“45 YEARS” VIRIDIAN ARTISTS PAST & PRESENT" Part 1 and 2

“45 YEARS”
VIRIDIAN ARTISTS PAST & PRESENT
October 21st – November 8th
November 11th – November 29th, 2014
receptions: Thursdays Oct. 23rd& Nov.13th6-8PM

 Chelsea: It is with pleasure and pride that Viridian Artists is featuring past and present Viridian Artists in two upcoming 45th Anniversary Exhibitions. These exhibitions will be occurring October 21st through November 8th and November 11th through November 29th, 2014. There will be receptions on Thursday Oct. 23 and Thursday Nov. 13, 6-8pm.

As one of the first artist-owned galleries in the New York City art world, Viridian began its existence in Soho when Soho was just beginning to be an art destination. In 1969, a group of Long Island artist formed a gallery just off West Broadway called Second Story Spring Street, the parent of Viridian Artists before SoHo was SoHo.

Viridian moved from there to becoming the only artist owned gallery on 57th St where it remained until 2001 in the NY Gallery Building. As the city was digging out from under the tragedy of 9/11, Viridian was moving to 530 W 25th in Chelsea where it remained until 2011, moving then to its current location at 548 West 28th Street.

Over the years some of the original artists have remained with the gallery while others have departed and then returned. With the gallery since its inception are Janet Bohman, Bernice Faegenburg, and Virginia Evans Smit. Barbara K Schwartz, Susan Sills, Oi Sawa, and Tazuko Fujii have been the gallery nearly as long. Other artists with the gallery since before 2000 include May DeViney, Renee Borkow and the Estate of Bruce Rosen.

The artists of Viridian draw from the complicated and often contradictory currents of modern life and contemporary culture to create their art. The gallery has always prized esthetic diversity and each Viridian Artist, past and present, has a particular approach to representation and a unique way of decoding reality.

As commercial galleries become artist-owned and cooperative galleries become more respected for their high quality art and the freedom they give their artists, Viridian has maintained that critical balance necessary to compete in today’s diverse art community. Today, surviving the heyday of commercialism as art and art as real estate, Viridian continues.

Oct 21-Nov 8

Kelynn Alder, Chris Bathgate, Carol Benisatto, Naomi Blum, Carol Brookes, Mary-Ellen Campbell, Sabine Carlson, Henry Coupe, Arthur Dworin, Sally Fine, Arlene Finger, Alan Gaynor, Barbara Gerard, Kat King, Valerii Klymchuk, Rosemary Lyons, Jo-Anne Maynard, Matthias Merdan, Marilyn Miller, Michael Miller, Jeffrey Melzack, Stacey Clarfield Newman, Renee Ritter, Virginia Evans Smit, Phyllis Smith, Katherine Ellinger Smith, Deborah Sudran, Bob Tomlinson, Judith Tummino

 Nov 11-29

Janet Bohman, Roger Boles, Jack Bolen, Renee Borkow, Carol Crawford, May DeViney, David Dorsey, Bernice Faegenburg, Tazuko Fujii, Wally Gilbert, Elizabeth Featherstone Hoff, Richard Karp, Peter Kaplan, Namiyo Kubo, Paul Matthews, Robert Mielenhausen, Darryl Moody, Ron Moore, Rick Mullin, Mary Murphy, Goran Petmil, John Remsen, Diane Root, Bruce Rosen, Oi Sawa, Barbara K Schwartz, Susan Sills, Angela Smith, Robert Smith, Diane Soorikian, Meredeth Turshen, Mary Wells,
Carol Yoshimine, Don Zurlo  

 Gallery hours: Tuesday throughSaturday 12- 6 PM
For further information please contact Vernita Nemec, Gallery Director  

Press Release: Wally Gilbert : "Transformations"

“Wally Gilbert: Transformations”
Sept 30 – October 18, 2014
2 receptions Saturday, October 4, 4-6 & Thursday, October 9, 6-8  

 Chelsea: Viridian Artists Inc. is pleased to present the exhibition “Wally Gilbert: Transformations”. The show opens September 30th  and continues through October 18, 2014. In celebration, 2 receptions will occur with the artist present at both: Saturday, October 4, 4-6PM & Thursday, October 9, 6-8PM.

Transformation has always been an importantelement in the Digital Art of Wally Gilbert.  Artist and scientist, Gilbert approaches his art with scientific gusto, artistic freedom and the wisdom of experimentation. Working now with color, light and shapes rather than DNA, for which he won a Nobel Prize in 1980, the work in his latest exhibition begins with photographs of a skylight that he has transformed beyond reality. With color, light and overlapping shapes, Gilbert pushes and transforms the image by taking color to the extreme and creating complex abstractions that leave the viewer to imagine their origins.

Gilbert has been working with digital photography for the past ten years, sometimes exploring color, sometimes focusing on black & white imagery as he did in his last solo show at Viridian. In this exhibit, his focus is on color and light which he investigates and manipulates, transforming fragmentary photographs into a plethora of artistic and arresting abstract artworks.

A world renowned scientist, Gilbert explores the medium of photography zealously, searching for the beauty in reality and then translating that beauty into his own language of color and form.  In the past he has captured a wide variety of subjects from dancers to abandoned factories to architecture, translating the subject into artistic images that he enhances digitally, pushing and overlapping colors and shapes creatively and scientifically.

Wally Gilbert’s latest work investigates the transformations of three fragments of an image through color saturation and layering in PhotoShop, pushing and pulling the embedded color until he has created his own new world. All created in 2014, these images, printed on aluminum, glow with color driven to full saturation creating new and strange interactions, until they have become “abstract meditations”.

Gilbert pushes colors to their extreme. Three works – “Yellow Torment”, “Blue Torment” & “Red Torment” perhaps express the sometimes psychological pain of the artistic process as well as how color can so thoroughly transform what we see. All use the same image solarized, with the primary color and black angular architectural structures coming forward yet revealing tiny aspects of other colors peeking through the structures, as if trying to escape. He transforms the hues of light as well as the color of forms.

We hope that you will be able to meet this outstanding artist and share his vision through seeing these incredibly fascinating artworks.

