * Deneece Harrell Ham * Melissa Holmes *
Susannah Israel * Steven Kratka * Aliona Kuznetsova * Nayana LaFond *
Roberta Levitow * Susan Miller Zelenak * Paul Murray *
Hillel O’Leary * Carol Paik * Brett Poza * Laura Rutherford Renner * Brad Silk * Dorian Skelton *
Ko Smith * John VanDewerker *
And here is a list of the Director’s Choice winners who were picked by Viridian’s Director, Vernita Nemec. Images of work by Director’s Choice winners will be on view in a video presentation during the duration Viridian’s 31st International Juried Competition.
Morgan Anderson * Lexi Arrietta * Steffani Bailey * Emmett Barnacle *
Kerrie Bellisario * Saba Besier * Gregory Bryant * Ellen Burgin *
Mary Eileen Carson * Helena Chastel * Jeanne Ciravolo * Marcia Conlon *
Julie Fisher * Carissa Heinrichs * Christy Hengst *
John Humphries * Susannah Israel * Clark Leonard * Patrick Luber *
David Murgio * Paul Murray * Hiroko Ohno * Lauren Packard *
April Dawn Parker * Lisa Pincus * Esther Reid * Miroslava Romanova *
Leonard Rosenfeld * Karen Roth * Laura Rutherford Renner * Marc Schimsky *
Veronika Schmude * Brad Silk * Abbey Stace * Glenn Strachan *
Kharam Suruma * Megan Thorne *
Press Release: “Artists From Japan” New Arts Prospect: Artists from Japan, Series VIII, 2021
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Please List
“Artists From Japan”
New Arts Prospect: Artists from Japan, Series VIII, 2021
Curated by Sai Morikawa
August 16- 30, 2021
=Featuring artists=
Gani / Ichigo Nohara / K-Junko
Mai Izumi / Mariko Okabayashi / Mirai
Miwako Kashiwagi / Monzo Watanabe
Morihiro Okamoto / Natsui Masuda / Natsuya Myoui
Popchan / Ranco S. / Rin Tachibana
Shingo Hayamizu / Syo Komiya / Taku Takishima
Yoshihiro Kogure / Yuko Sato / Yuuichi Tanaka
New York is a city where the top artists of the world have long coexisted, creating much diversity of art. The series “New Arts Prospect: Artists from Japan” is currently in its eighth year, having started in 2014, the exhibition is already well established and attracts a lot of attention. Its purpose is to introduce popular Japanese artists who are well known and respected in Japan to new audiences in New York City.
The exhibition, held yearly in the summer, has been highly rated year after year since its inception. Its purpose is to attract art-loving New Yorkers who have a good eye for skillful work. It will especially attract anyone who has an appreciation for the particular unique expressions behind the Japanese cultural background and it's delicate and elaborate techniques. The artworks in the exhibition reveal a deep commitment and a high quality of artistry by their creators.
Sai Morikawa, the curator, says “every year, this exhibition has gained much interest and attention. Visitors don’t come to just look but carefully observe each and every artwork and select what they felt is the best work. The visitors’ deeper engagement with the art truly moved the event organizers. We are pleased that the unique artistic sensibility and technique of the Japanese artists was met with great support and praise from New Yorkers who were mesmerized by their artworks.”
This is the third year that the New Arts Prospect artists and curator are showing at Viridian Artists Gallery in Chelsea. Established in the late 1960’s, Viridian Artists has supported outstanding, “under-known” and emerging artists for more than 50 years. After having a highly successful exhibition last August at Viridian, the artists of New Arts Prospect were again invited to exhibit at the gallery to show their most recent outpourings of creative expression and visitors will not be disappointed.
This exhibition, curated by Sai Morikawa, aims to promote and nurture the cultural exchange between Japan and the US. This exhibition will also be a significant milestone for the participating artists as they build their artistic careers. Regardless of their career stage, these ambitious artists will be showcasing an amazing lineup of art works through which they hope to send a strong message to the world. Despite the current situation, we look forward to your coming to the exhibition in person. All visitors are asked to wear masks and will be limited to only 5 people in the gallery at a time.
Gallery hours: Tuesday-Saturday 12-5:30pm, closed on Sundays and appointment only on Mondays
For further information please contact the gallery at viridianartistsinc@gmail.com
or view the gallery website: www.viridianartists.com
Alan Gaynor's work will be exhibited at the SE Center for Photography in Greenville, SC.
Photograph by Alan Gaynor
Alan Gaynor, will be exhibiting work from his India series in an upcoming exhibition at the SE Center for Photography.
The “Portals” show will be exhibited from Sept 3 through Sept 25, 2021
The SE Center for Photography s located at 116 East Broad Street, Greenville, SC. 2960