“Idea(s)” Exhibition
Viridian Artists, Inc.
This event has ended.
Viridian Artists presents “IDEA(S)” an exhibition of outstanding art by seven artists who are part of the Affiliate program at the gallery. Viridian’s Affiliate program is an important aspect of the gallery’s mission to expand exhibition and sales opportunities for outstanding contemporary artists, both emerging and well-known. This group of artists came together by the chance of scheduling, but their art all shares an interest in Idea(s). Each of these artists create thoughtfully with a purpose that exists far beyond creating a pretty picture.
WILLIAM ATKINS was born in Rochford, England. He works with various types of cameras with subject matter ranging from anachronistic portraits to seaside street photography. Living in Washington DC, he has photographed several US Presidents and is a second-generation photographer, following in his father’s footsteps.
“I pulled together this set of photos to create a story with no narrative to establish a mood. They are reflections of truths from my own experiences. They come from traveling the country, deciding to walk, stopping the car, reuniting after twenty years, waiting in a place seeing what may happen, just life and putting a camera between myself and it.”
DAVID DORSEY’s paintings depict commonplace objects and situations is a way that celebrates the formal abstract properties of each scene as well as the lustrous, purely physical qualities of oil paint, with an emphasis on subtle color harmonies. He works in a tradition that began with the impressionists and has continued down through the modernists like Thiebaud, Dine and Porter. His current work falls into one of three suites: tabletop views with objects strewn and falling over oriental carpets, candy jar paintings and the third, daily life. Most recently, he has begun a new series of skeletal and anatomical objects.
ELVIRA LANTENHAMMER, in her Site Plans, reprocesses excerpts of maps and street plans into painted tableau- sometimes in large format. Through an intensive study of topographical map works, historic and contemporary, the artist arrives at the formal basic structure, the essence of the place. She paints the intuitively found base-color of the place- the radiance, the atmosphere, in superimposed layers of color, condensed into large-format color compositions as a subject with variations. “I am inspired by the wonderful brightness of the colors of the early Italian paintings. With the background of my education as restorer, I use egg tempera on wood to express what I feel about a certain place or about a place of my fantasy.”
ROSEMARY LYONS often takes two years to complete her series of illuminated manuscripts which are inspired by newspaper and magazine articles that tackle a wide range of difficult topics including subway shooters, genetics and AIDS. Long interested in calligraphy and formerly a realistic painter, she began her first Manuscriptus Series when living in New York City in 1992. The idea of transforming her creative outpourings into illuminated manuscripts rather than paintings, was initially born out of a dream. This current series incorporates the abbreviations and acronyms of emails and text messages, with titles like “OMG”, “KMN”, “GIGO” and “BFD”, one learns the essence of the “new language” of texting. Lyons received her Master of Fine Arts at the State University in Buffalo and has exhibited widely.
VERNITA N’COGNITA created her name to honor under-known artists. A visual and performance artist, she has presented more than 70 performance artworks including guerrilla performances at the Pompidou Museum in Paris, and Documenta 13 in Kassel. Her visual art of primarily mixed media collages & installations both stand on their own and serve as props & sets for her performances. Her art is in the collections of MOMA, the Savaria Museum in Hungary, the Sylvia Sleigh Collection of Feminist Art @Rowan University, the Asian American Art Center, Franklin Furnace, Fairfax Hospital in Virginia, Groupa Junij, Belgrade and many private collections. An environmental artist and curator, she is currently having a solo show of new collages created from the security envelopes of junkmail from financial institutions. “I have always been fascinated by the contradictions of reality. I feel intuitive choices and chance connections are an essential part of the creative process and trusting my creative decisions has been an ongoing battle.”
CAROLINA POGGI was born in Montevideo in 1970, and majored in still photography at the Cinema School of Uruguay. While there, she became fascinated by the photo-essay and was drawn to the whole photographic process from taking to printing the picture. Consequently, she set up her own black & white lab, working on several essays ranging from architecture to nature & film making among others. She is currently photographing trainee dancers at the National School of Dance of Uruguay.
“During my time as an analog photographer I worked on several black & white essays on architectural ruins and destruction. I focused on certain buildings due to their historic and social value. I had the opportunity to visit the former Ministry of Defense of Uruguay in 2001, the deep deterioration and state of disrepair conveyed the fear and despair the population had felt through a terrible decade of military repression. I used bulb and camera in hand to shoot as I wanted the movement to convey the need to run away from that state of subjugation.”
LAUREN PURJE says: “…Not sure exactly what I’m showing, but for sure I will show this wing (a drawing in the series). The others - maybe not those particular pieces… but very similar ideas… those poor anonymous pigeons… just like people. I may show a small series of drawings and paintings dedicated to the New York pigeon. I can’t fully explain why I’m so fascinated with this particular bird. Maybe the fact that they are so ordinary makes me empathetic. They are quintessentially New York, as iconic as skyscrapers are to a big city, but they aren’t appreciated as such. Like people on the street we walk past and pay no mind to everyday. Their presence is often overlooked or seen as a nuisance. I use text as if it’s the pigeon’s battle cries to stand out, to be appreciated, to be accepted.”
Media
Schedule
from July 22, 2014 to August 09, 2014
Opening Reception on 2014-07-24 from 18:00 to 20:00