PRESS RELEASE: Director’s Choice: From Virtual To Actual 3

“Director’s Choice: From Virtual To Actual 3″
Curated by Vernita Nemec

September 9-27, 2014
Opening Reception Thursday, September 11, 6-8PM

 Robin Becker * Emma Buck * Kristin Enck * Joshua Greenberg * Aimee Hertog *Marla Hoffman * Daniela Izaguirre * Joanna Kidd * Mark Kolessar * Marcia Lloyd*Srividya Kannan Ramachandran * Christopher Ruane * Leslie Sheryll

 Chelsea NY: Viridian Artists is pleased to present ” Director’s Choice: From Virtual To Actual”,  curated by Vernita Nemec, the gallery director, featuring a selection of artists who entered our 24th International Juried Competition in 2013. The gallery is located at 548 West 28th Street, also accessible from 547 W 27th Street. The exhibit extends from September 9th to 27th, 2014 with an opening reception Thursday, September 11, 6-8PM.

Each of the 13 artists in this diverse exhibition has her or his own personal obsession that serves as the starting point of their search to transform their inner investigations into reality. The results of transforming these realities into art, remains open to each viewer’s interpretation and becomes another translation of the virtual into the actual.

The art in this exhibit takes many unique forms from the knitted “Knots” of Joanne Kidd‘s artist book and the mixed media wall sculpture “Batter Up” of Aimee Hertog to a wide variety of photographic approaches. Joshua Greenberg explores abstraction, Marla Hoffman reflections, Srividya Kannan Ramachandran poetry, Christopher Ruanereligion and Marcia Lloyd’s  ongoing series Mother/Daughter, which explores the search for a new identity.

The dress appears in a variety of meanings & executions: Robin Becker’s dress with photo transfers, Leslie Sheryll‘s gown of plastic bags & netting, Mark Kolessar’s“Second Skin” ofcanvas, acrylic, plastic, wood & metal.

Many of the worksare not what they seem to be. Daniela Izaguirre’s watercolor and graphite image on vellum looks like real objects, Emma Buck’s digital photograph intentionally resembles a painting while Kristin Enck’s painting “Slosh” presses the “pause” button, suspending both time and motion to freeze the image as a photo might. 

Although these artists were not “winners” of Viridian’s 24th International Juried Competition,   their art is uniquely interesting. Viridian’s Director’s Choice Exhibitions arise from one of Viridian’s primary missions: to provide meaningful exposure to under-known artists of all ages whose art merits wider attention.

Press Release: IDEA(S)

"IDEA(S)"
7 VIRIDIAN AFFILIATES
July 22- August 9, 2014
Reception Thursday July 24, 6-8pm

 William Atkins, David Dorsey, Elvira Lantenhammer, Rosemary Lyons, Vernita N'Cognita, Carolina Poggi, Lauren Purje

           Chelsea NY: Viridian Artists is pleased to present "IDEA(S)" an exhibition of outstanding art by seven artists who are part of the Affiliate program at the gallery. The exhibit will continue from July 22 to August 9, 2014. There will be an opening reception Thursday, July 24th, 6-8PM.   Viridian's Affiliate program is an important aspect of the gallery's mission to expand exhibition and sales opportunities for outstanding contemporary artists, both emerging and well-known. This group of artists came together bythe chance of scheduling, but their art all shares an interest in Idea(s).   Each of these artists create thoughtfully with a purpose that exists far beyond creating a pretty picture.

            WILLIAM ATKINS was born in Rochford, England. He works with various types of cameras with subject matter ranging from anachronistic portraits to seaside street photography. Living in Washington DC, he has photographed several US Presidents and is a second-generation photographer, following in his father's footsteps.

"I pulled together this set of photos to create a story with no narrative to establish a mood. They are reflections of truths from my own experiences. They come from traveling the country, deciding to walk, stopping the car, reuniting after twenty years, waiting in a place seeing what may happen, just life and putting a camera between myself and it."

            DAVID DORSEY's paintings depict commonplace objects and situations is a way that celebrates the formal abstract properties of each scene as well as the lustrous, purely physical qualities of oil paint, with an emphasis on subtle color harmonies. He works in a tradition that began with the impressionists and has continued down through the modernists like Thiebaud, Dine and Porter. His current work falls into one of three suites: tabletop views with objects strewn and falling over oriental carpets, candy jar paintings and the third, daily life. Most recently, he has begun a new series of skeletaland anatomical objects. 

            ELVIRA LANTENHAMMER, in her Site Plans, reprocesses excerpts of maps and street plans into painted tableau- sometimes in large format. Through an intensive study of topographical map works, historic and contemporary, the artist arrives at the formal basic structure, the essence of the place. She paints the intuitively found base-color of the place- the radiance, the atmosphere, in superimposed layers of color, condensed into large-format color compositions as a subject with variations.  "I am inspired by the wonderful brightness of the colors of the early Italian paintings. With the background of my education as restorer, I use egg tempera on wood to express what I feel about a certain place or about a place of my fantasy."

            ROSEMARY LYONS often takes two years to complete her series of illuminated manuscripts which are inspired by newspaper and magazine articles that tackle a wide range of difficult topics including subway shooters, genetics and AIDS. Long interested in calligraphy and formerly a realistic painter, she began her first Manuscriptus Series when living in New York City in 1992. The idea of transforming her creative outpourings into illuminated manuscripts rather than paintings, was initially born out of a dream. This current series incorporates the abbreviations and acronyms ofemails and text messages, with titles like “OMG”, “KMN”, “GIGO” and “BFD”, one learns the essence ofthe “new language” of texting. Lyons received her Master of Fine Arts at the State University in Buffalo and has exhibited widely.

            VERNITA N'COGNITA created her name to honor under-known artists. A visual and performance artist, she has presented more than 70 performance artworks including guerrilla performances at the Pompidou Museum in Paris, and Documenta 13 in Kassel.  Her visual art of primarily mixed media collages & installations both stand on their own and serve as props & sets for her performances. Her art is in the collections of MOMA, the Savaria Museum in Hungary, the Sylvia Sleigh Collection of Feminist Art @Rowan University, the Asian American Art Center, Franklin Furnace, Fairfax Hospital in Virginia, Groupa Junij, Belgrade and many private collections. An environmental artist and curator, she is currently having a solo show of new collages created from the security envelopes ofjunkmail from financial institutions.  

“I have always been fascinated by the contradictions of reality. I feel intuitive choices and chance connections are an essential part of the creative process and trusting my creative decisions hasbeen an ongoing battle.”

            CAROLINA POGGI was born in Montevideo in 1970, and majored in still photography at the Cinema School of Uruguay. While there, she became fascinated by the photo-essay and was drawn to the whole photographic process from taking to printing the picture. Consequently, she set up her own black & white lab, working on several essays ranging from architecture to nature & film making among others. She is currently photographing trainee dancers at the National School of Dance of Uruguay.

