art and life – Life & Art

The Art of memory walking

Debra Priestly has a one-person exhibit, memory walking, at 11 Jane Street Art Center in Saugerties through December 13. Priestly’s art is held in prestigious collections including Pennsylvania Academy for the Fine Arts, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, The Sandor Family Collection and Petrucci Family Foundation. This exhibit shows the breadth of Priestly’s artmaking, including installation, painting, and drawing that examines memory and generational links through the backdrop of history.

Many of the objects featured in Priestly’s work are ordinary domestic objects found in every home. Priestly commented, “For many years, I have been interested in the way common rituals, such as the preparation and consumption of food, and the everyday objects used in these rituals can spark a dialogue.” And this is part of Priestly’s oeuvre – to honor the mythology that grows from the ordinary rituals that we practice in our daily life.

Immediately on entering the gallery visitors can view “looking glass 8,” a collection of mismatched teacups fashioned into a large wreath. Decorative imagery on the cups mingle with hand-painted portraits and photo transfers from the artists’ family photos. Priestly commented; “The conversations about the cups, sometimes over tea, always lead to a conversation about ancestry.”

copyright Debra Priestly, 1999 | looking glass 8

The ubiquitous canning jar is seen frequently in her work where we can understand the symbolism of preserving history. While most of the artworks spring from personal stories, in “strange fruit 2” Priestly has collected historic drawings featured in newspapers, advertising flyers for slave auctions and anti-slave meetings, and imagery of the 1800’s Black heroes, such as Sojourner Truth and Nat Turner. The 40 images encapsulated in canning jars and presented together in one piece create a strong statement about the history of America and the memories that all American Black families have in their lives.

copyright Debra Priestly | strange fruit 2

Priestly has several delicate drawings and paintings on exhibit: in one, she has traced points on a map and painted zodiac constellations that recall migrations to new lands. In another, a simple line drawing in the shape of a canning jar holds imagery within – sometimes a portrait of an ancestor painted from a photograph, or a rendering of the rack that fits inside of the pot when making preserves. These common objects are painted with reverence, acknowledging the place they hold in life’s order.

Proceeding ahead to Gallery North, see the installation, “somewhere listening,” where Priestly pulls together all the themes seen in her work weaving together family stories and memories that trace their histories. The portraits of Annie Laura Denny Priestly and William Henry Priestly at the far end of the gallery depict the artist’s ancestors beautifully rendered in vine charcoal. Three soup tureens are placed strategically on the path to the portraits where visitors will hear murmurings of recordings emanating from Priestly’s relatives recounting migration stories, songs and prayers. Altogether the sound and artworks create a shrine to family – the memories, stories, and the implication that every day we create our own history that will be remembered in the future.

North gallery installation by Debra Priestly | somewhere listening

Debra Priestly, memory walking is at 11 Jane Street Art Center through December 13, 2020, located at 11 Jane Street, Saugerties, NY.

Hours: Friday-Saturday: noon-6:00 p.m. and Sunday: noon-5:00 p.m., and by appointment: (508) 241-0273 or email: jen@11janestreet.com

www.11janestreet.com | https://www.facebook.com/11janest.artcenter/

This was originally published in the Poughkeepsie Journal Lifestyle, November 15, 2020.

The Art of Ransome

The Barrett Art Center mounted the one-person exhibit Ransome: The View From Here, showing a recent body of work from James Ransome. The spare exhibit encompassed 12 paintings, most of them of a generous size where it was advisable to stand back and take in all the details of the artworks before moving in close to examine details.

Outside the gallery entry Ransome provided his artist statement that stated that: “One of the things though, that has always afflicted the American reality, and the American vision, is this aversion to history. History is not something you read about in a book – history is not even the past – it’s the present. Because everyone operates, whether or not we know it, out of assumptions which are produced, and produced only by, our history.”

Ransome has created a narrative history of life grounded in being a Black person in America. Bounded by the past, but looking at the future, Ransome makes paintings that revere the artistic brilliance of Black persons that have taken this path. He references the work of Kerry James Marshall, a Black American artist that has dedicated his art career to depicting the lives of Black persons in their everyday life, as well as the quilters of Gee’s Bend, a collective of Alabama quilters who went on to exhibit their work at the Whitney Museum of American Art and beyond.

