December 2013 • The Gallery

Call for artists for Historic New Jersey, Jan. 17 through March 31, 2014
Deadline for application Wednesday, December 11. Download application Historic-New-Jersey-Application or submit application via web form.

LEGENDARY LOCATIONS Exhibit
OCTOBER 11, 2013 to JANUARY 7, 2014

South Brunswick Municipal Building
540 Route 522, Monmouth Junction

Gallery Talk and Demonstration by Carole Grand
Monday, December 2, 6:30PM
Meeting Room 1, South Brunswick Municipal Building

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

Juror Richard Swain of the Art History Department of Rider University selected twenty-nine artworks for our exhibit Legendary Locations. See them until January 7, 2014.

About the exhibit, he wrote: 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?

Waterfall, Yosemite,  pastel ©2013 Wendy Heisler

Waterfall, Yosemite, pastel ©2013 Wendy Heisler

Tuscany Windows, watercolor ©2013 Barbara Hochberg

Tuscany Windows, watercolor ©2013 Barbara Hochberg

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?

Chief Crazy Horse, photograph ©2013 Jerry Spielman

Chief Crazy Horse, photograph ©2013 Jerry Spielman

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.”

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