"During my time as an analog photographer I worked on several black & white essays on architectural ruins and destruction. I focused on certain buildings due to their historic and social value. I had the opportunity to visit the former Ministry of Defense of Uruguay in 2001, the deep deterioration and state of disrepair conveyed the fear and despair the population had felt through a terrible decade of military repression. I used bulb and camera in hand to shoot as I wanted the movement to convey the need to run away from that state of subjugation.”

            LAUREN PURJE says: “...Not sure exactly what I'm showing, but for sure I will show this wing (a drawing in the series). The others - maybe not those particular pieces... but very similar ideas... those poor anonymous pigeons... just like people. I may show a small series of drawings and paintings dedicated to the New York pigeon. I can't fully explain why I'm so fascinated with this particular bird. Maybe the fact that they are so ordinary makes me empathetic. They are quintessentially New York, as iconic as skyscrapers are to a big city, but they aren't appreciated as such.  Like people on the street we walk past and pay no mind to everyday. Their presence is often overlooked or seen as a nuisance. I use text as if it's the pigeon's battle cries to stand out, to be appreciated, to be accepted.”

 Gallery hours: Tuesday through Saturday 12-6PM          

For further information please contact Vernita Nemec, Gallery Director at 212 414 4040 or viridianartistinc@gmail.com

Press Release: Viridian Artists' 25th International Juried Competition

Viridian Artists' 25th International Juried   Competition
Katherine Brinson, Curator, Solomon R Guggenheim Museum
July 1 - July 19, 2014
Opening reception Thursday, July 10, 6-8pm

Margery Freeman Appelbaum * Bob Augstell * Roni and Mary Jo Ben-Nun * Sarah Brook * Emma Buck * Robert S. Davis Jr. * Erika Gagnon * Philip Gerstein * Alexander Giavis * Barry Goldberg * Osamu Hirota * Emily Lazerwitz * Mier Luo * Kimberly RoweTore Terrasi * Michael Wolf * Renna Mae Zimmer

Chelsea: Viridian Artists Inc. is pleased to present our 25th International JuriedExhibition. Curated by Katherine Brinson,   Curator, Guggenheim Museum, New York.
The exhibition opens July 1st and continues through July 19th, 2014. In celebration, a special reception will be held on Thursday, July 10th, 6-8pm. We are especially pleased that the curator will be present to give out 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.

The competition selection was especially difficult this time for there were so many outstanding submissions and the nature of art in our world today encompasses a wide variety of methods, materials and insights regarding what art is in contemporary culture.

In her insightful curatorial statement, Brinson wrote "As a museum curator working predominantly with living artists, I’m used to watching careers develop over time through exhibitions, visits, and critical reading. So it was a new and fascinating experience to assess a broad cross-section of works without any identifying information beyond images and captions for the submitted works and the artist’s name. The selection process is purely visual and based on documentary images rather than seeing the work in person – parameters that were initially disconcerting but which quickly led to an energizing and absorbing exercise that relied wholly on eye and instinct. "

As usual, Viridian makes an effort to expand the opportunities of more artists' being seen so the gallery Director's Choices will also be viewable in digital form. 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. Katherine Brinson was selected this year not only for her curatorial reputation but also because she is a part of the museum committee that selects emerging art for the museum collection.

                  Director's Choice to be presented digitally 

 Aandra Aabdock*Angela Lau* Angelique E Anderson * Sarah Brook* Craig Cheply   * Cynthia Fleury * Lisa Goesling * Cecil Gresham * Peter Hiers * Thomas C. Jackson * Jun OgataSrividya Kannan Ramachandran   *Emily Lazerwitz   * Melissa May Metzler* James Mullen   * Leonard Myszynski   * Charlotte Patterson * Leonard Rosenfeld * Kimberly Rowe   * Jimmy Salmon   * Shawn Saumell   * Jim Shirey   * Judy Somerville *Myron Stephens * William Stoehr * R.J. Vojir * Jave Yoshimoto* Stanislav Ossovskiy * Joe Puglisi * Christopher Ruane* Tony Wells   * Michael Wolf* Renna Mae Zimmer

DAVID DORSEY “Polarities: No Ideas But In Things”

DAVID DORSEY
“Polarities: No Ideas But In Things”
JUNE 10 – JUNE 28, 2014
Reception, Thursday, JUNE 12, 6 – 8 pm.

            CHELSEA: In his first solo in his three years as a member at Viridian, David Dorsey’s painting dwells on humble objects or commonplace scenes that bear little conceptual weight, yet in the way they come together for this exhibit, he shows how they can evoke life’s vital oppositions: life and death, dark and light, innocence and experience. Each individual painting, considered alone, represents an exploration of purely perceptual concerns, exploring how all the most traditional elements of painting—light, color, form, and the physical quality of paint—can trigger an immediate apprehension of life as a whole, in ways that words can’t reach.

“I like to focus on things and moments that might be so common, they’re taken for granted, so that you have a fresh impression of what you might see every day,” he says. “Jelly beans. A white clam sauce jar. A cheap stainless steel cream pitcher I bought at Wegman’s. Dahlias I grow for next to nothing by wintering the tubers in my basement and replanting them every spring. The skulls would otherwise be sitting in a box forgotten, somewhere in a college lab. The diaper pins I store in the clam sauce jar. But bullet casings you can buy in bulk from Etsy.”

Completed over the past five years, these eighteen paintings express basic oppositions, sometimes ironically, sometimes literally. The ideas are secondary and usually arise after the work is done. In choosing subjects, Dorsey is concerned with perceptual qualities As William Carlos Williams put it, “No ideas but in things.”

Dorsey lives and works in upstate New York, has shown his work extensively in the U.S., as well as in Europe. He has won various awards, and it is represented in collections throughout the U.S. He writes regularly about art at www.thedorseypost.com. Manifest has published his criticism.

“Eggplant and Bok Choy” and “Still Life with Pocket Door,” are painted so vividly with almost unreal, vibrant colors that they seize viewers’ attention, enticing with beautiful freshness. The living is cast against the long departed with his third painting, “Skull Unearthed Circa 1930,” a stark work of a pale room washed in clean light with a weathered skull propped atop a cardboard box. The quietude of the work is enhanced greatly by the single black audio speaker sitting silently on a shelf and the nearly toothless, gaping maw of the human remains.   —Rebecca Rafferty

In David Dorsey’s “Skull Unearthed Circa 1930″, the shipping box, scribble-marked “actual human skull”, presents the decapitated human remain in the . . . incongruous setting of a breezy open spring window. Study the sockets and cavities of the sculpted toothless mandible as the artist did in an intricately painted, multiple ridged landscape. One . . . is engrossed in the painter’s facility and fascination with his subject.                               –Marline Steel, AEQUI      

Alan Gaynor: "REMEMBRANCES"

ALAN GAYNOR
“REMEMBRANCES”
APRIL 29- MAY 17, 2014
Reception Thursday May 1 6-8PM

Chelsea, NYC: Viridian Artists is pleased to present new work by Alan Gaynor. His exhibition of photographs entitled “Remembrances” continues from April 29 through May 17, 2014 with an opening reception, Thursday May 1, 6-8PM.

