Viridian Artist Member Wally Gilbert in Group Show in Vermont

Wally Gilbert at VermontArts.Gallery

"Sparkling Summer Celebration"

Artists Reception
Saturday, July 1st – Noon to 3 o'clock

VermontArts.Gallery
78 Creampot Road
Heartland, Vermont
Tel. 802 436 2200

Contact VermontArts.Gallery at VermontArtsGallery.com@gmail.com for an Invitation and celebrate Digital Art in the heart of Vermont.

"Trees - Blue" 
A 60" x 40" panel on a Flush Mount.
Digital print on Aluminum with a high gloss finish.

Wally Gilbert's art is available both on aluminum and as prints on paper. These, as well as his scarves with digital prints on a soft, light chiffon, are all available at Viridian. See Wally Gilbert portfolio above and also our web store.

N'Cognita featured in The Villager Newspaper, NYC.

Photographer: Tequila Minsky

Press Release: May DeViney "what was, what is, and what if?"

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May DeViney
"what was, what is, and what if?"
June 6-June 24, 2017
Opening Reception: Saturday, June 10th, 4-6 pm
Artist Talk: Saturday, June 24th 4-6 pm

Chelsea: Viridian Artists Inc. is pleased to present the exhibition “what was, what is, and what if?”, a mixed media exhibition by May DeViney. The show opens June 6 and continues through June 24, 2017.  The artist will present an informative talk about her work on Saturday, June 24, 4-6 pm.

The artist, in the past & now, has demonstrated an ongoing interest in workers and domestic drudgery, often dangerously spoofing the grateful, subservient attitudes expected of those who work, most often exemplified by the Madonna. No subject is taboo to her, and her themes can overlap as she shows the Madonna doing the laundry, nuns or burka clothed women wearing the American flag, reminding us of the mysteries of religious practice & the ongoing situation of women. Using the Madonna as the image of the perfect woman, DeViney shows how this is an impossible expectation for real flesh-and-blood women to achieve. She continues to expand on this theme, including different classic females crossed with the Madonna.

"Feminism is a strong element for me. Current United States and world dynamics  only show more urgently that women must be considered as full human beings with autonomy and rights, and that this is the only way society can deal with today’s issues and build a better future for all.  I show how women here at home are surprisingly still being treated as property and given no power to control their own bodies and lives."

DeViney is creatively inspired by a number of politically tinged issues and continues to surprise with each presentation, opening up whole new worlds of thought for viewers to consider as they meander through the artworks presented. She creates with no holds barred, highlighting a spectrum of issues affecting both sexes, including free speech, gun violence, militarization/imperialism, and the 99% strata.

DeViney has won many awards for a past series she did based on “home shrines” which were created to exalt and commemorate not the usual saints, but instead, the common “everywoman”. She is the one who has suffered in all cultures from the expectation of perfection and purity enforced upon her by both society and herself.

DeViney began as a painter but has turned to creating mixed media constructions, which incorporate paintings, found objects and cast-off detritus built into three-dimensional multi-media wall pieces, and sculpture. Predominately representational, her constructions contain the flavor of H. L. Westermann and Grant Wood combined with the styles of Renaissance historical and religious art. Her shadowbox works are tiny worlds where cross-historical figures interact at a three-inch scale, shining a stern light on social issues of the human condition that began centuries ago but continue to exist. Recently, she has added collage as an additional media to get her always political messages across.

In “Unauthorized Autobiography” a show from 2000, DeViney made us privy to not only what she intended us to see, but, realized that she also unknowingly revealed “secrets”, and those “secrets”, those unintended revelations, can be as telling as the subject matter at hand. The same holds true in ordinary life, especially in this world of social media, where unknowingly, we often reveal more than we intend.

A native Mid-westerner, May DeViney attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago where she absorbed the influences of the Chicago Imagists and iconoclastic art movements such as the Hairy Who, where Hairy Who icon Jim Nutt, was her instructor. 

She now resides in New England, studying art most recently at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.  Along the way she also earned a degree in Computer Science from Boston University, reflecting her detail-oriented, analytical eye.  The experiences she has gained and her trenchant observations on the human condition are reflected in her work.

DeViney's art has been exhibited in New York and at university galleries & museums throughout the United States and is in many collections. It has also appeared in national publications including Harper’s Magazine, the New York Times, Wall Street International and the cover of Prism magazine. 

