Lucid Visions

Oct 16-Nov 24, 2014

Opening Reception Oct 16, 6-9pm

Often when one is asleep, there is something in consciousness which declares that what then presents itself is but a dream.  – Aristotle, “On Dreams”
 
The territory between wakefulness and the dream-state is one widely traversed by artists.  Curators Diana Corvelle, Cara DeAngelis and Tun Myaing have collected the works of twenty-three New York Academy of Art alumni whose works challenge, unhinge and altogether shift perception of what should be called a “real” experience.
 
Lucid dreaming, a phenomenon in which an individual is aware of their own dream state enough to attempt control within it, is a cannily apt comparison to the creation of art.  Possessing the ability to give form to fleeting memories and semi-lucid moments, these artists call into question the very perception of reality at will and offer up alternatives of their own.
 
Bringing together local and international artists based in Brooklyn, Jersey City, and Manhattan these selected works speak to the endless possible deviations from reality as envisioned by an unfettered mind. The playfulness and confidence of these works show how completely at home the artists are in their alternate reality.  
     
Featured artists include: CHARIS C. BRAUN, ILSA BRITTAIN, MICHELLE DOLL, SAMUEL EVENSEN, MEGAN EWERT, SHAUNA FINN, STEVE FORSTER, ANGELA GRAM, BRETT HARVEY, CAITLIN HURD, YUNSUNG JANG, EVAN KITSON, WILL KURTZ, JAMES LINKOUS, GUNO PARK, DAVID PETTIBONE, MARTIN SAAR, NICOLAS SANCHEZ, AMANDA SCUGLIA, JESSE STERN, GREGORY TOMEZSCO, TYLER VOROUS, MELAINE VOTE, SHANKAI KEVIN YU.
 
Gallery hours Oct 16, 6-9pm, Oct 18 & 19, 12pm-6pm & by appointment.

PANEPINTO GALLERIES
371 Warren Street, 4th Floor
Jersey City, NJ 07302

Tell Them Stories

Oct 10-Nov 10, 2014

Opening Reception Oct 10, 6-10pm

Panel Discussion 4 - 6pm

“Tell them stories.  They need the truth, you must tell them true stories, and everything will be well, just tell them stories.”
- Philip Pullman, The Amber Spyglass

Stories are powerful.  Through stories we connect with places, with objects, and with one another.  Stories foster love and breed hate; they give us new experiences, and allow us to relive old ones; they exist in every act we are proud of, and in every act we regret.  Stories have made us what we are.

  It was through stories that art began.  The primal narratives we painted on the walls of caves evolved into hieroglyphs and pictographs; the prism of time and culture shattered storytelling into African art, Indian art, the art of the Americas, the art of the Renaissance, and countless others – all part of what we today call Art.  But our love for stories never left.

  In the hands of a skilled artist, a story is more than a record – it is the very spirit of a place, of a time, and of the storyteller herself.  In recent history, such storytellers worked under many different labels – illustrators, comic book artists, fine artists.  They matured on their own, achieved their own heights, and, ultimately, grew apart.  But, as families do, they are now rediscovering each other.  This rediscovery is what drives our exhibition: it is our hope to play a role in reassembling the various storytelling disciplines, to reunite their strengths, and to remind the viewer of the oldest and most fundamental of pleasures art can offer.   We invite you, the narrative artist, to be part of our show.

  Curated by Tun Myaing and Marshall Jones, “Tell Them Stories” will gather the work of narrative painters and draftsmen from various genres and professions.  The work ranges between the probing silence of John Jacobsmeyer, the alarming starkness of Tony Dimauro, the deadpan playfulness of Peter Drake, the subtle glamour of Dorian Vallejo, the unabashed and passionate narrative of Gus Storms, and many others.  On Oct 10th we will come together at Art Foundry to celebrate storytelling, and to take part in reaffirming the power of narrative in Art.

