New Group Show at The White Room Gallery Features Art with Vibrant Color
The White Room Gallery opens a new exhibition on July 28 featuring works by five artists: Ellyn Tucker, Sue Zola, June Kaplan, Bob Tucker & Bryan Michael Greene. Presented in a series of five mini "solo" shows, each artist will exhibit a small but cohesive body of work. Presented without an overarching "theme", the artists and their work were selected and link together based on their vibrant use of color. The show remains on August 17, 2015. An Opening Reception will take place on August 1 from 6 to 8 p.m. and includes live music by Mama Lee & Friends.
SUE ZOLA
Sue Zola paintings are of iconic images and nostalgic advertising logos with glitter. The list of bold-faced celebrities that have been seduced by the work of the Austin glitter artist is long: Director Quentin Tarantino, three-time Academy Award Nominee director David Lynch, Billy Gibbons, original founder of the legendary Texas rock band ZZ Top, are just a few who number among her collectors.
Zola, who uses glitter to evoke emotion and recreate cultural icons and symbols of the 60's, 70's and 80's, takes it in stride. Her work has been featured on high-profile television shows that include VH-1's reality show, The Pick-Up Artist, The Food Network's Diners, Drive In's & Dives and the Hit Show Will and Grace.
.
.
Their attention-grabbing, bright, shiny, funky pieces are a metaphor for our current and past times. Zola's glitter art has been exhibited in many cities all over the country including Chicago, Miami and Los Angeles and has appeared in Las Vegas art shows with legendary punk rock icons Iggy Pop, Mark Mothersbaugh of Devo Sonic Youth's Kim Gordan to benefit the Burlesque Hall of Fame and Breast Defense.
.
.
Zolas has this to say about her work: "Thirteen years ago, I began using glitter art as a medium in my artwork. The playful nature of these tiny reflective and colorful particles feed my inspiration, while still maintaining the substance of my motif. From cultural icons to nostalgic cereal boxes, my work is enhanced by prominent clean lines, adept shading technique, and the utilization of vibrant color. "
.
.
"As I stay true to my chosen medium some of my recent subject matter has taken on a serious tone, addressing social issues such as equal rights and GMO's. I have been delighted to discover that glitter adds to my commentary in a way that is demanded in contemporary art today. As well as making the most benign icon "pop" and old romances "novel", glitter also has the capability to amplify potent content, eliciting a sense of irony, while also accentuating the contradictory temperament between the subject matter and the medium."
.
.
E.E. TUCKER
Ellyn Tuckers presents mixed media collages that are whimsical in nature. While the appearance of her work demonstrates a sense of humor, there is serious art making and contemplation that is infused in her art:
"The art I fell in love with is collage," states E.E. Tucker. "It has the ability to create a sense of time stopped, a vacuum in which objects pause, shedding their known identities for new ones that must be guessed. This form of art makes sense of how the world is constructed of fragments, how we make coherence.
Each fragment found in old books, old letters, papers, fabrics, photographs, is endowed with content, with symbolism, with spiritualism. Each fragment of embedded imagery is a fragile attachment to the past, the passage of time, a dream, a mystery.
As an artist I find disparate images and combine them together using many forms of media, such as paint, ink, threads, fabric, homemade papers, encaustic, etc. to tell a story and narrate a theme.
My intent is to create a portal, transporting the viewer to new sensory places."
.
.
ROBERT TUCKER
Robert Tuckers's colorful drawings capture playful figurative work. Depicting a variety of subjects, his art is infused with meaning, mood and atmosphere whether the subject is figurative, landscape, architectural or inspired by nature. Tucker believes that following his muse and varying the art keeps it interesting and fresh.
"I work with monoprinting," said Robert Tucker. "Each piece is a singular piece of art. I love to draw. The process begins with drawing, the more detailed, the better. The details establish the quality and the inventiveness of the work. The printing is by hand, not with a press. With this process, you never know the exact outcome, which is fascinating.
I take special interest in the background paper. I always use handmade rice paper. The most important feature is the color. It influences how the subject will be drawn. It establishes the mood and tone of the piece and makes the art come alive.
I see art as a challenge. And the challenge is to make my work unique and meaningful."
.
.
BRYAN MICHAEL GREENE
Bryan Michael Greene creates digital collages based on augmented photographs of himself and pictures of small dioramas that he has created. Building on training at Art Students League in high school, Greene received his BFA in Fine Arts from the School of Visual Arts where he developed his "style" of drawing, painting and sculpting as an undergraduate. After graduation, he then discovered and embraced technology to make his art.
"After leaving school, I bought a WACOM tablet for my computer," said Greene. "The WACOM tablet is a device that allows the artists to draw digitally right on the screen of the monitor. It was with the tablet I made still life images from direct observation. Lobsters, fish, and other foods. I applied to graduate school and the still lives were well received at the SVA MFA computer Art department."
Greene graduated from SVA with a MFA in Computer Art in 2006. His work is exhibited across New York State.
.
.
JUNE KAPLAN
June Kaplan will exhibit serene and abstracted seascapes. While differing in mood and tone from Greene, Zola and E.E. Tucker and Robert Tucker, her work connects to the artists in the show in her use of radiant color. A painter and a poet, Kaplan's work radiates lyricism and is an expression of beauty, freedom and a surrendering to the moment and the process of making art."
"In the new work, there seems to be less control and more wanting to partner with a power greater than myself," writes Kaplan. "I let the beauty seen on the East end translate onto the blank canvas with a blank mind. All the little techniques discovered by trial and error seem to kick in.
"This love of mine for making art is as lovely as a sunset--to witness time go by; to let go with love; to be held together by acrylic paint and have expression through plain text."
.
.
.
_____________________________
BASIC FACTS: Works by Ellyn Tucker, Sue Zola, June Kaplan, Bob Tucker & Bryan Michael Greene open July 28 and remain on view through SSS , 2015. An Opening Reception will be held on August 1 from 6 to 8 p.m. with live music by Mama Lee & Friends.
The White Room Gallery is located at 2415 Main St., Bridgehampton, NY 11932. The gallery is open Tuesday through Sunday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. 631-237-1481. www.thewhiteroom.gallery.
For information, please contact Andrea McCafferty via email at [email protected].
_____________________________
Copyright 2015 Hamptons Art Hub LLC. All rights reserved.