For further information please contact the gallery at 212-414-4040 orviridianartistsinc@gmail.com.

N'Cognita at Theater for the New City

Theater for the New City Lower East Side Festival

Sunday, May 28, 2017 7:54PM for just 10 minutes

“Entangled”

created by

Vernita Nemec, also known as N'Cognita

with music by Larry Simon

The Theater for the New City Lower East Side Festival organized by Crystal field & happening Memorial Day weekend in NYC's Lower East Side at 1st Avenue & 10th Street will be presenting a multitude of 10 minute performances & readings- all free, all weekend. Among the performers & poets are Penny Arcade, Tammy Faye, Pheobe Legere, Nicky Paraiso, Reno, Yuko & Vernita N'Cognita. Come Sunday 7:54 PM to the Cabaret Theater (check the red door to the left of the 1st entrance) & stay for the evening! 
In “Entangled”, N'Cognita again incorporates out of scale props to search within the media of performance for a clearer understanding of what it is to be a woman today. In this work, she has braided 600 yards of ribbon into a large ball and sits in a child sized chair as she explores with the audience unanswerable questions discovered in a book. The artist uses Butoh movement forms interpreted uniquely & personally to explore, along with words and props, conceptual ideas in her performance work. How our complicated lives entangle us. 

Vernita Nemec, also known as N'Cognita to honor underknown artists, has been creating performance artworks since 1978 when she "occupied" a corner of Prince &Wooster Streets in early days of SoHo. Since that time she has presented more than 70 performances in the United States, Hungary, Japan, Ireland, Germany, Mexico and France, including guerrilla performances at the Pompidou Museum in Paris and Documenta 13 in Kasel. This is the third Lower East Side Festival season in which she has performed. A different iteration of "Entangled" was presented at Judson Church as part of the Movement Research Monday Night Series. Her performances can also be seen on UTube. Come Sunday 7:54 PM to the Cabaret Theater (check the red door to the left of the 1st entrance) & stay for the evening! 

Press Release: BERNICE FAEGENBURG "TREES"

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BERNICE FAEGENBURG
"TREES"
May 16 - June 3, 2017
Reception, Saturday, May 20, 2-5pm

Chelsea NY: Viridian Artists is pleased to present a solo exhibition of mixed media photography by artist Bernice Faegenburg. Opening on May 16, 2017, the exhibit will run through June 3rd, with a reception on Saturday, May 20, from 2-5pm. 

Bernice Faegenburg is an artist who has always enjoyed experimenting and exploring new media. In this exhibition of new work, she has continued her involvement with nature and the environment, but her current focus is trees. Trees in all their glory.

 In the past, Faegenburg's media focus has been primarily painting and Japanese brushwork, but this time she has had her digital photographs transformedin a variety of ways. Incorporating fabric for the first time, she has created installations of her images that flow both figuratively & literally as viewers stop before the work. In addition, she has used a variety of digital photographic apps and continues exploring and experimenting with them.

All about her love of trees, these new works take you out of the gallery and perhaps onto the backporch looking out at the woods or lawn behind your house- wherever the viewer prefers to imagine themselves. One can see the artist's love of nature and experimentation for she has taken her art beyond the stretched canvas and unto printed, airy and unstretched fabric blowing in the breeze as trees do.

Faegenburg's favorite tree is the Witch Hazel that is the first to bloom in her hometown of Roselyn, Long Island.She carries her camera everywhere with her, often stopping along the side of the road to catch an image, capturing trees in all their seasons of dress and undress. Despite the fact that most of the images in this exhibit start with a photograph, one can see her earlier influences of Japanese brush painting still. 

Faegenburg has always approached her art making instinctively, allowing her images to grow out of her daily experiences. For her, the most important aspect of her art is the doing for process is as important to her as the outcome.

