Press Release: "Looking Outward/Looking Inward": New Work by Viridian Affiliates and Alumni
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“Looking Outward/ Looking Inward”
Viridian Affiliates & Alumni
September 10 – September 28, 2019
Opening Reception: Thursday, September 12, 6-8PM
Closing Reception: Saturday, September 28, 4-6PM
Marie-Ange Hoda Ackad * Arlene Finger * Deb Flagel * Charles Hildebrandt * Barbara Hillerman * Sarah Riley * Kathleen Shanahan * & Alumni Carol Brookes & Dorothy Braudy
Chelsea NY: Viridian Artists is pleased to present an exhibition of outstanding art by five artists who are part of Viridian Artists' Affiliate program and two of our Alumni Artists. The show extends from September 10 – September 28, 2019 with receptions to meet the artists Thursday, September 12, 6-8PM & Saturday, September 28, 4-6PM.
Marie-Ange Hoda Ackad’s “Eating Cake" is a work from a new series. In it, a transparent mouth is painted over a digital print on canvas coated with encaustic. The juxtaposition of truncated facial features floating over a graphic background make these works interesting in a new way. Based in Montreal, Canada, Ackad is increasingly showing her works in the United States.
Deb Flagel's work springs from the Japanese practice of Boro and Sashiko; traditional textile techniques honoring the reuse of materials through patching, repatching, and mending. By deconstructing past and current works, Flagel discovers interplay between the old and new, reconstructing into a grouping she titles, The Spaces In-Between... a place defined by quiet pauses between activity -- a neutral space where we begin to see what is, and where we connect to authentic inspiration.
For Arlene Finger, the interplay of color and line are primary forces in her compositions that the artist says are influenced by both the English Symbolists and the Russian avant-garde. Recently, the work has become more illustrative, not intentionally, but a creative direction that has emerged spontaneously. Working with pencil, charcoal, ink & pastel in her drawings, she likes to experiment with form as well as material.
Last year Charles Hildebrandt showed painting but recently he has been experimenting with mixed media collage arising as an extension of his photography. Like his paintings, the influences of nature, architecture, and the contrast of urban environments have been a part of the works evolution. Some of them, like “Fall Sidewalk”, were influenced by the forces of nature in unexpected places, literally right underfoot.
About her recent series “STILL LIFE ON THE ROAD”, Barbara Hillerman states: “I try to identify what might be overlooked in my current environment. Condiments – salt and pepper in particular – are found on most informal restaurant tables. They are so available that we often do not recognize their potential as creative arrangements that express the personality of the establishment. These images were made during travel in the U.S.A. Perhaps you can guess what was on the menu”.
Sarah Riley uses her background as both a painter and printmaker to re-work drawings, paintings, and prints digitally. She maneuvers these traditionally created images through a series of maneuvers, juxtapositions and layers, telling the story of “the human condition, one woman, many women, issues of identity and women’s history.” Adding an ambitious scale to this new, experimental media helps to create Riley’s strong female voice. Though digitally printed, the work derives from an intuitive process. The images are built from found and personal material and reflections, often with the use of brilliant color. She challenges the audience to pay attention to a new narrative of contemporary art and life.
Kathleen Shanahan’s mixed media works owe much to print making studio practices and the processes of layering and sequentially developing unique effects. The artist creates her “pastiched” imagery through collage and the juxtaposition of diverse elements. Here, her piece, entitled “Real Concerns”, is embedded in fantasy that choreographs our imagination as she manipulates it.
"Alumna artist Carol Brookes says about this series of her work "My Warrior Goddesses were born of a large body of mixed media wall sculpture that explores textural surfaces and the play of hard and soft forms that express both masculinity and femininity in harmony and opposition. Freed from years of being “attached to the wall” and working with abstract design forms, my goddesses have opened up a new focus and direction in my work. Taking the surfaces that I have been so drawn to and the concepts of feminine strength, I have re-imagined these ideas in these powerful female forms. The armored structures, woven of shiny, textured sculpting epoxy express the protective shell we all wear to face the world. These Warrior Goddesses, with their vulnerabilities safely hidden and shielded from harm are poised for battle. I believe in facing the world as a Warrior Goddess and that there is a Warrior standing the ready in all of us."