 The images in this exhibit are a departure from Gaynor’s usual subject matter of urban architecture and instead are a tribute to his late wife Sharon Silbiger, a Professor of Medicine at Montefiore Medical Center and Albert Einstein School of Medicine. In these works, Gaynor uses the beauty of dying flowers, as a metaphor for her death after a long illness. 

Though he hopes to return to focusing on architectural patterns in his photographic work, changing his imagery during his grieving has provided solace. The images in this exhibit are another poignant example of the power and importance of art in our lives.  In these powerful floral portraits, Gaynor has gone beyond the usual imagery of flowers in art, instead creating a potent metaphor of the beauty and naturalness of the evolution of life and death.

Until this body of work, perhaps because he is also a licensed architect, Gaynor’s focus has been an all-encompassing examination of the architecture of the urban landscape. As architecture is often said to be “frozen music”, Gaynor’s photographs demonstrate that in a city, it is the layering of the buildings played against one another, creating an overall ensemble that one could say resembles music.  There is an equally powerful sense of rhythm in these unique flower images.

The artist has studied with the master photographers George Tice (urban landscapes), John Sexton (black & white imagery of nature and Ansel Adams’ assistant) & Jock Sturges noted for his B&W photographs of Naturists & beautiful people.

This will be the artist’s 2nd solo exhibit at Viridian. He has received many awards for his photography including a Bronze Award in the 2012 International Loupe Awards, Terabella MediaUrban 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. He 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. 

ROBERT SMITH: "Not To Be Missed"

Robert Smith
“Not to be Missed”
 upclose, undisturbed, natural landscapes you didn’t see
April 8th- April 26th, 2014
Reception Thursday, April 10th, 6 – 8 p.m.

Viridian Artists takes pleasure in presenting Robert Smith’s new color photographs in an exhibition titled “Not to be Missed”, which is clarified by the subtitle “upclose, undisturbed, natural landscapes you didn’t see.” The exhibition opens April 8th through April 26th with a Reception on Thursday, April 10th from 6 to 8 p.m.

As in previous exhibitions of his imagery, Smith’s photography continues his love affair with that which lies close by his feet as he walks the natural landscape. It’s a focus rather foreign for most of us as we continue to look more at the vistas. He acknowledges the practice of “Sensory Awareness” that has been called the Western Zen, which brings him, in quiet, more into the present moment. This practice informs his vision, giving him a special way of seeing the nearby landscape that others do not see. He feels that his acute “seeing” of its richness is a gift worth sharing.

In recent years, Smith has come to view the landscape as presenting a window onto a short narrative, a story contained in a composition. Naturally, bringing with him his life experience, his mind’s eye sees the story unfolding within a particular aspect of the natural landscape that he captures with a clarity of composition that belies the need for cropping or rearranging. In the current atmosphere of increasingly more image manipulation, it’s refreshing to have a photographer reveal his subject with simplicity and directness and the un-manipulated reality of what it is.

In the current exhibition, “Hands to the Heavens” combines a symbolic reach of humanity to the cosmos within the microcosm of a square foot of landscape while “Seaweed Circus” offers a jambalaya of imagery in a caldron of shoreline, presenting both as unique narratives of storytelling of a highly personal nature and vision.

Smith’s photographs are in numerous collections across five Continents. He lives and works in New York City and has a summer studio on an island off the coast of Maine. There he offers “Steps to Seeing” walks to share his way of seeing with others. Smith comments that it’s a joy for him to hear the words “you’ve changed my life” from another human being. We invite you to share his unique vision in the hopes that you too will come to see the world upclose in a whole new light. 

For further information please contact the gallery at 212-414-4040 orviridianartistsinc@gmail.com or view our website: viridianartists.com

Renée Borkow: "In The City"

Renée Borkow
In The City
March 18 – April 5, 2014
Opening Reception: Thursday, March 27, 6-8 pm

Chelsea, NY: Viridian Artists is pleased to present the recent work of Renée Borkow. This latest group of drawings and prints titled In The City was motivated by looking at cityscapes or environmental inspirations in many less-known locations throughout the city.

Borkow focuses on the juxtaposition and combination of geometric or architectural buildings, combined with the organic and natural lines and shapes of trees or nature. Color is a major emphasis, and each composition engages the eye of the viewer in a visual push-pull effect, creating a strong sense of movement throughout. The differences between the calm and quiet spaces and the energy-packed noisy ones are apparent, and make seeing the work both meditative and exciting.

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.

NAMIYO KUBO “Sailing Afloat in Namiyo Kubo‘s Ocean of Light”

NAMIYO KUBO
“Sailing Afloat in Namiyo Kubo‘s Ocean of Light”
February 25-March 15, 2014
Opening Reception: Wednesday, February 26, 5-7 pm 

Chelsea, NYC: Viridian Artists is pleased to present the new work of Tokyo artist Namiyo Kubo. Her exhibition of painting on paper entitled  “Sailing Afloat in Namiyo Kubo’s Ocean of Light” continues from February 25th through March 15th, 2014 with an opening reception Wednesday, February, 26th, 5-7 PM.     

This will be Namiyo Kubo’s third solo exhibit at Viridian Artists, the artist has again filled the gallery walls with large collages of blue and gold painted paper that put the viewer in the midst of a watery world. With intense color and the rippled painted paper, the artist creates the textured surface of oceans. This recent work was inspired by travels to India as the artist continues to search for imagery of earth and its seas.

“The Ocean of Light” is about many things. The artist states that she is continuing to create about nature, sometimes about the sea, a drop of rain, rivers, the waves of lakes, oceans and bays, but this work is also about cities and the human- made world. The “light” of stars, meteors, electricity reflecting off the waves & ripples of water reveal the cities of the world. One can discern the silhouettes of skyscrapers & the lights of Tokyo, Shanghai, London, New York City and other cities one recognizes by the shapes conjured by the “Ocean of Light” the artist has filled the gallery with. The artist “sees” twelve lights on the oceans of the Earth and the spirituality inherent in the symbol of light & water, of rebirth, discovery & unity is especially critical in our time of tsunamis, political and religious strife and nuclear disasters.  Despite the calamities of our times, this ambitious artwork reminds us that meteors, falling stars and “oceans of light” are signs of the enormity of and power in the Universe.