In a nod to this history, Ransome has used the design thinking of quilts as collage in many of these works. In the painting, “Quilt Folks,” the artist has composed the painting into three horizontal strips – the top two contain various papers collaged to create the feeling of a variety of quilt designs as seen in the work of the Gee’s Ben quilters. At the bottom of the artwork is what appears to be a parade of Black people, perhaps signifying that in that small Alabama community of Gee’s Bend, nearly everyone was a master quilt maker. Ransome uses scraps of papers, some that have been overpainted, to mimic the quilter’s bold designs. The gallery contains several paintings on corrugated cardboard, in a nod to the quilters who made their quilts out of worn everyday clothing.

In the painting, “Who Should Own Black Art,” viewers will see two figures posing proudly besides a large replica of Kerry James Marshall’s painting, “When Frustration Threatens Desire.” The painting within the painting has been slightly altered, with the black cat jumping into the foreground with the living humans. Ransome has referenced the question that has become key to the dialogue of art – who should be able to own original artworks? And in this particular instance, who gets to own artwork created by Black artists who have achieved fame?

The Ransome exhibit, “The View From Here,” was on exhibit October 10-November 14, 2020 at the Barrett Art Center: 55 Noxon Street, Poughkeepsie
845-471-2550 | info@barrettartcenter.org.

This article is an edited version originally published in the Poughkeepsie Journal Lifestyle, Sunday, November 1, 2020.

Photographs were courtesy of the artist Ransome, who reserves all rights over the images.

A Travel Memory

The mask that inspired our search for the artist.

The mask that inspired our search for Margarito Melchor Santiago

December 27, 2019:

We are walking through the small town of San Martín Tilcajete searching for the artist, Margarito Melchor Santiago. We had spotted a carved wood mask of his in the tiny museum Museo de Arte Popular Oaxaca in San Bartolo Coyotepec. We had only the name but we knew this was a small town and people should know the artist.

Asking around at the shops on the main street into town, a helpful merchant said he did know the artist and drew us a tiny map and pointed up the hill. We began walking up the hill and continued as the road went from cobblestones to hard-packed dirt. As we walked up hills we began seeing murals that had a similar theme.

We made a few wrong turns but finally found the studio and Margarito Melchor Santiago and his family warmly welcomed us inside. They were very pleased that we had sought them out after seeing their mask in the display of regional artists in the museum. They described how their family had a long tradition of mask carving beginning with his father, who stepped inside the showroom momentarily to say hello and to please excuse him for he had much work to so.

We inquired whether they had any more masks, but Margarito shook his head no. He explained they were busy making masks that had been commissioned for delivery in time for the big carnaval coming up in a few weeks. The carnaval begins in the morning when the boys and men paint their bodies with colors, some with motor oil, wear devil masks and parade throughout the village. The carnaval has been getting much attention in the past few years, attracting many from outside of this small village. Our hosts invited us to return for carnaval – someday we might.

Linda and Scott Marston-Reid pose with Margarito Melchor Santiago and family. Linda holds the Gallo, which did return home with us.

The art of patterns

Another work day begins at home. I’ve created a place to focus and noticed this morning that greens and blues are the predominant colors in my space. The green bowl holds freshly cut sage from an overgrown side garden. Here it represents an honored place as a reminder that we are all tied to nature.

The small painting is by Penny Dell, featuring a collage of cubes created from the safety patterns seen on envelopes. Each cube is edged with gold encaustic paint, making the stacked cubes more precious.

Next to that is a jar created by Alexis Feldheim. This work has similar connections with the patterns Penny Dell uses – Alexis used her series of photographs and transferred the images onto the ceramic vessel. Having these things around me while I work reminds me how fortunate I am to be surrounded by a community of artists.

The Art of Wall Flowers

The Lockwood Gallery is known for mounting concept driven group shows featuring the work of exceptional Hudson Valley regional artists. During June, gallery proprietor and curator Alan Goolman invited artist Carol Struve to co-curate an exhibit, “Wall Flowers,” featuring six painters who are inspired by nature. The curators selected a body of work from each of the artists allowing viewers to appreciate each artists’ interpretation of the theme.

The front gallery features Carol Stuve’s lively monoprints filling the gallery with their exuberant colors and transparent layering of flower and leaf shapes. Struve commented, “While tending or walking about my gardens I witness colorful blossoms illuminated by the radiant morning light, dancing about in the gentle breeze.” Using these memories of her garden, Struve returns to her studio to capture the essence of color and light that are evident in her monoprints.

