Come Visit The White

My partner and best friend JoAnne Kalish and I try to go to a new gallery at least twice a month and when we are in Manhattan we sometimes can visit three in a day. You’d be surprised what you can learn from looking at other peoples’ art, regardless of the medium. There was an artist in Miami that had 500 prints of the same photograph in a stack. Not something that I would do, but it was very cool. Both JoAnne, myself, and our very dear friend Dennis Wheeler have discovered a fabulous boutique gallery in Lakeville, Connecticut. The owner and curator, Tino Galluzzo, has not only a great eye but he is an extremely well rounded, bright and intelligent entrepreneur. And as far as the free stuff goes, he’s got a fabulous smile! If you’re within 50 miles of the Lakeville Gallery, I would like to cordially invite you to The White Gallery. When you walk in, you’ll understand why they call it The White Gallery– makes perfect sense to me.  Joe DiMaggio, 2016

  

  

“crossing the line” runs through Monday, September 5th.  Gallery is open weekends 11 – 5 or by appointment.  To see the work on exhibit please visit our website.  We do ship nationally so please call us if you are interested in a piece and would like to discuss it or see more photos.  860-435-1029  thewhitegallery@sbcglobal.net

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“crossing the line”

By Dennis Wheeler (exhibition opens at The White Gallery July 29, 2016)

If there was a line someone should have drawn it a bit deeper. I often wonder about programs that establish lines. It stems, no doubt, from academia where it’s probably a necessary guidance and directional tool. Many schools have what they refer to as a Foundation year. Mine did. I was to choose one between five or six great alternatives, to specialize in for the remaining three years, and in the end still winding up not choosing the right one. Much later about the year 2007 It occurred to me my life was a foundation year. It serves no point here to recall the somewhat overboard kinds of things I have designed which weren’t available to me to choose back in foundation land. But fifty years of designing answers for other people’ s problems can sharpen one’s desire to identify your own problems and solve those.

It would be hard for me to say that what I was doing was not Art.  Happily, there were many opportunities to paint and draw and experiment with my own ideas. Criss-crossing the line so much the line seems gone.

Abstract 19, photograph, Dennis Wheeler

Abstract 21, photograph, Dennis Wheeler

Award-Winning Photographer Avery Danziger Opens Exhibition in Beacon, NY

Putnam County News & Recorder – Focus On: Photographer Avery Danziger  

By Tim Greco  June 1, 2016  Click here to read at PCNR

Award-winning photographer, artist and filmmaker Avery Danziger opens “Seeking Permanence” for a limited-engagement exhibition June 4 – July 17 at the Howland Cultural Center in Beacon.

This exciting photography exhibition draws visitors to the past to the paradoxical beauty expressed in the slow transformation of man-made order to the beauty of natural chaos.

It all began when Danziger was out getting barbeque at Big W’s in Harlem Valley. On the way back he turned into the train terminal and he noticed this extraordinary building with a bunch of windows broken out. He always has a camera ready and stuck through some of the windows and fired off some shots to see what was inside. When he returned home he started to look at the pictures, which he called extraordinary, “because it showed the terrible beauty that I’ve never seen before, a complete chaos of colors and forms.” Danziger said he is not an “end times” type of photographer and does not photograph abandoned buildings per-se, but he is attracted to that kind of art.

The Harlem Valley Psychiatric Center, which opened in 1926 and fully shut down in 1997, cared for five thousand people. The thought of filming soon captured his interest. It took about a year to gain permission to film the space and to convince the powers that be that he would be a worthwhile effort. He wore a HAZMAT suit and respirator at all times throughout the filming due to asbestos. The filming took place thirty times over three years and there were only a few hours a day which he could film, because he only films in natural light. Danziger said the more he shot, the tighter and more abstract the photographs became. His fascination grew with “the beauty that could be made from this incredibly chaotic, self-destructing environment.”

The hospital has been sold in part to a Korean Evangelical Church and is about to open. An openings artists’ reception is Saturday, June 4, from 3 – 5 pm at the Howland Cultural Center in Beacon.

Danziger is represented by The White Gallery of Connecticut. You can reach Danziger at AveryDanziger.com.

Danziger has photographs in museum permanent collections at Ackland Art Museum, Chapel Hill, N.C.; Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, France; Chicago Center for Contemporary Photography; Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; and Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York City; among other places.

View the entire interview at www.focusonphilipstown.com.

HARRY RICH AND HIS “GRANDCHILDREN”

“My paintings are grandchildren of the New York School.” What do I mean by that?

The 1950s were a time when I was most open to deeply absorbing the gestalt of that period, when young minds were able and also ambitious to be caught up in ideas larger than ourselves. Painting offered itself to fill that void, both rebellion and moral act. The model was found in the spirit and work of the New York School painters.