 The artist did undergraduate work at the Tyler School of Fine Arts and Temple University, where she studied printmaking and egg tempera techniques in the Rennaisance manner. She came to New York after graduation, attending the National Academy of Design and receiving a Masters Degreee at C.W. Post College, studying painting and graphics with Robert Yasuda and later, Oriental philosopy and its relationshiop to painting with Jerry Okimoto

Gallery hours: Tuesday-Saturday 12- 6 PM. For further information please contact Vernita Nemec, Gallery Director at 212 414 4040 or viridianartistsinc@gmail.com or view the gallery website: www.viridianartists.com

Press Release: Susan Sills: "Family Portraits"

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SUSAN SILLS
"FAMILY PORTRAITS"
April 25- May 13 2017
Reception, Saturday, April 29, 4-6 pm

Chelsea NY: Viridian Artists is pleased to present a solo exhibition of drawings and paintings by artist Susan Sills. Opening on April 25, 2017, the exhibit will run through May 13th, with a reception on Saturday, April 29th, from 4-6pm.

After years of focusing on creating painted wooden sculptures of art historical themes and characters, the artist Susan Sills is returning to her first love - drawing, and to themes closer to her heart - her family.

As always, she is inspired by history, but this time she presents a history of her family as she has portrayed them over the years in ink, pencil and paint, working from life and more recently from photographs. Many of the newest portraits are based on family photographs she discovered in a box and recreated as oil paintings in sepia tones on canvas, recapturing a sense of past moments and lost memories. Who is that man in the fedora who resembles Humphrey Bogart? An uncle or a cousin somehow lost from the memories of those family members still living?

Sills' artistic career began early, studying at the Art Students League when she was just 12, surrounded by a family of artists, particularly her mother. Following in her grandfather's steps, who was a jeweler, she is also including jewelry she has created from geometric drawings and doodles saved from phone call jottings over the years.

For the past thirty years Sills has been noted for her life size cutout figures in painted birch plywood portraying famous characters from art history, creating over 100 of them. Over the years she has presented these works in a variety of ways - from life- size cut-outs of famous heads to grandiose tableaus and installations in which famous paintings come to life in our time with coke bottles, empty take-out food trays, etc. presenting these characters with humor & intelligence.

Sills has had 19 Solo shows, and is included in the Sylvia Sleigh Collection of Women Artists at Rowan University. She was also a featured artist in the recently published "100 New York Painters" by Cynthia Dantzic. She has had solo exhibitions at the Queens College Art Center and the Pensacola Museum of Art, which sponsored an educational experience for 4500 children and their teachers and her 2-D sculptures have also been used as a set for a dance performance at the Whitney Museum. Her art is in numerous corporate and museum collections and she has been represented by Viridian since 1979.

Her complete bio can be seen at susansillscutouts.com

Gallery hours: Tuesday-Saturday 12- 6 PM. For further information please contact Vernita Nemec, Gallery Director at 212 414 4040 or viridianartistsinc@gmail.com or view the gallery website: www.viridianartists.com

Press Release: Arthur Dworin: "Inquiries"

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ARTHUR DWORIN
"Inquiries"
April 4- April 22, 2017

Reception, Saturday, April 8, 2-6pm
Wine & Words Saturday, April 22, 2-4PM

 Chelsea NY: Viridian Artists is pleased to present a solo exhibition of paintings by artist Arthur Dworin. Opening on April 4, 2017, the exhibit will run through April 22, with a reception on Saturday, April 8, from 2-6pm. There will be a Wine & Words reception on Saturday, April 22, from 2-4pm when the artist will talk about his process and answer questions. 

The organic and geometric shapes that have long populated Arthur Dworin’s work are raised off the surface now and coated with a high iron content patina that he then oxidizes to produce a rich rust. This he juxtaposes with bands and fields of brilliant color.

Peter Selz, the former MoMA curator of painting and sculpture and one of Dworin’s collectors, has said that “Dworin’s paintings are endowed with an original sense of sonorous color. Abstract as they are, they bring a new sense of visual order to organic forms of nature.” 

Dworin attended the Detroit Society of Arts and Crafts and received a scholarship to the Art Students League in Woodstock. After painting in Zacualpan, Mexico, he became a member of the United Scenic Artists Union, where he became skilled in a host of techniques that have been invaluable to his personal art.  While painting sets for theater and film, he used materials in an alchemical way. Often he had to make something look as if five layers of paint had peeled off a rusting surface.  But in his own painting, he literally rusts the surfaces rather than just painting them to look like rust. 

Like Kandinsky, whom he admires, Dworin improvises with forms that resonate musically with his own spiritual explorations. As he puts it, Dworin hopes that, “the spirit in these works will act as a key to awaken what is already deep within the observer, anew with each viewing, bringing a greater awareness of our inner and outer universes.”

