Light and Form, a group exhibition of artists who are part of Studio Incamminati opens today at Dacia Gallery. The Philadelphia school was founded by painter Nelson Shanks who is known for portrait commissions that include Princess Diana, President Bill Clinton, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and Pope John Paul II.
The exhibition showcases the works of artists who focus on realism ranging from still lives to figures and portraits. The portraits are vivid and nearly combustible—detailed and life-like. Think of them as photographic moments. There is, it would seem, a lot of work involved in making this lovely magic.
Drop by Dacia Gallery for the opening reception on Saturday, July 14 from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. and meet the featured artists Joe Dolderer, Kerry Dunn, Robin Dawn Frey, Katya Held, Natalie Italiano, Peter Kesley, Ja Fang Lu, Yoni Park, Leona Shanks, Nelson Shanks, Dan Thompson and Lea Colie Wight. An artist talk will be held at 7:30 p.m.
The show marks the Studio’s first outing in New York. Through July 26.
Over at Dodge Gallery, size and scale are considered in a group exhibition aptly named Size Matters. Artists Rebecca Chamberlain, Ted Gahl, Cassie Raihl, Matthew Rich and Michael Zelehoski incorporate various shifts in size into their work without changing their material or process. The artists in the exhibition each play with size to varying degrees. The artists invited to participate have contributed two works each: one large and one small piece.
The show invites the viewer to compare and contrast, switching viewpoints and their gaze from a large piece to a smaller piece. Michael Zelehoski deconstructs weathered utilitarian objects and assembles their parts into dramatic, abstract, two-dimensional compositions that are both object and image at once
Ted Gahl offers up his largest painting ever, a 7-foot-high acrylic on canvas and a small work on paper. Gahl’s storyboard-like compositions are filled with automatic and idiosyncratic imagery that hovers on the edge of abstraction.
Matthew Rich presents two wall-hung paper works each addressing the materiality of painting. Rich’s textured and free-floating geometric forms are constructed with individuated, and irregularly colored sections that he connects through a process that’s both intentional and subject to chance.
Featured Gallery Picks:
Dacia Gallery/ 53 Stanton St./ 917.727.9383/ Wed.-Fri. 1 p.m. to 7 p.m., Sat.-Sun. 12 p.m. to 6 p.m.
Dodge Gallery/ 15 Rivington St./ 212.228.5122/ Summer Hours: Tues.-Fri. 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
TLD contributor Tobi Elkin is a writer, editor and interviewer and former resident of the Lower East Side who delights in the neighborhood’s eclectic pleasures. A regular reader of The Lo-Down, her diverse interests include arts and entertainment, film, food and cultural critique. Visit her website at tobielkin.com.
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