March 24 - April 20, 2022
About Women: Ellen Denuto, Vija Doks, & Joy Nagy
Our Planet In Peril: NextActArt: Barbara Brier, Rena Diana, Madeline Farr, Madlyn Goldman, Ronnie Grill, Judy Kaplan, Patricia Miller, Stephanie Suskin, & Sheila Wolper
On the Wall: Barbara Lubliner
Carter Burden Gallery presents three new exhibitions: in celebration of Women’s History Month About Women in the East Gallery features Ellen Denuto, Vija Doks, and Joy Nagy; in the West Gallery Our Planet in Peril features Barbara Brier, Rena Diana, Madeline Farr, Madlyn Goldman, Ronnie Grill, Judy Kaplan, Patricia Miller, Stephanie Suskin, and Sheila Wolper, as part of NextActArt; and On the Wall features an installation entitled Prayer Flags - Good Will Wishers by Barbara Lubliner. The exhibitions run from March 24 - April 20, 2022 at 548 West 28th Street in New York City. The reception will be on Thursday, March 24 from 6 - 8pm; masks are required. The gallery hours are Tuesday - Friday, 11 a.m. - 5 p.m., Saturday 11 a.m. - 6 p.m.
Ellen Denuto
Ellen Denuto presents photographic installations that recognize female Carter Burden Gallery artists in their studios as part of the exhibition About Women. Suspended below the photographs of the artists are a collection of objects from their studios, adding an additional dimension to the pieces. The relationship between the tangible items and the images transports the work to the present moment, creating a sense intimacy. The artists depicted are Mona Brody, Pauline Chernichaw, and Gail Winbury. Shooting on location is her specialty, using the element of the unknown to guide her creative process. Denuto states, “Ever present, the photographer is witness to the world’s beauty- pain, injustice and triumph creating a visual journal of our time.”
Vija Doks
In About Women, Vija Doks presents a selection of oil paintings from her Famous Women Portrait Series. The inspiration for which stemmed from Gerhard Richter’s 48 Portraits, which focused on famous men as part of the German Pavilion at the 1972 Venice Biennale. It was criticized at the time of the exhibition because it did not include one portrait of a woman. Reading about it in Dietmar Elger’s biography of Richter, Doks assumed some industrious woman had painted a response, but none had. In her research, Doks discovered that Gottfried Helnwein had created a counterpart to Richter, depicting 48 renowned women in monochromatic red. It still gnawed at Doks that a woman hadn’t done this. Thus, in 2011, forty years after Richter’s work, she embarked on her own 48 portrait series and approached it alphabetically. Working with the women pictured in the American Heritage Dictionary, she would first read their biography then select a photo that resonated with her. Unsatisfied with just 48 portraits, Doks continued her series and now has over one hundred paintings and is expanding the series by including full figures and dual portraits. With an unadorned background, these paintings primarily focus on the figure’s countenance, with detailed renderings of the skin and facial features, their clothes and accessories executed by a simple linear outline. The women represented include Elaine de Kooning, Zora Neale Hurston, Maya Deren, Jane Goodall, Harriet Tubman, Empress Dowager Cixi, among many more.
Joy Nagy
Joy Nagy presents assemblages from her series Family Matters as part of About Women. Utilizing inherited objects from her mother, aunt, and brother the work represents a reappraisal of values. Nagy states, “To me my brother’s death was not only about his loss but about the entire family and its interrelationships. The paintings, assemblages, and installations include objects and photographs that record my family’s issues of immigration, hard work, and love.” Still processing her legacy, she sorts and documents over two hundred treasured textiles, including handkerchiefs, silk scarves, handmade dresses, ornamental flowers, photographs and filled suitcases as part of her artistic process.
Barbara Lubliner
Barbara Lubliner presents her installation Prayer Flags - Good Will Wishers for On the Wall. At the cusp of 2022 the artist started transforming discarded materials into this installation based on Tibetan Buddhist prayer flags and the tradition of hanging colorful cloths to send blessings of peace, happiness, and good fortune out into the universe. Each flag is 43 by 26 inches and made of upcycled plastic slide sleeve pages, various paper scraps, and paint chips in corresponding colors. Transforming these castoffs into art underscores the power and possibility of transformation. Lubliner elaborates, “As I make the flags, I imbue them with positive feelings, healing myself and wishing good will out into the world. I am delighted to have them hang "On the Wall" gently releasing good vibrations.”
NextActArt
In honor of Earth Day on April 22, nine mixed media artists who are members of the group NextActArt present Our Planet in Peril, which features a range of works that address both environmental issues as a whole, as well as the adverse effects of plastic dependency and plastic capitalism on human and marine life. The beauty of our planet and the detrimental effect human "advancements" have on our lives are front and center in this exhibition. In their works the artists search for ways we as individuals, a nation, and world can make constructive change to protect our environment and its inhabitants. In the exhibition a collaborative grid comprised of nine separate works symbolically demonstrate ways in which plastic is both used in our everyday lives and is harmful to us and our environment. The next step is to address how we, as a community, nation, and world, can make the changes necessary to protect ourselves and the earth.
“Never doubt that a small group of committed citizens can change the world; indeed it's the only thing that ever has." - Margaret Mead
The artists featured in the exhibition are the original members of NextActArt. The group is the brainchild of kindred spirits who found great meaning and satisfaction in pursuing visual arts as a second, third, or “umpteenth” career. The vision of NextActArt’s founders, Barbara Brier, Madeline Farr, and Stephanie Suskin, is to inspire later-in-life creatives to build community and realize the value of artistic expression. They exhibited as a group at Ashawagh Hall in East Hampton in May 2016 and July 2019, at Cerces Gallery in December 2017, a charity show for God's Love We Deliver in NYC, and with CBG in 2018 and 2020. Several members of the group have participated in both solo and juried group shows in New York City and across the United States.
