AUTUMN 2011 EXHIBITIONS

THE PARTHENON FRIEZES by By Wendy Artin, watercolor paintings, November 4 - 28, 2011

Wendy Artin’s November exhibition entitled THE PARTHENON FRIEZES, at Gurari Collections, is a demonstration of patience, endurance, visual insight and painting mastery. Galleried at the British Museum, the Parthenon sculptures enjoy world renown for their representational beauty, conflict of a storied past, and their sheer magnitude of sculptural presence. The large monochromatic watercolor paintings in this new series are life-size in scale so as to best evoke the splendor of this ancient parade.

Undertaking the painting of the Parthenon Friezes was a long held goal of Ms. Artin’s. After many years of observation and sketching, the last two years have been dedicated to making this vision a reality. The watercolor paintings attempt to inspire the same awe that we feel when we are in front of the physical bearing of the marble reliefs. Notwithstanding, Artin works the surface of the paper so as to, in her words,“reveal the very tactile experience of wet pigment on porous paper creating an illusion that fades in and out.”

The marble stones themselves, while exquisitely chiseled at the time of their creation, have, over time, been worn into rich and delicate abstracts of what were once three dimensional and refined. Sometimes only indeterminable fragments remain. Wendy Artin allows the image to emerge from the paper with no discernable start or finish. She captures all the gradations of tone within one wet wash, quickly, before the brushstroke dies, she pushes dark in here and lifts light out there, keeping the watercolor fresh and light on the surface.

What we perceive to be the materiality of marble and the rhythmic movement of figures in relief, we experience as the elegant harmony of antiquity with the organic crumbling and stains of time. Artin wants the illusion to be almost total, for the realism to pull the viewer in at the same time that the marks remind one that this is simply wet pigment that has stained the fibers of paper.

Moving from the inanimate nature of stone, the friezes as paintings in watercolor by Wendy Artin, become startlingly alive on a papered surface. To tease out the many thousands of years of this storied work of art, and to do so in the most ethereal of mediums, allows us to experience a new presence of these fabled Parthenon Friezes.

Wendy Artin received an MFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston; she also studied at the University of Pennsylvania and the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. She has lived and painted extensively for the last fifteen years in Rome, and has painted in Boston, New York, Mexico, Guatemala, and France. Her work is in the collections of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the Boston Public Library, Fondation Colas, Princess Caroline of Monaco, Isabele Adjani, John Guare, Adele Chatfield-Taylor, Gustavus Remak Ramsay, Steve Martin, Eric Fischl, April Gornik, Richard Leacock, Valerie Lalonde, Pierre Passebon and Jacques Grange. She has exhibited in New York, Boston, Rome, Milan and Paris. Her work has been featured in Pratique Des Arts, American Artist, The New York Times, Vanity Fair, Gourmet, Elle Decoration, Cote Sud, French Vogue, Elle, Carnet, and the Boston Globe, among other publications. She has been featured on BRAVO television's Arts & Minds.


CONTEMPLATING VANITY by Leon Steinmetz, work-on-paper, October 7 - 31, 2011

In CONTEMPLATING VANITY, an exhibition of work-on-paper by Leon Steinmetz. An artist and intellect, Steinmetz takes inspiration through a range of influences from mythology, the Age of Reason, to that of select modern art masters. His work is filled with theatrical like irony poignantly involved with the human condition.

As Steinmetz states, “The artworks presented here came from various series, which have been created within the past few years. When I want to say something visually, I often feel that one sheet or one canvas is insufficient. So, I keep going, producing the works until the topic is visually exhausted for me. Thus, one series may consist of fifty works, while another of just four.”

Steinmetz is an American artist living in Cambridge, Massachusetts. His work is represented in the permanent collections of the world’s major museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Yale University Art Gallery in New Haven, the British Museum in London, the Albertina in Vienna, the Dresden State Art Gallery in Dresden, and the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow among others.

His latest solo exhibit was at the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow, Russia, (December 2009-January 2010).
“STEINMETZ is a quintessential contemporary artist; but what makes his art unique among current trends is his almost palpable connection to the Old Masters. In his works—comic or tragic, figurative or semi-abstract—he tackles the same timeless themes they did, but expresses them in an unmistakably modern language.”
H.A. Crosby Forbes, Collector, Philanthropist and Curator Emeritus of the Peabody Essex Museum



SPRING 2011 EXHIBITIONS

FLORASYNTHESIS - by Vico Fabbris, watercolor paintings and work-on-paper, May 6 - 29, 2011

In FLORASYNTHESIS, the exhibition expands upon the artist’s exploration of imagined botanicals. Culled from his familiarity with nature, plant and flower species, as well as pollinating insects, Vico Fabbris has synthesized his fantasies drawn from reality and imagination. He envisions a world of the slightly surrealistic, complete with fictitious latin names or a genus story as part of the painting. He is especially attuned to the loss of nature and the fragility of botanical species. He replaces the lost habitat with these “flights of fantasy”.

