Gallery

The Works of Andrẻ Martinez The Spirit Hunter in Two Parts Part One - The Paintings A Tribute to Gods, Spirits, Mortals and Ancestors When: Nov 30 - Jan. 30 , 2007 111 Front Street - Brooklyn - NY 11201 DUMBO Suite 226 718 408 - 1090 The Spirit Hunter In the exhibition, The Spirit Hunter in Two Parts, Andre Martinez brings together a collection of paintings and photographs that echo the spirit of our times. Through a startling juxtaposition of colors and shapes, each painting emits a vibration of its own Martinez captures a pivotal moment in time in each painting with a diverse palette ranging from scarlet, muddied gray, translucent pastels, or blue and gold patinas. The artist's work, including sculpture crafted from found objects, comments upon the human condition around the world, in the nation, and at home. As onlookers, we join him in experiencing pivotal moments, whether it is the reflection of exploding bombs in the eyes of an astonished onlooker or the technological overload, paradoxically, so eloquently expressed in a painting like "Cellular Catastrophe." Underpinning the show, however, is Martinez Reed's spirituality and vision of love, concern, and hope. I speak with my ancestor spirits and flow With their sacred spirit I chant to my deities and travel emerald paths I listen to their whispers I see a mother and child sad and alone As a son finds his father fallen amid flowers and dust Hunters of the unknown in the face of the artist As he faces his canvas revealing unmasked journeys I see man being trampled by ignorance and greed My brushes of paint sit wet in my hands as vision unfolds I mold joy and sorrow, from the river of no light My soul is captive as I watch mans pain I journey through time and fly with the eagles Trying to fathom the mystery of the universe I hail the gods in string and drum and color and light.... And dream of a life in perfect harmony Call me Call me....Spirit Seeker... At some point, creativity can speak as loudly as the soul, bursting with a feeling to express itself. Painting can bring forth what otherwise has no visual appellation. These realms are always there, understood, let alone sensed by many, enacted by very few. "If You Understand Your Painting Before You Paint It Then Why Paint It At All." Dali

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. Andre Martinez, 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

Art of Revelation Intuitive Works by Nad Wolinska and Philip Rubinov Jacobson May 5 - 31, 2006 Artist reception: May 6, 2006, 6-9 PM As art is the language of the soul, it allows for a broad expression of inspired states where words can often fail us. In this, Nad Wolinksa and Philip Rubinov Jacobson are ‘creative siblings’ that explore the perrenial questions of life through their art. They are creatuitive. They combine creativity and intuition, two integrating forces in their integral painting practice that is an essential part of their spiritual path. Instinct is the ground floor of intuition. Intuition is the ground floor of inspiration. Inspiration is the ground floor of revelation. Revelation is nearness to God. In these two creative workers, there is the common experience of acquiring a sense of absolute reality, or an intrinsic rightness in which the loss of an ‘I-me-mine’ perspective suddenly imbued their view and something extraordinary unveiled itself. They are, in a sense, artistic mystics that live the eternal questions: Who am I? What is life? What is art? What is reality? Where are we going? They aspire to move from a limited view in which only their persona exists and matters, that is; from the egocentric to a community -centric view; from that to a world-centric awareness and finally to an all-inclusive experience of the One Spirit peering out through the eyes of the many. Inspiration showers upon the nature of these two artists, that which is more measureless than their thoughts and often more vast than their comprehension. Because of this, they find that artistically exploring the questions and looking for answers will also generate new questions. But as new questions replace old answers they begin to leave behind the many shattered forms that clouded the vision of the soul and a new clarity arises. We can trace their footsteps on the path through their paintings. Both Wolinska and Rubinov Jacobson believe consciousness can be more fully realized, puzzles can be solved and mysteries can, at the least, be explored, domesticated and somewhat tamed through the art of painting from intuitive states of awareness that lead to revelation. These artists touch upon these lights of truth and bring down subsets of revelatory experience; a shadowy reflection and esthetic glimpse into the divine. In art, they both agree that we grasp Spirit in its “immediacy” through progressive states of consciousness. Revelation in art is the quickened and magnified expansion of experience and the virtual fusion of spirit and matter. To this end, the human contribution of art is also the quickened work of the nature in both man and woman.