Dorothy Braudy, also a Viridian Alumna artist, states that "The painting is from a series called “Marking Time” which was a show of 35 paintings based on old family snapshots from the time my father was a boy in about 1906 to my meeting with my husband Leo in 1971. This is my younger sister and me in front of our Kentucky house in about 1942 or 3." A career retrospective of her work was shown at the Ellen Kim Murphy Gallery in Bergamot Station in 2000. Her first one person show was at Viridian Gallery, when it was in Soho and called Second Story Spring Street. Other solo exhibitions include “Marking Time” (2005) and “Double Feature” (2007) at the Hamilton Galleries, Santa Monica, and in 2010 a one-person show at Northeastern University in Boston, as part of the conference “Art and Memory.”In 2014 she had a show with her artist son, David Fitzgerald, (who now is a Viridian Artist as well) and her artist grandson, Travis Fitzgerald, “3 Generations”, in Manhattan.
Viridian's Affiliate and Alumni programs just some of the many ways in which our gallery continues its mission of supporting the art of outstanding "under-known" artists.
Gallery hours: Tuesday through Saturday 12- 6 PM
For further information please contact Vernita Nemec, Gallery Director
Press Release: New Arts Prospect: Artists from Japan, Series VI, 2019 Curated by Sai Morikawa
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New Arts Prospect: Artists from Japan, Series VI, 2019
Curated by Sai Morikawa
August 13th - 24th, 2019
Opening reception: Thursday, August 15th 6 - 8pm
Exhibiting Artists:
Chikako Nunome * Emiko Aida * Eri Hirano * Fumiaki Asai * Hiromi Minami * Ichigo Nohara * Ikka Tamura * Kiyokazu Ito * Madoka Suzuki * Meisyuku Ito * Miho Takai *Miwako Kashiwagi * Monzo Watanabe * Morihiro Okamoto * Reiko Furukawa * Seiyou Fukuoka * Shingo Hayamizu * Shinichi Asao * Sai Morikawa * Takashi Ozu * Tetsuaki Takasawa * Tomoji Ogawa * Tomomi Hata * Toshihito Kenzan * Yohei Sano * Yoko Nakanishi * Yoshihiro Kogure * Yoshiko Suzuki * Yuko Sato * Yumiko Hirokawa
Chelsea, NYC: Viridian Artists is pleased to present “New Arts Prospect: Artists from Japan, Series VI, 2019”, Curated by Sai Morikawa. The exhibition continues from August 13th to 24th, 2018 with an opening reception, Thursday, August 15th, 6 - 8PM.
New York is a city where the top artists of the world have long coexisted, creating much diversity of art as they share creative expressions from a wide variety of cultures and backgrounds. This series, “New Arts Prospect: Artists from Japan”, although only in its sixth year, continues to introduce Japanese artists who are well known and respected in Japan but virtually unknown here.
The exhibition, held yearly in the summer, is especially important because the invited artists reveal to a wider audience the particularly unique expressions of their Japanese cultural background with its intrinsically delicate and elaborate techniques.
The 2019 Summer Exhibition will take place at Viridian Artists Gallery in Chelsea. Established in the 1960s, Viridian has long supported ambitious up-and-coming and under-known artists for more than 50 years and continues to do so. Last year a catalog was published of the first Fifty Years of Viridian Artists which is available at the gallery & online.
Each year, this exhibition of contemporary Japanese has gained interest and attention in part because it invites not only art critics and writers, but the general public to vote and select their favorite artworks in the exhibit. Last year, ‘Contest in NY”, through its unique public voting on the art shown, invited visitors who come to not only to look at the art, but to select what they feel is the best work. In 2018, Taichi Hara won the Best Art Award for his work that combines classical painting with a fairytale-like conceptualization. As a prize, Taichi was honored with a solo show in New York and celebrated the fifth year of the Summer Exhibition.
Through this exhibition, curator Sai Morikawa aims to promote and nurture cultural exchange between Japan and the world through art. This exhibition also serves as a significant milestone for participating artists as they build their artistic career. Regardless of their career stage, these artists will be showcasing fascinating art works. We look forward to seeing your vote for your favorite artwork and sharing this unique exhibit with you.