In this new exhibition Fabbris pushes his painting technique in new directions. Loose and expressive, his work proposes plants and flowers with a scientific level of detail, yet his creations have an enigmatic flair that presupposes believability. Fabbris’ botanical world seems familiar yet it clearly is not.

In so doing, he delights the eye by creating the satirical and absurd as well as the “almost real”. Whether engaged by an imagined context, by a supporting story, or alone in mid-air suspension, Vico Fabbris’ artwork is exuberant and a celebration of the inventive mind.

FLORASYNTHESIS

Ken Goldstrom - WORK-IN-CLAY, June 3 - 26, 2011

Gurari Collections is pleased to present an exhibition of work-in-clay by the artist Ken Goldstrom. Sculptures, plaques and tiles are armatures for his evocative imagination. Each work of art possess it’s own distinctive character. In fact, these characters, awakened by a childlike curiosity, seem familiar, but are not. Instead, they are Ken Goldstrom’s world brought to life by his mastery in claywork. In turn, we get to indulge in his whimsical creations which are delightful in an age of anxiety.

A graduate of Rhode Island School of Design, Ken has supported himself as a working artist in Massachusetts for the last thirty years. Skilled in all methodologies of the ceramic arts, he works the three-dimensionality of clay into forms endowed with character. Ken's work transcends the broader context by reducing his symbols to the folkloric.
As found in Time Out Boston magazine

AUTUMN 2010 EXHIBITIONS

AUTOMATA - ENERGY IN MOTION, By environmental artist JOAN BRIGHAM, December 3, 2010 - January 15, 2011.

Gurari Collections is pleased to present AUTOMATA – ENERGY IN MOTION, an exhibition of kinetic glass sculptures by the environmental artist, Joan Brigham. By definition, automata are self-operating machines to demonstrate scientific principles or for whimsy. Their origins can be traced to the Hellenistic period of Heron, known also as Hero of Alexandria. Hero has been credited with the invention of the aeolipile, a steam engine that generates rotation of a solid object, as many of the work in this exhibition exemplify. Throughout history, scientists and inventors have developed sophisticated technologies based on these principals, while artists continue to explore the use of energy in art. Joan Brigham has explored this notion throughout her career as an artist and educator. A permanent example, Galaxy Fountain, by Ms. Brigham is a steam and water generating iconic fixture in Kendall Square, Cambridge, Massachusetts. By working large, and in small scale, these artful inventions add wonder to our experiences.
A Research Fellow from 1974 -1999 at the Center for Advanced Visual Studies at M.I.T, and Professor Emeritus in Fine Art, Emerson College, Joan Brigham has been advancing the relationship of science and the arts. The intersection of these disciplines continues to resonate in laboratory and studio. Stepping back to the engines of the ancients, applying them to contemporary concepts, she allows for a timeless connection of science and the arts. Come join us in reveling in - energy in motion.

NINE BY SIX - October 29 - November 28, 2010. An Exhibition by Stephen Harby, Alexander Purves, Buzz Yudell, Wendy Artin, Tina Beebe, and Jeremiah Eck

EXHIBITION IMAGES: NINE BY SIX

Gurari Collections is pleased to present NINE BY SIX, an exhibition by six artists who all have a love of plein air painting. It all started with a grant. When Stephen Harby got the Gabriel grant he suddenly worried that his technique would not be up to the challenge, and his colleague Tina Beebe came up with the brilliant idea of hiring a watercolor teacher. The watercolor group they formed with Buzz Yudell expanded, retracted and traveled, painting and visiting architecture, from California to Morocco, Sicily, Provence. Stephen soared through the Gabriel grant, only once being required by his rather severe but gimlet-eyed French advisor to rinse his too colorful painting beneath the robinet.

Tina and Buzz were protégés of Charles Moore, then Dean of Architecture at Yale, who inspired Buzz to to pursue architecture, Tina to devote herself to architectural color, and both of them to follow him to California. Thinking it would be fun just for a year, they have now been there for thirty-five, married, with thriving firm and followers.
When Alec Purves was offered the possibility of teaching a Yale graduate architecture program in Rome, he said he had one condition: that former student Stephen Harby share the post. Each summer for ten years with dozens of students in tow through the busy streets, the two have examined Rome inside out, inspiring and making beautiful watercolors of its architectural wonders.

When Wendy Artin met Russ Gerard, she was already based in Rome, having set foot in her future husband’s travel bookshop and thus turned her own traveling into the ephemeral sort. Russ, formerly Associate Dean of Roger Williams School of Architecture, was delighted to show Wendy’s work in his new gallery, as years earlier he had brought his students to draw inspiration from her show at the Boston Public Library.