Joy Taylor also explores the natural world through her art and this exhibit includes paintings that suggest a narrative about the flowers she portrays. In one series, Taylor places the flower in a vessel; each painting describes an other-worldly flower as still-life with a curtain painted behind each vase. The work brings to mind the 70’s Hard-edge painters like Al Held and Ellsworth Kelly, however, Taylor’s style is unmistakably her own.

“Reflections of a Banana #5” by Joy Taylor

Kelly Schnurr exhibits 8 diminutive paintings with imagery that could also be successful on a grander scale. Schnurr is also inspired by the garden, citing that “a trail of sage highlighted in chartreuse, pops of vermilion, cornflower accents, and sprinkles of white lace ignites something inside of me.” The gouache paintings on paper exemplify the colors of the garden through gestural shapes and patterns.

Gabe Brown exhibits ten sumptuous paintings on paper. Brown’s work contains layers of water color and gouache which she embellishes with Prismacolor Pencils. The paintings are filled with references to the ordinary world that we see every day, however, Brown has teased apart each image, color, and shape and reorganized them in a way that creates meaning to her.

Don’t miss the back gallery filled with the series of what at first appears to be traditional paintings by Thomas Sarrantonio. Upon closer examination, viewers will see these luscious paintings of the grasses, flowers, and fields of spring are also a way to immerse yourself into nature’s beauty and detach for a few moments of bliss.

Sharing the back gallery are the magical ‘wall flowers’ created by Beth Humphrey, who provided this comment about her work: “I think about cycles in nature, gentle and violent forces at a moment of change and the shape of things at moments of transformation.” These whimsical paper creations are just what everyone needs dancing on their walls. Humphrey created these works by layering colors and embellishing with patterns, which the artist then cuts out into imaginative creatures. Humphrey’s wall flowers are displayed salon style on the entire wall and each creation has its own color, form and personality. Inviting one of these artworks into your space could bring the magic you’ve been seeking.

Beth Humphrey exhibits “End of Summer,” part of a series in the Wall Flowers show

The Lockwood Gallery is located at 747 Route 28, Kingston, NY 12401
Wall Flowers is on exhibit through June 20, 2020.
Phone: 845-532-4936 – Website: https://www.thelockwoodgallery.com/

This article was originally published in the Poughkeepsie Journal Lifestyle Section, Sunday, June 7, 2020.

All photos are courtesy of The Lockwood Gallery and the artists retain all rights to the images.

art and exhibitions

The Art of memory walking

November 16, 2020November 15, 2020

art and exhibitions

The Art of Ransome

The Barrett Art Center mounted the one-person exhibit Ransome: The View From Here, showing a recent body of work from James Ransome. The spare exhibit encompassed 12 paintings, most of them of a generous size where it was advisable to stand back and take in all the details of the artworks before moving in close … Continue reading “The Art of Ransome”

November 2, 2020November 2, 2020

art and life

A Travel Memory

The mask that inspired our search for the artist.

October 11, 2020

The Place of Memory (The Memory of Place)

Jan Sawka was a world renowned artist with artwork held in collections of 60 museums. Originally from Poland, his life took on unexpected direction when he was exiled from his country during the Cold War. He landed in New York and eventually made his home in High Falls, where he continued to make art from 1985 until his death in 2012.

Currently, the Dorsky Museum has a one-person thematic exhibit of Sawka’s work, The Place of Memory (The Memory of Place), curated by the artists’ daughter, Hanna Maria Sawka and Dr. Frank Boyer. The artworks clearly show Sawka’s love for his new country and especially the Hudson Valley. This is seen in the large four-panel painting depicting the Ashokan Reservoir, a place that reminded Sawka of his home country. Hanna Sawka, the artist’s daughter, commented: “This was a favorite place for my parents to take walks. The Hudson Valley was a place tied to my father’s memories.”

Sawka, his wife and daughter would travel for summer vacations to Asbury, New Jersey. Sawka felt the urban decline of Asbury Park reminded him of the conditions in Soviet-dominated Poland. The painting, “Asbury Notebook,” contains a multitude of small sketches and paintings that describe one detail about the place. Together, the images create a symphony of visuals.