My Visitors Nestor Madalengoitia New Paintings March 23 - April 22, 2006 Artist reception: March 25, 2006, 6-9 PM New work by artist Nestor Madalengoitia will be showcased in an exhibit that opens on March 25 from 6 - 9 at the Henry Gregg Gallery in Brooklyn. The exhibit will run through April 22, and includes both paintings and pastels created with letters, numbers and repeating figures as compositional elements. When seen as a whole, these individual shapes form a complete portrait. In the works the artist wants to evoke the significance of the subject through these symbols, and engage the audience in discovering how these relate to the subject’s personality. This series allows the viewer to see the whole portrait, but also to be aware of the words, numbers, patterns or simple drawings used to create the piece. For the artist, this juxtaposition makes the pieces come alive. The subject matter of the paintings in the exhibit is based on the idea of having visitors in an artist’s studio. In the paintings we see friends, relatives and imaginary friends (artists throughout history) that have influenced Madalengoitia’s art. Picasso, Cezanne, Warhol and Chuck Close are all represented here. Text related to the subjects is incorporated into the painting’s compositional fabric, giving each piece a multilayered message - that of the overall composition as well as meaning through the smaller text and images. The text may be based on the subject’s character, a quote of theirs, or something that the artist perceives about the subject. In “Blue Painting”, seven artists are captured as though in discussion about the meaning of art. The background texture is formed by a block of bold letters. On closer inspection, one sees that this block of text is a narrative (in Spanish and English) about art. Notable in the piece is that neither element (the text or the subject matter) is overshadowed by the other, rather they work in harmony to create a complete picture. In these paintings, the artist also explores the timelessness of these artists, and how they are connected and have influenced modern day artists, specifically the artist himself. The exhibition will also feature a number of dynamic pastel portraits. In these pieces, the artist uses repeating elements to form a complete portrait. In one work, a portrait of a bearded man stares out at us, created only with geometric shapes. In another piece, we see the familiar profile of Pablo Picasso. In this case, Madalengoitia used only the name “Picasso” drawn in script over and over again to create the work. These works are highly successful, in part due to Madalengoitia’s ability to use color to create light and shadow in the piece. According to the artist, these works were inspired by ancient tapestries from Paracas, Peru (the artist’s native country). The woven pre-Inca tapestries use intricate figures to tell a whole story in a larger piece. In talking about his work, the artist tells us, “I hope using this technique will offer viewers deeper understanding of the subject. I want viewers to see the whole portrait, but also to be very aware of the words, numbers or patterns used to create the piece. This creates a dynamic tension to engage the viewer in discovering which symbols are used to define the piece and how they relate to the subject. My goal as an artist is to give people a visual channel in which to view social situations. Painting allows me to interact with the subjects of my community, whether that community is my family, my neighborhood, or the community of the world. Perhaps through my paintings viewers can reflect on their own reality.”