The following year while Stephen was a Fellow at the American Academy in Rome, he set out to look up the niece of his former colleague Robert Harper. It turned out that president of the Academy, Adele Chatfield-Taylor, was doing the same. The two joined forces and took turns lavishing upon Wendy, in her very small apartment, great kindness and support.
Recently, prominent Boston architect and talented landscape painter Jeremiah Eck came to Russ Gerard’s gallery to look upon the work of Wendy Artin. He reminisced about one of his first great teachers at Columbia who had been a major influence. Russ said “but here he is!” and presented him with his former professor Alec Purves, who had just written the brilliant introduction to the show’s catalogue.

As chance may have it, these six artists’ encounters have now provided us with this exhibition, NINE BY SIX.


ADNAN CHARARA - THE ARTIST AND HIS PROTOTYPES

September 24 - October 24, 2010

Gurari Collections’is pleased to present an exhibition of sculptures and drawings by the artist Adnan Charara. Entitled The ARTIST AND HIS PROTOTYPES, the exhibition explores the reconfiguration of reclaimed and found artifacts from everyday life into humorous and poignant figurative assemblages. Whimsy and delight are currents that continue to be expressed in Charara’s work. This, notwithstanding, is juxtaposed by the social and cultural histories that the reclaimed objects exemplify. By presenting his sculptures as “personalities” Charara’s work “suggests narratives that speak of the human condition”.

Drawing upon his international background, Adnan Charara has evolved his uniquely descriptive point of view as a fine artist. Always seemingly playful at first sight, his work resonates with topical issues suggesting narratives that explore injustice, fear and anxiety, as well as resilience, adaptability and growth.. The reclaimed objects and bronze sculptures act as models or prototypes that provides the audience with new perspectives for reinterpretation. His drawings, based upon these artifacts, further these notions by juxtaposing his use of humor to make powerful statements with his art.

Adnan Charara has been recognized and collected by museums, institutional and corporate collections as well as private collections. His artwork has been written about in international and nationally acclaimed journals and magazines.

SPRING 2010 EXHIBITIONS

DIMENSIONAL/TRANSPARENCIES - SCOTT TULAY, work-on-paper

The exhibition investigates the ambiguity of space. Whether inspired by built form or natural context his art is constructed by an armature of light. Light is engaged in defining space, which also possesses a transmission quality – movement of light in space. Scott Tulay is especially attuned to exploring this relationship. With training and practice in fine art and architecture he tries to push his work, rendering up imagined graphic geometries of the manmade, yet, applying the deftness of a painter’s sensibility. Employing perspective skillfully, Tulay engages us by layering the dimensional space ambiguously. Prismatic and hurried light beckons us to read the work cinematically. Conversely, a haunting almost ghosting sensation pervades other work where one can hear a silence of space.

Principally a monochromatic palette persists juxtaposing values from black to white. Hints of color inflect some work, thereby invoking a suggestive context. Using ink, charcoal and pastel, the mediums cohabitat the compositions deftly and seamlessly. This adroitness in technique delivers vibrant and energetic compositions. Tulay brings us to thresholds of new spatial perception in this exhibition.

FLORALIES - VICO FABBRIS , watercolor and work-on-paper

April 2 - May 2, 2010

An exhibition of watercolor paintings and work-on-paper by the artist Vico Fabbris. Entitled FLORALIES, the exhibition continues the artist’s exploration of fantasy botanicals. In an era where environmental concerns are paramount, Vico Fabbris is especially attuned to the loss of nature and it’s delicate species – flowers. He attempts to replace the lost habitat with botanical “flights of fantasy”. In so doing, he delights the eye by creating the “almost real” as well as the satirical and absurd. Whether engaged by an imagined context, by a supporting story, or alone in mid-air suspension, his artwork is exuberant and a celebration of the inventive mind.

FALL 2009 EXHIBITIONS

COLUMNAE - WENDY ARTIN, watercolor paintings

November 24 - December 20, 2009

COLUMNAE, Artin’s upcoming show of watercolors at Gurari Collections, features 60 paintings of architectural columns and landscapes from Rome’s ancient history, a selection of sanguine nudes both male and female, statuary, as well as still life watercolor paintings - birds, lemons and more.

Regarding the title of this exhibition, COLUMNAE, according to Marcus Vitruvius Pollo, (80 –15 BC.), in De Architectura,

“All these should possess strength, utility, and beauty. Strength arises from carrying down the foundations to a good solid bottom, and from making a proper choice of materials without parsimony. Utility arises from a judicious distribution of the parts, so that their purposes be duly answered, and that each have its proper situation. Beauty is produced by the pleasing appearance and good taste of the whole, and by the dimensions of all the parts being duly proportioned to each other”.