Sawka-Asbury-Notebook-HR-1536x970-2 — Jan Sawka, *Asbury Notebook, 1981 Acrylic, graphite, mixed media on Masonite Courtesy Jan and Michael Solow*

An entire gallery space is devoted to Sawka’s series, “Post-Cards,” which includes 36 drypoint prints of places around the world that were meaningful to the artist. What is especially exciting about this exhibit is a recent discovery of a letter from Sawka to Elena Millie, who was the Fine Prints Curator at the Library of Congress, where he described the inspiration and memories that he associated for each print in the “Post-Cards” series. Visitors will find these descriptions available in the gallery to guide their exploration.

Sawka-Postcard #32 — Jan Sawka, *Post-Card #32* (from the series “Post-Cards”), 1987-89, printed 1990, collection Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, gift of the Dorsky Gallery Curatorial Programs

Each of the artworks was created using drypoint, which is a scratching tool to create line on thick sheets of Plexiglas. Hanna Sawka provided this memory of visiting her father’s studio: “The persistent sound of a steel needle scratching Plexiglas is a part of my earliest childhood, it was a sound that I would hear well into adulthood.”

Artists scribe lines into the Plexiglas to create the imagery for a finished print. Lines that are deep and thick will print darker when put through the printing press. Hanna Sawka explained, “The length and the rhythm of the scratches would change with the length of the lines or hatchings. It was not a quiet scratch, but a determined, loud sound as my father scratched hard to create lines deep enough to hold ink for the printing process.” The exhibit includes a glass vitrine that contains two Plexiglas plates for the printing process as well as Jan Sawka’s drypoint scribing tool.

This article was originally published in the Hudson Valley News Weekend, February 26, 2020

Special Events: Planned symposiums were canceled due to COVID-19 pandemic. An online symposium is planned for Saturday, May 2, 2020. https://www.newpaltz.edu/museum/programs/specialevents.html

Symposium: Jan Sawka: The Place of Memory (The Memory of Place): A two-day symposium co-hosted by The Dorsky Museum and The Kosciuszko Foundation in New York City including panels of scholars who will help illuminate aspects of Jan Sawka’s practice, his biography, and the social and historic context of his art. Speakers will include Peter Schwenger, Tom Wolf, Beth Wilson, the exhibition curators and others.

YouTube video exhibition views of Jan Sawka: The Place of Memory (The Memory of Place) Curated by Hanna Maria Sawka and Dr. Frank Boyer at The Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art.

View the catalogue:

Jan Sawka: The Place of Memory (The Memory of Place) is up through July 12, 2020.

The Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art is located at State University of New York at New Paltz, 1 Hawk Drive (75 S. Manheim Boulevard for GPS), New Paltz, NY.

Call or email to check gallery hours: 845.257.3844 | sdma@newpaltz.edu

__________________________________________________

Featured image: The Letter #3, 1979 Acrylic, watercolor, ink, varnish on board. Courtesy Jean Feiwel | Gallery photo by Linda Marston-Reid

In Pursuit of Color

The Lockwood Gallery is one of the latest galleries to the Hudson River art scene and they finish off the year with a flourish with their exhibit In Pursuit of Color. Michael Lockwood, owner of The Lockwood Gallery and curator Alan Goolman organized the exhibit that includes 24 of the Mid-Hudson region’s extraordinary visual artists. Visitors can explore the smaller galleries organized around colors that showcase a variety of paintings, sculptures, drawings, and mixed media.

Enjoy-Andrew-Lyght-Painting-Structures-645C — Andrew Lyght’s artwork, *Painting Structures 645C*

Andrew Lyght’s artwork, Painting Structures 645C, is prominently situated in the first gallery. Lyght created the three-dimensional piece with red oak and plywood, building negative and positive spaces that were informed by his observations of built structures during his early life in Guyana. The piece is embellished with drawings that may remind viewers of the Peruvian Nazca Lines. In the same gallery Stephen Pusey’s lively abstract painting, Nexus, is executed with colorful lines that dance on a rhodamine red background.

Enjoy Joseph Conrad-Ferm Cornu — Cornu, by Joseph Conrad-Ferm

Joseph Conrad-Ferm’s painting, Cornu, was inspired by music. The artist stated, “My mood picks the music that drives my spirit in the studio: Monk, Coltrane, Davis, Parker, and others were in the studio with me.”

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Congruence by Stephen Niccolls

In the same gallery space, see three of Stephen Niccolls’ exquisite paintings including Congruence, where the artist has created an abstract composition that quivers with energy using color and design.

David Provan’s petite sculpture, Primary Structure, is big on presence. The sculpture is created from rods painted the three primary colors; yellow, red, and blue, that crisscross forming interactions with the colors. Provan also exhibits Trance Stance, a painting with color gradations that suggest states of meditation and consciousness.