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
Press Release: Viridian Artists presents: The 30th Annual International Juried Exhibition
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Viridian's 30th Annual International Juried Exhibition: Part 1
Juried by Vernita Nemec, Director of Viridian Artists & Independent Curator
July 23–August 10, 2019
Opening Reception: Thursday, July 25, 6–8 pm
Closing Reception : Saturday, 10th, 4-6pm
1st prize – Richard Hricko 2nd prize – Frances Vye Wilson 3rd prize – Katia Bulbenko
Carolyn Applegate * Anna Chupa * Philip Cianci * Patrick Coughlin * Renee Cuny * Genevieve Daly * Rodney Durso * Cynthia Fleury * Maki Fujita * Elizabeth Ginsberg * Catharina Goldnau * Paula Goodbar * Chris Haggerty * Nathan Brad Hall * Joni Hand * Jennifer Moné Hill * Zichao Hu * Gerard Huber * Gabrielle Lundy * Pavel Muller * Paul Murray * Robert Romano * Stuart Skalka * Joanna Sokolowska *
Joan Sonnanburg * Mariclair Tan * Oralee Wachter * Aycan Yurdakul
Chelsea: Viridian Artists Inc. is pleased to present our 30th International Juried Exhibition curated by Vernita Nemec, Director of Viridian Artists & Independent Curator. The exhibition opens July 23 and continues through August 10, 2019. In celebration, an opening reception will be held on Thursday, July 25, 6–8 pm. 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.
As always, Viridian makes a concerted effort to expand the opportunities for outstanding artists’ work to be seen and exhibited. For this season’s juried exhibition, juried by the gallery’s director, instead of having a Director’s Choice segment, the 30th Annual Juried will have a Part 1 & Part 2. Not only Viridian’s director, Nemec is also an independent curator and an artist long involved in the New York art world.
The competition selection as always was difficult, but especially so for the nature of art in our world today encompasses a wide variety of methods, materials and conceptualizations of what art is.
More than 400 artists submitted over 1000 submissions; a daunting task, but the 60 artists selected by Nemec represent a wide survey of what concerns and inspires artists and as always, there is much to be concerned about. We look forward to sharing this fascinating exhibition of timely contemporary art by artists we are sure you will see more of in the future.
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Gallery hours: Tuesday through Saturday 12–6PM
For further information, please contact Vernita Nemec the gallery director by phone at 212 414 4040 or by email at viridianartistsinc@gmail.com. Please visit the gallery website at www.viridianartists.com.
Press Release: “FRESH”: A Young Artists POP–UP
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“FRESH”: A Young Artists POP–UP
with
Ana Guraieb Chahin, Artist Known as X, Bamoozie, Gentry Pack, Sarah Jarrett
July 16 – July 20, 2019
Opening Reception Thursday, July 18, 6–8PM
Chelsea, NYC: Viridian Artists is pleased to present “FRESH” our first Young Artists POP–UP, an exhibition of paintings, drawings, photographs and constructions by Ana Guraieb Chahin, The Artist Known as X, Bamoozie, Gentry Pack, & Sarah Jarrett. The exhibition opens July 16 and continues until July 20, 2019, with an opening reception Thursday, July 18, 6–8PM.
Viridian Artists is a hybrid gallery with the primary objective of showing the art of outstanding under-known artist of all ages. Usually we don’t address an artist’s age but instead focus on the artwork itself, but in this case, we decided to focus on both. New York City since the forties & fifties has been the destination of serious artists, but in the last decade, the expense of living in New York City has made it nearly prohibitive for young artists to move here who are seeking a reputation & respect for their art. Those who do must work hard, spend little & share apartments & studios in order to survive. In fact, it has become expensive all over the world but artists continue to figure out ways to survive as well as remain creative wherever they are.
To address this problem and give a hand, Viridian has begun a Young Artists Program with greatly reduced costs & more frequent opportunities for artists under 30 to show their work. These five artists are our first “Young Artists.” Both Ana Guraieb Chahin and Sarah Jarrett came to Viridian as winners in past Juried competitions and we discovered Bamoozie’s art in a pop–up exhibit at another gallery in Chelsea. The Artist Known as X & Gentry Pack discovered our interest in helping young artists and came to us after seeing the gallery website.
