Press Release: “Outer Realities: inner visions”

“OUTER REALITIES: inner visions”

Viridian Affiliates
May 17- June 4, 2016
Reception Thursday May 19, 6-8pm

 Phyllis J. Featherstone * Elizabeth F Hoff * Katherine Ellinger Smith
Carolina Poggi * Srividya Kannan Ramachandran
Jenny Belin * Vernita N’Cognita

Chelsea, NYC: Viridian Artists is pleased to present “OUTER REALITIES: inner visions” featuring 5 artists from Viridian’s Affiliate program, as well as the gallery director and assistant who are both artists. The exhibition opens May 17 and continues through June 4, 2016 with a reception Thursday May 19, 6-8pm.

 The two words that best describe the art of Elizabeth F Hoff are eclectic and idiosyncratic. “I fell in love with clay while studying with Jennie Lea Knight and Anne Truitt at Ms, Knights” studio in Louden County in Virginia. I have journeyed far, but my roots are in the south and with the multi- racial situation I grew up with.”

Phyllis J. Featherstone likes to focus her work and states “Color is my noun, adjective, adverb, verb, and subject at the moment; and the flavor is all about blue.”

“Exegesis” is defined as the analysis and interpretation of specific texts. In her work with this word being its title, the artist Srividya Kannan Ramachandran invites you on “a hermeneutic meditation of hieroglyphics through which you can perceive the ancient light at the end of a modern tunnel.” The artist suggests that the viewer try locating the word “focus” within the cryptic text.

Katherine Ellinger Smith’s drawings are a combination of people she knows, film images, landmarks, and other personal objects. In “collaging” these images together the artist found that the combinations had subconscious associations for her. These accidental discoveries and chance arrangements are what she enjoyed most in creating these pieces and what – for the viewer – adds personal meaning.

Photographer Carolina Poggi travels the world from her native Uruguay searching for images, particularly documenting dancers. This series though, is from earlier travels within Uruguay to a formerly lonely fishing village called “Punta del Diablo” which the Lonely Planet Travel Guide now calls a tourist destination.

In soft pink undertones, Viridian’s gallery assistant Jenny Belin draws from both pop culture and from her own personal relationships to create portraits of strong women who aren’t afraid of controversy. Often focusing on fame and fashion, Belin’s small paintings bring these fantasy worlds into closer view.

Though the director of Viridian for more than a decade, Vernita Nemec AKA N’Cognita has managed to maintain her ongoing art practice. Her recent solo exhibit at GAIA Gallery in DUMBO featured her current environmentally concerned art which focuses on the over-abundance of discarded plastic and it’s environmental destructiveness, some of which will be included in this show. A performance artist as well, Nemec will be performing at the Theater for the New City at the end of May.

Viridian’s Affiliate program is one of the many ways in which our gallery continues its mission of supporting the art of outstanding “underknown” artists.