Enjoy-Susan Spencer Crowe Floating on Blue, 2019 — Floating on Blue by Susan Spencer Crowe

Susan Spencer Crowe’s work is informed by early training and work as a sculptor. Floating on Blue is a recent work where she has created a three-dimensional wall-hung painting by cutting and folding the artwork. As viewers walk around the artwork, each angle brings a fresh view of this complex work.

Enjoy-Talya Baharal — Untitled by Talya Baharal

Talya Baharal’s painting practice has evolved out of her work as a studio art jeweler and sculptor. Her paintings bring unlikely colors together on one surface. For instance, in Untitled, pink and goldenrod yellow intertwine with an organic black line. The work is overpainted with layers and the surface bears markings where the artist has added and subtracted color, adding to the depth of the work.
Laura Gurton’s work explores patterning and color, as does Ralph Moseley‘s One-Over-One color field abstract landscapes.
Several artists depict the human form including Angela Voulgarelis’ delicate study, Portrait of a Young Woman, and D. Jack Solomon‘s diminutive abstractions of the female form. Don’t miss Mike Cockrill’s collage paintings that present the humorous side to art school.
In this exhibit, the exuberant use of color is the focus until you approach Carole Kunstadt’s mark-making drawings that showcase color in a subtle way. The line of the pencil is the star of these drawings and the introduction of small bits of color teases the viewer, who may try to read the markings as a centuries-old text.

This article was originally published in the Poughkeepsie Journal Enjoy! magazine November 13, 2019

The artists retain all rights to images in this post.

The Lockwood Gallery is located at 747 Route 28, Kingston, New York.
In Pursuit of Color was on exhibit November 2019 through January 4, 2020.
Phone: 845-532-4936
Webpage: https://www.thelockwoodgallery.com/

Art and Sculpture at Wilderstein Historic site

Summer in the Hudson River Valley is magical and one destination worth visiting during this time is Wilderstein Historic site in Rhinebeck. Landscape designer, Calvert Vaux created a winding set of walks and trails meandering through the 40 acres of Wilderstein, which also features a stunning Queen Anne mansion. Visitors to Wilderstein can experience the sweeping views along with the 5th Outdoor Sculpture Biennial Exhibition up now through the end of October. This is the second time that local artist and curator, Franc Palaia, has organized the Outdoor Sculpture Biennial increasing the exhibiting artists to 25.

The works have been thoughtfully placed throughout the property, creating a great visitor experience of surprise and discovery. On Wilderstein’s front lawn, you cannot miss “Plastic Bottle Man,” Willie Cole’s larger-than-life sculpture created from 5000 plastic water bottles. The sculpture lounges against one of the grand trees, perhaps unaware that his essence is a major source of world pollution. Turning towards the incredible views of the Hudson River, see William Scholl’s “Portal 409,” a sculpture created from Bluestone and mounted in a large tree.

Circling around towards the back of the mansion, see Alison McNulty’s “Hudson Valley Ghost Column 4.” The artist stated that “The Ghost Columns echo the Hudson Valley’s industrial history and architectural ruins, formalizing traces of the region’s geological, social, and material history.” Visitors will note the stacked bricks and Cormo sheep wool sourced from a historic Hudson Valley fiber farm. Julia Whitney Barnes is another artist fascinated with the historical context that bricks hold in the Hudson River Valley region. She has installed “Hudson River of Bricks,” at the edge of the front lawn of the mansion; an homage to the historical brick industry of the past. Visitors will note the glazed historic bricks included in the installation – the shape of the installation defines the places on the Hudson River that the brickyards formerly operated.

Inside one of the rustic gazebos on the property, see Hans van Meeuwen’s sculpture, “Melvin,” casually seated as if he is surveying the landscape. Nearby on the tennis courts, Namoi Teppich’s sculpture, “Snowflake Cactus” is centered in that space, the cactus spines jutting out from copper outlines provide shape and interest to the simplified sculpture. Step over to the edge of the mansion’s lawn and appreciate the sculpture, “Here I Am,” by Andres San Millan. The life-size sculpture of a horse has leaves of silver and copper that shimmer in the sun.