If strength and utility are absolutes in the built form, then beauty is the result of these conditions creating, defining and participating in context. Wendy Artin has been living, breathing in, and painting in Rome and the Campagna over the last fifteen years. In so doing, she has experienced her art in the pulsations of light, shade, and shadow that this city, and this country of civilization, renders. Living daily with the sites, the sounds and all the senses at play, she paints a history in the present that transcends time.

As Wendy Artin observes in the following thoughts –

“ Hot stones, sounds of crickets, great stillness, sun revealing forms and shadows like puddles of clear watercolor. A gust of wind brings gentle wafts of sun-baked plants, the same wind that for centuries has gradually worn away and rounded off the architectural shapes that seem eternal, in their great immobility. This is what stimulated me, the current magic world of architecture created in an ancient past.” Wendy Artin, 2009

Whether inert as in architecture, or in the movement of the live figure, Wendy Artin deftly captures the essence of its being through mastery of the painter’s hand and the timelessness that her innate ability conveys.

Wendy Artin received an MFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston; she also studied at the University of Pennsylvania and the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. She has lived and painted extensively for the last fifteen years in Rome, and has painted in Boston, New York, Mexico, Guatemala, and Paris. Her work is in the collections of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the Boston Public Library, Fondation Colas, Princess Caroline of Monaco, Isabele Adjani, John Guare, Adele Chatfield-Taylor, Gustavus Remak Ramsay, Steve Martin, Eric Fischl, April Gornik, Richard Leacock, Valerie Lalonde and Jacques Grange. She has exhibited in New York, Boston, Rome, Milan and Paris. Her work has been featured in Pratique Des Arts, American Artist, The New York Times, Vanity Fair ,Gourmet, Elle Decoration, Cote Sud, French Vogue, Elle, Carnet, and the Boston Globe, among other publications. She has been featured on BRAVO television's Arts & Minds.

Gurari Collections is proud that COLUMNAE is our seventh exhibition of Wendy Artin’s artwork. The exhibition is from November 24 - December 20th, 2009, in our gallery in the South End of Boston, 460 Harrison Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts, 02118.

October 2 - 25, 2009

INQUIRIES - T. KELLY WILSON, Recent Work - Oil Painting, Graphite Drawing. After many years of plein-air painting, INQUIRIES has brought the artist into the studio to study, to deconstruct, to obtain space, light, and color from an honored begonia plant. As the exhibition will demonstrate, Kelly Wilson is facile in the analytic and expressive in the nature of painting. Wilson's work resonates with the color-coding of space and the making of dimensional planer surfaces that are warped by the life and age of this plant. Since his inquiry covered a lengthy time span, the investigation measures the begonia's own changes and morphology. The organic nature of plant form defines its’ context with density and sparseness, shoots and projections as it seeks light by which to grow. Wilson recognizes that he can only “ paint the visible’” yet his fascination with the “invisible” – the space and air of this begonia’s universe - is “colorless, though not formless.” He reconciles the seen and unseen by allowing his paint, his palette, to undulate this living natural world. Movement of surface to light and back again presents a unified whole in a vibrancy and simplicity at once.

The subsequent paintings and drawings reveal and pleasure the senses.

T. Kelly Wilson has received a Master in Architecture from Harvard University and a Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Auburn. He continues as an adjunct Associate Professor of Architecture at the Graduate School of Design, Harvard University, teaching Visual Studies and he directs the Harvard Rome Study Program. He has had a long (25 plus years) and active career in Higher Education at distinguished universities such as Yale College, M.I.T., Rhode Island School of Design. Along with teaching, he pursues a life of painting and drawing with exhibitions at noted galleries in the United States and abroad. In the best sense of the word, Wilson’s talents encompass the best of the artist-architect tradition of the Renaissance humanists to the modernist work of artist-architect such as Le Corbusier. His work has been published in The New York Times, Boston Globe, Columbus Dispatch, Design New England, Architecture and Architectural Record, as well as Harvard Design Review, among other publications.


Gurari Collections annually exhibits 3 - 6 individual artists work and/or thematic exhibitions built from the gallery's inventory. Select artists who have presented at Gurari Collections come from diverse and international backgrounds. American, Italian, French, Russian and German artists have successfully shown their work at the gallery. Topical exhibitions have included; "The Inventive Mind" inventions in creative design 17th -20th centuries; "Celestial Bodies" antique star charts to satellite photographs (from the mythic to current scientific investigations); "Masterpieces of European City Plans" including 18th century engraved wall maps of Paris, Rome and London.

Please look for more updates as new exhibitions find their way onto the schedule.