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UPCOMING
EXHIBITS

Rhapsody: The Urban Fantasy Paintings of Rob Mango

Main Gallery

August 8  – October 3, 2020

Hosts: Macadoodles Fine Wines, and The Wild Flower

OPENING RECEPTION

Friday, August 7, 5:30-7:30pm

Suggested Contribution for Non-Member Guests: $5

Rob Mango, as much an athlete as an artist, has explored New York City on foot since 1977 – its architecture and its denizens, its streets and its harbors providing the former track star with the inspiration for much of his highly individualistic work.

“If the artist is the representative idealist for our time, believing in ideas and manifesting expressions that are purer and more primal than the product of any other industry or milieu, then Rob Mango is one of the best versions of such a fgure. His work is emboldened by the idealism associated with formalism, its relevant social conscience, and a measure of idiosyncrasy, all without equal.” –David Gibson Art Quips

Featured in this retrospective are a series of epic, large-scale paintings set in a fantastic New York, replete with the city’s iconic architectural landmarks,
but populated by gods, warriors, shamans, and other fgures drawn from many epochs and cultures.

 

             
 
 

Element 6 – Carbon, Drawing Life

Regional Gallery

August 8 – October 10, 2020

MEMBERS’ OPENING RECEPTION

Friday, August 7, 5:30 – 7:30 pm

Suggested Contribution for Non-Member Guests: $5

Element 6 features the work of three graphite and charcoal artists Chris Blackmon, Chelsie Murfee, and Kim Taggart. In their work, they pay homage to traditional studio skills but build upon them with their own innovative techniques. The exhibit explores fundamental drawing, with a slow and painstaking understanding of form, values, and light. The sixth element, Carbon, is the element that binds us together, and carefully constructs life on the page through the delicate layering and blending of values.

Blackmon is a hyperrealism, charcoal pencil artist. He enjoys his art form (realism) because in the process of recreating an image on paper, he also experiences the thoughts and feelings experienced in the moment, while inspiring new ones as well in the viewer. Murfee’s work explores the human connection, the story of life and love, through realism. The process begins by capturing time, isolating the story hidden inside a second. The work deconstructs the moment, quietly understand it, and then gently maps the light cascading around each form.

Taggart has an enthusiasm for graphite medium above all. Her discoveries of new graphite tools led her to take pencil to a whole new level, defned as “Extreme Graphite.” She developed a technique of smooth, precisionist saturation of tones influenced by modern American artists from the late 1920s and 1930s.

         

 

 

Angel Brame: Repurpose, Reengineer & Relocate

Upstairs Gallery

July 1 – August 1, 2020

Opening reception: Friday, July 10,  5:30pm

“The premise is to take regular objects, typically vintage, that have been tossed aside and have critters “MacGyver” them as a means of escaping their current habitats.  As much as possible of each piece is made from clay.  I am predominately a wheel thrower and tend to start my planning processes in the round.  I will add whatever is necessary to make the found object move, ie. wheels, wings, turbos, propellers, etc.  Other items will be added when clay won’t do the job.  The globe for the gumball machine is plastic.  The keys for the typewriter are attached with brazing rods and epoxy.  Most pieces will be cold finished.  I need more control than glaze can offer for this project, though I will use glaze whenever possible.
 
I have started with a goal of 26 pieces, each being named or titled by every letter of the alphabet.  This is a way to show progression from the first piece to the last.  Most pieces will be displayed on pedestals so that the viewer can walk all the way around.  A few pieces will hang, as I have a few flightless birds that would like new surroundings as well.
 
This project is a direct result of my 2017 challenge of creating one piece per day, every day, all year.   Some of the pieces from the 2017 challenge had legs, wheels, wings, etc.  While that initial challenge revolved around functional pieces, the logical next step was to push those pieces in new directions on a bigger scale with less boundaries.  The result is a series of sculptures that were inspired by teapots with wheels and oil cans with tentacles.”
 
-Angel Brame

 

 

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