Poughkeepsie artist Suprina exhibits, “Someone Else’s Shoes” featuring a pump created from found objects. From a distance, the sculpture is in a recognizable form of a pump, but on closer examination, the five-foot-high sculpture could be a bench, a place to take selfies or a place to imagine what it’s like to be in some else’s shoes. Visitors will discover other delightful sculptures placed on the property along the Calvert Vaux designed walking paths, including Joe Chirchirillo’s “Deciduous Rings,” as well as Dave Channon’s “Flâneur,” a sculpture created from rusted metal resurrected from the junkyard.

Details if you’d like to visit:
Wilderstein Historic Site is located at 330 Morton Road, Rhinebeck.
The exhibit will be on view daily 9:00 a.m.- 4:00 p.m. through October 31, 2019. Hiking trails and grounds are open to the public free of charge.
For further information: 845-876-4818 http://wilderstein.org/

Photos by Linda Marston-Reid

This article originally appeared in the Poughkeepsie Journal on July 26, 2019.

The Art of Color Field

Peter A. Bradley has led an enviable life as a successful artist and curator and was at the forefront of the contemporary abstract painter’s movement in the early 1970s. For the past few decades, Bradley has resided in Saugerties where he continues to create new work. For the month of June, Emerge Gallery in Saugerties has mounted a one-person exhibit of Peter Bradley’s paintings.

Enjoy © Peter Bradley_On a Clear Day_45.25x35.25 — “On a Clear Day” | Copyright Peter A. Bradley

As a young man in the 1970s, Bradley developed his contemporary painting style. His work began to be known in what art critic Clement Greenburg called “color field” painting. Other painters using this style included Kenneth Noland, Mark Rothko, and Barnett Newman. As Bradley continued to work as a painter during this time, he made connections while supporting himself through work as a gallery salesperson, handling such artists as Picasso and Calder. These contacts led to Bradley being invited to exhibit his work at The Whitney Museum in the “Contemporary Black Artists of America” show. Bradley wanted his work to be considered with other contemporary artists and not simply as a black artist and declined to show. The criticism among the black community was that there was little black participation in organizing the Whitney exhibit and in response, the Menil Foundation planned to fund an exhibit that would place black artists and curators at the center of organizing an exhibit of contemporary art. Bradley was invited by the Menil Foundation to curate “The DeLuxe Show” in Houston, which he organized integrating some of the most well-known contemporary artists in 1971 with no regards to race. This was a turning point for black artists that began to change the dialogue about which artists get representation. In today’s contemporary art world, black artists have been recognized for their contributions to American culture and their work is now featured more frequently in group exhibits and increasingly in one-person shows.

Bradley continued to work through the decades and his work is held in the permanent collections of museums across the United States including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Museum of Modern Art, The Museum of Fine Art in Houston, The New York City Museum of Art, African American Museum in Dallas, The Fogg Museum at Harvard University, and Johannesburg Art Foundation in South Africa.

Enjoy © Peter Bradley_We Should Be Heros_46.5HX76W — Peter Bradley abstract paintings at Emerge Gallery: “We Should be Heroes” included in the exhibit. Copyright Peter A. Bradley.

The exhibit at Emerge Gallery shows Bradley’s recent work that fills the gallery space with their explosive energy. The painting “We Should be Heroes” is a large abstract work that celebrates the relationship of colors to each other. Bradley is a master at the placement of colors and textures that creates a space that brings to mind a topographical map. “Not Quite Here” is another painting with surfaces reminiscent of the earth. The shock of the brilliant spring green at the top of the painting contrasts with the charcoal lava-like color and textures in the body of the artwork.

Enjoy © Peter Bradley_NotquiteHere_ 41X19.5 — “Not Quite Here” | Copyright Peter A. Bradley

The exhibit in its entirety is a rare opportunity to appreciate one of the Mid-Hudson region’s internationally-known local artists that have produced a lifetime of important work.

Enjoy © Peter Bradley_Stone House series 1_77_ x 74_ — “Stone House Series” | Copyright Peter A. Bradley

This essay was originally published by the Poughkeepsie Journal Enjoy! magazine – May 31, 2019.