Dworin lived and worked in Tribeca (Manhattan) until 2011, when he purchased a Pennsylvania church, where he created these works. This is his fifth solo show at Viridian.  

Gallery hours: Tuesday-Saturday 12- 6 PM. For further information please contact Vernita Nemec, Gallery Director at 212 414 4040 or viridianartistsinc@gmail.com or view the gallery website: www.viridianartists.com

Wally Gilbert in a show at Lasell College in Newton, MA Artists' Reception Thursday, March 23, 6 to 8 pm

Wally Gilbert will have pieces in ABSTRACT SYSTEMS, a show of nine artists, curated by Lisa Reindorf and Andrea Foggle Plotkin. 

March 21 – April 12, 2017
Artists’ Reception: Thursday, March 23, 6 – 8 pm

Wedeman Gallery
Lasell College
Yamawaki Art & Cultural Center
47 Myrtle Avenue, Newton, MA

Featuring work by:Barbara Grad, Barbara Eskin, Jennifer Caine,
Wally Gilbert (photographer and Nobel prize winner in biology),
Jennifer Moses, Stephanie McMahon, Lisa Reindorf,
Debra Weisberg and Heidi Whitman.

Gallery Statement:  Our modern society is teeming with information as technology has infiltrated our daily lives. In many fields, systems are a way to make sense of the information. Artists parse these systems and develop their own interpretations in their work.

Abstract Systems presents the work of a group of artists who approach abstract painting utilizing their own personal symbolic language. Each of the artists works evolve from a specific type of systems- in the areas of architecture, biology, information, technology, and mapping.

Abstract painting can be difficult to navigate, but by understanding these systems the viewer is presented with a way to understand and interpret the paintings.
 

Gallery open hours are Tuesday –Saturday, 1 – 4pm.

Wedeman Gallery is located at 47 Myrtle Avenue, Newton, MA 02466. For more information , please contact the gallery director, Vladimir Zimakov.

Phone: 617 243 2143

Artists Meredeth Turshen, Vernita Nemec and Jenny Belin in Group Show at Hob'Art

"Women Live"
A group show at the Hob'Art Cooperative gallery, pays tribute to women today and in history 

Curated by Viridian Affiliate Meredeth Turshen and Hob’ Art’s Miriam Untoria, the exhibit includes work by Turshen as well as Viridian's Director Vernita Nemec, and Assistant Director Jenny Belin.

Friday March 10- Saturday April 1, 2017
Reception: Saturday, March 11th, 6- 8pm

hob'art gallery,
Monroe Center
720 Monroe Street,
2nd FL, E208
Hoboken NJ, 07030

Press Release: Angela Christine Smith: "Her: A Displaced Body"

 ANGELA CHRISTINE SMITH
 "Her: A Displaced Body"
March 14- April 1, 2017

Reception Thursday March 16, 6-8PM
Coffee & Conversation Saturday March 18, 4-6PM

Chelsea NY: Viridian Artists is pleased to present Angela Christine Smith's second solo exhibit at Viridian. A winner in Viridian's Juried Photography exhibit in 2011, the artist will be present at both the reception on Thursday March 16th & on Saturday March 18th, 4-6PM for a coffee & conversation with the artist. 

 This exhibition of photographs with ink and colored pencil overlays is a continuation of Smith's dissection series, first begun in 2011 and earning her a 2nd prize in Viridian's Annual Juried Exhibit curated by Jennifer Blessing of the Guggenheim Museum. Since that time, the artist has continued examining through her photography, drawing & writing, what comprises our identity in this moment in time. Her recent writing has focused around the body as a physical structure and process, and along with photographic self- portraits, the artist asks important questions, exploring both the physicality & the passing of time & how that is reflected on one's identity.

The image of the female has always been fraught with the idealizing of the physical and as a female artist, Smith wants to explore through her imagery the conflicts of identity conjured by that idealization. Too, the artist is exploring and perhaps exposing self-portraiture and its potential pathology- the lies and the truths that are subsequently revealed. Physicality, politics, identity, framing are all aspects of confrontation which affect what the viewer sees, yet what is the reality of who we are? How does the physical self compare tothe various presentations of self that are possible?

