Broadway Gallery NYC

UNDERGROUND on Broadway
July 1st - 15th, 2010
Opening reception: Thursday, July 1st, 2010, 6:00 - 8:00 pm

Underground on BROADWAY is a London built exhibition of young, emerging British talent showing at Broadway Gallery, New York this summer. Made up of nine artists’ work, the show is eclectic in both medium and specific subject, a collection of early inspiration, showing how these initial pieces play off one another in terms of style and raw imagination.

The opening will be an innovative interactive experience, with live web streaming back to England for those who couldn’t be in New York, and the opportunity to text and email the artists participating creating a trans-Atlantic perspective between two countries miles apart. Encouraged by Underground’s sister show Pop-Up NY, this is will be a unique opportunity to see two cities in visual dialogue, as the works, ranging widely in medium, will hang adjacent from one another. Documented constantly online, Underground on BROADWAY aims to manipulate all that modern communication can offer, and the climatic opening will be one not to be missed.

Often reliant on place and surrounding, Underground’s works are reactions to the world their artists find themselves in, visual expressions of situation and its currents of influence. What many of the artists were particularly taken with was the idea of their art traveling from its place of origin to be deliberately displayed in another environment, and the effect that this would have on both the art and viewers’ reactions to it. Adam Higman’s piece is a tampered counting ‘clicker’ encased in a perspex box. The counter holds the amount of clicks it took for the box, and the show itself, to travel from London to New York; it is a three dimensional illustration of traveled time enclosed in space. Leanne Elliott (RART) captures the dark, wet shining pavement between a Londoner’s legs; her photography, 120 Nights of Sodom, tells the tales of a city’s nightly underbelly. Sam Hodge takes its estates in broad daylight, framing for us a view across the street in Queens Road Peckham, South London. Sophie Duckworth’s Habliments are a conception of place. Coloured threads dripping with the purity of white wax and the decadence of gold, these are hanging memories of a heritage imagined, a past visualised in an ecclesiastical vision casting shadows on the wall.

Origin, of place, person and reaction, feature throughout the Underground on BROADWAY show. Only encouraged by one another’s varied approach, the show demonstrates how each individual artist pushes the boundaries of their visual exploration, through their mediums of installation, painting, drawing and photography.

ARTISTS
Ing Chua-Lee, Sophie Duckworth, Katie Elder, Leanne Elliott (RART), Adam Higman, Sam Hodge, Ita Maude Wooller (RART), Caitlin Montie Greer (RART), Tim Sargent

Alongside the exhibition, Underground on BROADWAY will be a show documented online, allowing both the artists, as well as viewers out of New York, to keep track of the show:

http://undergroundonbroadway.wordpress.com

Aiming to be as interactive as possible, check the website for information on all our artists, updates on the show’s progress, as well as for individuals’ reactions & feedback once we open.

Pop-Up NY
July 1st - 15th, 2010
Opening reception: Thursday, July 1st, 2010, 6:00 - 8:00 pm

Spontaneous and exciting, Pop-Up New York is a handful of the city’s young and emerging artists gathered to spring up next to Broadway Gallery’s London show Underground on BROADWAY.

Working in a range of mediums this group show is an array of visual reaction, with artists responding to their surrounding influences and situations. Reflective of New York, the show will run alongside Underground on BROADWAY providing an energy filled visual dialogue that will allow both shows to feed off one another.

Innovative in its approach, Underground on BROADWAY and Pop-Up New York will be an unique and interactive experience aiming to involve both the artists and viewers of each of its home towns. There will be filming, live web streams back to England, the opportunity to text artists not present at the opening, and an atmosphere lively with ideas and thoughts from two cities miles apart.

Not to be missed come to the OPENING PARTY on the 1st of July for a preview unlike any other.

ARTISTS
Scott Bluedorn, Darlin Frometa, Young Heller, Julian Lorber, Jungyeon Roh, Tory Sica, Skummi, Cameron Snow Plus more TBC.

Broadway Gallery NYC

Carlos Aquilino
June 16th - 30th, 2010
Opening reception: Thursday, June 17th, 2010, 6:00 - 8:00 pm

Spanish artist, Carlos Aquilino’s exhibition at the Broadway gallery will feature his latest works, in a variety of mediums—paintings, drawings and sculptures.

