2011

News & Press:

Eric Zener -  Book Signing @ Gallery Henoch

First edition hard cover with sleeve,

244 pages, 25 essays, 151 color images, 13" x 10.5" x 2"

The Intimate Winter Show

This winter show considers intimate paintings of the figure and pairs them with equally intimate paintings of objects.

Smulka, AUTUMN RHYTHM, Oil on Linen, 44" x 50"

In the gallery the Sharon Sprung and the Steve Smulka paintings hang next to each other.  I enjoy looking at the tangle-wood in the background of the Smulka and how it corresponds to the red lace that slinks up the back of the young woman in Sprung's work.

Sharon Sprung, COMMING UNDONE, oil on panel, 36" x 30"

Sprung's painting also hangs near Kim Cogan's wonderful piece, PASSENGER. I quite enjoy the difference in scale between the figures in these paintings and the degree to which our understanding of intimacy can change from one situation to the next.

Sharon Sprung & Kim Cogan

Olga Antonova's metalic cups are hung together with one of her strawberry paintings.  In probably what is a stretch of the imagination, I thought her vessels had a dialog with Cogan's Passenger - almost as if they were on a platform waiting for that train to arrive.

Olga Antonova

Olga Antonova, METAL CUPS ON BLUE, Oil on canvas, 20" x 20"

This juxtaposition of David Kassan's portrait ARTIST'S MOTHER and Steve Mills' TWO FOR A NICKLE is of particular interest.  The cigar boxes are antiques lent to Mills from the collection of the Swisher International - the cigar company.  My relationship to such boxes comes by storage of baseball cards and other keepsakes.  I think of how the boxes have transformed from the holding of a delightful cigar treat to the stowed away keeper of memories.  In the same light, the ARTIST'S MOTHER is at once her own person and also the keeper of her sons childhood memories.  There is a duality in her persona and an intimacy in her gaze.  Visually I enjoy how both pictures show the subjects folded in on each other.  And admire how the passage of time is vividly expressed - from the flecked paint on the boxes to the loose skin on the hands in the portrait.

The final comparison is  David Kassan's portrait KAITLYN and Gary Ruddell's ARRANGEMENT IN RAW UMBER.  Visually geometry of each composition work well together and the ying/yang of the color appears to have the artists in collaboration.  More then just interesting together, these two works provide further thought on the psychological notion of the "intimate".     

Kassan's painting KAITLYN and Ruddell's painting ARRANGEMENT IN RAW UMBER