NYAB Event - Danny Heller, Karen Woods & Russ Havard Exhibiton

Danny Heller, Karen Woods & Russ Havard Exhibiton

George Billis Gallery

This event has ended.

Danny Heller:
The artist writes of his works, “My latest series debuting at the George Billis Gallery, titled “ Midcentury Manhattan,” delves deeper into my exploration of the architecture, car culture, and design aesthetic that flourished in New York City in the 1950s and 60s.
At a time when the city was transitioning from WWII aftermath to Modern metropolis, a whole new vision of contemporary city life was taking shape. Brownstone buildings turned into glass skyscrapers, a simplified clean aesthetic replaced ornate details, and entire city blocks were leveled to make way for the almighty automobile.
Focusing on this duality of the old and the new, my work captures a changing New York – the old neon signage of the neighborhood pharmacy, as well as the sleek interiors of Mies van der Rohe’s groundbreaking Seagram Building. You’ll find classic storefront windows displaying 1950’s fashion, juxtaposed with office windows of a Madison Ave skyscraper. Viewed as a whole, my series aims to take viewers to this transformative period of time – and might even remind them that many of these scenes can still be found in Manhattan today.”

Karen Woods:
The artist says of her works, “For some time now I have chronicled my journey by painting what I experience while driving around the city. I paint—in the realist tradition—from photographs taken at intersections and on the road, when I’ve been struck by the beauty in the ordinariness of my commute. These images are the “lyrical suggestions” that compel me to paint, to communicate these transcendent experiences so clearly that others might in turn recognize this beauty in the course of their day.

Russ Havard:
Russ Havard is drawn towards nature imagery that depicts isolated elements in their continual struggle to flourish under desolate circumstances. The seemingly bleak, the empty landscape, speaks to him according to the artist. It is in this silence that he sees the never-ending waves of struggle, wearing down, and rebirth emerging. The process of endless building and reconfiguring transcends the mere physical and encompasses the spiritual and symbolic. In what some see as mere desolation, he finds a spark of the sublime: a release into a quiet revelry, and a peace that covers it all. By making paintings and constructions, he takes part in a restoration process. It is an act of reclamation and pressing onward.