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Starting off 2003 with a contemporary bang, Carrie Haddad Gallery presents
"NEW YEAR * NEW PAINTINGS"
an exhibit of abstract expressionist paintings by four artists from the Hudson Valley region;
Shawn Snow, Jerry Teters, Ruth Edwy, Ragellah
Rourke, Joe Wheaton and Stephanie Rose.
The exhibit runs from Jan. 3 - Feb. 9th with a reception for the artists on Saturday Jan. 4th from 6-8pm. All are welcome.
.....Shawn Snow lives in Saugerties, NY, and has shown with Haddad for five years. His exhibits have been well received and his work, which is reminiscent of Basquiat, is continually changing and improving. This current series of paintings is concerned with subconscious, spontaneous mark making. Snow uses the subconscious as the 'reservoir' for idea generation. In many instances, the pieces evolve spontaneously and rarely begin with a previous plan. This process becomes equally important to the finished pieces as it forces the artist to work intuitively, constantly making free associations as the work evolves. Yet, this does not mean the pieces lack substance or direction. They are purposely made to evoke associations with primitivism, graffiti, and Art Brut.
The weather beaten layers and surface textures of Snow's work are visual and tactile, resulting from the use of various materials including tar, latex housepaint, motor oil, and joint compound. For Snow, the work becomes artifact, earth sample, heavily marked cave wall. Snow received his BFA in painting at Rochester Institute of Technology and in his free time works as a paint maker at R & F Encaustics in Kingston.
Presenting his first solo show at the Carrie Haddad Gallery, Jerry Teters studied painting at the Art Students League, National Academy of Design, Pratt Institute, and School of Visual Arts. He received his MA in painting at SUNY New Paltz. What moves Ruth Edwy and inspires her work is simply light and color, and the profound beauty of the landscape.
.....Teters is also a drummer so he uses his painting to search for expressions of rhythm and motion. In one of his larger pieces, six by seven feet, Teters accomplishes this with undulating swirls of thick blue paint that create a vision of the sea, wet and alive with motion. His dialogue with music and art has grown naturally over the years, enabling him to use the fundamental elements of color, texture, and composition to express his vision with increasing clarity and versatility. He lives in New Paltz with his wife and children.
What moves Ruth Edwy's work is simply light and color, and the profound beauty of the landscape. Ms. Edwy has been painting for 38 years and has had many exhibits with the Woodstock Artists Association, Kleinert Gallery, and Ann Leonard Gallery in Woodstock, as well as exhibits in Saugerties, Florida, Rhinebeck and NYC. She lives at the border of Saugerties and Woodstock and enjoys an inspiring view of the hills.
.....Like Snow, Ruth Edwy lets her paintings have a life of their own. She doesn't always have a particular idea or emotion in mind when beginning to paint, just the strong desire or need to paint. From the physical gesture, the movement of the brush on canvas, the color and shape and line that begin to come from her hand and body - the painting begins to emerge as a coherent entity. At some point, what started out not random, but unplanned, takes on a meaning for her and from that point on she knows exactly what she is doing. This technique has allowed Edwy to flow freely from hard edged geometric abstractions to soft, expressive works with the feel of landscapes. Her palette is as varied as her styles of painting. Ms. Edwy studies at NYU and Pratt Institute.
.....The healing, restorative power of nature, in all its beauty and mystery is the force that inspires
Ragellah Rourke to create. Longing to form a deeper connection to the divinity of nature inspires her earthy palette of browns, greens and golds and the substantive surface textures of her paintings. Ms. Rourke is a petite young woman, but her work is large, heavy and tactile. She paints with acrylic on thick wood that has been covered in plaster, allowing her to make incisions and markings with tools as well as her paint brushes. The places she creates for us are another reality, somewhere between observation and imagination. Her gridlike patterns, loose and childlike, have been compared to Paul Klee, but each of her pieces have a freshness and originality that is all her own. These are very contemporary pieces, full of bright colors, texture and
expressive feeling.
.....Ms. Rourke studied at Russel Sage Junior College and received her BA in painting at SUNY Albany. Her exhibits include the NY State Biennial and several Mohawk-Hudson
Regionals.
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