A devoted painter and an artist by instinct, Carlos Aquilino is always against the tide of easy fashion. An absolute master of drawing and color in all ranges, his perfect control of the compositional possibilities of spatial perspective, expressiveness, and clear-sighted message based on his imaginative figurative creativity are Carlos Aquilino’s key to communicating with the rest of humanity.

Carlos Aquilino was born in 1947 in Madrid. As a self-taught painter, he started his career with his first solo exhibition in 1975 in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (Spain), at which time he also participated in several public art competitions and group exhibitions. In the same year he illustrated the book of poems Máscaras (masks). In 1977, he was given the Painting Prize of the City of Madrid followed by the Grand Medal of Sculpture at the Anzio’77 International Art Competition in Rome.

Aquilino has created a body of complex Surreal and geometric compositions that combine the influences of Cubism and Futurism. In his work, Aquilino deals with life’s subjects, events, moods and day-to-day trivialities; informed by an interest in the place of the individual within society. Aquilino exhibits a personality and aesthetic that is diagrammatic, invented, historical, and nonsensical all at once. Typically using a limited number of striking colors, his works are immediately recognizable by their daring yet subtle narratives and message.

Observing and documenting their domain, Aquilino seeks to reflect the city in which he lives while infusing them with his own fantastical imagination and unique visions. His work is the story of their experiences: the representation of spaces, senses, their history and knowledge traveled. He captured their emotions, their dreams remembered and invoked memories. He transposes his own sensibility into colors and forms, in order to achieve a raw aesthetic that evokes the kind of honesty that is found deep within the human spirit. The result is a series of works with a timeless, magical quality.

Quentin Crisp in Black and White
June 16th - 30th, 2010
Opening reception: Thursday, June 17th, 2010, 6:00 - 8:00 pm

“I photograph every possible aspect of human life. A famous movie director said an artist never looks away. I never look away.”
~ Martin Fishman

Presented as a celebration of the artistry and lives of both men, QUENTIN CRISP IN BLACK AND WHITE: Photographs by Martin Fishman, offers no rainbow flags. No welcome mats of glory and fame. No bright celebratory moments of excess and inebriation. Just pure, black-and-white photographic honesty. Simple as that. Each image captures a solid fact harshly spoken, but that is what Martin Fishman’s photographs often show, the harsh truth of being. And that is what his photographs of Quentin Crisp offer to us. This rare personal glimpse into the life of Quentin Crisp and his “profession of being” offers us a black-and-white honesty of a familiar icon seen as a human being. Each print is unique in that it captures an intimate and personal moment, often in Quentin’s home, and with glances suggesting mini invasions. Thus, we are provided Mr. Fishman’s slight wink of paparazzi-like moments with Mr. Crisp doing ordinary things. And many of these images have never been seen before! Marty’s friendship with Quentin Crisp resulted in hundreds of beautiful and informal portraits of Mr. Crisp at his home and around New York City, which are now housed with Crisperanto: The Quentin Crisp Archives (crisperanto.org). Curator Phillip Ward, with Paula Fishman and Abraham Lubelski, presents QUENTIN CRISP IN BLACK AND WHITE: Photographs by Martin Fishman at Broadway Gallery NYC from June 17–30, 2010. All images were selected for printing by Fishman and printed by friend and fellow photographer, Y.Nagasaki. Martin Fishman’s photography speaks loudly and often with a gentle nod of respect, yet with an acknowledgement of what the harsh truth of a camera’s lens can make of a subtle moment in time. Born in 1937 and raised on Pitt Street and then Brighton Beach, Fishman saw in youth how life would shape his eye’s focus in years to come. Marty developed a passion for photography in high school and that passion remained with him for the rest of his life. He remained an active and productive photographer until his death on February 3, 2010. A native New Yorker, photographer Martin Fishman’s work has appeared in an array of newspapers, magazines, periodicals, books, and Internet. His photographs appeared in the New York Times, Time Out New York, and The Sun. And his images depicting New York City’s nightlife was published in Japan’s Blonde and Friday News magazines. His photographs appear in the books: Cross, Deviant Desires, Miss Vera’s Finishing School For Boys Who Want To Be Girls, and in the memorial tribute book, An Evening for Quentin Crisp (March 2000).