Most of these artists live outside the city and as faraway as California, but they all share a strong devotion to their art and revelations of their inner thoughts and lives. Gentry Pack’s graphic imagery addresses emotional aspects of being a sensitive young man in today’s world; Bamoozie is an artist/actor who uses words & imagery with layered meanings; Ana G. Chahin recently received her MFA in fiber and explores new textile forms; Sarah Jarrett is a figurative artist who uses old family photos, found photos, memories, and experiences to create her work and “The Artist Known as X” creates photographic imagery digitally reproduced on aluminum.
We look forward to seeing you at this celebration of Young Art filled with “FRESH” ideas.
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.
Ellen Burnett is currently a featured artist on Artsy
Mary Tooley Parker and Vernita Nemec are currently showing work in “On The Rocks”: a group exhibition at the Susan Eley Fine Art Gallery.
Mary Tooley Parker and Vernita Nemec are currently showing work in “On The Rocks”: a group exhibition at the Susan Eley Fine Art Gallery.
Susan Eley Fine Art is located at 46 WEST 90TH STREET, 2ND FLOOR, NEW YORK, NY 10024
”On The Rocks”: June 26 – August 29, 2019
GALLERY HOURS: MONDAY-FRIDAY, 11AM-5PM AND BY APPOINTMENT
MARY TOOLEY PARKER, HOUSE ON THE HILL (2013), WOOL AND OTHER FIBERS ON LINEN, 30 X 33 INCHES
VERNITA NEMEC, HILL IN THE TROPICS (2017), COLLAGE WITH SUGAR PACK, BURNED PAPER, ACRYLIC, MONOPRINT ON RAG BOARD, 4.25 X 5 INCHES
Ellen Burnett's Solo Exhibition "Dream House, and other stories" is featured in the Wall Street International magazine:
Congratulations to Viridian Artist Ellen Burnett! Ellen’s Solo Exhibition "Dream House, and other stories" is featured in the Wall Street International magazine.
Mary Tooley Parker is mentioned in the New York Times
Mary Tooley Parker is mentioned in the New York Times!
Click Here to read full article
Press Release: Ellen Burnett: "Dream House, and other stories"
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ELLEN BURNETT
"Dream House, and other stories"
June 18 – July 13, 2019
Opening Reception Thursday, June 20, 6–8PM
Chelsea, NYC: Viridian Artists is pleased to present “Dream House, and other stories," an exhibition of assemblages & paintings by Ellen Burnett. The exhibition opens June 18 and continues until July 13, 2019, with an opening reception Thursday, June 20, 6–8PM and a closing reception Saturday, July 13, 4–6PM. The artist will be present on Saturday afternoons during the exhibition to talk with visitors about her work.
Ellen Burnett came to Viridian as a winner in the gallery’s international competition of 2017, juried by Susan Thompson, an assistant curator at the Guggenheim Museum. In 2014, the artist was also selected for the Director’s Choice exhibit, Viridian’s offshoot of the juried shows that gives exposure to even more outstanding artists. This will be the artist’s first solo exhibit at Viridian.
The exhibit title, “Dream House, and other stories” suggests that each piece in the show contains a narrative. The title piece, “Dream House,” is one of a series that happens in the small hours of the night—a time when demons clamor to be seen and nightmares occur to the wakeful. Out of these images, Burnett has created a narrative intentionally open to reinterpretation by the observer.
One can begin to get a sense of Burnett’s point of view from the nomenclature of the works, which trace hints of her ambiguous meanings. More than the suggestive abstract images themselves, titles such as “A January State of Mind,” “The City at 2am,” and “The Season of Letting Go” allude to a state of mind, a mental space.
Burnett’s practice involves finding whole objects, as well as fragments and bits of discarded things, that inspire her. She collects and saves these pieces of rusted and broken remembrances, often for years, until they find their place alongside other repurposed items evoking memory and moments past–at times also pointing to a future waiting to be written. However, her work involves more than assemblages of discarded-now-found treasures, for painting and drawing also are a critical part of the process she uses to suggest her narratives.
For Burnett, things have potential beyond their initial existence and original utility, possessing inherent energies waiting to be unlocked. This is a critical consideration in the twenty-first century when too much is being discarded, destroying our environment and the world we now know. Perhaps it will be artists like Ellen, “upcycling” the discards of civilization, who will point the way to solutions for the future. As the artist says about her working process:
“But observe:
details emerge and
perspective shifts.
These are compositions on the edge of the abstract,
where conversation can occur;
narrative works in which stories are about to unfold.”