  The show will begin at 6pm, and will exhibit the works of ten artists. Of those ten, three will be comic book artists, three will be fine artists, and four will be illustrators.  Prior to the show there will be a two-hour moderated panel discussion addressing the differences and similarities between fine art, illustration and comic book art.

Art Foundry is an emerging art gallery located on 23rd street on the east side of Manhattan.  It is a project space for artists striving towards unity among visual thinkers, the empowerment of conversation, and the dominance of creativity over the market.  Tun Myaing, the co-founder of the space, is an academically trained painter and curator dedicated to the many contemporary artists who share that goal.

Art Foundry 
310 East 23rd Street, No. 12F
New York, NY 10010                      
theartfoundry.us

Behind The Curtain

Oct 8-Nov 9, 2014

Opening Reception Oct 8, 6-9pm

What do Leonardo da Vinci, Anthony Van Dyck and David Salle have in common? All of these great artists started their career as assistants to other painters, and ultimately, went on to have assistants of their own.

Indeed, many of today’s most talented emerging artists are also getting their start as assistants to art world superstars. Their duties range from logistical tasks to executing large segments of the artist’s vision on the canvas. Some artists may employ just one or two assistants, while others employ dozens to implement their concepts. But how does carrying out the masters’ visions influence the assistants’ personal creative endeavors?  

This exhibition brings together the work of the assistants to various cultural icons, allowing viewers to experience the dialogue between their creative forces first-hand.  This show is an opportunity to witness a unique moment of synergy, where the paths of these two generations of artists cross and intertwine. 

Mark Miller Gallery

92 Orchard Street, New York, NY 10002

Hours: Wednesday - Sunday 12 - 6pm and by appointment

Beyond The Threshold

Sept 7th – October 5th

Opening reception Sept 7 Sunday, 2014 6-9pm

Lower East Side Opening Night

Art+Fashion: Sunday, September 7

Amber Lia-Kloppel, Dina Brodsky, Luis Borrero, Tun Myaing

Beyond the threshold

 The interior: a subject that first surfaced in 17th century Holland, which abandoned the exactitude of religious painting in favor of something more elusive: the inhabitable space.  More than merely domestic landscape, the subject captures the unseen motion of sentient beings; more than a backdrop for a play, it is the narrative of the stage itself, a play where the stage is the protagonist.

 Beyond the Threshold is a window into such interiors: vacant desolate rooms, cavernous industrial basements, private washrooms, and intimate living quarters.

 Dina Brodsky’s beautifully painted interiors whisper of mysteries and secrets.  One imagines the life that made these forgotten spaces as they are, that their thick air holds ghosts and echoes of something important.  An immigrant from Soviet Belarus, Dina is no stranger to departure from and loss of home; her paintings reflect the glimpse of life in the decaying and abandoned crevices of her private universe.  

 Tun Myaing’s unapologetically miniature format invites the viewer to closely examine the otherwise impersonal and forbidding interiors of his paintings.  In the painting The Boiler Room, Tun’s fine technique and meticulous attention to detail compels the viewer to enter the interior, while simultaneously pushing her away with the heavy impact of old metal.  There is no innocence or sentimentality in Tun’s compositions; his interiors intrigue the viewer as they hold fast on to the unanswered questions within their depths.

 Luis Borrero’s paintings retain their absolute stillness even as they allow for the presence of the human figure.  An inadvertent voyeur, the viewer finds herself imposing on a private moment between a human being and the surrounding silence.  In Man In Tub and Encounter there is a tangible boundary that separates the viewer from an otherwise intimate moment, a dimly lit atmosphere that converges around the naked figure, and a sense of both solitude and a probing, halting sexuality.

 Amber Lia-Kloppel’s work also explores the relationship of space and voyeurism.  Depicting mainly women, as the classic target of the voyeuristic gaze, she uses physical structure to emphasize the viewer’s and subject’s solitude – even as the subject turns her head to gaze back at the viewer.  In the painting Peephole, Amber emphasizes the physical separation of the viewer and the figure; the door reasserts the privacy of the figure, separating her from the viewer, and linking both to their respective spaces.