Mr. Fishman exhibited at Ariel Meyerowitz Gallery, Art@Large, East Fourth Street Photo Gallery, The Emerging Collector, Focus II Photography (also was the director), The Leslie-Lohman Gallery, Limelight Gallery, Synchronicity Art Gallery, and Rafaella on Ninth, and Caffe Rafaella. His photographs are in several museum and private collections. His photographs have appeared in exhibits presented by Phillip Ward and Crisperanto: The Quentin Crisp Archives: Quentin Crisp: London & New York (2000); Quentin Crisp: Portraits of a Legend (2001); Quentin Crisp: The Naked Bon Vivant (2002); Of Quentin Crisp: Photographs from the Quentin Crisp Archives (2002); Martin Fishman: Faces of Wigstock (2003); and Martin Fishman: Pride On Christopher Street (2005).

QUENTIN CRISP (1908–1999) is the author of the classic—and flamboyantly eccentric—coming-of-age memoir The Naked Civil Servant. The award-winning film version of The Naked Civil Servant, starring John Hurt, made him an instant international celebrity. Crisp also wrote numerous books and articles about his life and his opinions on style, fashion, and the movies. Often hailed as the 20th-century Oscar Wilde, Quentin Crisp was famous for his aphoristic witticisms. He performed his one-man show, An Evening with Quentin Crisp, to acclaim in theaters around the world, all the while spreading his unique philosophy: “Never keep up with the Joneses; drag them down to your level. It’s cheaper.” During the second part of his one-man show, Crisp answered questions from the audience and gave advice to audience members about how to find their individual style and live a happy life. He was always in the “profession of being”. Quentin Crisp was Oscar Wilde’s perfect descendant. With his calculated caustic words, open homosexuality and wittily provocative attitude toward any kind of conventionality, Crisp caused a bit of a stir in conservative England during the 1950s and 1960s, and even on through the 1970s. In 1981, Quentin Crisp moved to New York City, bringing along his familiar and witty remarks and his eccentricity. Quentin Crisp charmed everyone and became “the face of a modern rebel”. Throughout his near twenty-year tenure on Manhattan, Mr. Crisp wrote a variety of books, reviews, appeared in several movies (most notably playing Elizabeth I in Sally Ann Potter’s Orlando) and otherwise delighted us publicly and privately with his inimitable grace, wit and genius. Quentin Crisp died on the eve of touring his one-man show in Manchester, England, on November 21, 1999. To learn more about “all things Quentin Crisp”, visit his official web site at Crisperanto: The Quentin Crisp Archives at crisperanto.org.

PHILLIP WARD was Quentin Crisp’s personal assistant, dresser, typist, escort, and travel companion during the 1980s and until Mr. Crisp’s death in 1999. As literary and estate executor for Quentin Crisp, he organized and produced the memorial “An Evening for Quentin Crisp” at Cooper Union’s Great Hall on March 3, 2000 and co-edited Quentin Crisp 1908-1999, the memorial tribute book. He is archivist and curator of Crisperanto: The Quentin Crisp Archives (crisperanto.org and quentincrisp.com), and editor of Quentin Crisp’s final book, The Dusty Answers (unpublished). Mr. Ward is a consultant and researcher, curator, multimedia artist, photographer, poet, and writer. His writings and photographs have appeared in an array of magazines, journals, books, and Internet, including group exhibitions in New York and Japan. And is co-editor of Van Gogh’s Ear, a literary journal and joint publication of Allen Ginsberg’s New York’s Committee on Poetry and French Connection Press. Mr. Ward was consultant and contributor to “Hats: An Anthology by Stephen Jones” at Victoria and Albert Museum (London, 2009) and An Englishman in New York (2008/2009, Quentin Crisp biopic with John Hurt). Also consultant, researcher, and contributor to Richard Connolly’s book Quentin Crisp: I’m An Englishman In New York (2003) and for the Serbian translation of Quentin Crisp’s The Naked Civil Servant. He is a contributing photographer to The London Philharmonic Orchestra’s “Schools Concert” series at the Royal Festival Hall, London, November 2009, Teachers Resource Pack; Berlinale’s 2009 Teddy Awards Programme; and Christopher Pullen’s Gay Identity, New Storytelling and The Media (2009). Mr. Ward curated “Quentin Crisp: The Naked Bon Vivant! A 100th Birthday Celebration!” (2009); “Of Quentin Crisp: Photographs From The Quentin Crisp Archives” (2002, co-curated with Pet Silvia); “Quentin Crisp: The Naked Bon Vivant” (2002); “Quentin Crisp: Portraits of a Legend” (2001); and “Quentin Crisp: London and New York” (2000). He conceived and produced the multimedia event “Imitation of Crisp: A Happening in the Profession of Being!” at Envoy Enterprises in February 2010.

