"Sweet Imbalance" Opens at The White Room Gallery | Hamptons Art HubHamptons Art Hub

‘Sweet Imbalance’ Opens at The White Room Gallery

August 9 – 28, 2016

Reception: Saturday, August 13th from 4 to 9 p.m. with live music by Bond-Ivers Band (members of Hot Lava).

"Sweet Imbalance" features art by Robert Perez, Laura Benjamin & Lauren E Loscialo.

"Group Show" with art by Bob Tucker, Mark E Zimmerman, Kat O'Neill, Michele Dragonetti, Claudia Ward, Melissa Hin, Sally Breen, Ann Brandeis, June Kaplan, EJ Camp, Dianne Marxe is also on view.

"Split Pop #5" by Robert Perez. Mixed media on canvas, 36 x 48. Courtesy of The White Room Gallery.

Robert Perez

Robert Perez is an “Outsider Artist” by many definitions, working in mixed-media that explores concepts concerning metaphysics, narrative, mathematics, philosophy, culture and art making. Perez is self-taught. He began his visual explorations in the early 1990s with sculpture after receiving recurring images in his sleep.

Biomorphic forms emerged from the very beginning, and continue to this day in all of his work, driven by relentless concepts that become manifest in his growing visual language. If three-dimensional forms came easy, it was the magical world of two-dimensions that baffled him. During a visit to The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Perez came across some Impressionist drawings in charcoal. The manipulation of light and economy of information in these drawings informed a new impression that changed his manor of execution and solidified what is now his insistence on charcoal as his staple medium.

Spirituality, along with philosophy and the sciences, were always an underlying theme of Perez’s work, but it moved to the fore throughout the years. The Jesus Series was his first overtly focused on the subject. At the same time he was deeply concerned with art history and art making for its own sake.

Perez explains his use of flowers: “Flowers were initially used to explore the mediums of charcoal and paint without necessitating an intention other than visual. But true to my nature they became objects of narrative and also devises for abstraction because I can’t seem to remove myself completely from those intentions in my work.”

A vagabond mind and lifestyle that included running a Genetics Lab at Columbia University and filmmaking, Perez has since honed his exploratory gatherings into a cohesive visual language and intent. His current series are lengthy projects with defined parameters testing not only his endurance but his desire to journey a long path to a lofty place of enlightenment – artistically, intellectually and spiritually.

"Lucy" by Laura Benjamin. Candy wrapper collage 24 x 20 inches. Courtesy of The White Room Gallery.

Laura Benjamin

Laura Benjamin has been both an artist and an art educator for 50 years and earned graduate degrees in Fine Arts, Art Education, and Textile Design. Over 5 decades, Benjamin was most influenced by the POP ART movement. Having always had an interest in mixed media, her current work is now a combination of both POP and Collage. Since 2008, Benjamin has been creating a body of work dubbed “Candy Wrapper Collage”.

"A juried show’s theme, “gluttony”, challenged me to ultimately explore my POP figures through a new medium….candy wrappers!," she recalls.

"By 2008, what followed was……Razor blades are my new paint brushes and candy wrappers are my new paints," she said. "Utilizing torn, cut and expired candy wrappers and their packaging, I render my subjects in diverse and colorful forms. I create representational images of celebrities and pop-culture objects. The wrappers are manipulated to give color, form, movement and whimsy to the subjects, creating both a carnal delight and an exciting visual effect."

"My work is inspired by the sensual delight of sweets. The physical wrappers serve the colors of the pieces as well as using the candy names to comment on the subject they are portraying. The result that I aim for is a nuanced iconography that is visually energizing, provocative and humorous.

Artwork by Lauren E Loscialo. Courtesy of The White Room Gallery.

Lauren E Loscialo

LOLO COLLECTION…’Architectonic Texture’

Lauren E. Loscialo has a background in Architecture and has worked in New York City as a Landscape Architect/Urban Planner since 1994 after receiving a Bachelor of Science from Rutgers University. Throughout her career she has worked on Central Park, Union Square and various other urban spaces throughout the city and is an Award winning designer based on work completed after 911 on the Promenade Plan/Streetscape in the vicinity of the World Trade Center site.

Loscialo had a ‘Contrasting Balance’ throughout her childhood. At a very young age she developed a strong respect for painting, photography, and nature through her artist/mother, while attempting to grasp technical and mechanical engineering traits from her engineer/father. From those early experiences she learned the importance of carefully coordinating/creating Aesthetically pleasing spaces with functional building and construction.

Inspired by the architects Frank Lloyd Wright and Mies van der Rohe for their integration of Natural Elements with Architectural Structures, Loscialo developed a strong sense for the correlation of ‘Textural Softscape and Hardscape’. Her focus turned to capturing/captivating this Play of Architecture through photography.

Loscialo peaked the progression of ‘Contrasting Balance’ by juxtaposing images of natural and man-(woman)made elements to evoke an organic curiosity. Abstract/Untrue Triptychs and Diptychs became the conduit for expressing the pieces/art/work. With the use of monochromatic color, texture, natural light, shadows, crisp linear composition she emulates the subtle strength of simple subjects and materials. Further emphasizing the strength in a flower pedal can be readily compared to the strength of a single building brick. Through this interpretation the stem of a flower possesses similar strength to the foundation of a building.

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BASIC FACTS: "Sweet Imbalance" with art by Robert Perez, Laura Benjamin & Lauren E Loscialo is on view from August 9 to 28, 2016 at The White Room Gallery. A "Group Show" with work by Bob Tucker, Mark E Zimmerman, Kat O'Neill, Michele Dragonetti, Claudia Ward, Melissa Hin, Sally Breen, Ann Brandeis, June Kaplan, EJ Camp and Dianne Marxe is also on view.

The White Room Gallery is located at 2415 Main St, Bridgehampton, NY 11932. www.thewhiteroom.gallery.