Exhibiting works from Philip Frey, America Martin, John Winship, Anne Hebebrand, Christina Thwaites, Jean Jack, Lisa Noonis, Dianne Schelble and Carol Eisenberg. Sculpture/assemblage work by Andre Benoit and Philippe Guillerm. * (Please see the artist’s individual pages for available works)
“As a painter, Philip Frey’s goal is often a project of soft persuasion. We recognize his scenes easily enough. But as we shift our focus from the recognizable subject to the insistent forms, luscious brushwork and compositional design, the painting slips out of representational focus and back to abstraction, the true place of Frey’s poetry…” Daniel Kany
The atmosphere in my paintings is thick, tonality dark, the edges and contours not always sharply defined, the faces often blurred or in shadow. These effects arise out of specific techniques, but are also attempts to break down the specificity of the photograph’s subject matter and allow the viewer to project more freely into the painting. The layers and veils of the painted surfaces are the equivalent of the distance between the viewer and the subjects of the old photographs.
“The world is…filled with chaos and collision, serenity and silence, it tumults along, offering those bold enough to reach into it a chance to withdraw a bounty of heat and light and sentience. It is spectacular in its simplicity and alluring in its anarchy. It is into this world that America Martin propels herself, where she seizes, with delicate hand and bullish acumen, scraps of humanity to weave into tapestry…” Art critic Stacy Davies.
Born into three generations of German artists, Anne Hebebrand’s paintings are anchored in the tradition of the German Expressionists.
My abstract paintings of overlapping geometric shapes rich in texture and color reveal an array of details of delicate transitions and passages. An ongoing exploration of cold wax and oil techniques lead to a tactile surface created not only by adding layers, but also by excavating and unearthing earlier layers of paint. I do not start out with a preconceived image, but a general openness to see what happens.
My work explores the places and faces around me – often familiar and banal subject matter. Having moved home and country a lot (England, Australia, Italy, Indonesia, Palestine…) – my practice has been a means of connecting myself to location and people. I work a lot with photocopies and photographs, making fast and spontaneous drawings from them before painting. I do this in order to ‘get inside’ the subject before moving away from the source image, as I am less interested in where the painting started, but more in the process, and where the painting ends. I push and pull the paint and constantly work to surprise myself and test the materials I work with. A painting is ‘finished’ when there is a balance of poetry and tension which invites the viewer to question what they see and feel.
There is a poignant sense of unease and even loneliness in the places Jack paints, which is underscored by her dramatic contrasts of complementary colors, and her equally dramatic transitions between reality and unreality. Despite Jack’s use of very real houses and churches as models, these are realistic paintings only in a sense. ‘Idealistic’ is perhaps a better word for the convincing power of the very simplified forms and colors. These bright, sensitive paintings are more of an exquisite arrangement of elements that express an essential feeling about houses in the country from California to Maine rather than a view out of a window.