At that time the New York City art world was giving birth to its own apocalypse. Folks like John Canaday, Tom Hess, Greenberg, Rosenberg, the Black Mountain College milieu, and a cabal of painters, sculptors, dancers, etc. were dismantling existing criteria, establishing new parameters for each of their disciplines.

Every part in this evolving art world enterprise, except the media, was made jittery by the specter of Picasso and his strident, encyclopedic, monolithic, iconoclastic, unstoppable, in-your-face, glorious art making.

Into this upheaval appeared an eighteen-year-old Pratt Institute freshman from upstate New York, a recent winner of the Albany Halloween Window Painting contest, confident in the belief that art was illustration. He was ready! Or so he thought.

I remember walking for the first time up out of Brooklyn’s Dewitt-Clinton subway station, carrying suitcases and paint box – finding a tattered neighborhood, worrisome ethnic faces and odd-looking people I would soon find out were artists. In complete naiveté I had stumbled into perhaps the most turbulent place and period in the history of art.

The following six years in Brooklyn and Manhattan were madly wonderful. If the definition of learning is “to be changed by newly acquired knowledge,” I majored in learning.

My carrying forward the spirit of the 50s art world legacy into our time is the common thread for me in the studio. Continuing to believe, now as then, that making paintings is part of something larger than myself – and important. Thus my paintings today are grandchildren of the NYS.

Harry Rich, “Untitled Curves and Straight”, acrylic on canvas

Click here for more work from Harry Rich at The White Gallery.

LATEST BLOG FROM WHITE GALLERY ARTIST DAVID DUNLOP

Changing Speeds, Slow to Fast
Posted on February 16, 2016 by David

Compressed space with articulated edges and textured density slows our sense of time and motion. Blurred and blended forms expressed across space with uniform textures quicken our feeling of time and motion. They give the beholder a variety of experiences of time, motion and space within a single 2D frame presents a set of challenges.

If your intention is like my first postulate, to build compressed space with an abundance of articulated edges and dense textures then, example 1 offers a possibility. Here the beholder is embedded in a thicket of flora. They are pressed against (almost into) the picture plane. This thickly textured territory offers little sense of near-and-far until the beholder discovers the dark background above and, above that finds a paler texturally uniform secondary distance. This last area is blurred and pale to offer a feeling of infinitely deep space. The forward area is a matrix of thin overlapping forms. These textures are generated in acrylic with generous applications of transparent retarder allowing ragged bristle brushes and squeegees time and opportunity to work into this malleable film of acrylic. [read more]

To see David’s work currently on display at the White Gallery click here.

David Dunlop, “Angled Meadow”, oil on aluminum, 18″ x 18″

FRANCES ASHFORTH INSPIRED BY WATER!

My paintings, drawings and prints are generally based on habitats that include water. Water is often seen as the ‘eye’ of a landscape. Vast or minimal, salt or fresh, water has helped to shape the land and create geographies that have become familiar to us all. I spend a great deal of time outdoors observing various habitats. I focus on spare composition, honing in on the shapes and marks water creates and at the same time leaves behind. I am also concerned with the quality and quantity of water. Water is our most precious resource. My work shows an authentic appreciation and is a subtle reminder, about the environment that we often take for granted.

Frances B. Ashforth, “Tidal Inlet 5”, Oil on Panel, 30″x 40″w

 

 

KATE STIASSNI – WORKING WITH TEXTILES

“Urban Renewal”

The choice of working with textiles came very naturally to me. I love the supple and tactile nature of fabric and its ability to take on rich colors, both absorbing and reflecting light. I strive to express energy and movement within my work. Yet I also try to create spaces that allow the eye to pause or pivot in its journey and I’m fascinated by how these spaces can change from one viewing (or viewer) to the next, as the relationship between figure and ground emerges and collapses in perceptual shifts.

Many of the motifs in my work are abstractions of things I see around me – from the architecture and urban environs of NYC to the wooded hills and open fields of Northwest CT. It may be a distant view, the stark line of a building, or the subtle curve of a branch that sparks a new thought. The influence of urban and rural places may also explain why I’m drawn to both angular geometric shapes and curving organic forms.

“Shaping Space”

I usually begin with a simple idea, arranging and constructing (or deconstructing) abstract forms into patterns until I feel a harmonic tension or unity. Color also comes into play, and I choose my palette from hand-dyed fabrics that provide me with a wide range of values. I think of my process as being very intuitive, but when it’s time to join the pieces together, each stitch is made with thoughtful intent, fastening the layers and adding textural depth. I’m a firm believer that every cut, line and stitched seam leads somewhere, so I try to remain open to the process, to change and variation, and to exploring both traditional and modern techniques. I feel my works owe as much to modern art as they do to historic quilts.

I feel very lucky to be doing work that I love. I’m intrigued by the creative process and the world that inspires it. I hope that my joy in creating this work touches those who view it.