Broadway Gallery NYC

Baby Doll
June 1st - 15th, 2010
Opening reception: Thursday, June 3rd, 2010, 6:00 - 8:00 pm

Baby Doll: A Female artists view of Contemporary Women was originally on display at the The Arts Guild NJ.

It features work from Linda Rae Coughlin, Traci Fracasso, Bonnie Gloris, Jill Baker Gower, Lisa Ficarelli-Halpern, Claudia Hart, Frances Heinrich, Margaret Murphy, Mary Ellen Scherl, Kelly Vetter, Jennifer Watson, Amy Wilson, Jane Zweibel

Artists at Home and Abroad
June 1st - 15th, 2010
Opening reception: Thursday, June 3rd, 2010, 6:00 - 8:00 pm

The Artists at Home and Abroad exhibition is a representation of both emerging and established artists on an international scale. Exploring everything from the intersection of abstraction and figuration to the significance of high and low art, each participant creates an entirely different perspective within the cultural sphere of the art world.

Global Arts Projects “Artists at Home and Abroad” is a group exhibition which spotlights a selection of artists from around the globe who each create new global perspectives with their art. The salon-style exhibition will feature artists from all over the world, in a unique and dynamic visual dialogue.

The exhibition will be on display at Broadway Gallery, in conjunction with several Internet projects, and a print catalog. The exhibit will offer writers and viewers the chance to submit essays and comments on the nature and significance of biennials, fairs and public exposure for new and emerging artists. Featuring many artists working with both new and old mediums, The Artists at Home and Abroad exhibition offers a platform for artists, curators, gallerists as well as writers to voice their ideas on the contemporary art world.

Featuring Sabine Helgesson, Nina Gamsachurdia, Lilo Scheuer-Hagenmüller, Elisa Schaar, Carla Elena, Beatrix Pirchner, Aghzout Abdelkhalek, and Timothy Hutchings.

Broadway Gallery NYC

Artists at Home and Abroad
June 1st - 15th, 2010

NY Arts Magazine and World Art Media are pleased to announce a continuation of the international traveling exhibition Global Perspectives which will be shown in three different continents; Europe, North America and Asia.

The Artists at Home and Abroad exhibition is a representation of both emerging and established artists on an international scale. Exploring everything from the intersection of abstraction and figuration to the significance of high and low art, each participant creates an entirely different perspective within the cultural sphere of the art world.

From June 1-15th The Artists at Home and Abroad exhibition will be on display at Broadway Gallery, in conjunction with several Internet projects, and a print catalog. The exhibit will offer writers and viewers the chance to submit essays and comments on the nature and significance of biennials, fairs and public exposure for new and emerging artists. Featuring many artists working with both new and old mediums, The Artists at Home and Abroad exhibition offers a platform for artists, curators, gallerists as well as writers to voice their ideas on the contemporary art world.

Featuring Sabine Helgesson, Nina Gamsachurdia, Lilo Scheuer-Hagenmüller, Licel Chardon Quinones, Elisa Schaar, Carla Elena, Beatrix Pirchner, Aghzout Abdelkhalek, Global Arts Projects “Artists at Home and Abroad” is a group exhibition which spotlights a selection of artist from around the glob who each create new global perspectives with their art. The salon-style exhibition will features 20 plus artists from all over the world, in a unique and dynamic visual dialogue.

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Broadway Gallery NYC

Carmen Einfinger
Stefania Mainardi

Carmen Einfinger

Carmen Einfinger, A Solo Show
April 1st - 15th, 2009, opening Thursday, April 1st, 6 to 8pm.

