Buster Levi is pleased to present a group exhibition by gallery artists in January 2017 at 121 Main Street in Cold Spring, New York. The show will run from January 6 through January 29, 2017. The opening for the show will be on Friday January 6 2017 from 6-8pm.  Artists included in the show are John Allen, Ada Pilar Cruz, Jenne M. Currie, Tim D’Acquisto, Barbara Smith Gioia, Grace Kennedy and Lucille Tortora. For some of the artists, the show will highlight new directions for their work and for others: directions taken in the past that may offer potential for future development.

John Allen will be exhibiting another ‘ready-made’. Allen has long been interested in transforming natural or common materials into art. Previously, he carved and painted a log, transforming it into a dwelling while clearly retaining characteristics of its natural state. Last year he exhibited a shovel wrapped in canvas. In all of his ‘ready-mades’, Allen intervenes and alters the object in some way to explore the relationship between art and reality. In her new work included in this show, Barbara Smith Gioia is revisiting oil paint after a long hiatus. While the work still incorporates collage made from silkscreens and monotype prints, she is combining acrylic and oil paint to investigate differences in surface, texture and color that serve as a foundation for further exploration with oil paint.  Jenne M. Currie’s still life in the cubist tradition is a combination of assemblage and painting.  The interaction between color relationships and space are aesthetic considerations that are a foundation in her art.  In this work, Currie juxtaposes textured areas of color, multiple physical planes and actual objects to create energy, movement and spatial tension.

Ada Pilar Cruz is showing one from her series of figurative reliefs.  Though it includes observational details, particularly evident in her treatment of the hair, the work is a continuation of her exploration involving the relationship between firing techniques and surface coloration. In this case, Pilar Cruz fired the relief in a wood kiln to help achieve depth in the color. Lucille Tortora exhibits a series of black and white gelatin prints highlighting the interplay of positive and negative space, long an important aspect in her work. Grace Kennedy’s work is a painted ‘stage’ with collaged and painted figures set inside. Focused on expression, Kennedy describes the Surrealist mood; “The paintings act as a sort of Exquisite Corpse, since each figure impacts the next and adds to the inevitable sense of disquietude.” Tim D’Acquisto’s Polaroids are images of common subjects that through manipulation or presentation contain mystery and are open to interpretation. The images appear aged: colors darkening or fading. In the largest work, a quadriptych of a still life, the image is either in the process of disappearing if read from right to left or if read left to right; in the process of becoming.

Buster Levi Gallery is open Saturday and Sunday from 12-5 pm.