February 20, 2007 - March 13, 2007

Reception: Thursday, February 22, 2007, 6:00pm - 8:00pm

Gallery Location: 530 West 25th St, Chelsea, New York
Gallery Hours: Tues - Sat, 11am - 6pm

Joanna Bailey Spela Cvetko Elie Bou Zeidan Rebecca Darlington Marta G. Ismail Naru Yoshida Almeriane
Ninos Chammo Karen Carey Joel Carpenter Dibyendu Dey JBuza SooJin Jeong Philippe Ringlet

Abstract Perspectives

Artists Joana Bailey and Spela Svetko probe the nexus of the conscious and the subconscious in abstract works that give graphic precision an intuitively charged freedom. Exploring profound themes such as birth and creation, the artists take on the grander mysteries of life in canvases of rich color and precisely composed geometry.

Joanna Bailey

Artist Page

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"Tribe in the City"

"City Dance"

Spela Cvetko

Artist Page

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"Returning Journey"

"It's all Yours"

Color and Candor

Testifying to the potency of color in contemporary symbolism, Color and Candor showcases paintings by four outstanding artists from different cultural backgrounds. Classical tradition and contemporary perception meet in a unique exhibition that presents still lifes ranging from imaginative surrealism to figurative representation.

Elie Bou Zeidan

Artist Page

Elie Bou Zeidan renders striking naturalistic paintings, capturing simple moments and sensual revelations in every stroke. A classical painter throughout, his works ignite the deepest visceral longing for aesthetic release. He meditates on the human lust for beauty in pictures which capture the light and effortlessness of allure and attraction. As Kahlil Gibran astutely observed, "Art arises when the secret vision of the artist and the manifestation of nature agree to find new shapes." Indeed Bou Zeidan uses deft technical facility to conjure the textures and luminance of naturalistic subjects in each of his varied works. The classicism of his works suggests a strong influence from classical French art, as his meticulous renderings reveal a "unique ability to blend European style with the ambiance of the Orient." Working in alternatively lively and muted color palettes, Bou Zeidan vacillates mediums from oil on linen canvas, to oil on wood, to pastels or even Chinese ink. In his paintings he confirms the timeless aphorism, "art completes what nature cannot bring to a finish."

A master of still-lives, landscapes, and nudes, Bou Zeidan descends from Ablah, Lebanon, where he began painting at a very early age. After he fled Lebanon to escape the turmoil of civil war, he moved to France, and currently lives and works in Paris. His work is widely collected in Europe and the United States.

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"Santa Margarita "

"Woman in a Blue Tunic"

Rebecca Darlington

Artist Page

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"3 Chairs"

"Family on Line"

Marta G. Ismail

Artist Page

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"Sunset"

"Big Apple"

Naru Yoshida

Artist Page

Japanese Artist Naru Yoshida combines a passion for traditional Japanese calligraphy, a love of colors and textiles, and a free spirited attitude to the Art of painting. After working as a textile designer for fashion companies in Japan, Yoshida decided to explore the Fine Arts and his studies lead him to Australia and the United States. The ideas that abstract forms can convey emotional responses influence Yoshida’s imaginative and symbolic style. Through the use of color and unusual spatial relationships he creates an inquisitive atmosphere and an open dialogue between his work and the audience; so doors, horses, and flowers call out to the contemporary viewer, asking him or her to lend them meanings and thoughts about what it means to be a human being in these modern times. These days Naru Yoshida lives and works in South Hampton, New York.

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"My Dream"

"My Hope"

Figuratively Speaking

Figuratively Speaking takes the charms of fantastic narrative to the visual medium, presenting exceptional works in oil and bronze. Letting the imagination craft each image into an intricate work blending a breadth of the imagination with a reverence for antique imagery, artists Almeriane and Ninos Chammo take the viewer on a visual feast of elaborate colors and forms.

Almeriane

Artist Page

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"La Luna y el Toro"

"El robo de la Luna"

Ninos Chammo

Artist Page

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"traveling hair"

"Aloha"

Form and Substance

Whether through the fragile translucency of glass or the weight and power inherent in thick brushstrokes of oil, the exhibition presents profound studies of the individual in a moment of crisis, apathy or enjoyment. Each piece, in depicting a person or object, becomes a meditative portrait that elucidates the emotional substance of both the figurative and representational form.

Karen Carey

Artist Page

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"Stream III, IV, V - Triptych"

"Untitled-1"

Joel Carpenter

Artist Page

Joel Carpenter’s paintings explore the relationship between women and their experience of the world. Both sensitive and stark, his compositions allow the viewer to ruminate on his suggestive titles, such as, “What Else Will You Take From Me?” Carpenter treats the female form elegantly; his figures possess the same kind of mystery of serenity as portraits of the Madonna. Each face conveys a complicated interior life going on beneath its surface, which Carpenter suggests through his muted color palette and boldly exaggerated eyes. In his work, the artist likes to let his artistic inspiration flow out from within. Like the Abstract Expressionists, Carpenter says he has “the same fervor and desire to let the painting process dictate the imagery.” Joel Carpenter has been painting and exhibiting his work for thirty years. He lives and works in Colorado.

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"What Else Will You Take From Me?"

"Georgia O' Keefe"

Dibyendu Dey

Artist Page

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"Sculptor's Studio"

"The Restaurant"

JBuza

JBuza

Artist Page

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"Woman and Child"

"Isolation"

SooJin Jeong

Artist Page

In her most recent works, SooJin Jeong rejects her previous figurative style in an attempt to explore her Buddhist faith. Based in Zen philosophy, Jeong’s gouaches are careful abstract arrangements of lucid color and undulating shape, rejecting trivial things to reveal the truer reality in which beauty exists without ego, desire, or want. Her translucent colors possess a liquid quality, flowing over the paper and mimicking the transient nature of life. The artist’s hand is almost completely erased in these organic works, giving the impression that they merely exist, rather than having been created.

Having spent most of her life in Korea, Jeong’s work is both deeply personal and reflective of her native cultural influences. She uses her work not only to explore her own complex biographical narrative, but to engage in a dialogue with the viewer and examining her work becomes a spiritual experience for each individual, an ever changing and impermanent journey. SooJin Jeong lives and works in New York.

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"JEONG_4"

"JEONG_12"

The Essence of Light

Philippe Ringlet grants the viewer access to the very essence of ordinary reality, a space in which color, light and form all convene in beautiful harmony. Ringlet has exhibited his work in solo exhibitions all over France and throughout Europe. He currently lives and works in Switzerland.

Philippe Ringlet

Artist Page

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"Nous Regardons"

"L'une D'elles, Parfois"