Carmen Einfinger’s works are often a collaborative effort between herself and the audience, which she creates using florescent paints and a variety of other media. Lively, winding shapes contort around each other, cramming and crunching into smaller sizes in one area, then spreading out with great growth and volume in others. The forms in Einfinger’s paintings possess a hectic, frenzied circus-like feel. Ecstatic, neon colors rise above the others in many pieces, such as Inner Machine, where the livid orange pulsates with a visual punch and breaks away from the rest of the piece. However, in some pieces the color palette consists of a much more even saturation, having the viewer focus on the twisting shapes and lines, following them in and out and around each other. In some pieces like Looking In, one can spot areas of a maze-like pattern that seems to dizzy the viewer even more. It is as if this area is a smaller example of the feeling the piece as a whole translates. In such works, Einfinger recreates both her studio, and imagination in a free-for-all, anything-goes space where anyone and everyone can experience inspiration by observing her drawings, paintings, and interact and themselves as he or she sees fit. Scent Of Color, the artist’s recent project won an international competition to transform Dolna Square in Gdansk, Poland is one such work. Transforming the park into a vibrant outdoor gallery Einfinger was the only U.S. based artist selected to participate in the competition. The Broadway Gallery Exhibition will feature a model of the Dolna Square in Gdansk which was a collaborative piece with architect Alex Diez.

Following from the long list of previous artists engaging with relational or participatory practices, from Allan Kaprow’s happenings, to Fluxus’ performances, as well as the contemporary practices of artists associated with “relational” practices, such as Rikrit Tiravanija, Thomas Hirschorn, and Liam Gillick, Einfinger carries these artists’ legacies infusing her work with her own unique voice. Such artists all have one thing in common–activating the spectator. Einfinger is indeed an artist whose works embody the creative act as a social one, one of healing and companionship in which people come together to construct something larger than themselves. This is a spiritual and moral act that implies the betterment of humanity. Within her work, Einfinger sticks to a description that is mostly concerned with her own unique brand of figurative expressionism, sprinkled with some moments and suggestions of anthropomorphism. Again in her piece, Looking In, there are parts that appear to be looking at its audience. In other instances there are forms that have a striking resemblance to hands and fingers, stretching out in exaggerated motions. These hands and eyes convey something human, but with the excited, bright colors and strong forthright gestures they appear almost threatening at times too.

Though at first glance Einfinger’s pieces are a lot for the eyes to take in, seemingly so chaotic. However, upon further inspection one cannot help but take notice of the carefully constructed composition. Transitions in color and the shapes’ volume occur so suddenly, so abruptly there at first doesn’t seem to be logic to it. In stepping back and seeing the piece in its entirety, the viewer finally becomes aware of the delicate balance in everything present. Where one shape is pronounced another recedes, where one color pops another falls flat. It’s as if the artist goes along creating a kind of harmony and sing-song with color and shape through a kind of binary play.

Stefania Mainardi

Stefania Mainardi, A Solo Show
April 1st - 15th, 2009, opening Thursday, April 1st, 6 to 8pm.

Putting Renaissance sculptures at the forefront of her paintings, Mainardi’s work turns these ancient characters into the paintings’ primary subject-matter, making them the focal points in piece. Painted in such an attentive, detailed way these painted statues possess a vitality that makes them appear closer to life. Finding those warm tones in the ordinarily cold marble sometimes gives the viewer a way to find a slight flush in that silent stone and maybe even imagine a pulse underneath that still surface. In other pieces where the facial features and the entire head are not there, just the central part of the body, there seems to be the opposite effect; a reinforcement of the fact that this is a statue being viewed. The proud, staged poise of the figures reiterates the its theatrical intent and unreal presence. Regardless of the varying characters vivacity, there is something in the broader picture that ties all of the artist’s pieces under her own aesthetic.