Silent Pictures An Exhibiton of Paintings Susan J. Sauerbrun February 10 - March 4, 2006 Artist reception: February 11, 2006, 6-9PM Susan J. Sauerbrun's work is in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Havard University, Harvard Business School in Cambridge MA, Mobile Livre in Philadelphia and many private collections. She has shown her work in such diverse locations as the Whitechapel Gallery in London and the Bronx Museum in New York. Sauerbrun is the recipient of a 2001 Pollock-Krasner Award, and she won the 2000 American Drawing Biennial in Williamsburg,Virginia. She was Artist in Residence at the Henry Street Settlement in Manhattan and the Longwood Arts Project in the Bronx. She is also a founding member and former board member of London's ACME Housing Association and the ACME Gallery from the artist's statement: "These paintings concern intellectual quiet. They are immediate, fresh, feral, quick, sensitive and silent. They are grounded, evolutionary and calm. Art is a private language. Speech codification (like bipedal locomotion) defines the human circumstance. The paintings are translations of that private language. Abrading sentiment from the technique turned blending of color into a whole new method. Scouring the surface of a painting forced the artist to "dissolve the romantic notion that suffering created the gap in which art takes place." With nothing left to loose, she let go. "Liberate the doubt and restricted excitment and taste the difference." The cumulative result of release was an increasingly deep and spacious quiet. Doubt and hope became wishful illusions. "Choose a habit and then try to break it. Just prior to resolution, the painting engaged in adolescent rebellion and threated to riot. Then there was an ecstatic release of tension in both of us. Silence announced completion of each painting." The paintings are named after the artist's ancestors. They were ordinary people who stayed alive in some pretty heroic circumstances. They bore at least one child, and therefore she is alive now.

Autistic Savant Artworks: Don't 'dis' the ability ping lian yeak richard wawro christophe pillault temple grandin January 11 - February 4, 2006 The Children's Center for Early Learning & Henry Gregg Gallery present: Autistic Savant Artworks: Don't 'dis' the ability A New York 2006 Art Exhibition Tour featuring the works of four internationally renowned artists. What is savant syndrome? Savant Syndrome is a rare, but spectacular, condition in which persons with various developmental disorders, including autistic disorder, have astonishing islands of ability, brilliance or talent that stand in stark, markedly incongruous contrast to overall limitations. www.savantsyndrome.com Artist Reception: Saturday, January 14, 2005, 6-9PM sponsored in part by the Children's Charitable Foundation text by Dr. Darold Treffert, MD Ping Lian Yeak: A Remarkable Artist Ping Lian's artwork stands on its own demonstrating a remarkable artistic ability in a 12 year old boy. Ping Lian is from Malaysia. His drawings are colorful, cheerful and impressive. Those drawings take on an added significance, however, when one sees that such ability co-exists with a dis-ability as described by his mother and teachers. Such artistic prowess as Ping Lian demonstrates, in addition to providing us with beautiful art, serves as a source of satisfaction, development and growth for him, helping eventually to minimize whatever limitations might spring from his disabilities. Richard Wawro: An Amazing Artist Richard Wawro is a remarkable Edinburgh, Scotland artist, now known world-wide, for his detailed drawings using wax oil crayons as his only medium. He can create exceedingly detailed, dramatic drawings of intense depth and color. Richard was born in 1952. When he was three years old his parents were told that he was moderately to severely retarded. He also showed considerable autistic behavior with the characteristic obsession for sameness, withdrawal, twirling while walking and a preoccupation with the piano striking a single key for hours at a time and spinning objects endlessly. Christophe Pillault: A Remarkable artist Christophe Pillault (Olivet, France) was born in Iran in 1982. An autistic savant, he is unable to talk, walk or feed himself. He discovered painting, using his hands though unable to use his fingers functionally. He began painting in 1993. His capacities were discovered by his special education teacher and then encouraged by his mother. Christophe does not talk but expresses himself through his paintings. A singular figure in art, he paints with his hands and uses acrylic on paper, canvas and cardboard. Imaginaire #773, acrylic on canvas, 20.75" X 28.75", 1996 Dr. Temple Grandin Temple Grandin, Ph.D., is the most accomplished and well-known adult with autism in the world and is a prominent author and speaker on the subject of autism. Dr. Grandin is a designer of livestock handling facilities and an Associate Professor of Animal Science at Colorado State University. She has designed facilities in the U.S, Canada, Europe, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, and other countries. Dr. Grandin has contributed some of her engineering prints for this exhibition.