In Eric Kandel's "Age of Insight" research by Stephen Kuffler, Hubel, Wiesel and Zeki show how retina ganglion cells each see a different aspect of reality that our brain then puts together into one image. A compiling of fragments to make the whole, as in Angela Christine Smith's art of "Dissections". The viewer is invited to look beyond the surface of her images and more deeply into their meaning. She states that "The body in front of the camera breathes into the lens and in an extended interaction with "I" multiplies to make a physical dent into the film. This extension of time explores the pauses located within the physical body."

Smith asks many questions with these works, specifically, "Is the self-portrait an extension of the mirror? What about the inside of the body, itself? What is it to become a part of the photography and reject it at the same time?" She responds "through framing, cutting, and dissecting the photographs ... to confront questions of identity, the politics of the body, and show how the photograph is displacing the body and providing a corporeal experience for the viewer." But as Smith dissects herself, she reveals us all.

Angela Christine Smith has an MFA in Integrated & Expanded Photographic Practices, Contemporary Art Theory, and Printmaking from Ohio University and a BFA in Photography, Printmaking, and Art History from the Savannah College of Art and Design in Savannah, Georgia. She has won numerous awards for her photographic work.

Gallery hours: Tuesday through Saturday 12-6PM          

For further information please contact the gallery at 212 414 4040 or viridianartistinc@gmail.com

Viridian Affiliate Deb Flagel Director of Woman Made Gallery

Deb Flagel  an Affiliate Artist of Viridian has been recently appointed Director of Woman Made Gallery in Chicago.

ALAN GAYNOR RECEIVES SPECIAL MERIT AWARD

The Light Space and Time Online Gallery has awarded Alan Gaynor with two "Special Merit Category" awards for their "CityScapes Art Exhibition". The two photos are posted below.
Congratulations, Alan!

Click here to view the online show

PRESS RELEASE: "30 Under 30"

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"30 Under 30"
Juried by Vernita Nemec
February 21- March 11, 2017
Reception Thursday February 23, 6-8pm
Closing reception Saturday March 11, 4-6pm & others events throughout

Rocio Azarloza * Emmett Barnacle * Joanna Bellettiere * Keenan Bennett * Michael Bishop * Elizabeth Christianson * Chelsea Couch * Furen Dai * Ivan Filipchyk * Julie Gautier-Downes * Charity Henderson * Jieun Kim * Ryu-Hee Kim * Jordan Lepore * Jade Lowder * Phillip McConnell * Katie Mongoven * Aya Ogasawara * Jesse Parajeckas * Alex Schechter * Becca Shmuluvitz * Megan St Clair * Michael Thron * Sarah Tompkins * Meggan Trobaugh * Holly Wilson * Najwan Zoubi * Laura Willig * Dongyi Wu * Ryan Busch

Chelsea NY: Viridian Artists is pleased to present for the first time an exhibition of artists who are all under 30 years of age. “30 Under 30“ continues from February 21 to March 11, with a reception to meet the artists, Thursday February 23, 6-8PM. In a world changing culturally and politically more rapidly than ever, these artworks perhaps offer a clue to future ways artists look at their lives and times through art making. The artists in this exhibition were selected from a “call for art” the gallery sent out to discover what young artists are thinking about and creating art about in these times. From a wide range of applicants, the art of 30 of those applying, were selected by the gallery director, Vernita Nemec who is an artist herself.

Viridian plans to create an affordable program for young and gifted artists. No longer is it possible to get large workspaces or showing spaces without huge rents. The struggle to be an artist full time is a dream few can afford and making art in shared spaces is the rule rather than the exception.

This exhibition and the program Viridian has developed for young artists arose from the group’s awareness of the hardships that artists must often endure to continue their practice. As a part of an artist-owned gallery community, Viridian artists are conscious of not only how expensive space is today both for showing and working, but also, how important it is for artists to live and work in a competitive and supportive environment.

Just how difficult is it now is for young artists to achieve their dreams of fame, respect and possibly fortune? What are their concerns? What materials do they work with? Why are some still making art in traditional materials & in traditional ways? How has social media, astronomical rents, and less space changed the way in which artists just beginning their careers express themselves creatively?

To learn the answers to some of these questions, it is best to look at the art itself for we often cannot express in words what can be expressed through an image or object. There will be events throughout the exhibition when artists & guests can talk about the work and discuss and share with one another thoughts about the importance of artmaking in today’s world. Check our facebook page and listings calendars for precise times & dates of these meetings.

