Gayle Wagner and Elizabeth Wagner at Westhampton Free Library

Flowers and Candy Photographs, February 2016

February is the perfect month for an exhibit by mother and daughter artists, Gayle and Elizabeth Wagner. Valentine's Day is celebrated with flowers and candy, and what better way to enjoy a treat than to see what they have done with these subjects. Magnificent color. Both artists exude a passion for color along with an understanding of how to use it.

     Elizabeth's work is true "eye candy" with a sense of humor. Gummy bears with attitude! Her titles "Sucker Punch," "Mean Girls," and "Teeth" hint at what is in store when you view these gems. The formality is not lacking either. "Blue Crush" is an arrangement of all blue M&Ms, rock candy, jellybeans, and Jolly Ranchers. "Teeth," my favorite, is a minimalist row of colorful gumdrops on a field of white.    

     Gayle's flower photos are wonderful zooms into nature. She celebrates the color and shape of blossoms at their most beautiful, in all weather. "Rain, Rain, Go Away" evokes the freshness of spring with reflective water drops on petals. Whatever your favorite flower or color, you will find new appreciation here. "Sunflower Lover" displays the warmth and sunshine of yellows and oranges with the peak greens of mid summer. 
     All the photographs in the exhibit are beautifully framed with white frames. They look great scattered throughout the library and in the gallery, but would look even better on the wall in someone's house. The sizes range from 8" x 10" to 20" x 30" and prices are reasonable. If you are looking for something to brighten your décor, grab a few of these before the Wagners become too famous.

The Long Island Museum at Stony Brook

The LIMarts Members' Exhibition, One Square Foot at the Long Island Museum was restricted to square images on identical boards. That's one way to show talent on an equal footing. This show featured work by a mix of hobbyists and professionals. That's always the problem with a member's show. Anyone can join and have the wall space. However, this show had beautiful work by some of our more experienced local Long Island artists, and I was delighted to see the work. 

     This show was open from December 4, 2015 to January 31, 2016. I guess the museum has to find something to fill its space when they are technically closed for the month of January. But at least it was FREE. The new fee to see the museum is $15. That keeps me away. Does anyone else think the fees are just too high? The artists' membership fee for LIMarts is $75 per year. That's how much each artist had to pay to get into this exhibit. For that fee, artists get free visits to the museum all year long. The general public pays individual membership of $40 per person. Seniors pay $25 per year, but there is no senior category for LIMarts membership; it is still $75. 

     How many other museum or arts council membership organizations charge artists a fee to join for the year, and offer inclusion in a members' exhibition? What are the other fees? Guild Hall in East Hampton, The Parrish Art Museum in Watermill, the East End Arts Council in Riverhead, The Brookhaven Arts Council, The Patchogue Arts Council, The Huntington Arts Council, The Art League of Long Island -- all worthwhile organizations where anyone can show art, for a fee. Public Libraries on Long Island are another place to show your work. If you are a serious amateur and your work is fairly good, you will have no trouble getting a show at your local library for NO FEE. But you need to organize and hang the exhibit and pay for the framing, as well as design, pay for and mail your own invitations. A small amount of publicity is handled by the library. Often you need to agree to give an artist's talk or workshop for no pay. If someone takes your work, there is no insurance to handle it.

     I think there is something wrong with this scenario. If the work is good, shouldn't we be paying artists for exhibiting? Or at least giving them a framing subsidy or grant? After all, without artists, there would be no exhibits. 

Christopher Paparo at the Solarium Gallery, St. James, NY

January 12, 2011      Light from the Shore: The Solarium Gallery at the Knox School, St. James, NY

Light from the Shore, a series of exhibits at the Solarium Gallery, this month features the colorful underwater photographs of marine biologist Christopher Paparo. With an eye for texture, pattern and color, Paparo uses macro photography to treat viewers to images of underwater creatures. His subject ranges from the common to the exotic, including starfish, coral, octopus, and common Long Island bunker fish. The surprise is the detail, intensity and beauty of hues in these aquatic photographs. Sea Star on a Scolymia Coral, (20 by 28 inches) displays a bright red and violet patterned starfish, enlarged more than 20 times its original size. The starfish is posed against a green and orange coral background that provides a counterpoint of pattern and color. The detail is remarkable.