The Embracing of Life and the Unexpected André Martínez Reed October 14 - December 31, 2005 André Martíinez Reed, a seasoned musician and prolific painter, is quickly becoming a highly regarded artist in the Brooklyn art community and has received a favorable response from local press for his expressionist, spiritual portraiture style. Martinez is an expressionist painter who journeys into the spiritual world. His paintings embrace the spirit of the subject, whether it be in human, ancestral or a God like form, stroke by stroke he labors for the story beneath or inside the visually perceptive image, enhanced with dynamic shapes, bold strokes and vivid colors. The painting will speak to you, if you are a seeker. Martinez describes himself as “one who dances with destiny and the rhythms of life and embraces the cultures found in all people.” His paintings are reflections of his life, half of a century lived. The Henry Gregg gallery is housed in a building with 16 varied galleries. Martinez will run his show from November 12 thru December 31 and will feature other artist throughout next year. The Brooklyn Borough president, Marty Markowitz honored him with a Proclamation for the opening of the Henry Gregg Gallery and his one man Show titled “Gods, Spirits and Ancestors.” Martinez paints with intensity and vigor, the process of painting and the spirits he paints are just as important as the completed project. “I will always strive to get a story out of my paintings. I want to take my viewer on a journey like the one I took to create it. If the spirit is captured right, it is to be cherished because it is evidence of ones work and accomplishments. The painting will live on.” His artistic influences include Chagall, Rembrandt, Picasso, Dali, Bacon, Renoir, Avedon and Sargent. But, Martinez who has owned the gallery for a year with his family, said that his wife, two daughters and son have played a very large roll in his painting, as they are highly motivated, dedicated and very creative in the arts. André Martinez was born in downtown Brooklyn, New York in 1955 to a family immersed in the arts and as a result mastered his first craft, percussion. His early musical influences include Frank Sinatra, Little Anthony, Tito Puente, Richard Wagner, Coltrane, Miles and the Beatles. A seasoned musician, he has performed throughout the world extensively with legendary free-jazz pianist and Mac Arthur Genius Award recipient Cecil Taylor, and is a member of The Vision Orchestra. Martinez’ group, Earth People, (www.earthpeople.tv), has produced four critically acclaimed albums distributed through his label, Undivided Vision. He is a widely in demand percussionist and an integral part of the Free Music Collective. Martinez’ love of music fostered his transition into painting at a young age and in recent years he has created an incredible series of canvases.

Central Park Venus Michael Price June 24 - July 30, 2005 New York based British artist Michael Price presents a hitherto unimaginable interpretation of Central Park; a park presided over by the archetypal figure 'Venus', the symbolic goddess of love. Six large oil paintings from the past two years, titled 'Central Park Venus', present the artist's development of a chromatic nude inhabiting a landscape as an extended chromatic space. This original color concept relies on the chroma of the different natural and mineral pigment particle sizes to create volume or depth. The artist hand-grinds all his colors from rocks and crystals and prepares them according to a variety of protocols. Price, an expert on natural and mineral pigments, has published his research into the pigment preparation of the colors of the Renaissance palette in the journal ‘Leonardo’ (MIT press), and recently in ‘Artwatch UK’. This truly luminous color transports the nudes to a transcendent other-worldly existence although the archetype of Venus stays firmly rooted in the transformed scenes of Central Park. Venus reflects and amplifies the changing moods and spirit of the park. Each chromatic nude is painted either with lapis lazuli, azurite, malachite, cinnabar, orpiment or even a simple natural yellow ocher collected by the artist from rock outcrops in southern Utah. The vibrant color imbues the nudes with a freedom, beauty and dignity seldom experienced with this genre.