Gallery hours: Tuesday through Saturday 12-6PM

For further information please contact the gallery at 212 414 4040 or viridianartistinc@gmail.com

Press Release: "Art from Detritus: Recycling with Imagination"

"Art from Detritus: Recycling with Imagination"
Curated by Vernita Nemec
January 31- February 18, 2017
Reception: Thursday, February 2, 6-8PM
Closing reception & poetry slam last Saturday, February 18, 4-6PM

William Patrick Armstrong * Marcia Bernstein * MJ Bono * May DeViney * Kiffi Diamond *Fred Gutzeit * Kathryn Hart * Ed Herman * Kathleen King * Bernice Sokol Kramer * Gail Levin * Kazuko Miyamoto * Vernita N'Cognita *  Petronia Paley * Carol Quint * Elizabeth Rhoades Read * Matakia * d'Ann de Simone * Sara Wiener * Larry Zdeb * Philip Zuchman

Chelsea NY: Viridian Artists is pleased to present the exhibit “Art of Detritus: Recycling with Imagination" featuring fine art made primarily from trash. The heart of this exhibit is the message of the three R's: Reduce/Reuse/Recycle and especialy "upcycling" which is the essence of making art from trash. The exhibit will open January 31st and continues through February 18th with a reception Saturday, February 2nd, 6-8pm. There will also be a closing reception/ poetry slam on Saturday, February 18, 4-6PM. Let's talk about trash!

“Art From Detritus” serves to enrich the dialogue between art and the lives of ordinary people because we all have too much trash. By focusing on recycling or "upcycling" as their method and source for creating, these artists have made their artmaking serve as both a message and inspiration. This exhibit reaches beyond the art world, serving as a message not only about art, but also about recycling for the good of the environment, a goal becoming more and more pressing as we continue to discard packaging and take a new plastic bag each time we buy. The 5 cent charge per plastic bag to be imposed soon will begin to address a small part of this environmental calamity.

Since 1994, the changing group of artists in this exhibit has opened dialogues with viewers about the importance and usefulness of art as something beyond decoration. Artists often cannot afford studio assistants, expensive materials and equipment for art making, but seeing beauty in the discarded, these artists creatively deal with the problem of too much trash by using it to create fascinating and unique art. Artists have been using found objects to make art for eons, but now it has become political.

“Art from Detritus”, or art from trash, was first conceived and curated by Vernita Nemec, an artist/ curator in 1994 in Portland Oregon during the annual conference of the National Recycling Coalition (NRC). Presented there in the lobby of a recycled Sears Roebuck building & the corporate head quarters for municipal waste & recycling, the exhibit has re-occurred with funding from the Kauffman Foundation, the Puffin Foundation andsponsorship by the NRC. The exhibit waspresented in Pittsburgh at the Westinghouse headquarters, the Museum of Arts & Crafts and the AIA; in Kansas City MO at the Linda Hall Library of Science, Rockhurst College & the Writer's Place. Phoenix AZ, Turners Falls MA and NYC have all been Detritus exhibition sites since those early years. In NYC, Detritus exhibits have occurred at the Henry Street Abrams Arts Center, Gallery 450, Synagogue for the Arts, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, Farleigh Dickinson University, WAH (Williamsburgh Art Center) and for the thirds time at Viridian. (See more information and images of past Detritus shows at www.ncognita.com.)

Vernita Nemec, a.k.a. Vernita N'Cognita, the curator and creator of Art from Detritus, is a visual & performance artist and has been the director of Viridian Artists since 2005. Her complete biography can be seen on wikipedia.

gallery hours Tuesday through Saturday 12-6PM.  For further information phone 212-414-4040 or email viridianartistsinc@gmail.com. View our

Alan Gaynor and Stacey Clarfield Newman In Group Show at the Kimmell Galleries at NYU: "Unnatural Election: Artists Respond to the 2016 US Presidential Election"

"Unnatural Election: Artists Respond to the 2016 US Presidential Election" 

Over 150 international artists, curated by Andrea Arroyo.
OPENING RECEPTION: JANUARY 19, 2017, 6-8pm.Kimmel Galleries, New York University.
60 Washington Square South, 8th Fl, New York, NY 10012.

Free and open to the public, the exhibit continues through the Spring.