Namiyo Kubo is active in Japan creating murals, working with children in Iwate and doing much volunteer work in connection with art and the recent disaster in Northern Japan. Viewers not only will see her art, but will also have a chance to meet her as well at her reception on Feb 26, 5-7 pm. We hope to see you there.

“REAL/ IMAGINED” 9 VIRIDIAN AFFILIATES

“REAL/ IMAGINED”
9 VIRIDIAN AFFILIATES
Feb 4- 22, 2014
Reception Feb 6, 6-8pm

JOSHUA GREENBERG * RENEE KAHN* NANCY MACINA * JEFFREY MELZACK*
SARAH RILEY * KATHERINE ELLINGER SMITH * SHEILA SMITH *
TOTO TAKAMORI *MEREDETH TURSHEN

              Chelsea NY: Viridian Artists is pleased to present “REAL/ IMAGINED” an exhibition of outstanding art by nine artists who are part of the Affiliate program at the gallery. The exhibit will continue from February 4th to February 22nd, 2014. There will be an opening reception Thursday, February 6th, 6-8PM. The Viridian Artists Affiliate program is an important aspect of Viridian’s mission to expand exhibition and sales opportunities for outstanding contemporary artists, both emerging and well-known.

JOSHUA GREENBERG uses photo-based imagery to create abstract art. In Lines and Latitudes, he explores the lines which divide us and the latitude we use to bring about change.  “As a series of visual ideas, this is represented by reflections, shadows, segmentation and abstraction.  As lines turn into abstract forms, this action represents the flexibility and freedom that latitude brings.  The variation in color and texture brings movement to the work and highlights the abstraction.  The changing intensity of light shows the range of lines and latitudes, as does the contrast between foreground and background.  This series is intended to illustrate that from lines may come both latitude and art.”

RENEE KAHN’s “goal is to create the maximum intensity using the least amount of means. The purpose of this simplicity is for the viewer to focus on the colors, body language and design of the painting. Color rendering emotion is a prime ingredient of my work.”

 Nancy Macina is exhibiting oil on canvas images 16” x 20” of four of the boroughs of New York City: Brooklyn, Queens, Bronx and Manhattan.  The artist says ” I painted my feelings inspired by the gestalt type of energy emanated by the various boroughs during recent times, since I perceive they keep changing under our gaze, as time passes.”

JEFFREY MELZACK states: “The work I’m presenting represents geographies of my own random thoughts about place and longings.  The work is intimate. One has to get close to explore the details. The work is personal, yet universal, in that we all share in the human experience of exploring all that is around us and what defines us. This is the core of my visual imagery. What defines your space, your longings? My love of playing violin and the allure of the ballet are woven throughout my visual thinking and infuses my creative impulse.”

Sarah Riley is Prof. Emeritus and former Head of Printmaking at Southeast Missouri State University.  Her book, “Practical Mixed-Media Printmaking Techniques”, published in   2012 by A & C Black, London is available on Amazon. Her artwork, combining drawing, collage, printmaking and paint, frequently contains feminist overtones drawn from myth, literature and personal history; the juxtaposition of images suggesting both memories and re-imaginings. In the works exhibited this year she explores alignments of olychrome abstract watercolor monotypes with monochrome photographic imagery printed from polyester plate lithos. Her work was recently included in Four Great Printmakers, anexhibition at Truro Center for the Arts at Castle Hill in Truro, Massachusetts.

Katherine Ellinger Smith ‘s new series of paintings and drawings is an exploration of her favorite films with female characters like Rebecca or Bette Davis in ‘Whatever Happened to Baby Jane’ who have double-edged personalities. To begin the development of a painting or drawing, she first photographs film “moments” with a digital camera while viewing the movie on television and then edits the shots until she finds an image that she feels directly connected to. Her intent is to draw the viewer directly and powerfully into the content of the piece. She is a tenured art professor at South East Missouri State University.

SHEILA SMITH continues to experiment with digital imagery both abstractly & with photos from life. 

 TOTO TAKAMORI ‘s paintings involve thick layers of paint that he works & reworks more than 60 times. The primary concept in his work he feels is contrast, by which he attempts in some of his paintings to contrast a somewhat realistic element with a heavily textured multi-colored background. In others, his desire is simply to contrast light & dark or to explore opposites in a more general way. Takamori lives in Tokyo.

MEREDETH TURSHEN is an artist/writer, feminist, lover of poetry, and New Yorker who yearns for distant shores. These images, painted on paper with oil sticks, reflect on nature in landscape; the ideas are represented non-figuratively in abstract compositions. “The freedom and immediacy of drawing is related to handwriting, and the rapidity of the process enables me to express a wide range of moods.” The titles are taken from poems by contemporary women poets.

VALERII KLYMCHUK:“Cultural Differences”

VALERII KLYMCHUK

“Cultural Differences”
January 14th – February 1st, 2014
Reception Thursday, January 23, 6-8 PM

Chelsea: Viridian Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of paintings by the artist VALERII KLYMCHUK entitled “Cultural Differences”. The show opens January 14th and continues through February 1st, 2014. In celebration, a reception will be held on Thursday, January 23, 6-8 PM.

Valerii Klymchuk is an artist who is also a System Analyst mathematician from Artemovsk in the Ukraine. Artemovsk is in Donetska Oblast, about an hour north of Donetsk, the heart of eastern Ukraine, a part of the country made up of industrial towns, factories and smokestacks. Like many before him, he came to America seeking to discover his dream and even his purpose for being on this planet.

Valerii was the first in his family to gain the honor of a gold medal at school, graduate from college, and learn English. Though mathematically gifted, he decided to trade his Artemovsk destiny as a mathematician for a New York dream to find freedom and came to the US full of hope and confidence that he would succeed in whatever he attempted. After struggling to find a job and a home here, purely by accident he discovered Art, the dream he had not realized he had, the magic of painting.

The choice of the title for this exhibit is curiously interesting. For Klymchuk, the concept of Cultural Differences arose from of his own idea of personal knowledge and his realization about nature of differences between each of us. The artist says “Concept of Cultural Differences is a pure illusion. Every time we see Cultural Differences, that’s the time to wake up and to see…”

Valerii confessed, “In my search for my cultural identity I saw the absurdity of trying to describe a Spiritual Human in short sentences. That’s how I discovered new exciting way of expressing myself through art. It gives me freedom to choose my own ways to deliver my message; it is my best way to be honest … Freedom of artistic expression will no more be restrained by logic it will convey our meaning or thought.”