We look forward to seeing you at Ellen Burnett’s exhibit “Dream House, and other stories."
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.
Contemporary Artist Interview: Mary Tooley Parker by Angela Cappetta
Mary Tooley Parker was interviewed by Angela Cappetta about her work and her solo show at Viridian. Congratulations, Mary!
Contemporary Artist Interview
Mary’s work is magnificent. She has been on my radar for years. I finally got the courage up to ask her to be interviewed for my ongoing Contemporary Artist Series. I hope you adore her work as much as I do.
After a career in dance, and then in art production, Mary Tooley Parker left New York City to pursue a more rural lifestyle in Vermont. After her relocation, Mary then began pursuing an interest in textile art. Eventually, this led her to the indigenous American folk art of hook rugs. In Mary’s case, they weren’t exactly rugs, though. Through using yarn, thread and fabric to make her pieces, her beautiful textile compositions have been exhibited nationally. She is one of my fellow NYFA fellows, having been awarded her Fellowship by the New York Foundation for the Arts just a few years after mine, which I earned for my project Glendalis Subsequently, she even served as a panel juror for NYFA in 2018.
Press Release: “And Now for Something Completely Different: Textile Compositions by Mary Tooley Parker”
“Essie Bendolph Pettway, Gee's Bend Quilter”, textile, 15x15 inches
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“And Now for Something Completely Different: Textile Compositions by Mary Tooley Parker”
May 21 – June 15, 2019
No opening reception.
Chelsea, NYC: Viridian Artists is pleased to present “And Now for Something Completely Different: Textile Compositions by Mary Tooley Parker.” The exhibition spans May 21st to June 15th, 2019.
It is a rare event when there is something new to be witnessed in the New York art world, but Mary Tooley Parker’s textile compositions are unique. Textile art has gained a wider visibility in recent years, and Parker’s vision, along with her experimentation and expansion of one specific traditional textile medium, has brought about work refreshingly unlike any art being shown today.
Parker's lifelong fixation with fiber work—from basket weaving to spinning to weaving—and her 20 years in modern dance and then art production at Vanity Fair and GQ, eventually seemed to coalesce in the medium of rug hooking. This format combined the meditative, tactile quality of fiber work with the expressivity of dance and art. Her use of the densely layered, multi-faceted medium presents subject matter from portraits to landscapes to still lifes in a fresh, exciting way. Parker's artistic sensibility and unique perspective is also revealed in this innately attractive form. Textile art is received by the viewer in a different way than fine art, and there is science showing that a different part of the brain is stimulated when viewing a textile. It appeals directly to the senses with a recognition of warmth and familiarity before the brain even registers the visual image. Working in the simple medium of rug hooking affords Parker a strong connection not only to the fibers running through her fingertips, but also to the women who used this medium and other fiber mediums to express themselves during difficult times and with limited materials. She celebrates these women in her work, such as the famed Gee's Bend Quilters of Alabama. Using rug hooking as a creative expression of her 21st century experience, she carries this tradition into the contemporary art world by taking the work off the floor to be viewed as art.
“Mary Tooley Parker’s recent show of hooked rugs...reminds us how in the hands of a gifted artist the simplest materials and most prosaic themes can be transformed into an important artistic statement. Parker takes rug hooking to a new level with her vivid fabric tableaus which blend fantasy with craftsmanship.” —William C. Ketchum, author of Hooked Rugs and folk art expert
Parker is an award-winning artist whose work has been widely exhibited in galleries and museums. She is a member of the Silvermine Guild of Artists and the National Association of Women Artists. In 2015 she was awarded a Fellowship from the New York Foundation for the Arts. This is her first solo show in New York City.
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 Mary Tooley Parker at mparked@gmail.com, 914-243-9472
Press Release: Renée Borkow, “Step out of Time”
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Renée Borkow
“Step out of Time”
April 23- May 18, 2019
Opening Reception: Thursday, May 9th, 6-8 pm
Chelsea, NY: Viridian Artists is pleased to present the recent work of Renée Borkow. This latest group of collages was completed over the last 4 years and explores ideas about women and their place in society throughout history, or as some would say, herstory.
More than the drawings of urban scenes Borkow showed in her last exhibit in 2014, these works resemble in composition her early abstract paintings of the 90’s & early 2000’s. The artist has immersed herself in history starting with the Greek Gods & Goddesses and filled her works with images & 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.