Press Release: "Similarities And Differences II"

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"Similarities and Differences 2"
January 10- 28, 2017
Reception Thursday January 12, 6-8pm

Joshua Greenberg, Rosemary K Lyons, Darryl Moody, Sarah Riley,

Toto Takamori, Meredeth Turshen           

Chelsea NY: Viridian Artists is pleased to present an exhibition of outstanding art by six artists who are part of Viridian Artists' Affiliate program. The "Similarities and Differences" in these artists' creations are not immediately apparent, but each has a personal vision that that often supersedes their imagery. Their meanings & motives reveal themselves and it is then that we understand move clearly their "Similarities and Differences 2". The show extends from January 10th to 28th with a reception to meet the artists Thursday January 12th, 6-8pm.

In Lines and Latitudes, Joshua Greenberg explores the lines, which divide us and the latitude we use to bring about change. As lines turn into abstract forms, this action represent the flexibility and freedom that latitude brings. The series is designed to illustrate that from lines may come both latitude and art.

Rosemary K Lyons’ “Alter Pieces” is an ongoing series inspired by early medieval altar pieces. Painted in the ancient technique using egg tempera, hers carry a modern twist that electrifies our cultural disconnect by portraying beautiful flowers with evocative words embossed in bas relief gold structures. Lyons states, “the words are from an internal dialogue about my existence as an artist."

Darryl Moody’s latest photographs continue his fascination with graffiti, poster remnants, marks and the detritus of life found on urban walls. He reads meanings into what he sees that go beyond the tangible fragments that remain. The artist says about his image “Homeless” that it is “a photographic moment taken from a wall in NYC reflecting anticipated gentrification. A stamp of a linear representation of a house stands as the last representation of personal security and is repeated as if a cause. The underlining layered graphic material suggests a lost struggle to maintain.”

 Sarah Riley has created a series of monoprints paying tribute to Camille Claudel, Rodin’s rejected protégée and lover who was a talented sculptor in her own right. As is the case for many female artists still, emotional, economic and family considerations hampered Claudel’s artmaking. Riley though, has not let herself be hampered by such things. A former art professor and Chair of the Printmaking Department at Southeast Missouri State University, she has also written a book (available on Amazon) entitled “Practical Mixed-Media Printmaking,” an essential introduction to printmaking using a wide range of low-cost materials.

Toto Takamori clearly loves oil paint. A Japanese artist who lives in Tokyo, Takamori creates small works that are thickly and texturally covered with paint that often takes months to dry. Filled with color, his artistic goal is to explore the medium of paint from figurative to abstracted modes using his wet on wet method of applying paint.

Meredeth Turshen who teaches at Rutgers University is an artist who creates gestural imagery abstracted from life. These new works are bold, layered and textured paintings on paper with oil paint. Turshen's compositions seek to evoke energy and movement as they radiate light.

Viridian's Affiliate program is one of the many ways in which our gallery continues its mission of supporting the art of outstanding "underknown" artists.

Gallery hours: Tuesday through Saturday 12-6PM

For further information please contact the gallery at 212 414 4040 or viridianartistinc@gmail.com

Press Release " Once Upon A Time..."

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“ONCE UPON A TIME…”

Viridian Artists' 47th Annual Holiday Invitational
December 20, 2016 – January 7, 2017
Reception Thursday, December 22, 6-8

Chelsea: In celebration of Viridian Artists' 47th annual holiday invitational, the gallery is pleased to present the exhibition “ONCE UPON A TIME…”. Opening December 20th with a reception Thursday, December 22, 6-8PM, the exhibition continues through January 7, 2017.

 ONCE UPON A TIME…  the classic beginning of children’s books harkens to beautiful memories when life was simpler and everyone lived happily ever after.  Of course, now we are grown up & have learned that life too often is not fair and can be filled with the unexpected. For some this is exciting & wonderful, for others it is horrifying.

As we near the close of 2016, many of us are filled with a sense of trepidation and apprehension. Many populations of today's world are afflicted with anguish and apprehensions of all sorts - political, religious, environmental, to name just a few.    

 In early, more primitive times, many cultures realized that the artist was the shaman who possessed the powers that could make us well, create wealth and power. It was art, not science that soothed the spirit- that saved us.   

