Nancy Tobin, Karen Fitzgerald and Sharon Ligorner Featured in Three Painters at Artspace 129
3 Painters Show work at Artspace 129: October 9 thru November 30, 2006 gallery hours | M-F 10-5 or by appointment FREE ADMISSION. Nancy Tobin does two part exhibition in two places with reference to collage, quilting and anime. Karen Fitgerald adresses ESSENSE in her pure and simple tondo paintings of evocative landscape. Sharon Ligroner explores diatoms in her watersigns, printed and painted on glass.
Montclair NJ (PRWEB) October 11, 2006 -- Artspace 129 is pleased to present the works of three women painters. The show is impressive in its range of techniques and the surfaces each one arrives at. Each of the bodies of work is inspired by a fascination with the natural world interpreted in it’s own way. Though by no means landscape in the traditional sense, all of these artists find inspiration in the world around them.
Karen Fitzgerald’s paintings are round. Her take on the landscape is close up and personal, in which she attempts to unite sensual, emotional, intellectual and psychic perceptions of the world into a complete vision. It is “essence” she is after… what she calls “the godlike absoluteness that all energy possesses.”
There is an ebb and flow when you explore her work which can’t seem to help have cosmic proportions. One has to piece together the story, for each painting is like a poem with a specific thought or inspiration, capturing but a moment. But the body of work is about something bigger than any of us. The quality of her surfaces bespeaks a familiarity with techniques of master oil painters, and the shape of the works cannot help but make us think of the Renaissance masters who took to this form, and since is fairly rarely considered well.
Fitzgerald was born and raised on a family farm in central Wisconsin, and after receiving a BFA from the University of Wisconsin, she relocated to NYC. In NY she achieved a MFA from Hunter as well as a M. Ed from Columbia. Her work has been widely exhibited in the United States in galleries and museums and in recent years she has done several large public art commissions in NYC, for groups like CITYarts, and the Greenwall Foundation as well as the Jamaica Center for Arts & Learning. She has received numerous artist’s awards and the work can be found in private and public collections. Her studio is located in Long Island City.
Sharon Ligorner will show her “Water Signs” a series of small works on glass. These little groupings of images evolved out of her interest in diatoms. Diatoms are various microscopic one-celled or colonial algae. A characteristic feature of diatom cells is that they are encased within a unique cell wall made of silica. These walls show a wide diversity in form, some quite beautiful and ornate. It is Ligorner’s interest in recurring patterns like these, found in nature around which she has built an entire body of work is inspired by beauty and balance found in natural objects. The paintings are small scaled works on sandwiched plate glass and are often amber in color. Fairly simple shapes are combined with carefully patterned surfaces which float on the surface. When the pieces are hung in formation, they create decorative groupings highly suitable for display in contemporary environments.
Ligorner received a BFA form Massachusetts College of Art and has studied in Florence Italy and at Skowhegan. She has shown her work in a variety of juried exhibitions throughout the country She has won a variety of merit awards, and has work in permanent collections at the National Museum of Women in the Arts as well as the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce in NY.
Nancy Tobin, an artist represented by the gallery since it opened in 2004, will be doing an exhibition in two parts. For this, a second exhibition space was procured just a few blocks away to allow for a collaboration with Studio Montclair, where Tobin is a member. “Rarely does one get to see a more complete scope of a working artist” says gallery owner Christina Saj, “who wanted to give this up and coming NJ artist a chance to really show her stuff. I picked up Tobin’s work when I opened a gallery in 2004 and it’s been fascinating to watch it develop. Tobin’s richly textured collages are densely compacted images full of playful treatment of color and ornament and repetitive pattern. There is a distinct freshness to her work making it at the same time hip and cool with an edge while being just beautiful. But this is just half of the picture.”
Tobin’s paintings, displayed at Artspace 129, are new work and show her range. Here she has taken her interest in pattern and surface and applied it to medium scale paintings on panel. She has evolved her style to develop a series of paintings with evocative images and richly layered surfaces. They can’t help but be reminiscent of her collage, but are more mysterious. Her techniques are not traditional, but suggest milky surfaces of encaustic paintings. Often dark, moody, fanciful and inspired by underwater landscapes and animation, these works are a window on a curious and dreamlike world, both murky and delightful. Amid her dots, bubbles and blobs she has her signature organic renderings recalling imaginary and animated landscapes.
Nancy Tobin was raised in Michigan, she trained in painting in San Francisco, where she also established a successful career as an illustrator. She then migrated to NJ where she chose to focus on creating fine art. In the last few years she has carefully crafted a large body of work pushing the boundaries of each art form she takes on. Tobin's collages and paintings merge her representational work with her keen interest in abstract composition and color-field theory. She is participating in shows across the country
artspace 129, is located in a law office in Montclair, NJ. The gallery shows work by regional contemporary artists in familiar environments, with the aim to inspire the appreciation of art in everyday life. artspace 129 is dedicated to featuring the work of established and emerging visual artists in real environments and occasionally does so outside the context of it’s normal exhibition location with the aim of introducing their work to collectors and art lovers in Montclair, NJ. For more information about the gallery or to make an appointment please visit http://www.artspace129.com (artspace 129).
A reception for the artists will be held October 14, 2006 from 6-8pm.
Please call (973) 964-5310
www.artspace129.com
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