Vernissages | NYC: Atara Baker at Fox Gallery NYC

An unusual thought provoking pop-up exhibition is on view at Fox Gallery NYC: the mixed media paintings /anthropomorphic masks by Atara Baker, an Israeli born and California based artist who spent over a decade in South Africa. The curator Annette Benda-Fox relates Baker's work to the recent exhibition of Picasso's sculptural work at MoMA "Walking through MoMA’s historic Picasso sculpture exhibit last month, I was once again struck by the impact non-western (African, Oceanic) art exerted upon modern art in the 20th century.  From Picasso’s revolutionary Les Demoiselles d’Avignon through Brancusi, Paul Klee, Giacometti, David Smith, Henry Moore, Robert Rauschenberg, Robert Motherwell, Keith Haring, John Michel-Basquiat, Antoni Tapies,  and others, primal energy has imbued the artist’s vision and work. I first observed this while cataloging African and Oceanic art for Sotheby's. I was deeply affected by the works' emotional power, beauty and symbolism.

Vernissages | Frank Boros and John Haubrich at Fox Gallery

The Fox Gallery is presenting an exhibit of two different media which really works.  Painting and graphite don’t always partner well visually, but in this case the contrast in the techniques, shapes, and colors particular to each, makes for a  flowing and stimulating perambulation. 
The 2012 graphite by Frank Boros, “A Number for Elaine,” with its intertwining and overlapping lines, circles, and spatial areas, illustrate Boros’ statement: “I began to explore, to push, to question and to wonder.  This simple play of the circle and a square has become an inquiry.”  Inspiration for these works came to Boros from a more than six-hour stay in a hospital emergency room, gazing up at the ceiling--a firmly creative response to an inhospitable and unwelcoming setting.
John Haubrich takes his inspiration from more traditional sources: the beauty of the countryside with its numerous rivers, lakes and grid of the farm fields from his boyhood growing up in southern Minnesota.  But he also finds beauty in damaged and decaying elements, such as abandoned farms, factories, and gravel pits.  His painting “Smile” from 2011 juxtaposes rectangular areas—one with human bones, a smiling face with eyes blackened over, and blood-red swashes of color interspersed with running lines of text which seem to merge his responses to beauty and decay.

Elizabeth Davis

 

Camminando | Sunset, Vernissages and Finissage

Sun about to set on the Hudson waterfront

A "live" murals on West 24 Street

Fabric and lighting installation at Artgate Gallery

Viewing while walking

Sun framed by the 69th Street Transfer bridge

The space shuttle permanent home, the "intrepid"

A distance view of the George Washington Bridge

Finissage of Jack Solomon and Jeanette Fintz exhibition at Fox Gallery

Walk Total Length: 12.5 miles