The four artists in this exhibition make work that both invites and forbids the viewer into entering their world, leaving them at the threshold: allowed a glimpse of the narrative within but as a voyeur, not a participant. In a feat of visual alchemy they extract volume out of silence, and take us along to participate in the stillness of the spaces they visited, observed, and quietly recorded.

Voyeur

A group show curated by Dina Brodsky

James Adelman, Luis Borrero, Dina Brodsky, Diana Corvelle, Bonnie DeWitt, Michelle Doll, Joshua Henderson, Judith Klausner, Maria Kreyn, Amber Lia-Kloppel, Cory Morgenstein, Tun Myaing & Mitra Walter

There is an undeniable thrill that comes from observing peoples private lives or witnessing something intended to stay concealed. The word “voyeur” evokes trespassing into others’ hidden worlds and seeing their secrets. How many of us have lingered too long by a half-open bedroom door or furtively listened in on a confidential conversation? Sometimes, these glimpses into others’ lives are exhilarating, but other times, they leave us feeling uneasy, wishing we could “unsee” what we saw.

In a way, all artists are voyeurs. They have a unique ability to observe the world around them and create windows into strangers’ experiences that might otherwise go unnoticed. These insights also provide a singular perspective into the artists’ own private experiences.

Voyeur curator Dina Brodsky has assembled a series of artworks that fill viewers with a sense of wonder and transgression, oscillating between the tender and the unnerving. Ms. Brodsky’s paintings deliver a peek into abandoned rooms, leaving viewers wondering about the former occupants’ lives based on what is left behind.

The artists’ works range in timbre from unscripted moments of gentle privacy to images that feel like intrusions. Bonnie DeWitt’s drawings appear innocent and sweet at first glance, but portray an underlying sense of mystery and voyeurism. Cory Morgenstein’s work displays a face on a mirror, frozen in an expression that is clearly and uncomfortably private; the discomfort is amplified because the viewer’s ability to see their reflection in the image’s mirror background, as an interloper into the scene.

Other artists take objects and settings that are typically hidden and showcase them boldly. Judith Klausner transforms prescription bottles, which are often concealed and imbued with shame, into glittering showpieces for public exhibition. Mitra Walter’s works demonstrate different levels of comfort by partially clothed women in the spotlight.

Diana Corvelle’s lover’s eye lockets harken back to the Victorian era, when sweethearts would exchange keepsakes that purposely obscured the deep sentiment they contained by depicting only part of a beloved’s likeness. Michelle Doll’s paintings openly exhibit highly intimate interactions between lovers. Maria Kreyn’s glowing artworks literally illuminate a moment of introspection from within.

Some painters capture the fluidity of how privacy is perceived. Amber Lia-Kloppel’s works reveal subjects that have the comfortable, relaxed appearance of someone who is alone, even though they are being watched. The figures in Joshua Henderson’s paintings show the intersection between uncertainty and intimacy, and a sense of happy quietude in the midst of darkness. Luis Borrero portrays a spontaneous, unscripted movement of the body in a relaxed, confidential setting not intended for others’ eyes.

Others capture the voyeurism of trespassing into hidden spaces. Tun Myaing provides a glimpse into the rarely seen underbelly of large, inhabited structures; a venture into labyrinths of out-of-use equipment that grows increasingly dilapidated with time. And James Adelman offers a peek into accidental, partially illuminated scenes resulting from accidental lighting, including a fraction of a dark bedroom illuminated by a fallen flashlight.

For artists, it is a privilege to observe a single moment closely and intently, turning it into a tableau that transcends the quotidian. Voyeur allows the viewer an opportunity to experience those moments and provides a rare chance to observe unabashedly.