"The Ultimate Symbol of Humanity: Nude!" at Studio A Gallery

In the world of contemporary art, it’s quite possible to walk into some galleries and find objects that bear little resemblance to what most of us think of as art.  Take heart that traditional craftsmanship lives at Tarrytown’s with drawings, paintings and sculpture.  While some people may be uncomfortable with images of the nude, the skill level of the works in this multi-artist show is undeniable and highly respectable.

The show, titled The Ultimate Symbol of Humanity: Nude!, will run from September 16-October 21st, 2011, with a second reception just before the closing, on October 21st from 6-9 p.m.  Gallery owner is not only the curator but also a participating artist.  One of the works she will show is a four-foot-tall painting, “Girls From Tarrytown #3 Julia,” a realistically rendered nude with a background that appears inspired by Monet’s waterlilies series.

In the essay on the flyer for the show, He says, “The human form has been central to much of the world’s art for thousands of years…the most remarkable challenge for many of the world’s greatest artists.”   She points out that involved in a fine painting of the human figure is knowledge of “anatomy, light, shade, color and even psychology,” whether the painting is realistic or abstract.  She says that a worldview is expressed in the handling of the figure. 

Some might find the frank way our society discusses the human body mirrored in the clarity and precision of many of the paintings in this show.

Costa Vavagiakis, who has drawings as well as paintings in the show, teaches at The Art Students League of New York and the National Academy of Art, among others.  He has exhibited extensively, including at Hirschl and Adler Galleries in New York and Brattleboro Museum in Vermont. 

, has one here called “The World is Upside-Down.”  Jacobson said of it, “instead of ‘raging’ against the ‘machine,’ the painting is hopefully poking a little fun at the dark ‘machinery’ in the background.... It was painted in a rather classical manner.  I often use machinery or buildings in decay as backgrounds for the main subject.  They represent the chaotic nature of our own minds.  The figures in the foreground of many of my paintings are often very serene, or in this case, graceful and effortless in an almost impossible pose.”

Another returning artist is Ingo Appel, whose large yellow sculpture, “Yellow Hands...One Love” has filled most of the gallery’s front window for the last two months and will remain for this show.  Appel will also do a video installation, projected on to the exterior courtyard wall of the gallery, approximately three stories high.  "The almost static image of the NUDE! reflects honestly, strength, integrity, and purity in creation," Appel said.  He continued, "Entitled ‘The Presentation of Self in Everyday Like and Kind,’ it reflects the absence of an agenda, of a story, of commercial manipulation, of fear, hiding and false seduction…So what if it is 30 feet high, it’s only a NUDE!”

Appel is a recognized sculptor, artist, and “Transformative educator.” His work was shown at the prestigious Brookgreen Gardens, in South Carolina, and he has done video installations at the Macy Gallery, Columbia University, Cork Gallery at Lincoln Center, New York, and National Academy Museum, New York.  Appel is currently an instructor at the Visual Arts Center of New Jersey, in Summit, and is at the National Academy School of Fine Arts. His recently published book 16 visions showcases the sculptures of 16 international female artists. 

The work “Stephanie, Blue Torso,” is by Jake Hawkes, who said that the subject is a dancer/singer from Brooklyn. Hawkes said, “Her pose evoked modern dance. I tried to capture that body expression in a moment frozen in time.”

Baldapo, whose full name is Balthazar d'Apocalypso, will be showing a painted clay head called “Comedia,” and a drawing entitled “Revasserie.”   In his Artist’s Statement he said, “This conversation presented through my work is to invite self to use the observed reality not as a final product but as raw material to create your own reality to become, which will then itself become observed reality raw material to create from again... like a never ending expanding spiral as life is.” 

Of the sculpted head in this show he said, “I was doing a realistic portrait of the model a little bigger than life size. When you work with clay, you need to keep it wet and covered with plastic, so you can keep working on it the following day. One morning, as I was opening the plastic to work on my piece from the model, the lower part of her face felt off. First it was a big emotional (shock) for me, because I am very organically connected to my work, but then as I was pulling back up the lower part to the upper part, I saw something very powerful and magic and I decided to keep the crack alive, sort of speak, as I kept working on my piece. As I went along, my theatrical background working with half-mask came back to me (comedia del arte) offering ‘Comedia’ her name, intriguing, so alive, beautiful, watching you and knowing that you are watching her.”

To read the entire Artist’s Statement and get more information about his work, see his website.

The full list of participating artists is: Costa Vavagiakis, Athena Bing He, Igor Zaytsev, Mark Jacobson, Robert Bunkin, Ingrid Capozzoli Flinn,  Ingo Appel,   Jeremy Butler, Baldapo, Jake Hawkes, Jiwoong Cheh, and students Isaac Pelepko,  Christopher LoPresti, Satoshi Okada, Debby Beece May, Chizuko Hwang, and Patti Ludwig Regina.

On the show’s flyer, Athena Bing He expresses her goal, “This show is one that will give to each individual eye your own fireworks of emotion unique only to you, yet holding the common denominator linking you to the visiting viewer next to you—the human body.  Enjoy and feel welcome in this profound experience, just as effortlessly as drawing breath into your own daily life.”

For further information contact the at (347) 755-6069 or (914) 412-2955 or by email at studioAgallery@gmail.com.