The Broadway Gallery NYC is please to present

Once More With Feeling

A Solo Show of work by Wim Zorn

March 1st to 15th, 2010

With an opening reception March 4th 6-8pm

Wim Zorn is no stranger to new challenges. With an extensive array of visual styles from sculptural wall reliefs to abstract vistas, his body of work is vast and varied. It was with this continual sense of pushing himself in new directions that he has used to create an inspiring and impressive overture. Central to the work in this show is the sense of weight and matter, on the two-dimensional surface. Matter is the common thread running through all objects and beings in the world, and here the artist explores its elusive nature, from an elemental paring down of form and shape to classic color theory. What sets this show apart is Zorn’s ability to resistance to conventional categorization, and the expression with which he explores the simplest elements of visual definition.

Inspired by his own journey through life, Zorn’s work takes its primary focus on the form of people and culture. Zorn’s artwork takes a psychological perspective of the “other”. His own relationships clearly inform his paintings and unique color palette. He layers colors to create the razor-sharp and gauzy, soft textures that coexist in his work, best exemplified in his piece entitled Movements in Red. His colorful blending of passionate color with abstraction reveals his physical involvement in the work—paint has been applied with fervor, leaving behind a verifiable artistic signature as testimony for the viewer.

Zorn’s striking paintings draw us into an enigmatic and sensual world of fantasy, seduction, and spirit. Zorn’s work often appears formalist in its concerns; aesthetically the artist is equally drawn to isolated and quiet places—as he is to crowds and chaos. The one strand linking the various facets of Zorn’s work is his overwhelming sense of fluidity, swelling brushstroke, and his sumptuous approach to applying paint on canvas.

The Broadway Gallery is Pleased to Announce

Relief

'Slurp' by Simone di Bagno

A group show curated by Laura Jean Zito

March 1 - 15, 2010

With an opening  reception Thursday, March Fourth, 6-8pm

Featuring Simone di Bagno, Ronald Berlin, Linus Coraggio Susanne Pitak Davis,
Annelies van Dommelen, Kelly Irwin, Barbara Keogh, Phillip de Loach
Stephanie Magdziak, Stacie Speer Scott, Miguel Osorio, Laura Jean Zito

“RELIEF…The secret garden of abstraction that is the artists’ province, the gulf linking the shores of reality and fantasy, can be seen as a space of relief… from the cares of diurnal demands as well as from an abandonment to escapism. It is the realm that dreams are made of, where artists rearrange objects from mundane concerns into whimsical reinterpretations of their perceptions. Life always provides a layer of abstraction whether we notice it or not, and artists always remind us of its presence. Reality is not always the thing which it appears to be, and dreams are not always so fantastical as they might seem at first. It’s all how you see it….which filter of understanding you bring to it…a process of dissecting and rebuilding. The word RELIEF itself has so many meanings: a raised surface, extra breathing space, cares lifted away, sheaths removed to make way for a purer form, new growth, spiritual help, added layers of matter and
 meaning…”

Susanne Pitak Davis’s “Angel in a Flight of Fancy” leads the way on a journey into these artists’ imaginative meanderings. Annelies van Dommelen’s  “All is Well At Noon” is a calming assemblage of everyday objects elevated from the mundane by a bit of embossing. Stacie Speer Scott looking out an Italian window abstracts the lovely landscape, then sums up her Italian experience in a delightful cornucopia of memories. Barbara Keogh’s “Gourdian Knot” reflects on the nature of relationships, while her “Pineapple Friends” suggests her crusty characters have one. Their rough exteriors render Ron Berlin’s “Swimmer” all the more naked as do the gnarly barks of Stephanie Magdziak’s “Copper Beech” and “Pine Tree.” The wood of found objects is deemed holy by Phillip de Loach’s “Prayer Box,” and accentuated by Scott’s  “The Rose.” Kelly Irwin’s “High Class Beach,” a photo of a luxury tire buried in the sand, treats found objects in a different way. Simone di  Bagno’s “Suck It Up” playfully conceptualizes relief in a literal and  figurative way. Miguel Osorio juxtaposes marine elements in an elegantly-hued collage to create “The Reef.” Laura Jean Zito suggests abstraction using reality itself in ”The Red Sea.” Linus  Coraggio shows the  ever-changing nature of reality in “West Side Highway Before the George  Washington Bridge.” In his metal sculpture made from found objects, such as “Double-Afro Piston Head,” reality is turned on its head to be viewed as something entirely unexpected. His motorcycles made from food blenders and other work can be viewed on his website, www.linuscoraggio.com. The artists’ websites are as follows: www.susannepitak.com, www.vandommelenart.com, www.stephaniemagdziak.com, www.staciespeerscott.com, www.miguelosorio.com

RELIEF © 2010 Laura Jean Zito