A collage filled with stars and a girl with an arrow makes sense when you research the meaning of “uranometria” which refers to measuring the heavens for it is the name of the first Star Atlas created in 1603 by the German Astronomer Johann Bayer. But also there is the word “Indus” which is a river and the name of a Bronze Age civilization. The images are mysterious and complex as are the meanings, but one can also just enjoy making one’s associations or not, for the complexity of the work is an aspect of our fascination.
As the artist states “The research for the show was interesting historically, but also revealed the themes and differences between loyalty and vengeance, what is “God-like” and what is “mortal” and what is interpreted as power and weakness. The heroines of Greek mythology make us think about our individual and unique strengths. The gods never thought that they weren’t in complete control (especially Zeus), but the goddesses knew better.”
Renée Borkow lives and works in New York City. She is a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University, and has a Master of Fine Arts degree from Columbia University. She has exhibited in New York, Los Angeles, Florida, Lyon and Pittsburgh.
Gallery hours: Tuesday through Saturday 12- 6 PM
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
Two Photographs By Marco Lando Included in "Photography Series and Repetition" : at Site: Brooklyn Gallery
Two Works by Marco Lando will be included in the Photography Series and Repetition Show at Site: Brooklyn Gallery. This show extends from May 3– June 1, 2019
The Opening Reception is on Friday, May 3 from 6-9 PM
Location: Site: Brooklyn
3106, 165 7th St, Brooklyn, NY 11215
Press Release: Robert Smith: “Portraits of Point Lobos”
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ROBERT SMITH
“Portraits of Point Lobos”
March 26 - April 20, 2019
Opening Reception, Thursday, March 28th, 6 - 8 p.m.
An evening of performance & poetry: Thursday April 11, 6-8PM free
Chelsea, NYC: Viridian Artists is pleased to present “Portraits of Point Lobos,” an exhibition of color photographs by Robert Smith. The exhibition spans March 26th to April 20th, 2019 with an opening reception, Thursday, March 28th, 6 - 8 p.m.
These archival pigment prints reveal a figurative narrative rarely seen as a series in the undisturbed natural landscape. At Point Lobos, just south of Carmel, California on the Monterey Peninsula, we have a magnificent natural area that has attracted photographers and other artists mostly for its vistas, scenics and many life forms inhabiting its shores and crevices. However, Smith wants you to become aware of
something else, the close-up tidal rock and sandstone that speaks a different language. That attendant and magical storytelling language translates to close-up images recognizable, principally as faces, and other portraits as seen in his mind’s eye. Although the images are labeled simply by number, can you spot the biker, the ship’s Captain, the serpent and “one-eye”?
Smith attributes his special way of seeing to the practice of Sensory Awareness, a discipline offering the gift of living more in the present moment that informs his vision. It’s been called the “Western Zen.” His insight came with the realization of the connection of living in the moment and taking a photograph in a fraction of a second. Ever since, working with minimal equipment and only one lens, a normal focal length macro, he has explored and discovered with fascination, the never ending visual potential of that which is close by and not seen, that you would just walk past.
Smith has two major bodies of work, one from Point Lobos and the other from a Maine coastal island where, at his summer studio, he leads “Steps to Seeing” Sensory Awareness walks to share his vision and give others the opportunity to see more. By offering a window onto the nearby, he illuminates the possibility that we can say “yes” to the wonder of the richness of our natural environment.
Robert Smith has had a wide range of solo and group exhibitions and his photographs are in numerous private collections worldwide, on six continents.
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
Celebrating Viridian's Women Artists: International Women's Day is Friday, March 8th, 2019
In honor of International Women’s Day, we are featuring Viridian Women Artists on our back wall.
Women’s History Month is a great time to expand your collections of Art made by Women.