In 2011, Valerii got lucky when he entered Viridian’s 22nd Annual Juried Competition and was selected by the curator Elisabeth Sussman of the Whitney Museum who was the Juror that year. Subsequently, he became a Viridian Artist and as they say, the rest is history.

The artist goes on to saying “Only with respect to Cultural uniqueness of every human can we discover true answers to core questions of our life, see much greater truth about other people, cultures, and even about ourselves. Finding our own self-identity and embracing it will make us see the dawn of our civilization. Sunrise will bring joy of seeing how much we are all alike. As we open the doors guarding the truth, light of knowing ourselves will end suffering and our world will turn into garden. And there will be no logic left to justify wars…”

We hope that you will be able to meet this fascinating artist and share his vision of the future of respect to our Cultural Uniqueness seen behind doors of Cultural Differences.

“Once Upon A Time” Viridian Artists & Friends

“Once Upon A Time”
Viridian Artists & Friends
December 17th to January 11th, 2014
Opening reception Thursday December 19th, 6-8PM

Chelsea NY: Viridian Artists is pleased to present “Once Upon A Time” an exhibition of Viridian Artists & Friends, December 17th to January 11th, 2014 at 548 West 28thStreet, also accessible from 547 W 27th Street. There will be an opening reception Thursday December 19th, 6-8PM. In addition, Viridian is bringing back Ye Olde Art Shoppe of art cards, prints, books, and other artist-made gifts available for under $99, so that everyone has a chance to do some last minute holiday gift shopping.

Each year, in a spirit of holiday giving and sharing, Viridian Artists takes time to share the spirit of the holidays by inviting guest artists to show their creations along with us. Dress festively & come join us on Thursday, December 19th to celebrate and remember how things were “Once Upon A Time”.

Once upon a Time
there was a pay phone on every corner & you could make a call for a quarter
children were spanked when they disobeyed the teacher
business lunches were 2 martinis
we didn’t kiss ’til the third date
we could go to Europe on $5 a Day
we wore backpacks only when we went camping
we could have a delicious lunch for $5
the frame was not more important than the picture
women didn’t dream of becoming President
only men wore the pants in the family
we used to write each other letters in script & mail them at the post office…
we could have a cigarette with our drink
we did our grocery shopping on Saturday, etc, etc…

Janet Bohman, Renee Borkow, Henry Coupe, May DeViney, David Dorsey, Arthur Dworin, Bernice Faegenburg, Tazuko Fujii, Alan Gaynor, Wally Gilbert, Joshua Greenberg, Elizabeth Featherstone Hoff, Renee Kahn, Kathleen King, Valerii Klymchuk, Namiyo Kubo, Elvira Lantenhammer, Nancy Macina, Jeffrey Melzack, Matthias Merdan, Michael Miller, Stacey Clarfield Newman, Oi Sawa, Barbara K Schwartz, Susan Sills, Virginia Evans Smit, Angela Smith, Robert Smith, Sheila Smith, Deborah Sudran, Bob Tomlinson, Meredeth Turshen,

With Guest Artists: Adrienne Ankuda, Barrett Benton, Richard Brachman, Benjamin Briggs, Robert Cenendella, Ursula Clark, Lee Cordray, Gloria Cunnick, Abby DuBow, Phyllis Featherstone, Flashlight & Bill Rabinovitch, Celia Gilbert, Elizabeth Ginsberg, Brenda Hernandez, Jacqui Joseph, Mary Frances Judge, Jae Young Kim, Minjung Kim, Angela LaMonte, John Lloyd, Marcia Lloyd, Dee Dee Maguire, Bob Marvin, Robert Mielenhausen, Barbara Minsky, Darryl Moody, Eileen Mullan, Vernita N’Cognita, Sunanda Parikh, Shirley Pasternak, Lauren Purje, William Rodwell, Joseph J Roy, Leonard Rosenfeld, Stephen Salek, Jane Talcott, Daniel Victor, Vicky Wojcik

ARTHUR DWORIN “IRON-Y: From Swords to Plowshares”

ARTHUR DWORIN
“IRON-Y: From Swords to Plowshares”
November 26 – December 14, 2013
Reception, Thursday, December 5, 6-8pm
Wine & Words Saturday, December 14, 4-6PM

Chelsea NY: Viridian Artists is pleased to present a solo exhibition of paintings by the artist ARTHUR DWORIN. The exhibit will continue from November 26 – December 14, 2013 with a reception, Thursday, December 5, 6-8pm.

Arthur Dworin’s most recent work is inspired by iron, the core of our planet Earth. Skills he acquired as a scenic artist creating props for movies with faux rusted surfaces, and his discovery of a process by which he could create a real rusted surface on paintings instigated the creation of the works in this exhibition. The imagery of this latest body of work is also influenced by the structure of DNA.

In addition to using rust as pigmentation, the artist’s new work brings the image off the surface plane through the use of textures and sculptural techniques he learned as a child and that carve into the painting surface. Many of these patterns he has created are suggestive of aerial views of crop rows or archeological forms built by ancient civilizations. Too, patterns frozen and yet moving against each other, form juxtapositions reminiscent of movements in music resulted in “Ode to MJQ”, a work inspired by the Modern Jazz Quartet.

Another ongoing theme that has become an important aspect of this body of work is the symbol of the DNA ribbon, reminding him of our “source” that connects us to the evolutionary process and to the beings of millions of years ago.  The artist feels that “the creature that is our body finds it’s constitutional spec sheet in our DNA, something I find a key element to awakening understanding of who we are and even perhaps a glimpses into our purpose in being.”

A Detroit native, Dworin lived and worked in Manhattan from 1967 until recently purchasing a church in Pennsylvania that he has that he has used to create these works. Previous to creating art full time, he was a Scenic Artist for TV, movies, ballet, opera and theater. The recipient of several grants, he has regularly exhibited in Europe and the US. This is his fourth solo show at Viridian.

Dworin’s numerous private collectors include MoMA’s former Chief Curator of Painting and Sculpture, Peter Selz. Dr. Selz, author of 15 books on 20th century art, wrote in 2010: “Arthur Dworin’s paintings … abstract as they are, … bring a new sense of visual order to organic forms of nature.”

“Refined, complex and visually deep”—Dr. Anna Aragno, psychoanalyst and former principal ballerina in the Bolshoi and Metropolitan Opera Ballets.

“Dworin today has reached a dazzling display of lyrical passion, motion and light.”—Jerelle Kraus, former NYTimes Art Director; Author, “All the Art That’s Fit to Print (& Some That Wasn’t): Inside The New York Times Op-Ed Page,” 2010.

