Best Wishes for a Healthy, Creative and Productive New Year!
The 27th Chelsea International Fine Art Competition
 The Chelsea
International Fine Art Competition 2012 will be open soon! The contest will be accepting
entries from February 7, 2012, so start looking through your portfolio now to choose
your images. The prizes for selected artists are specifically chosen to enhance
and promote careers in fine art. The juror this year is Ira Goldberg, the Executive
Director of the well-known Arts Students League of New York.
Agora Gallery director Angela Di Bello feels strongly that there is more to be gained
from entering competitions than prizes and awards. She states: “In addition to providing
a valuable career building experience, fine art competitions challenge professional
artists as well as art students to create some of their most innovative and finest
work. The excitement generated by simply entering a competition and "thinking outside
the box" leads to numerous new possibilities and to opening doors that may otherwise
remain shut. You must fearlessly take control of your own destiny and experience
a quantum leap into the future…Yours!”
To find out more, visit:
http://www.agora-gallery.com/competition/default.aspx.
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December 29th - Opening Reception
 On the evening
of December 29, 2011 Agora Gallery was full of bustling life during the opening
reception for
Born of Fire: Carlo Proietto / a Solo Exhibition and for
The Odyssey Within, the annual exhibition featuring the work of talented
Greek and Italian artists. Artists, gallery staff and the large and lively crowd
threw themselves into an appreciation of the art on display. There was an extra
frisson of excitement in the air as it was just after Christmas, when decorations
are still up and gleaming all around, and so close to New Year’s Eve – many of the
artists who were visiting the city for their reception had plans to go to Times
Square, or to see the fireworks, making the absolute most of their time in New York.
 Solo exhibit artist
Carlo Proietto communicated his passion for his work and method
and an infective energy to the many guests who admired his art and wanted to talk
to him. Talking via a translator and through the images in his pyrography books,
there was much animated discussion and many beaming faces. He was even asked to
sign catalogs by some of those who had been most impressed by his creations and
the stories they told!
Visitors also showed great enthusiasm for the works presented in The Odyssey Within,
particularly those of Greek artist Maria Kavvou-Vlataki and Italian
artist Paola Guerra, who was back for her second exhibition at
Agora Gallery. In addition, the geometric patterns of Mara Fabbro
and the striking visions of Ermeti Martina came in for much discussion,
as did the inventive compositions of Maurizio Giarnetti and the
elegant calligraphic ink-and-brush works of Floriana Rigo. The
beguiling symbolic creations of Fausto Arrighi also formed a center
of much interest, as well as the compelling sculptures of Perry Bianchini
and the art of Armida Pupa Nardi, which is inspired by the natural
world. Luciano Primavera explained an extra level of poignant meaning
behind his work ‘Maiella Madre 2,’ which shows the mountain in which several people,
including his father, hid during World War II.
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The Humanitarians - Chantal Westby
Each month our newsletter sheds light on an artist whose contribution to a humanitarian
cause has brought welcome relief and assistance to someone or to a multitude of
those in need. This month we introduce Chantal Westby.
 Chantal
Westby recently visited Haiti for the second time, helping to provide
people there with health care, clothing, school supplies, toys and exposure to the
arts. The experience was a moving one which left a strong impression on her about
the importance of helping to improve the situation there.
“I went with my husband, Helen Orsinger, a dear and courageous friend, three members
of IPDC (The Indigenous Pitch Dance Collective, a registered non-profit organization
that has set up and staffed art camps for dance, music, painting, and journal preparation
in North Philadelphia and New Orleans for the past 5 years), and a documentary film
crew from Belgium and France. We stayed at the Christian University of North Haiti,
as on the previous trip during which we instructed approximately 100 children, ages
5-14, in the arts for a week from 9am-5pm. On that occasion we helped the children
to produce a spectacle of dance and music for their relatives at the end of the
week – a very inspirational event. On this trip, we conducted a two day art camp
in Limbe with the help of ACRAL, an association concerned with improving education
and living conditions in that city.
I was very moved by the innocence and beauty of the children, and very impressed
with their innate artistic talent. I have worked very hard to develop as an artist
and the greatest reward I have thus far experienced in my career was the sense of
being able to transmit my personal drive and vision to those children. Without doubt
exposure to the arts and to what is beautiful in this world is as important as food
and medical care – all are crucial.
 Helen, George,
the film crew and I subsequently traveled by car across the island to Port au Prince,
which can truly be described as a stricken city. The physical destruction is impressive
but pales next to the squalor and degrading conditions in the tent cities where
the survivors are forced to live. It will not be easy to achieve true improvement
here, but it is an essential task, one that the whole world should be involved in.
If you are contributing time and effort to providing or improving basic needs
and services like food, housing, medicine, education, clothing and, last but not
least, inspiration and hope to those in need, we would like to hear from you. Please
note that the work should be through an established foundation of your own. Please
submit a summary with photos to karin@agora-gallery.com
for consideration. Your contribution should be 250-300 words long, describing your
cause and how your work as an artist is directly linked to the charitable cause
you are involved with and/or how the cause has influenced your art.
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Kudos and Accolades
Nathan Sawaya: Recent Works, opened on December 10, 2011 and will
be on view through March 18, 2012. Recent Works is organized by Elaine Berger for
the museum’s Contemporary Collectors Circle in cooperation with the Agora Gallery.
We encourage everyone to visit
Nathan Sawaya's exhibition at the Nassau County Museum of Fine Art.
New York Details: by
Nadine Y. Jeners/a solo exhibition: Nadine Jeners
presents her New York impressions in a solo exhibtion at the Galleria Monteoliveto,
in Nice, France. Her work will be on view until January 15, 2012.
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Newsletter / January 2012
In This Issue
Exhibitions
NOW SHOWING
UPCOMING
Previous Exhibitions
View videos and photos of previous exhibitions at Agora Gallery
Contact Us
530 West 25th Street
New York, New York, 10001
212-226-4151/212-966-4380
info@agora-gallery.com
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