With the power of the creative spirit in mind, Viridian has invited artists to present their art to aid in the healing of your spirit. In addition, to aid visitors in finding gifts for those who matter in their lives, the gallery has created its annual Olde Arte Shoppe, filled with artist-made gifts of prints, photography, jewelry, cards, etc. all priced under $150 for last minute holiday shopping or just for giving to oneself... 

Featured artists:

Renee Borkow, Henry Coupe, Jan Davis, May DeViney, Bernice Faegenburg, Arthur Dworin, Franz Fox, Tazuko Fujii, Oi Sawa, Alan Gaynor, Wally Gilbert, Kathleen King, Namiyo Kubo, Matthias Merdan, John Nieman, Stacey Clarfield Newman, Filippo Prandi, Srividya Kannan Ramachandran, Barbara K Schwartz, Susan Sills, Virginia Evans Smit, Angela Smith, Robert Smith, Deborah Sudran, Joshua Greenberg, Phyllis Featherstone, Rosemary Lyons, Darryl Moody, Michael Reck, Sarah Riley, Katherine Ellinger Smith, Toto Takamori, Vernita N'Cognita, Jenny Belin, Marcia Bernstein, Irene Christensen, Kathy Levine, Elizabeth Ginsberg, Sheila Smith, Ed Herman, Mary Hendricks, Bernice Kramer, Angela M. LaMonte, Marcia Lloyd, Lenore Mills, Scott Kulok, Petronia Paley, Sam Wiener, Lynne Mayocole, Fred Gutzeit, Emily Booth, Celia Gilbert, Derrick Smit, Sarah Goodlow Riley- Land, Jane Talcott, John Lloyd, Alex Woodhouse, Flora Hogman, Flash Light,  Harini Ramachandran, William Paterson Armstrong, Sabra Moore

Gallery hours: Tuesday through Saturday 12-6PM          

For further information please contact Vernita Nemec, Gallery Director or Jenny Belin, Assistant Director at 212 414 4040 or viridianartistinc@gmail.com

www.viridianartists.com

Wally Gilbert: Open Studios

Wally Gilbert will have Open Studios the weekend of November 19-20,
Saturday and Sunday
12 to 6 pm

Brickbottom
One Firtchburg Street,
C319
Somerville, MA 02143

There will be a general open studios in Brickbottom those two days.  60 artists will be showing.
http://brickbottomartists.com/open_studios_info

Three paintings by Franz Fox have been selected for Steadfast Magazine's Issue No.3, A Tribute to Cuba

Three paintings by Franz Fox have been selected for Steadfast Magazine's Issue No.3, A Tribute to Cuba. Steadfast Magazine is a New York City based bi-annual publication dedicated in valuing and supporting the contemporary artist in modern society. This issue is a devotion to Cuban and Cuban-American artist representation and the awe-inspiring survival of artistic inspiration in individuals who find freedom each day through a steadfast desire to create. 

Fox was born in Holguin, Cuba. His family immigrated to the US just before the Cuban Missile crisis. Three Fox works will be included in this publication. This issue will debut in Miami during Art Basel in December, 2016. Fox has been invited to participate in a curated group show, in which select artists from the issue will debut their work on the opening night of the event in Miami. 

An article about Fox and three paintings in his Neoplasticity genre will be featured in the magazine. The paintings include Windows, 60 x 48 mixed media on canvas, Absinthe of Malice, 48 x 36, mixed media on canvas, and Corpus, 48 x 36, mixed media on canvas.

Centered around Cuban art and culture, Issue No.3 of Steadfast Magazine is devoted to the awe-inspiring survival of artistic inspiration in individuals who find freedom each day through a steadfast desire to create. The artists, writers, and contributors featured in Issue No.3 inform and educate our readers on the artistic, political and social environment in Cuba, with a focus on human rights activism and social injustice. La Libertad Artistica is dedicated to the men and women, seen and unseen, known and unknown, who have suffered the inequalities of oppression and persecution in the name of artistic freedom.

In addition to Franz Fox, the following artists are also featured in Issue No.3, La Libertad Artistica: Abelardo Morell, Adrian Fernandez, Angie Garcia, Armando Valladares, Brian Batt, Chelsea Kozak, Christina Arza, El Sexto, Geandy Pavon, Hector Frank, Jorge Valls, Lissette Schaeffler, Rachel Valdès Camejo and Tania Bruguera.

 Fox is currently represented by Viridian Gallery in Chelsea, New York City, NY and FineArtCollector in Boston, MA.