For an artist, there is a great honor to be invited to exhibit alongside of their artist colleague at their gallery. This month at Queen City 15 gallery visitors can see who the member artists selected during the annual “Just Us Plus II” exhibit. The exhibit shows the breadth of artists working here in the Hudson River Valley area making beautiful and provocative art.
Joel Brown‘s ceramic sculpture “Milepost,” is prominently displayed in the gallery window. The bold geometrical shapes are reminiscent of ancient artifacts unearthed from archeological ruins. Inside the gallery a grouping of his work shows Brown’s mastery using different glazes on the wood-fired ceramic vessels.
The members’ work is featured in the front of the gallery representing a variety of media. For instance, see Mary Flad‘s ethereal diptych weaving, “Daedalus and Icarus.” Woven with wool and mixed fibers that are translucent in places, the composition includes abstract shapes around the sun reminding us of the Greek tragedy about the dangers of flying too close to the sun.
The members include Paola Bari’s “Optical Illusion” a finely painted porcelain sculpture with an intricate composition that melds flowers and insects along with precise images of a spinning top. Xuewu Zheng’s prescient print shows a stylized American flag waving in the center of an abstract blue design. Lisa Winika’s painting, “The Last Supper” depicts a sun setting over a landscape that brings to mind the landscapes of Thomas Hart Benton. Founding member Donna Blackwell exhibits her sterling silver jewelry, some embellished with stone. Her preparatory sketch of a piece of jewelry design is exhibited in the gallery to show her process.
Invited painters include a variety of styles, including Karl Schmitz exhibiting his abstract canvases exploring other realities, to Marcy Bernstein’s artworks that read as a shrine. Guest photographers include Stephanie JT Russell showing black and white works and Lori Adams showing color photographs. Adams stages these photos with props including fruit and flowers into a still life that at first glance appear to be a renaissance painting. Paola Bari invited Ellen Metzger O’Shea, who exhibits eight landscape studies of Honeoye Lake in the summer.
Jeff Johnson was invited by Suprina to show his fine woodworking: the three pieces include a modernist lounge chair and two wood wall sculptural pieces that show his master woodworking skills combined with his artistic sensibilities. Mary Flad invited Jeep Johnson to exhibit: Johnson shows a floor installation with a mixture of textile, metallic cloth and lights tied together with red threads crisscrossing the piece. Xuewu Zheng invited Eighteen Yuan: her installation of stones is exhibited on a table with stones in a river formation that leaps off the table and continue up onto the wall.
This essay was originally published in Hudson Valley News Weekend, January 13, 2021
Participating Artists:
Lori Adams, Paola Bari, Marcy Bernstein, Donna Blackwell, Joel Brown, Tom Ellman, Anita Kiewra Fina, Mary Flad, Mary Ann Glass, Christy Guercio, Jeep Johnson, Jeff Johnson, Nanci Lent, William Noonan, Emmanuel Ofori, Ellen Metzger O’Shea, Clara Rodriguez, Stephanie JT Russel, Karl Schmitz, Suprina, Lorna Thompson, Anna West, Lisa Winika, Eighteen Yuan, Xuewu Zheng
Queen City 15 Gallery is located at 317 Main Street, Poughkeepsie.
“Just Us Plus II” exhibition: January 8-30, 2021
Phone: 845-372-6658 | Private viewing by appointment: email queencity15gallery@gmail.com
Life & Art 