The juxtaposition of the human figure with geometric or architectural elements is a theme that remains constant throughout all of her works. In some there is only some flatly spread paint cleanly contained within geometric shapes, somewhat referential to Mondrian’s work. In others, there is the same flat application of paint, but with some subtle gradation and movement to and from different shades. There also is some general construction of an architectural setting in the background. In a few it even seems to allude to a similar time and place (as the statues). Set against Roman arcs, pillars, and columns these statues appear right at home, with the exception of the flattened description, distancing itself from the figures, existing in a much more contemporary time. This visual: the divergence of subject-matter and background, the aesthetic gap between object and environment is the main weight behind Mainardi’s paintings.

e-World Art Media

Gulay Alpay's Gold Thought at Art Expo

Gulay Alpay's Gold Thought at Art Expo

Gulay Alpay's Gold Thought at Art Expo at PIER 94 on the Hudson River
March 25th - 28th, 2010

This March Turkish artist Gulay Alpay will construct of her signature environmental installations, at the Art Expo show New York. *The Two Hands Art Store *Alpay’s* *most recent happening, is a collaborative effort between herself and the audience which she creates using florescent paints and a variety of other media. In such environments, Alpay recreates her studio, a free-for-all, anything-goes space where anyone and everyone can draw, paint, talk, move, and interact and make marks on any surface he or she sees fit. Curator of *The Two Hands Art Store* is Turkish artist Emre Erturk, who has collaborated with Alpay on previous works. Erturk will also create a performance featuring his own geometric box design. The “box” has an opening where Erturk and Alpay invite art lovers to look within. Initially the viewer is shocked and surprised by the vision of a real naked person within, however upon closer inspection the viewer realizes there is actually real condoms in the hole light with bulbs and startling message of ' use condom unless you want to produce useful kids to this planet!” Participants become a part of the visual field, interacting not only with the artist, but also with the imagery around them, effectively capturing the energy and vitality of human communication. Through her unique vision, Alpay evokes a range of theoretical positions from the phenomenological to the psychoanalytic in her surprising and exciting performative extravaganzas. American artist Jacob Alexander will also collaborate with the artists adding his own unique brand of Body Art to the proceedings.

Following from the long list of previous artists engaging with relational or participatory practices, from Allan Kaprow’s happenings, to Fluxus’ performances, as well as the contemporary practices of artists associated with “relational” practices, such as Rikrit Tiravanija, Thomas Hirschorn, and Liam Gillick, Alpay carries these artists’ legacies infusing her work with her own unique voice. Such artists all have one thing in common – activating the spectator. This is exactly the track that Alpay takes up. However, much like Jacques Rancière who argues in the “Emancipated Spectator” that the spectator is already intrinsically activated by the very fact that she is an active, thinking subject, Alpay does not underestimate her audiences. She treats her viewers as equals in an endeavor aimed at producing a group artwork, for whom authorship is shared equally among all.

Much like her compatriots, the Turkish collective, Oda Projesi, Alpay honors the participant and viewer, treating him/her as an artist himself, capable of producing a valuable contribution to her creations. The creative act is social, one of healing and companionship in which people come together to construct something larger than themselves. This is a spiritual and moral act that implies the betterment of humanity. Ultimately, this is a gesture of love and companionship. From the psychoanalytic perspective, her constructed environments could be seen as what D.W. Winnicott calls the “holding transitional environment,” a space for pure freedom and play where emotional healing and transformation, psychological integration can fully occur. For Alpay, each artistic act is a creative and transformative ritualistic experience. For every gesture that she takes – from applying paint to silk, to painting her own body – are spiritual acts of rebirth, expressions of love for humanity. Challenging the boundaries of the art world, she stretches her own imagination and ours, to envision another kind of world where people interact freely and openly in love and companionship.

For Further Information Please go to http://www.gulayalpay.com/ or contact This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Sponsored by the Gershwin Hotel Manhattan, The American Turkish Society and The Moon and Stars Project

Broadway Gallery NYC

Stefania Mainardi

Stefania Mainardi

Stefania Mainardi, A Solo Show
April 1st - 15th, 2009, opening Thursday, April 1st, 6 to 8pm.