“Ice Matters”

 

LATEST BLOG FROM DAVID DUNLOP

Recombinant Media and Heat In Winter

Our 21st century challenge is how to combine materials, tools, and other artists to reveal new visions and new forms. With vast access to metals, laminates, fabrics, catalogs of pigments and tools from armies of printers, to libraries of software, to new hand-tools, artists have a superabundance of opportunity. To exploit this expanding mine of materials, tools, and sources artists must share their process and their discoveries. From entrepreneurs to scientists we are often reticent to share. We want the payday and fame for ourselves. This constrains the path of discovery.

Recombining media and using a theme packed with contradiction like, “Finding Heat in Winter” I turned to a collaborative painting made by Max Dunlop and me (example 1). I superimposed one of Max’s photos on the image (Example 2). Next, this combined painting and photo was elongated and glued to a sheet of aluminum (example 3). While generating the combined photo and painting I intensified the warm tones. In the final step, the combined image was re-covered in a bath of warm dark paint.  After brush, finger and squeegee manipulations you can see the result in example 4.

Read More

Come see David Dunlop’s newest pieces on display at The White Gallery.

“BLUE HOUSE BEFORE TWILIGHT” David Dunlop, Oil on Linen

 

 

Winter Warmer Featured Artist: Joan Jardine

Winter Warmer Featured Artist: Joan Jardine

I am a colorist and contemporary impressionist. Ninety percent of my painting are done
with a painting knife. My focus as an artist is color, seeing the way atmosphere affects
objects whether it be a landscape or a block study.
When visiting museums I have always been drawn to the Impressionist exhibits or the
bright colors of the moderns. I often thought, how do they do that? The answer is
observe. Take the time to look and see how the light affects forms, how one color
affects another color, then interpret it trying not to be too literal. I studied for several
years at the Cape Cod School of Art, mainly with the great Rob Longley.

I like to find beauty in common every day things. Sometimes, just taking a walk on a
certain day at a certain time is all that is required. The painting. “Old Truck” is inspired
by an old abandoned truck just up the street from me.

I am feeling a great need to paint plein air these days. Being cooped up in my studio,
although I love it there, is beginning to be confining. I think I better start painting blocks
again.

I have been teaching for about 10 years. I believe it makes me a better painter.

Top Image: “Old Truck #2″ Oil on Board , 12×12″

Image Below: ‘The Bridge at Salmon Kill”, Oil on Board, 20×24″

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Thank you Joan for writing this blog for us. Your work in Winter Warmer captures the spirit of our area and the amazing light play that winter can bring. These featured pieces of Joan’s and other work is available for purchase at The White Gallery.

During the month of March we are open Saturday and Sunday from 11-5pm. We are closed March 14th and 15th. We are also happy to make appointments for private viewings as well. Come by and see us soon.

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Winter Warmer Featured Artist: Zelina Blagden

Winter Warmer featured Artist: Zelina Blagden

Born in 1969 , into a family of artists. I have lived all over the country.  Now I have come full circle and I live where I was born; Sharon, Connecticut.
My life and work seems to come back to the end. In that I mean that I am always inspired  by time and it’s contexts and  textures which often feels counter-intuitive. In my work, I often use a photograph and what it represents as my starting point. It’s not that the photograph is not precious but it’s faceted environment around a moment and the fleeting, ever changing constant that I feel drawn to preserve. My work and I wrestle with perceptions of time. I feel a strange urgency about preserving and even enabling decay but with an intention of respect and without disregard. There is a mystery or unknown behind the beginning and the many ends. I can only get close to this mystery by balancing letting go with holding on.
I treat my pieces like a totemic attempt to honor the mystery and truth of time.
My work is my urgent exercise or exorcism where preserving occurs by creating space around something. Maybe it’s space to fall apart or crumble and ultimately transform. Whether we like it or not,
all stages are important in a process of evolution. The challenge is in the humility or freedom in that we really don’t know what is coming next.
Just as winter is a poignant reminder and need for transformation .
I offer these pieces, “Snow Girl” and “Winter’s Time” in the Winter Warmer show as two totems to time.

 

Winters Time- the concept inspiring this piece is time. The slow yet calculated  sense of time that winter conjures . The line between preservation and decay . I am inspired by the story behind the layers . Layers of perception, moments captured and instantly changed and always changing .

This piece has it’s own life and the pieces that fall as it was made and as it changes are part of it, hence  the  broom and  the pan.

Recto & Verso of “Winter’s Time”

Dustpan and Broom

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Thank you Zelina for taking the time to write about you and your art work. One of the highlights of living in the Northwest Corner is that we get to experience seasons. This makes us very aware of the passing of time around us. It has been great to have a time influenced conceptual piece in our Winter Warmer show.

Please come see us 11-4pm Friday through Sunday during the month of February. We will be open Saturday and Sunday 11-5pm during March. We are happy to make appointments for private viewings as well.

 

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