Cara DeAngelis, "Best in Show" Winner for Hamptons Art Hub's "BE REAL" Contest, is currently exhibiting her contemporary realism paintings in group shows in NYC and Southampton. Selected by Peter Marcelle and Catherine McCormick of MM Fine Art, De Angelis's paintings are presented in "Masters of Realism" at Rafael Gallery on the Upper East Side in NYC and "Secret Garden" in Southampton, NY at MM Fine Art, which opens on Saturday, February 23, 2019 and continues on view through March 16, 2019. "Masters of Realism," which includes art by Bo Bartlett, Andrew Wyeth, Daniel Sprick and others, remains on view through March 8, 2019.
De Angelis's paintings pull from two bodies of work. Tiranna, which was selected for the "Masters of Realism" exhibition, connects to her portraiture work and features three friends posed in Frank Lloyd Wright’s Tirranna in New Cannan, CT. De Angelis writes of the painting:
"In this multi-figure portrait, my friends Renee, Dela, and Julia are sitting in Frank Lloyd Wright's Tirranna. Like much of Wright’s work, Tirranna was a domestic space that paid homage to the natural environment around it, and acknowledged its delicate relationship. Wright’s creation is an ideal setting for my portraits that strive to explore and question the role of wildlife in an increasingly industrialized society."
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Tirranna" by Cara De Angelis, 2016. Oil on panel, 15 x 27 inches. Courtesy MM Fine Art.
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De Angelis's concern for wildlife continues in her most recent "Roadkill" series. Conceptually, the paintings explore the interplay between nature and industrialization and the contrast between the Domestic and the Wild—both central to her "Roadkill" series. In her Artist Statement, De Angelis explains:
"Ten years ago I began bringing specimens found on local roads into my studio and creating still lifes with them," De Angelis writes. "This evolved into including human figures sitting with the animals when I was studying French aristocratic portraiture. Instead of a little lap dog, the women in my paintings sit with deceased wildlife.
"The inclusion of dolls and children’s toys in my still lifes are used to symbolize nostalgia and the infantile, as well as to complete the circle of life and death. This creates a tangible disparity between the two worlds—Domestic and Wild—and also serves as a means of finding humor in tragedy through the inherent absurdity of the comparison. With these combinations, the paintings began to fully symbolize the tension and growing distance between domestic civilization and our surrounding wild spaces."
Laid Table of Roadkill III by De Angelis was one of several paintings submitted to Hamptons Art Hub's 2018 Fall Call for Art with the theme "BE REAL: Art Inspired by Contemporary Times or Place" and won Best in Show. The Open Call contest was judged by Marcelle and McCormack, who also curated an online exhibitions from the submissions. Click here to view the show.
Laid Table of Roadkill III, 2018, will be exhibited in Southampton in MM Fine Art's "Secret Garden" exhibition. The work was chosen due to the flowers included in the composition, said McCormick, and makes a contribution to the development of the theme of the show.
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"Laid Table of Roadkill III" by Cara DeAngelis, 2018. Oil paint, tar, asphalt, and fool's gold on canvas, 40 x 62 inches framed. Courtesy of the artist.
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An MFA graduate of the New York Academy of Art, Cara De Angelis has been awarded full fellowships at the Vermont Studio Center and the Prairie Center of the Arts. In 2010, she was awarded residency at the Terra Foundation in Giverny, France, along with a Guggenheim travel grant. Additional awards include the Rudolph Zallinger Painting Award and multiple grants.
Her art has been exhibited nationally and is held in both private and public collections. De Angelis lives and works in CT.
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"Two Sisters with Roadkill" by Cara De Angelis, 2016. Oil on linen, 41 inch diameter. Courtesy of the artist.
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"Still Life of Toys and Roadkill" by Cara De Angelis, 2015. Oil on linen, 34 x 45 inches. Courtesy of the artist.
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BASIC FACTS: Cara De Angelis's art can be viewed on her Hamptons Art Hub Artist Directory Page by clicking here and on her www.caradeangelis.com.
"Masters of Realism" is on view through March 9, 2019 at Rafael Gallery, 235 East 59th Street, New York, NY 10022. The show is curated by MM Fine Art. www.rafaelcontemporary.com.
"Secret Garden" is on view February 23 to March 16, 2019 at MM Fine Art, 4 North Main Street, Southampton, NY. 11968. www.mmfineart.com.
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