The Gallery in the South Brunswick Municipal Building,
540 Route 522, Monmouth Junction, is open 8:30-4:30pm weekdays and evenings when meetings are scheduled.
Teachers As Artists IV exhibit ends October 3
LEGENDARY LOCATIONS Exhibit
OCTOBER 11, 2013 to JANUARY 7, 2014
OPENING RECEPTION, FRIDAY, OCTOBER 11, 6:30–8pm
Exhibiting Artists
Stephanie Barbetti – Heather Barros – Don Bloom – Indrani Choudhury
Joseph Gilchrist – Rhonda Goodwin – Catherine Gowen – Carole Grand
Wendy Heisler – Barbara Hochberg – Vadim Levin – Catherine Martzloff
Chiara Medici – Andrea Orlando – Tari Pantaleo – Olga Prokopenko
Christa Schneider – Nancy Scott – Laura Stenburg – Gerald Spielman
Ellen Veden
Icy Fretwork (Mapleton Preserve), photo, ©2013 Tari Panteleo
Juror Richard Swain of the Art History Department of Rider University writes about Legendary Locations:
“Legendary Locations” takes us on a very varied voyage to lands real and imagined, far and near, familiar and un—in which the artists show us their private dreams of these places. Exotic lands conjure legends for both painters and photographers. Wendy Heisler takes us to China and Yosemite grandeur in glowing pastels. New Orleans and New York are imagined anew in striking abstracting collages by Nancy Scott. Indrani Choudhury surprises with a loudly-colored music room in India, and Barbara Hochberg charms with a cozy street in San Gimignano. Laura Stenburg’s lovely Carnegie Lake is Monet in Mercer County. Where have YOU been and what have you dreamed?
The Music Room, Jodhpur Fort,India, watercolor ©2013 Indrani Choudhury
And then there are Joseph Gilchrist’s spacious landscape dramas—large digital prints of the natural layers of Monument Valley and the man-made layers of Rome. Gerald Spielman’s handsome photo compositions show us the dramatic monumental-Chief Crazy Horse—and the dramatic noisy-Hightstown Dam. Calm are the dreamy morning mists of Rhonda Goodwin’s workout and jangly perfect is the mixed media collage of Carole Grand’s Coney Island Remembered. Would YOU see and feel them differently?
Many artists did not have to go far for inspiring locations. The nearby Mapleton Preserve in Kingston is clearly a treasured landscape for many. Ellen Veden’s Mapleton Road is a stunning mixed-media macro dramatic sunset of the Preserve, while Andrea Orlando’s lovely sun-dappled watercolor bridge leads us to the more intimate aspects of the Preserve. Catherine Matzloff’s Welcome to the Preserve discovers the sweet surprises in exploring the landscape. Liquid sunlight washes over the simple country charms of Heather Barros’ plein air oils. The people seem to have just stepped out.
Winter comes to the Preserve in Tari Pantaleo’s stark, almost abstract Twisted Sister and Icy Fretwork— quite a shudder after all that golden sunshine. But spring blossoms in simplicity itself at the Preserve in Catherine Gowan’s Eastern Redbud.
While most of the artists explored the legends of places they had seen, several artists went to locations in their imaginations and created legends there. Vadim Levin stuns with his very dramatic personal vision of the Jewish Exodus-There Is No Way Back. Strikingly abstract and brilliantly colored are Don Bloom’s Imaginary Landscape and Stephenie Barbetti’s’ Aquarium Visit.
And lastly there are Chiara Medici’s Untitled photograph—dreamy mysterious spaces with ghostly presences-a sort of provocative open-ended narrative meant to keep you wondering—What is this legend?
Let us thank the artists for their artworks and the many and various “legendary journeys” they have taken us on.