Viridian Women Artists Are:
* RENÉE BORKOW * ELLEN BURNETT * MAY DeVINEY *KIFFI DIAMOND * BERNICE FAEGENBURG *
TAZUKO FUJII * OI SAWA * MAKI HAJIKANO * KATHLEEN KING * NAMIYO KUBO * NANCY NICOL *
STACEY CLARFIELD NEWMAN * MARY TOOLEY PARKER * SRIVIDYA KANNAN RAMACHANDRAN *
BARBARA K. SCHWARTZ * SUSAN SILLS * VIRGINIA EVANS SMIT * ANGELA SMITH *
Art Review in Newsday about Vernita Nemec 's exhibit : "Treasure That Trash" at Ward Melville Heritage Organization’s Educational & Cultural Center, in Stony Brook, Long Island
Just more than 100 years ago, the French expatriate artist Marcel Duchamp submitted his iconic “Fountain” — a white porcelain urinal turned upside-down and signed “R. Mutt” — to a show sponsored by the Society of Independent Artists in New York. The seminal ready-made sculpture was rejected by the Society and then photographed by American modernist Alfred Stieglitz and likely tossed in the garbage. So began a trend of fashioning art from detritus and castaways that today, in light of heightened concerns about the environment, has value-added impact.
In anticipation of Earth Day, the Ward Melville Heritage Organization is giving fresh meaning to the old saw “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure” with the exhibition “Treasure That Trash!” at its Educational & Cultural Center in Stony Brook. “What would normally spend its days in a landfill is transformed into something that inspires wonder and evokes beauty,” center director Kristin Shea says of the multimedia wall works, sculpture and installations contributed by the show’s 10 participants.
“I want them to be amazed,” says artist Vernita Nemec of viewers’ anticipated response to her free-form canvasses of glued-together plastic packaging, the kind of clear casing that retains the shape of the object it is holding. “I also want to inspire consciousness about the problem, for people to say, ‘Wait a sec, I don’t have to throw this away. I can reuse it — make art or something else.’ I want to give the message that there are other ways to upcycle and recycle.”
Bellmore and Aquebogue resident Bergés Alvarez also believes that art can play an effective role in relating that message. “Art extends our outlook, thoughts and feelings, spilling into our everyday lives. It inspires us to move forward,” notes the artist, who, when not in his home studio making land- and seascapes from used bits and pieces of tissue paper, Bubble Wrap and manila envelopes, works at Mineola’s NYU Winthrop Hospital as a radiology technician.
“When they’ve exhausted their initial intent, I transform them,” he says of his chosen materials. “I couldn’t throw away packaging. I found this beauty in their reflections and began to build them up on a tabletop in different arrangements.” After photographing and printing the results of his tinkering, Alvarez uses more traditional art media to apply the finishing touches on his surprisingly painterly compositions.
Also featured in the show are mixed-media pieces by artist duo Josyph & Larkin. The works, from their ongoing “Lives of the Saints” series, are a way for the artists to canonize their own secular saints using “rescued” materials such as commercial signs, newspaper, twine, postcards, ceramics, hardware and even toys and electronics.
“That doesn't mean we've had to dive into dumpsters to find things,” notes Peter Josyph. “The unused, the idle, the ignored, the discarded and disregarded are everywhere in every home.”
Josyph understands some people might not even see the assemblages as art. “That's OK,” he says. “If, for some viewers, they sing a little, or feel like a kind of odd-angle poetry, or somehow create a little magic — that's satisfaction enough.”
WHAT “Treasure That Trash!”
WHEN | WHERE Saturday, March 9, through Saturday, March 30, 10 a.m.-4 p.m., Ward Melville Heritage Organization’s Educational & Cultural Center, 97 Main St., Stony Brook
INFO $5, 631-751-2244, wmho.org
Ellen Burnett's Work at Art Fair 14C in Jersey City
“Colonel Mustard” by Ellen Burnett
“Colonel Mustard” by Ellen Burnett will be included in Art Fair 14C from March 15-17 at the Hyatt Regency on the Jersey City waterfront. Click here for Early Bird Discounted Tickets by March 10th. Use code EARLY BIRD
Three Artist Books by Namiyo Kubo Will be Exhibited in Brooklyn
Congratulations to Namiyo Kubo! Three of Namiyo’s hand-made books will be exhibited in
the “Lil’ Radicals: Multicultural and Social Justice Publications for Kids in the 21st Century” show
at Booklyn, Inc.
Lil’ Radicals: Multicultural and Social Justice Publications for Kids in the 21st Century
April 6, 2019 – May 31, 2019
Booklyn, Inc. at the Brooklyn Army Terminal, 140 58th Street, Brooklyn, NY 11220.