Lush Life Martha Glinski September 10 - October 2, 2005 The Henry Gregg Gallery, one of DUMBO’s premiere galleries, is proud to present the paintings of Martha Glinski, in an exhibition entitled “Lush Life.” Glinski, renowned for her many works on canvas reflecting the legends of Jazz – particularly of the Bebop era – include not only portraits (some in black and white) of Charlie “Yardbird” Parker, Lester Young, Mary Lou Williams and Billie Holiday, to name a few, but also lush paintings depicting the essential moods and scenes which jazz so magically invoke. Not just for jazz lovers, this is a rare opportunity to experience this sometimes reclusive artist’s seldom seen masterpieces of a world she obviously has been intimately familiar with, and so clearly inspired by - from its source. Martha Glinski lives in New York City, by way of Boston, Massachusetts, and Paris, France. She was invited to exhibit at the Palais de Congres in Paris while still in her early twenties, and decided to stay awhile, studying with Jose Charlet, a Master at the Ecole des Beaux Arts and one of France's premiere artists. She has also presented her work for a Bill Cosby production at Felt Forum in Madison Square Garden, for movies and has produced music/art productions in clubs and theatre, in addition to countless exhibitions in Boston, New York and Paris. Glinski's work has mostly been inspired by American Music, and the people who make the music. Her work is in collections around the world, celebrity and "regular" folks alike. She is currently a contributing artist at the JVC Jazz Festival.

Pure Paint Nola Zirin Serena Bocchino Michael Brennan Sara Conca Julian Jackson Melissa Meyer Eleanor Schimmel May 14 - June 18, 2005 Henry Gregg Gallery is pleased to present “PURE PAINT,” an exhibition of seven master artists who share a visceral and dynamic expression through paint. Through a variety of techniques and processes, these painters have developed a visual vocabulary that captures international audiences. Notably a colorist, Nola Zirin gives newness to the term urban abstraction. Her multi-layered canvases create sensuous environments that will demand the experienced art looker’s attention. Michael Brennan’s sensitive reductive paintings are “between gestural abstraction and minimalism. They are visual pleasures shifting optical intensities and spatial involutions.” Known as a colorist, Serena Bocchino’s lyrical abstractions evoke visual jazz harmonies. Her hip sensitivity to contemporary pop chromatic schemes provokes passion and energy. Both a painter and a sculptor, Sara Conca’s work is charged with abstractions from her soul. Her paintings are an extravaganza of color from which a new dimension of abstraction emerges. Julian Jackson’s translucent paintings capture the essence of light and movement, and create tensions of the physical sense of the engaged consciousness. Melissa Meyer’s exciting sense of movement and life is present throughout her colorful paintings, which respond to music and literature and convey an electrically charged aura. The luscious encaustic paintings of Eleanor Schimmel are gorgeously dense. Schimmel shows the truly physical being ethereal while the two-dimensional becomes more solidly real.

Jazz Lines Ivo Perelman April 8 - May 7, 2005 The natural affinity of music and visual art has rarely ever been expressed as vividly as in the visual imagery created by noted jazz saxophonist, Ivo Perelman. Born 12/01/1961 in Sao Paulo, Brazil, he came to the United States in 1981 to pursue a musical career. He has performed to great acclaim in jazz festivals and concerts around the world and has recorded 26 CDs. His music, a unique form of free jazz, translates itself into the striking Abstract Expressionism of his painted imagery. Just as his music evolves out of his liberation from musical convention, his imagery dispenses with traditional artistic conventions and expresses the raw energy, which creates each painting. The intense flows and abrupt breaks of sound that emerge from his saxophone are reborn as zigzagging lines of color, splashed on canvas. Some of his paintings are full of agitated energy, while others are more lyrical, creating a visual moment of near silence. Instead of working from a preconceived artistic idea, Perelman lets the flowing, skittering, dancing paint lead him on. Each painting is like a performance, a set of actions in time that can happen in that particular way only once, embodying the sound of his music through the stroke of the paint brush. The notes become vibrant colors and the rhythm transcends into shape. He passionately unravels the most vivid emotions, whether playing the saxophone or approaching the canvas. There are no limits or restraints as his method of expression relies not on planning but solely on the flow of feelings. His desire for painting stems from the depths of his soul with the ardent yearnings. From articles by Eleanor Heartney, New York City based art critic and contributing editor to Art in America, and from theiceberg.com