Prior Shows
Get the Flash Player to see the images.
Sister Cities of Beacon and Newburgh:
Bridging of the Arts
Sept. 8 - Oct. 14, 2007
Group Show: Robert Paschal, Marisa del Pozo, Vivian Altman, Yejin Jun, Gary Krentz, Marion J. Kurtz
Opening Reception: Sept. 8th, 6 – 9 pm
Freshman Fine Arts Gallery is pleased to present a group show between the sister cities of Beacon and Newburgh. Many artists from different cities often work in isolation today with little or no connection with artists from nearby locales. We often buy into the contemporary reality of living a life of isolation and separation, and consequently we develop strong feelings of alienation towards society and mainstream life. This show will make an attempt to break down the false reality of isolation and bridge the two sister cities of Beacon and Newburgh by way of the arts.
Marisa del Pozo, Beacon’s favorite artist, paints the Hudson Highlands with great zest. Marisa puts much energy into painting the vast skies with resplendent color and the most subtle of tones.
Robert Paschal pays a wonderful tribute in his collages to the likes of Van Gogh, Matisse, and Picasso.
Artist, Vivian Altman, is a resident of Beacon and has been teaching art in the Newburgh City School district since 1996. Her expressive abstract paintings capture our attention with her bold beautiful color, and reveal many surprises. She subtly scrapes away and overlays paint, revealing exciting layers of color and texture. Her flowing organic shapes push and pull against each other to create movement, tension and a visual vibration. Although there is no reference to real objects, her forms take on a life of their own and the results are both familiar and mysterious.
Yejin Jun produces some new small works. Yejin notes, “My work represents the human psyche, which is affected by different notions of space, as I seek pieces of lost human mind beneath obscuring levels of identity. I believe that all entities existing in space are always changing, and that these changes represent an unstable reality that impacts the human psyche, causing people to lose their egos. This constant changing of space causes confusion and intension in the human psyche. My work concentrates on these interactions of human psyche and space.”
The two Newburgh artists, Gary Krentz and Marion J. Kurtz, depict the city of Newburgh from divergent points of views.
Marion J. Kurtz had studied at the Art Student’s League in Manhattan. She had painted traditional works for many years. Her paintings were exhibited in Long Island galleries, Art Student’s League group shows, and the Washington Square Shows in Manhattan. Marion reached a point in her work, whereby, she no longer wanted to paint the "physical world," but she had the desire and need to portray the unseen world of Spirit…a world within…where Joy, Love, Peace, and Happiness abide.
Marion now paints large Spiritual Abstracts in the acrylic medium. It gives her the freedom to express the joy and peace in her own spirit.
Marion notes, “Painting from my Spirit, I create a meditative atmosphere of movement and color to invite the viewer into their own awareness of Spirit within. I want the viewer to be a participant in my paintings, take a spiritual journey into the work, and find peace, joy, love…or whatever their consciousness reveals to them. I want the viewer to take a mental vacation and just have fun and feel free. That is the intent in my art.”
Gary Krentz is a painter and pastelist. Gary is a self-taught artist who paints the streets of Newburgh and its heart wrenching scenes. His visceral approach to painting the street scenes of Newburgh is inimitable in its raw energy and primal emotions.
Gary’s oil painting entitled, “Idle Worship,” portrays primal emotions of rage, frustration, and hate. Gary often quotes, “To perceive is to suffer,” and undoubtedly Gary suffers with his daily observations and perceptions of the life on the streets of Newburgh. Nevertheless, the artist holds out hope that his heart wrenching street scenes will awaken the larger community to the dire social problems there.
Donna Friedson:
“Silk Extractions,” Framed Silk Paintings
July 14 – August 25, 2007
Opening Reception July 14, 6-9pm
Offering Silk Painting classes on weekends
Freshman Fine Arts Gallery is proud to announce the solo exhibition of Donna Lynn Friedson's silk paintings entitled SILK EXTRACTIONS. The opening reception is Saturday, July 14 from 6-9pm and the exhibition will run through August 25th at the gallery in Beacon, NY.
As a classically trained painter, Donna Friedson has worked with oil and acrylic on canvas for most of her career. However, the medium of silk painting became so liberating and complimentary to her expressionistic style that she found canvas was unable to parallel the fresh combination of immediacy, luminosity, sensuality and elegance inherent in silk fabric. Hence Friedson's Silk Extractions show promises to introduce a seductive medium of art that accomplishes something often promised and yet rarely delivered…'paintings that are genuinely different, in both design and material'. The originality of her imaginative patterns, color schemes and vigorously asserted brushstrokes are modern and alluring. Friedson's framed silk quilts conjure marvelous diagrammatic visions that succeed in extracting the excitement of canvas painting and transplanting it onto new terrain.
A pioneering resident of Tribeca for the past 32 years, she produces much of her work in the studio of her home in the Catskills of Sullivan County. She is an Adjunct Professor of Fine Art and Art History, having received her Masters in Art History from Brooklyn College, a BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art as well as a degree from the Rochester Institute of Technology. A consummate traveler and researcher, Professor Friedson has explored Europe over 20 times as well as extensive ventures to other continents. She has resided in Lisbon, Portugal and Copenhagen, Denmark where she studied Danish design.