Deborah Sudran: "Paintings"

DEBORAH SUDRAN
“PAINTINGS”
November 5- November 23, 2013
Reception: Thursday, November 7, 6-8pm

 Chelsea:  Viridian Artists, Inc. is pleased to present an exhibition at our gallery by the artist DEBORAH SUDRAN entitled “PAINTINGS”. The show will extend from November 5th to November 23rd, 2013, with a reception to meet the artist on Thursday, November 7th, 6-8pm.

Deborah Sudran finds infinite inspiration in nature and has been experiencing that inspiration for decades. She’s not an ordinary nature painter, but paints out of a love for the colors, forms and space that nature presents, particularly up close. There is no horizon line seen in these works for the viewer’s vision is immersed in the elements and forms of plants.

Carrying her camera, she aims close up, and though the paintings that result are realistic, the artist is primarily interested in the abstract patterns created by the plants, the light and the atmosphere surrounding them. Her approach to composition creates almost a carpet of color and texture.

In this exhibit of new work, Sudran continues her passionate involvement with nature as the primary subject matter of her oil paintings.  The nature she is inspired by can be found close to home in the New York Botanical Gardens or on her frequent travels throughout the world. She finds garden, jungle and desert flora equally inspiring. The artist confesses she rarely does paintings of tulips or roses because she doesn’t find the compositions they create so interesting, preferring more dramatic compositions of color and form.

Sudran studied at the Kansas City Art Institute and the University of Michigan. The artist has shown in numerous group and solo shows including the Aldrich Museum, the Museum of the Hudson Highlands and Cornwall on Hudson. Her paintings were recently featured at TAI Exhibits where the TAI Group cultivates an intersection between art and business through its exhibitions.  She is in numerous prestigious corporate collections, including AT&T, IBM and Pfizer.

We look forward to your joining us at this exciting new exhibit at Viridian Artists.

ROBERT MIELENHAUSEN “BIKE WORKS”

ROBERT MIELENHAUSEN
“BIKE WORKS”

October 15- November 2, 2013
Reception, Saturday, Oct. 19th, 4:00 – 7:00 pm.
Wine and words: Sat. Nov. 2nd, 4:00 – 6:00pm.

 Chelsea NY: Viridian Artists is pleased to present “BIKE WORKS”, a solo exhibition of mixed media works by the artist ROBERT MIELENHAUSEN. The exhibit will continue from October 15th to November 2, 2013 with an opening reception on Saturday October 19th, 4:00 – 7:00 pm and a Wine and Words event with the artist on Saturday, November 2nd, 4:00 – 6:00pm.

In this body of work, Robert Mielenhausen explores the bicycle as a sculptural form in the streets of Manhattan, finding the combination of lines, angles, and the symmetry of the circles of the wheels, visually compelling. He begins the works by photographing bicycles that are marked with age and miles rather than those that are new, comparing their bodies to the bodies of people- meant to function well in a certain way, but never everlasting. For the artist, the bike represents freedom, and learning to ride a bike gives a child their first expression of freedom.

As an artist, Mielenhausen’s focus has been to combine the immediacy of photography with painting and mixed-media to emphasize the texture, color, form, and light in the images he has created. He sees this series to be as much about the street as it is about bicycles, using the street as an environment with the bicycle as the subject.  The artist utilizes a variety of materials in the building of the work, some traditional, some not. He incorporates objects saved and found on the street and combines them with photographs mounted on board, then coated with wall board compound, sand, acrylic pigment, and spray paint.

Mielenhausen’s images expand beyond the picture plane with both elements of abstraction as well as literal renderings of pictorial images depicted in the work. In these works, the bike is a witness to life for no one is riding them as they sit surrounded by life. They wait for their rider to return, or for life to just happen as in “LingeringThoughts” with its heightened shadows and air of mystery or “Passing” with the people watching or “School’s Out” or “Guess” with the poster reminscent of Marilyn in the background.

Robert Mielenhausen has been showing art since the late 70’s at OK Harris Works of Art, the 2012 Architectural Digest Home and Design Show, Water Mill Museum, Guild Hall, Islip Art Museum, and Onward Gallery in Tokyo, Japan. His work is included in the collections of private, corporate, and educational institutions.

KIYOSHI KAWAGUCHI “The Window: People in the City”

KIYOSHI KAWAGUCHI
“The Window: People in the City”
September 3 – September 21, 2013
Reception Saturday, September 7, 4-6pm

Chelsea: Viridian Artists, Inc. is pleased to present KIYOSHI KAWAGUCHI’s exhibition of acrylic paintings, “The window: People in the City” September 3 – September 21,  with a reception Saturday, September 7th, 4-6pm.

Tokyo artist Kiyoshi Kawaguchi’s artistic aims involve giving confidence & encouragement to people “who” in the words of the artist “were tossed by the hard wave of the age”. Kiyoshi Kawaguchi’s paintings of urban life synthesize with irony and humor the exuberance and rhythms of city life in paintings that are a perfect blend of his native Japan’s love of Jazz improvisation and the classical sophistication of early modernist painters of the 30’s.

He returns to Viridian, showing here in 1978 and more recently in 2010, with paintings that are stronger and more enigmatically telling of the craziness of today’s world.

In this show, his focus is on the profiles of people in the city as seen through the windows of urban life. Like Stuart Davis in the 30’s, his art contains strong vibes of social activism. He feels the weigh of living with today’s pressures to be hard on the people of the world but is conscious of the strength of individuals. Because of his belief in the suffering of the poor and the powers of the super-rich, Kawaguchi uses his paintings to convey a sense of the common man’s energy and resilience.

Walter Wickiser of Walter Wickiser Gallery, Inc. says ” Kiyoshi Kawaguchi …synthesizes classical American 30′s and 40′s traditionalism with Japanese modern day technology and craziness of city life… While other artists ignore the world situation and brand their works with Louie Vuitton, Kawaguchi foresees the future and tells it through his cryptic paintings.”

Deidre S. Greben, former Managing Editor of ARTnews, speaking of Kawaguchi’s paintings, states “Like Piet Mondrian and Stuart Davis, Kawaguchi captures the exuberance and complex rhythms of city life with simple geometry and vibrant color. Kawaguchi paints bright pictures of a hyperlinked humankind full of possibilities– including being tangled by it’s own connections.”

Following his exhibition at Viridian, he will be showing his Jazz paintings at Gallery Okabe in Tokyo in December.  We look forward to your joining us at this exciting new exhibit at Viridian Artists.