Press Release: "30 Under 30"
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Please List
"30 Under 30"
Juried by Donna Gustafson, Curator of American Art and Mellon Director for Academic programs, Zimmerli Art Museum
February 26- March 23, 2019
Opening Reception Thursday, february 28th, 6-8PM
Closing reception Saturday, March 23rd, 4-6PM
Matthew Adelberg * Blake Lenoir * In Kyeong Baek * Maria Barrientos * Dan Brenton *
Danqi Cai* Brigitte Caramanna * Ashley Carroll * John Catania * Haoran Chang *
Tracy Shih-Tung Cheng * Landon Clay * Darcy Edwin * Rachel Fishman *
Jessica Ghyvoronsky * Danny Glass * Marcos Gonzalez Cutre * Ana Guraieb *
Alexander Harlan * Amorelle Jacox * Sarah Jarrett * Julia Justo * Joseph Kameen *
Junyi Liu * Stephanie Martin * Sienna Martz * Emily Quinn * Samantha Resendez *
Rachel Rosenfeld * Dareece Walker *
Chelsea NY: Viridian Artists is pleased to present an exhibition of artists who are all under 30 years of age. “30 Under 30“ continues from February 26th to March 23rd, with two receptions to meet the artists. An opening reception will be held on Thursday, February 28th, 6-8PM and a closing reception Saturday March 23rd, 4-6PM.
In a world changing culturally and politically more rapidly than ever, these artworks perhaps offer a clue to ways artists will look at their lives and times through art making in the future. The artists in this exhibition were selected from a “call for art” the gallery sent out to discover what young artists are thinking and creating art about in these times.
From a wide range of applicants, the art of 30 artists, all under 30 years of age, was selected by Donna Gustafson, Curator of American Art and Mellon Director for Academic Programs at the Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutgers University.
In her curatorial statement, Ms. Gustafson says: “The themes that repeatedly appeared in the full range of submissions included surveillance, privacy, and private life in a digitally mediated world; interior landscapes and abstract expressions; and the politics of our current moment --civil rights, gentrification, and sexuality in a post binary world. This selection of 30 artists, culled from a much larger group of 174, suggests that artists continue to be “the antennae of the race,” as the poet Ezra Pound described them in 1918.”
No longer are there large workspaces or showing spaces without huge rents available to artists. The struggle to be an artist full time is a dream few can afford and making art in shared spaces is the rule rather than the exception. Consequently, Viridian has created an affordable membership program for young and gifted artists for we realize not only how expensive space is today both for showing and working, but also, how important it is for artists to live and show their art in a competitive and supportive environment.
In addition, Viridian Artists is offering a fellowship in the name of Barbara K Schwartz, a founding Viridian Artist. It will be awarded to one of the exhibiting artists committed to joining Viridian and will be chosen by current gallery artists. The Barbara K Schwartz Fellowship covers the cost of their dues for one year.
As in the case of our juried exhibit open to artist of all ages and persuasions, Viridian has instituted a digital presentation of 30 artists selected by the gallery director, Vernita Nemec, giving an opportunity to 30 additional artists and giving gallery visitors a chance to see the work of more artists of merit. In actuality however, only 21 additional artists were selected, since 9 artists’ works were selected by both curators.
Just how difficult is it now is for young artists to achieve their dreams of fame, respect and possibly fortune? What are their concerns? What materials do they work with? How have social media, astronomical rents, and less space changed the way in which artists just beginning their careers express themselves creatively? To learn the answers to some of these questions, gallery visitors are invited to look at the art itself & also to meet some of the artists at the opening and closing receptions.
"Director's Choice" to be presented digitally
Matthew Adelberg * Lucy Clark * Remelisa Cullitan * Gina DeCagna * Grace DeWitt * Darcy Edwin * Stephanie Fenner * Alexandra Galiardo * Jessica Ghyvoronsky * Victoria Gu * Ana Guraieb *
Nicholas Harvilla * Amorelle Jacox * Sofiya Kuzmina * Sena Kwon * Rachel Litton * Junyi Liu *
Ania Mininkova * Tanner Mothershead Natalia Pas * Rozahira Pena * Emily Quinn *
Rachel Rosenfeld *Holly Ross * Matthew Simon * Emily Sortor * Gray Swartzel *
Kelly Villalba * Dareece Walker * Sara Wallach *