Her vibrant and expressionistic paintings, pastels, charcoal and pencil drawings, ceramics, surface designs, and her latest series of silk paintings are attestations of her virtuosity and capacity to adapt and engage.
Large Scale Color Drawings
Artist: Denise Mastrosimone Smith
June 9-July 10, 2007
Opening Reception: June 9th, 4-7 pm
Denise Mastrosimone Smith's solo show, "Plantscapes - Transforming Images - Large Scale Color Drawings," opens at Freshman Fine Arts Gallery in Beacon on June 9th. A must see show… these large scale drawings are inspired by exotic plant forms. The dramatic and richly, colored work comes to life revealing unexpected human qualities. This powerful work is replete with whimsy. Black and white studies for the work will also be on view.
Denise notes, “I am interested in the universal connection of the geometry and structure occurring in natural and human forms, and inanimate objects…in masculine and
feminine aspects of form…in discovering the way objects and natural forms project human aspects in the work… in materials like clay and wood, in light and the richness color in the way the sensual nature of various mediums enhance this quality…in perfect scale like perfect pitch.
I am inspired by the power of drawing…in the profound effects of discovery, connected to the process of making art.”
Her focus on drawing stems from her extensive drawing education, and she believes in the power of drawing to effect discovery in all mediums of her work. The drawings often appear to be carved out of the picture plane which resembles her sculpture.
Denise will teach a special "Elements of Line Drawing" class in the gallery on Saturdays, June 16, 23 & 30, for ages 15 and plus.
Luxurious Gardens of Giverny
and Other Splendors
Artist: Janet Lippmann
April 14 – May 31, 2007
Reception: April 14, 6-9 pm
Freshman Fine Arts Gallery is pleased to present Luxurious Gardens of Giverny and Other Splendors by Tarrytown artist, Janet Lippmann.
Janet Lippmann’s dream comes true when she makes her first pilgrimage to Giverny in 1984. She paints the luxurious gardens at Giverny during her first pilgrimage and three other visits. Janet Lippmann discovers the profusion of irises, poppies, peonies, and wisteria in all of their vivid colors and splendor. She immediately embodies Monet’s vision, and their inner visions intertwine together. She has the opportunity to meet with Jean-Mari Toulgouat, Monet’s great-grandson, and his wife, Claire.
This solo exhibition will transport you to the scents and colors of the splendorous gardens at Giverny. Janet too is a gardener like Monet. The two vocations of gardening and art lend one to the other. Besides the luxurious gardens of Giverny, the exhibition displays paintings of gardens at Sunnyside, Kulenhoff, and New Mexico.
Janet Lippmann maintains studios in Irvington, NY and the National Arts Club in New York City. She paints in both oils and pastels. She has been listed in “Who’s Who in American Art” since 1984 until present time.
Divergent Points of Origin
Landscapes of the Hudson River Valley
Group Show
March 10 – April 10, 2007
Freshman Fine Arts Gallery is pleased to announce a new exhibition of Landscapes of the Hudson River Valley in Beacon, NY. The premise of the show is “Divergent Points of Origin.” The exhibiting artists have moved apart and taken separate paths of artistic expression though they all begin with the same point of origin being the Hudson River Valley. The show runs March 10 – April 10, 2007.
Nancy Catandella creates abstract works from her emotional and visual recollections of her experiences while hiking in the Hudson River Valley. She casts a very ethereal or heavenly light in her paintings of the woods. The viewer will be immersed in this ethereal light.
Michael Nelson’s photographs capture huge expanses of sky and sheer beauty of the light on rows of corn, grass meadows, or snow-covered landscapes in Mountainville, NY. His photographs echo the music of the land and sky in Mountainville during all four seasons of the year. ©Michael Nelson 2006
Michael Esposito, Woodstock artist, abstracts from nature his personal vision through his emotional and visual reactions to the Hudson River Valley. His art work, “Divergence,” signifies his departure from representational nature to an abstract vision of nature.
INAUGURAL EXHIBITION
December 28, 2006 – February 15, 2007
Group Show: 11 distinctive artists:
Lawrence Allen
Janet Stafford
Yejin Jun
Janet Slom
Hedina Christiner
Marisa del Poso
Michael Hunt
Janet Lippmann
Lahary Pittman
Earl Johnson
Lee Erickson
Freshman Fine Arts Gallery celebrated its inaugural art exhibition on December 28, 2006 in Beacon, NY.
The inaugural exhibition showcased the work of 4 NYC artists along with some locally talented artists. The abstract works of Lawrence Allen and color charts of Yejin Jun created an extravagant atmosphere of radiant and explosive colors. The work of Janet Stafford evoked luminous qualities from Mexico’s landscape. The works of Lahary Pittman evoked the splendor of Provence with his photos mounted on masonite with semi-gloss lamination and framed on ‘Museum Box’ with Formica perimeter.
