| Veneration John Ferro Scott Endsley Damien Garcia June 15 - July 22, 2006 Artist reception: June 15, 2006, 6-9 PM "In Beauty may you walk With beauty before you may you walk With beauty behind you may you walk With beauty all around you may you walk. It is finished in beauty…..” Anonymous Navajo prayer Beauty is the balance of everything. VENERATION, the exhibition opening in DUMBO at the Henry Gregg Gallery on 111 front St on June 15 to July 22, embodies the essence of the anonymous Navajo prayer. According to the Navajo, if one must be truly healthy and happy, beauty must dominate his thought and speech and harmony must permeate his environment. Beauty is the ecology of one’s inner being from which all originates. At a time when fear, hatred, deceit and lies resonate in the atmosphere, art once again comes to the rescue through the works of three artists who embrace and venerate life and the whispers of the ethereal reality. "The images in VENERATION are a blend of meditations on myth and nature. Shot in black and white with a pinhole camera, carbon is physically applied to the photographic surface with the reduced flame of the torch. Through these works I explore the close proximity and the often indistinguishable difference between man nature and religious veneration...." John Ferro’s photographs are whispers of meditative contemplation and exploration. He uses his materials as tools to express his beliefs and spirituality. Wayward, Master of Bush and Espalier V722 and 221 have layered nuances of many worlds and deeper realities. What comes through in all the works is a reverence for nature as opposed to the western tradition of domination over nature. "Artists are the shamans of a culture. I want to create a new myth. I want my works to be as interesting as watching reflections on water, or the clouds in the sky and I want to create art that will help heal the hate in this world", says Scott Endsley. His works on glass are a magical encounter with dreamscapes of color light and a surreal translucency. The nuances of light speak through them and pay homage to the fragile elegance of the beauty of inner worlds. His oil pastels on wood and paper echo a cosmic ecology with hidden shapes and images. The female, the goddess and the Shaman-She are powerful in these works. "I have approached my expressive style in art through a personal perspective of life and the world around me. Each painting begins with a limitless pallet for the expression of emotions, feelings, thoughts and dreams." Damien Garcia’s Invocation of spring, water color and ink on paper, brings to life the gentleness of spring with the subtle use of color and lines. In the piece titled, Energy, the use of space within the painting is a language and enhances the strength and shades of the colors. André Martínez, who is Henry Gregg gallery, resonates with the theme of the show. Passionate in his love for art and his quest to support artists, he keeps going against all odds and believes that staying true to oneself and the creative process is the ultimate triumph. In his daughter Tanya’s words, "My father is life. He is art." Manoshi Chitra Neogy |