DARRYL MOODY A MOMENT ON THE WALLS

DARRYL MOODY
A MOMENT ON THE WALLS
September 24th – October 12th, 2013
Reception Saturday, September 28th, 4-6pm

Chelsea:  Viridian Gallery is pleased to present DARRYL MOODY’s exhibition of photographs entitled “A MOMENT ON THE WALLS” from September 24th to October 12th, 2013. There will be a reception for the artist Saturday, September 28th, 4-6pm. Gallery hours are Tuesday- Saturdays 12-6pm.

The images in Darryl Moody’s first solo exhibition at Viridian are a culmination of an extensive photographic investigation of remnant images.  These images are left behind, by the ebb and flow of humanity, in the streets of major cities throughout the world.  The pictorial focus upon this aspect of the urban tumult captures a moment of the transformational act of messaging over time.

Messages deeply layered and telling abound in the images Moody carefully crops in the view finder of his camera. Fragments of an array of expressive forms (i.e., slings of paint, postings, stickers, stencils, calligraphic tags) become revelatory in the inter-mix.  His process encapsulates an esthetic record and manages to return the “moment” for greater deconstructive reconsideration apart from its disappearance into the exposed.  The observer is then able to see the beauty, poetry and politics, once screamed, whispered in a more meaningful context.

Moody states, “Within certain frames I unmask the sequential. The photograph provides a continuous field relationship inviting the viewer to re-associate images with events into a new cognitive whole. When editing in Photoshop, certain digital images—congeal.” The result, as quoted from the art critic Peter Schjeldahl is “…visual paintings…photographically akin to the work of Aaron Siskind.”

Darryl Moody has taught digital, and black and white photography in a wide variety of college settings, and is a Master Digital Printer.  He holds a BA in Graphic Arts from the University of Illinois in Chicago, combined with an MFA in sculpture from The School of the Art Institute in Chicago.  He has written “Photography as a Psychological Narrative” while working at Indiana University.

“HOT” A Group Exhibition of Steamy Art

“HOT”
A Group Exhibition of Steamy Art
July 23 – August 10, 2013
Reception Thursday July 25, 6-8pm

Chelsea: Viridian Artists, Inc. is pleased to present “Hot”: A Group Exhibition of Steamy Art, July 23 – August 10, 2013 with a reception Thursday, July 25, 6-8pm. 

 HOT, a tiny little three-letter word with a host of meanings if your vocabulary entertains slang. From stolen to steamily erotic and all that falls in between, as well as just plain too hot to handle.

Going to the web, the definition began with the usual and then proceeded to list over 30 different meanings for the word when used as an adjective that seemed to provide the right amount of variety for the diversity of the art in this exhibition.

For hot weather respite, Elizabeth Featherstone Hoff’s Mountain Landscape, David Dorsey’s swimming pool and Barbara K Schwartz’ palm trees. For the reality oriented, Bob Smith’s fruit, Susan Sills cutout of a Japanese Lady with a hot cup of tea, N’Cognita’s drawing of a burning iron as the “Housewife’s Revenge”, Matthias Merdan’s and Angela Smith’s nakedness. For lovers of color, Wally Gilbert’s and Arthur Dworin’s hot abstractions. For the fantasy-bent Kat King’s organic flame-breathing dragon and Michael Miller’s “Gridhead” and for nature lovers, Viriginia Smit’s red daisies, Alan Gaynor’s and Bob Tomlinson’s hot flowers.  And a host of other steamy surprises!

We look forward to seeing you then and sharing our various hot pursuits with you!

  JANET L. BOHMAN, RENÉE BORKOW, MAY DeVINEY, ARTHUR DWORIN, DAVID DORSEY, BERNICE FAEGENBURG, TAZUKO FUJII, ALAN GAYNOR, WALLY GILBERT, ELIZABETH FEATHERSTONE HOFF, KATHLEEN KING, KIYOSHI KAWAGUCHI, YOUNG SAM KIM,
VALERII KLYMCHUK, MATTHIAS MERDAN, MICHAEL MILLER, DARRYL MOODY,VERNITA N’COGNITA,
STACEY CLARFIELD NEWMAN, LAUREN PURJE, BRUCE ROSEN, OI SAWA, BARBARA K. SCHWARTZ,
SUSAN SILLS, VIRGINIA EVANS SMIT, ANGELA SMITH, ROBERT SMITH, DEBORAH SUDRAN

Viridian Artists’ 24th International Juried Exhibition

Viridian Artists’ 24th International Juried Exhibition
Juried by Elisabeth Sussman, Curator, Whitney Museum, New York
July 2 – July 20, 2013

Opening reception Thursday, July 18th, 6:00 – 8:00 pm.

            Chelsea: Viridian Artists Inc. is pleased to present their 24th International Juried Exhibition. Curated by Elisabeth Sussman, Curator, Whitney Museum, New York, the exhibition opens  July 2nd and continues through July 20th, 2013. In celebration, a special reception will be held on Thursday, July 18th 6:00 – 8:00 pm. At that time, meet the curator and many of the artists.

Viridian’s International Juried Exhibitions are a series of exhibitions that serve to encompass a diverse selection of outstanding art from around the world that might not otherwise be seen in New York City. This marks the 24th year that the gallery has offered artists the opportunity to have a major museum curator see a selection of their work.

As the recipient of the sixteenth CCS Bard Award for Curatorial Excellence, Elisabeth Sussman was recently recognized for her dynamic curatorial vision and her dedication to the field. She is Curator and Sondra Gilman Curator of Photography at the Whitney Museum of American Art. Most recently, along with co-curator Jay Sanders, she curated the 2012 Whitney Biennial.

During her time curating this exhibition at Viridian, she spent many long hours viewing over 1000 images sent from around the world.  In her curatorial statement, Sussman states: “New York City, considers itself, rightly or wrongly, the center of the art world. In the week when the jurying of this exhibition took place, another art fair, Frieze, was in town, the contemporary auctions at Sotheby’s and Christie’s were bringing in tons of money and mega galleries in Chelsea were featuring gigantic shows of globally branded artists. Jurying an exhibition like Viridian’s at that time was an essential activity, a relief from the horrifying realization that, at least in New York, little separates the art world from global financial markets and the entertainment industry.”

In addition to the exhibition juried by Sussman, Viridian’s director, Vernita Nemec, also views the hundreds of images submitted and curates a selection that she feels have merit for a power point presentation viewable for the duration of the exhibition. This “Director’s Choice” selection is another opportunity that Viridian presents as part of its mission is to give exposure to outstanding under-known artists.