It’s All Done With Mirrors
Staff | February 27, 2014 | Comment
Gallery 66 NY Presents “Non-Verbal Communications,”
An Exhibition of the Haunting Portraits of Rieko Fujinami and
Introducing Maureen Winzig, Bob and Karen Madden in “Wandering Curves”
Opening Reception Friday, March 7, 2014
It doesn’t take a belief in spiritualism or phantasms to be drawn into these remarkable portraits. A man’s face – eyes wide, mouth gaping – seems to emerge from its painted surface to utter a cry… or perhaps a warning.
Such is the stunning work of Rieko Fujinami, whose original paintings stop the viewer in his or her tracks – and they are all painted on mirrors! Fujinami, born in Japan and a resident of Beacon since 2003, has created a method of painting on mirrored surfaces, employing the use of black and white acrylic backgrounds – as she says, to “create the feeling of order evolving out of chaos” – upon which she then applies alcohol, glass primer, and gesso, before painting the image with acrylic paint and pastel. The result is an extraordinary and highly original work of art, with a depth that is at once realistic and otherworldly.
Although she also makes subjects of plant life and imaginary landscapes – “dreamscapes,” really – her first love is the painting of the human face and form. “We try too hard,” she states, “to insist that everything be rationally understood, yet we avoid seeing the shadows inside our own minds. The faces in my work come from those shadows.” In addition to the display of Fujinami’s stunning portraits, Gallery 66 will be screening “Arbor Vitae,” her video work – never before viewed in this country – that features six segments, each addressing a different aspect of the “birth of consciousness.”
A widely varied artist, Fujinami has been featured in over 60 one-person exhibitions, and has received numerous prestigious awards, including Japan’s Best Artist of the Year prize and the New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship Award. In 2012, Fujinami’s work was exhibited in the Smithsonian’s world-renowned National Portrait Gallery of the Smithsonian in Washington, DC.
Also on exhibit is an unusual and enticing display of the works of Maureen Winzig, and Bob and Karen Madden, in a multiple interpretation of the concept, “Wandering Curves.”
Maureen Winzig paints in oil, combining studies of the human form with elements in nature. For “Wandering Curves,” she has employed richly colored oils in sensual bends and swirls that reveal ripples in a stream, the elegant twist of a wrist, the power of a mountain range in silhouette.
Bob Madden sculpts in stone, while his wife, Karen expresses her art through the interweaving of soft fiber material with disparate but sympathetic elements. Both were trained in engineering, and their background is evident in the precise execution of their work, unique though each artist might be. Bob’s stone-carving is fluid, and invites caressing. If it were possible to carve stone in liquid form, he would claim mastery. His works bend, weave and fold on themselves, belying the rigid nature of his material.
“Non-Verbal Communications” and “Wandering Curves”
will be on view at
Gallery 66 NY from March 7 through March 30,
Opening Reception: March 7 from 6-9 PM.
The gallery’s winter hours are Thursday through Sunday, from 12 PM to 5 PM.
For more information, please call 845-809-5838, or visit www.gallery66ny.com.
Join the Discussion
Comments are closed.