Curated by Abraham Lubelski

Putting Renaissance sculptures at the forefront of her paintings, Mainardi’s work turns these ancient characters into the paintings’ primary subject-matter, making them the focal points in piece. Painted in such an attentive, detailed way these painted statues possess a vitality that makes them appear closer to life. Finding those warm tones in the ordinarily cold marble sometimes gives the viewer a way to find a slight flush in that silent stone and maybe even imagine a pulse underneath that still surface. In other pieces where the facial features and the entire head are not there, just the central part of the body, there seems to be the opposite effect; a reinforcement of the fact that this is a statue being viewed. The proud, staged poise of the figures reiterates the its theatrical intent and unreal presence. Regardless of the varying characters vivacity, there is something in the broader picture that ties all of the artist’s pieces under her own aesthetic.

The juxtaposition of the human figure with geometric or architectural elements is a theme that remains constant throughout all of her works. In some there is only some flatly spread paint cleanly contained within geometric shapes, somewhat referential to Mondrian’s work. In others, there is the same flat application of paint, but with some subtle gradation and movement to and from different shades. There also is some general construction of an architectural setting in the background. In a few it even seems to allude to a similar time and place (as the statues). Set against Roman arcs, pillars, and columns these statues appear right at home, with the exception of the flattened description, distancing itself from the figures, existing in a much more contemporary time. This visual: the divergence of subject-matter and background, the aesthetic gap between object and environment is the main weight behind Mainardi’s paintings.

The Two Hands Art Store:  Infinite Dimensions

Gulay Alpay’s Gold Thought at Art Expo

March 25-28, 2010 | PIER 94 on the Hudson River

This March Turkish artist Gulay Alpay will construct of her signature environmental installations, at the Art Expo show New York. The Two Hands Art Store Alpay’s most recent happening, is a collaborative effort between herself and the audience which she creates using florescent paints and a variety of other media. In such environments, Alpay recreates her studio, a free-for-all, anything-goes space where anyone and everyone can draw, paint, talk, move, and interact and make marks on any surface he or she sees fit. Curator of The Two Hands Art Store is Turkish artist Emre Erturk, who has collaborated with Alpay on previous works. Erturk will also create a performance featuring his own geometric box design. The “box” has an opening where Erturk and Alpay invite art lovers to look within. Initially the viewer is shocked and surprised by the vision of a real naked person within, however upon closer inspection the viewer realizes there is actually real condoms in the hole light with bulbs and startiling message of ' use condom unless you want to produce useful kids to this planet!” Participants become a part of the visual field, interacting not only with the artist, but also with the imagery around them, effectively capturing the energy and vitality of human communication. Through her unique vision, Alpay evokes a range of theoretical positions from the phenomenological to the psychoanalytic in her surprising and exciting performative extravaganzas.

Following from the long list of previous artists engaging with relational or participatory practices, from Allan Kaprow’s happenings, to Fluxus’ performances, as well as the contemporary practices of artists associated with “relational” practices, such as Rikrit Tiravanija, Thomas Hirschorn, and Liam Gillick, Alpay carries these artists’ legacies infusing her work with her own unique voice. Such artists all have one thing in common – activating the spectator. This is exactly the track that Alpay takes up. However, much like Jacques Rancière who argues in the “Emancipated Spectator” that the spectator is already intrinsically activated by the very fact that she is an active, thinking subject, Alpay does not underestimate her audiences. She treats her viewers as equals in an endeavor aimed at producing a group artwork, for whom authorship is shared equally among all.

Much like her compatriots, the Turkish collective, Oda Projesi, Alpay honors the participant and viewer, treating him/her as an artist himself, capable of producing a valuable contribution to her creations. The creative act is social, one of healing and companionship in which people come together to construct something larger than themselves. This is a spiritual and moral act that implies the betterment of humanity. Ultimately, this is a gesture of love and companionship. From the psychoanalytic perspective, her constructed environments could be seen as what D.W. Winnicott calls the “holding transitional environment,” a space for pure freedom and play where emotional healing and transformation, psychological integration can fully occur. For Alpay, each artistic act is a creative and transformative ritualistic experience. For every gesture that she takes – from applying paint to silk, to painting her own body – are spiritual acts of rebirth, expressions of love for humanity. Challenging the boundaries of the art world, she stretches her own imagination and ours, to envision another kind of world where people interact freely and openly in love and companionship.

