about press release artwork photo gallery home contact
|
‘Reclaiming
Space’ Art Show Supports
GreenEdgeNYC Gallery
House Grassroots Eco-Themes a
Clinton Hill Delight
“Style
of Nature” artist Jonathan Levy's latest artwork at current
“Reclaiming Space”
exhibition at the Gallery House on Clinton Hill. By
Harold Egeln CLINTON
HILL — Since it opened a year
ago, there is a strong green edge to the Gallery House, highlighted by
its
latest art exhibition of nature-related work, tied to supporting
environmental
organizations that are making a difference for a sustainable city. The
current, delightful “Reclaiming
Space” fine art group exhibition, showing through August 31, has
been holding a
series of auction/raffle receptions in support of GreenEdgeNYC, a
vibrant
social eco-network composed of groups focused on various aspects of
environmental activism. “This
is our third exhibition. Each one
has given support to environmental cause groups as well as bringing
together
artists from “Reclaiming
Space is about this space
in this wonderful house we are restoring and how we reclaim space in
our lives
and the world,” said Levy, a curator of the exhibition, about the
two-room,
first floor space. “It
showcases the multitude of
languages in which The
GreenEdgeNYC collaborative was
founded over three years ago by Carolyn Gilles to create and expand a
community
for a sustainable future through social networking and the formation of
associated focus groups. Executive Director Judy Harper coordinates the
activities. These
include groups for foraging,
green buildings, sustainable farming, trash and recycling, filmmaking,
sustainable design, a neighborhood supper club and the Brooklyn Green
Team. Among
activities of the groups are the
Solar Power Film Festival, Solstice Soiree, Green Crafting and the
Annual
Birthday Bash for GreenEdge, recently having its third. GreenEdgeNYC is
financially sponsored by the Open Space Initiative, part of the
Citizens Action
Program. Art
Inspired By the Natural World There
is an intriguing “color shift” in
Levy’s art, entering “a digital stage” with somewhat
slightly subdued hues but
still vibrantly full of life’s motions. It is a joy to view,
along with his
“Primordial Soup.” His inspiration in the natural world
came from the time he
spent in To
observe his creative outpouring at
work, the paintings in his current series include a floor spot with a
video
screen and wonderful videos of Levy in the act of creating his artwork
in
swipes, swirls and swoops across and around the canvas. “The work
comes from
within as I go along,” Levy said. Among
all the wonderful and diverse
artworks by 11 artists on exhibit are the back lit
“Dendrites” on paper by Another
of the intriguing artworks by
mixed media artist Adrian Roman is his “Cage De La Memoria
Viva” box painting,
with its four sides floating above space in the rear gallery featuring
a
fascinating face that invites the viewer inside the workings of its
head. Placing
one’s head inside the box
floating above the viewer is truly entering the mind of the artist,
with the
inner four-sided surface filled with a collage of old family and
friends’
photographs, written items and reminders of long-gone times, a memory
treasure
trove. One
of the show’s artworks that
incorporated an American flag, “Evolve” by Clark Stoechley,
caused a little
public controversy ended by a decision to withdraw the piece from the
exhibition shortly after it opened, the only hitch in the popular
summertime
exhibit. The
“Reclaiming Space” show once again, as in the two previous
exhibits, inspires
the spirit, sparks a creative stream of consciousness and brings
artists
together to share their ideas, igniting new ways to look at life
through art.
‘eARTh’
Exhibit Helps MillionTreesNYC Project
“Style of
Nature” artist Jonathan Levy stands next to
his“Uncut Flowers”
painting series. He is the curator of the “eARTh”
exhibition at the Gallery
House in Clinton. Clinton Hill
Show Aims To Raise Eco-Consciousness By Harold Egeln CLINTON HILL
– Trees are
the life and breath of Planet Earth, keeping the carbon dioxide and
oxygen
exchange cycle around the globe in balance. Bringing that fact and
concerns
about threats to that life-giving cycle is an art show called
“eARTh” at a
gallery in a 19th Century house opened last summer in Clinton Hill. With the immense
loss of tree-rich rainforests
worldwide and other threats to the environment’s stability, an
exhibit at the
Gallery House (www.galleryhouse.org),
located at “This has
been an environmentally themed group
exhibition, in both form and function, that is meant to celebrate and
highlight
the challenges our planet is currently facing,” said the Gallery
House group of
artists and supporters in the exhibit’s press release. The show
opened in
February and will run through Friday, March 12. “It is
critical for our survival that we learn
to put a priority on the environmental needs,” the Gallery House
statement
said. “Many of us have become so immersed with day-to-day
responsibilities and
possessions that we have begun to neglect the stage that our lives play
out on.
And ‘eARTh’ refocuses the viewers' attention to nurture
through the medium of
art.” The current
show, Gallery House’s second after
its grand opening “Style of Nature” exhibit by artist
Jonathan Levy and other
artists last summer, has Levy as ‘eARTh’ exhibit curator.