Paparo’s photographs are taken at Atlantis Marine World in Riverhead, where he is the senior aquarist. The aquarium features several tanks of both exotic and local marine life. Anyone who has tried to photograph fish through an acrylic tank will understand the difficulties. The success of these works depends on experience and knowledge of lighting techniques for this unique environment. Paparo explains, “By lighting from above, with the flash a distance from the lens, I am able to highlight the subject while maintaining a dark background in the depth of the tank.” He uses a Canon PowerShot G7 in an Ikelite housing with an Ikelite DS-51 sub strobe to capture these underwater images with accurate color and detail. In Bunker, (16 x 20 inches) Paparo captures the silver sheen of bait fish, turning them into underwater gems against a black background. The cropped composition shows a school of synchronized swimmers, stressing diagonal motion. 

Each of the photographs contains its own mystery. Lobophyllia (16 x 20 inches) could easily be a non-objective painting. Full of organic shapes and lines in repeated patterns of otherworldly color, the entire picture plane is filled with this coral colony. Undulating contours create a shallow depth of gently shaded edges, forming ridges and tunnels of coral architecture. Shapes seem to glow with inner light, but the brightness of the colors is natural to this coral.

To view these images and more of Christopher Paparo’s work, visit his website at www.fishguyphotos.com. The exhibit at the Solarium Gallery will be on view for the month of January. Viewing is by appointment only. Contact Susanne Johnson, Gallery Director, at 631-686-1600, or email sjohnson@knoxschool.org. For more information and directions to the gallery, visit: http://www.knoxschool.org/page.cfm?p=473. The next artist in this series is printmaker Beata Kruk, exhibiting in the month of February.

Holiday Exhibition at Gallery North until December 30th, 2010

With only 6 more days until Christmas, it’s time to take a break from your ordinary shopping to see something extraordinary, the Holiday Exhibition at Gallery North in Setauket.  With paintings and drawings by such gallery favorites as Christian White, Doug Reina, Paul Bachem, Eleanor Berger, Elizabeth Greaf, Ty Stroudsburg, Eileen Sanger and Joan Branca, you can’t go wrong. Notable among the paintings is one by Nancy Bueti-Randall, “Dark Red Roses.” This cheerful bouquet with orange overtones is set against a warm terracotta tile background that reminds me of Tuscany. Nancy paints with a light calligraphic touch, evident in her larger painting in the same room, “Late Summer Garden with Dahlias.”  

Christian White’s small oil sketch on paper, “Phryne Anadyomene #4” offers an abstract gestural brushstroke in complementary orange and blue, balanced with white and neutral color. The title refers to the Ancient Greek artist’s model, Phryne, who would trade her time for varying prices. She asked Praxiteles for his most beautiful sculpture, not knowing which he really thought to be the best. She tricked him into revealing his opinion by falsely claiming his studio was on fire. Alarmed, he rushed to save the best works, “Satyr” and “Love.” Phryne chose “Love.” Phryne is said to have posed for “Venus Anadyomene,” or Venus rising from the sea. Throughout the nineteenth century, artists repeated Phryne’s characteristic pose, with one or both arms raised. Look again at this work, and you will see her.

Gallery North always exhibits the best of local woodcrafters, and this season’s show is no exception. Carl Siegel’s chess set and board, with contrasting light and dark stained wood, is magnificent. This rosewood and cherry hand-carved set made with 18^th and 19^th century tools and techniques, is the highlight of the exhibition.

Don’t leave the gallery without spending some time in front of Joseph Reboli’s wall-sized painting of autumn leaves. Reboli (1945-2004) was at his best when capturing the textures and colors of local scenes in oil on canvas. Stand for a while in front of this canvas, and you will be transported into this leaf-strewn space.

The Holiday Exhibition is on display through December 30, 2010. Hours are Tuesday - Saturday 10 to 5 · Sunday 12 to 5, and Mondays before Christmas. Gallery North is located at 90 North Country Road in Setauket. For more information, visit their website, www.gallerynorth.org.

The Anthony Giordano Gallery, Oakdale, NY

52 Weeks II, An Installation by Roy Nicholson
This exhibition, on view through 12 December 2010, presents a refreshing view of landscape through the eyes of a master painter. Nicholson's Long Island garden is the subject, painted weekly for one year. Although the challenge of producing one painting a week for a year is inspiring without even looking at the work, this installation rewards careful viewing. These paintings represent Long Island light at its best. That time of evening, when the sun is nearly below the horizon, when colors are at their most intense in every direction, is called the gloaming. Nicholson captures the magic atmosphere of a quiet evening in a meditative way, and invites the viewer into a personal, almost sacred space where more is happening than meets the eye.