Broadway Gallery NYC

“MY FUNNY VALENTINE” A Tribute to Chet Baker
February 1st - 15th, 2010, opening Thursday, February 4th, 2010 6:00 - 8:00 PM

Like the moth unceasingly propelled towards the light, oblivious to its death…
Like the burning spark, longing to be reunited with water…

Sweet Comic Valentine
You Make Me Smile With My Heart
You’re Looks Are Laughable,
Un-photographable
Yet You’re My Favorite Work Of Art
Is Your Figure-Less Than Greek
Is Your Mouth A Little Weak
When You Open It To Speak
Are You Smart
Don’t Change A Hair For Me
Not If You Care For Me
Stay Little Valentine Stay
Each Day Is Valentine’s Day—

— My Funny Valentine, Chet Baker

Tchera Niyego brings together Ayşe Küçük, Ilsabé von Dallwitz, Carl Andre, Jennifer Contini Enderby, Michelle Sakhai, Robert LeBiez and Rudi Keimel in this very special show which explores the alternately political, passionate, melancoly, and spiritual means by which life is experienced and observed. The exhibition employs each artist’s own idiosyncratic fluency in multifarious forms of discourse from painting, and sculpture, to digital work, collage and impressionism. Through each of the poetic works, My Funny Valentine consciously conceals the borders between art and life, fiction and reality, and private and public.

Featuring legendary American Minimalist Carl Andre, My Funny Valentine utilizes the notoriety of Andres personal relationships (including that of his wife, artist Ana Mendieta) to form a layered conceptual show. From love gained, desired, to lost, Tchera Niygeo forms a dialogue that speaks to every viewer.

Captivated and inspired by Chet Baker’s tale of love and passion, Tchera Niyego is most agile at recreating the beauty of Baker’s blues in this powerful show. From the soft and gentle curves of Ilsabé von Dallwitz, to Rudi Keimel’s imagery of the horizon and landscape rendered in muted orange, yellow ochre, deep purple, My Funny Valentine brings to mind the sun burning the last bit of its energy before disappearing into the nightfall. A dexterous sculpture and colorist, Robert LeBiez invites viewers to rejoice with him in his contemplative and poignant rendition of the human body in its bare state.

A new breed of collage, painting and sculpture Jennifer Contini Enderby’s work invites viewers to a world full of vibrant colors and mysterious visages. Enderby gracefully incorporates picturesque elements into the collages she creates—works that stand for a reality observed through her own eyes, imagination and wedding dress. The result is a representation that is dreamy, capricious, and out of this world. Ayşe Küçük’s atmospheric palette captures the mood perfectly. Her art teaches the viewer that pure art springs from a meditative state of mind. Expressive and fantastical, the innovative imagery of this multifaceted artist reveals the hidden side of her subjects’ personalities.

Many of the works in My Funny Valentine have a delirious, hallucinatory air, as if the artists are attempting to transcend both the clinical environment of the gallery space, and the usual expectations of the art world.

Andrea Padovani
February 1st - 15th, 2010, opening Thursday, February 4th, 2010 6:00 - 8:00 PM

Known for his technical brilliant and startling use of light and color, Andrea Padovani incorporates a plethora of references from literature, and mythology, to landscape and personal relationships. His works form a mixed media investigation concerning the multiplicity of marginal spaces, states, emotions and spaces that exist within the emotional landscape. Padovani’s works, allude to a space-between, a place of ambiguity and transition, a site of passage in which borders, boundaries and thresholds are crossed. It is an indeterminate zone of interactions and exchange between Padovani and the viewer. Padovani, whose diverse artistic practice engages with the concept of love and liminality and their relationship to our global landscape, utilizes the strength and subtleties of paint in order to create an art based on light and movement that in turn explores color, luminosity, and sculptural space—through movement and composition.

Conceiving his visual art on the canvas surface, Padovani conveys inventive points of view that form a synthesis between abstract and figurative elements. Padovani creates a narrative with light, utilizing abstract compositions that reveal a life within the clinical world of painting. His works deliver compelling patterns with graceful colors, methodical lines and arches, an aesthetic that can be closely identified with a deep spirituality. Working toward being an impulse to change, with creative energy, and inspiration, he brings his knowledge of painting, sculpture and the arts to every piece. At its core his art is an experiment of movement, light, contemplation and ritual, each perfectly composed in order to touch the viewer on a more profound level.