It is dedicated to
helping the city’s MillionTreesNYC project (www.milliontreesnyc.org)
to plant one million
new trees citywide by 2017, with 400,000 already planted. The planting
project, recently the focus of
special presentations at community boards throughout The city is
committed to plant 60 percent of
the trees in all its parklands and playgrounds, while New York
Restoration
operates 40 percent of the plantings, a project launched by Mayor
Bloomberg a
few years ago with the goal of one million new trees planted by 2017. Three
receptions, the first two hobbled by
snowstorms, have served as occasions to raffle off exhibit paintings to
raise
funds for the MillionTreesNYC project, noted Levy. He voiced support
for the
project, with the goals to “plant, protect, preserve and
participate.” There are 17
artists and photographers in the
exhibit, with a total of 40 artworks and photos. Among them are some
Brooklyn
artists, such as Erik Maniscalco with the riveting “Gates of
Change,” Amanda
Gentile with her awesome “Sky,” Jenna Bonistalli, and Aaron
Mauder with
“Divination.” Mauder’s
almost surreal work, explained Levy,
shows the future-tech world of the human mind divorced from a
connection with
nature. Levy, as curator, smartly juxtaposed “Divination”
between two beautiful
tree paintings. Levy’s
“Uncut Flowers” painting series on
display creates an experience of the life of flowers untouched by human
intervention as the flowers’ colors swirl around. “If
someone views the cutting
of flowers as being even a little bit wrong, how will that affect the
cutting
of trees?” Levy wonders. His experience
of nature was inspired while
living in Hawaii where his “Style of Nature” artwork took
off, and also by his
work earlier in a state forest in Rockland County and being fascinated
by the
variety and beauty of trees, Levy said. Among the
outstanding artworks are “The Blue
Path” and “The Enchanted Forest” by Brittney
MacKensie, a New York-area artist
whose paintings can make viewers feel like they are in the woods and
enjoying
the experience of trees.
‘Green’
Art Show Highlights New ‘Gallery House’ in
Clinton Hill
“Style of
Nature” artist Jonathan Levy next to
one of his By Harold Egeln CLINTON
HILL – An impressive 19th century brownstone that developing into
a new arts
venue here is housing an exhibit that benefits both the idea of the
human
spirit reconnecting with nature and the Council on the Environment of
NYC. The
show in question is the “Style of Nature” solo art exhibit
by Jonathan Levy (www.styleofnature.com).
It is in the first-floor space of a five-story 1877 brownstone called
“Gallery
House” at 272 Clinton Ave., an exciting new venue that celebrates
the arts in
all forms. Gallery
House and the inspirational show opened on July 24 with a reception
followed by
a second reception over this past weekend. At other times the exhibit
can be
viewed by appointment only by contacting Gallery House. The
venue is a gift of joy to its restorers and artistic community, said
Levy, a
Pratt Institute fine arts graduate. “The silent investors want to
use this
space as a way of giving back to the community. We’re grateful
for their
commitment,” he explained. “This
is a fantastic place to work and be in,” said architect Patrick
Malloy, another
Pratt Institute graduate who is part of the working group restoring
Gallery
House. “We’re fortunate to be in a great neighborhood with
a wonderful
cross-section of people who bring their energy and involvement into the
area.” Gallery
House, its mission statement says, “is a Clinton Hill-based
organization
dedicated to the sharing of ideas pressing our world today. Through our
hosted
receptions, we aim to gather and communicate ideas through art, music
and other
types of artistic expressions.” The
centerpiece of Gallery House’s first show is Levy’s Style
of Nature solo show
celebrating the patterns, movements and colors of the natural world
that
surrounds us but which is not usually noticed in people’s daily
activities,
noted Levy. “Soon
after I graduated Pratt I went to live on Maui in Hawaii in search of
inspiration,” said Levy, who was on Maui from 2003 to 2008.
“It was there that
my eyes opened with a new perspective with my creative drive inspired
by the
flowers, ocean and land of that wondrous and beautiful island. There I
developed my artistic style of nature as I observed the random
movements and
patterns in nature’s forms.” In
2005 he first got his first show at the 27th Annual Juried Exhibit on
Maui with
his acrylic on canvas paintings. In the last two years he has been in
several
exhibits across the nation and at the International Art Expo-New York
at the
Javits Center in 2008 and 2009. Levy’s
paintings are a wonder to view and experience. His Humming River, Walk
Under
the Shadow of the Tree and Setting Sun series of paintings, and
individual
paintings such as Lake Nowhere, Cross the Pond and Violet make one
linger near
their colorful swirls. The show helps people focus on nature and gets
them away
from a focus of everyday activities. Fifty
percent of the sales of Levy paintings sold from this exhibit will be
donated
to the Council on the Environment of New York City. Levy and Malloy are
excited
about the opportunity to promote the appreciation and study of the
urban
environs through the three-decades-old council and its multifaceted
work. “Our
partnership with Jonathan Levy and Gallery House for Style of Nature
reflects a
shared vision of preserving the natural beauty of the city,” said
Council
Executive Director Marcel Van Ooyen. CENYC is responsible for programs
such as
Greenmarkets, Open Space Greening, Environmental Education, Office of
Recycling, and Learn It, Grow It and Eat It. |