More information on Peter A. Bradley:

Peter Bradley was prominently featured in the New York Times article “Why Have There Been No Great Black Art Dealers?” by © Janella Zara (June 20, 2018)

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/20/t-magazine/black-art-dealers.html

Peter Bradley was prominently featured in the Hyperallergic article “How Black Modern Artists Defied a Singular Narrative in 1971” by © Jessica Bell Brown (January 17, 2017)

https://hyperallergic.com/352161/how-black-modern-artists-defied-a-singular-narrative-in-1971/

https://bombmagazine.org/articles/peter-bradley-1/

Additional info on The DeLuxe Show: https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/kld03?fbclid=IwAR1pRcIbCKayXGSdS1cfLtOjqMT01Sm_oMz9Ywz3yd7E5k10nEY8bv6ieLk

Peter A. Bradley, New Work on exhibit at Emerge Gallery, June 1 – 30, 2019

Emerge Gallery is located at 228 Main Street, Saugerties; (845) 247-7515

Hours: Friday, Saturday: 12:00 – 6:00 p.m., Sunday: 12:00 – 5:00 p.m.

https://www.facebook.com/EmergeGalleryNY/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/emergegalleryny/

The Art of the Outsiders

Collectors of outsider or self-taught art have led the way to preserve and honor this type of art. In fact, most self-taught makers don’t consider themselves artists, creating art out of self-expression to describe their lives, feelings, and beliefs. Vassar Lehman Loeb Art Center currently exhibits the work of self-taught artist Inez Nathaniel Walker, organized by Mary-Kay Lombino, The Emily Hargroves Fisher ’57 and Richard B. Fisher Curator at Vassar College. The exhibit of drawings shows the progression of the artist’s life beginning when she was in prison, through nearly two decades of life producing over 1000 drawings. The Vassar connection is important in that when Vassar alumni Pat O’Brien Parsons was shown her earliest works, she began collecting and selling Walker’s artwork at her gallery. Vassar now holds over 100 pieces of artworks by self-taught artists donated by O’Brien Parsons, including some by Walker.

Inez Nathaniel Walker first began making drawings and would use whatever scrap paper was available. In the exhibit, a vitrine holds one of her first drawings that was on the back of the mimeographed prison newsletter. The drawing is a profile portrait of a man dressed in a zippered sweater with hands in pockets. The artist spent much time creating the hairstyle with deliberate marks that indicate wavy hair. Many of the drawings use this formulaic style to arrange the composition featuring a portrait of a person centered within the paper and intricate patterns for hairstyles and clothing.

Standing woman a150_z — Inez Nathaniel Walker (American, 1907-1990)
*Standing Woman with Raised Arm*, 1974
Felt-tip pen, colored pencil and pencil on paper
Bequest of Pat O’Brien Parsons, class of 1951, 2014.16.14

In the drawing, “Standing Woman with Raised Arm,” we can see how the artist first drew the woman’s figure in pencil and then went over the lines with colored pencil and marker. The figure wears a sophisticated striped dress, and her hairstyle is an intricate design of curved lines, the disproportionate size of the hands and feet contrast with the overly large head and eyes. The figure is standing before a background embellished with yellow patterning.

In “Man with Goatee,” Walker records fashionable men’s wear from the 1970s: large cuffs, collars, and wide pants are proudly worn on this figure. Walker spent the time to give this figure an on-trend Afro along with long sideburns, a mustache, and goatee. The clothing has been decorated with an array of curved stripes

Inez Nathaniel Walker - 7f65_z — Inez Nathaniel Walker (American, 1907-1990)
*Man with Goatee*, 1974
Colored pencil and pencil on paper
Bequest of Pat O’Brien Parsons, class of 1951, 2014.16.15

, and the background has three horizontal groupings of unique colored patterns. The figure gazes directly at the viewer as he poses in his finery.

Not all of Walker’s artworks feature a single image – some of the more intriguing drawings have two or more figures engaged in a moment together: scenes depicted include exchanges of money, conversations, or lounging in fanciful surroundings. Walker describes details from a life seen or imagined and puts her vivid pattern imprint on each scene.

Inez Nathaniel Walker - 5301de_k — Inez Nathaniel Walker (American, 1907-1990)
*Untitled* (Two Women at Table), 1974
Pencil, crayon, and felt-tip pen on paper
American Folk Art Museum, gift of Pat O’Brien Parsons, 1996.12.150

Mary-Kay Lombino wrote in her catalog essay: “Her art is made in an unselfconscious way and does not obey the criteria and principles of mainstream art but it is best appreciated for its formal liveliness and the incongruities that grab our attention and make us look more attentively.”

This article was originally published in the Poughkeepsie Journal Enjoy! section March 8, 2019.

Freehand: Drawings by Inez Nathaniel Walker is on view at the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center through April 14, 2019. The Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center is located on the Vassar campus: 124 Raymond Avenue, Poughkeepsie.

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