The Work of Sylvia Hommert

The Mindy Solomon Gallery is proud to present the work of New York based artist Sylvia Hommert April 6-May 11 at the gallery, with an Opening Night Reception Saturday, April 6th from 6-9PM and Artist’s Talk at 6:30PM. Born in 1967 and educated at the famous Otis Parsons School of Art in Los Angeles, California, Hommert’s background as a successful textile artist and designer led her to explore abstraction and the use of color and light in painting as another form of textural experimentation. Pushing the possibilities of pigment and surface with an almost alchemistic precision, she creates colorful surfaces that project prismatic color and pattern.

“The Symbol of all Art is the Prism.
The goal is destructive.
To break up the white light of objective realism into the secret glories it contains.”
- E.E. Cummings

Sylvia Hommert // Domination Gold // 44 Panels //
Hologram paper, beeswax, aqua tint, resin, on birch panel //

Sylvia Hommert // Zigzag // 2012 // 30 x 40 inches //

Hommert writes in her artist statement:

“Light and the reflection of light, how it interacts in an environment, is a constant thread that flows through my work. I am captivated by the silvery light glistening off alpine icicles and the lavender iridescence of sunset on water. It’s elusive, full of movement, ever changing, and it’s this ephemeral quality that intrigues me. How the passing of time plays off the luminous surfaces of each painting–the highs and lows, the shadows and relief. The color subtly shifts too, as the light moves through a space from sunrise to sunset, or as you move through the room. An organic calendar that clocks both physical movement and the passage of time. My technique has evolved as a way to capture the liquid and fluid nature of light, and I am drawn to materials that enhance and illuminate: pearly paua shell, metal leaf, holographic paper, crystalline mineral salts, beeswax, resin. By building up layers of materials from the opaque to translucent to transparent, then using a flame to burn away portions, I create depth and texture. Exposing elements that are underneath holds a hint of mystery that’s akin to uncovering buried treasure. Introducing dimension as a factor, I can express not only surface texture and depth, but different perspectives; the highs and lows offering yet another way to play with and capture light.”

EXHIBITION INFORMATION: Mindy Solomon Gallery presents ‘The Work of Sylvia Hommert‘ April 6-May 11, 2013. An Opening Night Reception takes place Saturday, April 6th, from 6-9pm, with an Artist’s Talk at 6:30pm. Hommert’s background as a successful textile artist and designer led her to explore abstraction and the use of color and light in painting as another form of textural experimentation. Pushing the possibilities of pigment and surface with an almost alchemistic precision, she creates colorful surfaces that project prismatic color and pattern. Mindy Solomon Gallery is located at 124 2nd Ave. NE, St. Petersburg, FL 33701. The gallery is open Wednesday-Saturday from 11am-5pm. For more information, please contact the gallery at info@mindysolomon.com or 727-502-0852, or visit the website at www.mindysolomongallery.com

William Pachner: ‘Imagined Fragments’ // Opening Reception March 30 in Woodstock

The Byrdcliffe Kleinart/James Art Center is pleased to present ‘Imagined Fragments,’ a selection of black and white works on paper by William Pachner ( Mindy Solomon Gallery-represented artist), with a catalogue by Daniel Mason. The exhibition will be on view March 29-May 5, 2013, with an opening reception Saturday, March 30th, from 4-6pm. A gallery talk with William Pachner and Michael Perkins will take place May 6th from 2-3pm; Mr. Pachner will be 98 years old at the time of this talk. For more information, please contact BYRDCLIFFE at 845.679.2079, email info@woodstockguild.org,  or visit www.byrdcliffe.org. The Center is located at 36 Tinker Street in Woodstock, NY.

William Pachner // Drawing from the ‘Imagined Fragments’ Exhibition

Born in Czechoslovakia in 1915, Pachner has made his home in Woodstock since 1945. He studied art in Vienna and worked as an illustrator in Prague before coming to the United States in 1939 on the eve of World War II. During the war, his anti-fascist anti-Nazi illustrations have appeared in the foremost national magazines. When he learned in 1945 that all members of his family had been exterminated by the Germans, he quit his commercial career and resolved never again to do a commercial job, but to paint what he felt.

Known as a colorist, Pachner’s work includes satiric drawings, erotic figurative, biblical Judaic and Christian themes, photomontages, and paintings of great color intensity. Late in his career, he turned to black and white after losing sight in his one good eye. The works in this show represent loss: absence of sight, family, homeland—everything—with the almost unbearable weight of personal and artistic annihilation. While their form, movement, and gesture embrace an essential vitality, these drawings also embody a silent horror and violence. The artist’s final works embody a multiplicity of meanings and are an affirmation of humanness and the reminder of the sacredness of all life.

About his paintings, Pachner said, “I want, in each work, the world, like my countryman Mahler, the whole pie, not just one triangular wedge of it, but all of it in all of its contradictions, paradoxes, ironies, unbearable sorrows, indescribable joys, tragic comedy, farce, pathos and drama, both authentic and fraudulent. The world, I say to myself, on which all this takes place simultaneously—the world so incomprehensible, so dear, so much in need of our care, of our embrace.”

In recent years, his work has been shown at the Tampa Museum of Art, the Florida Holocaust Museum, and the St. Petersburg Museum of Fine Art.

The Mindy Solomon Gallery is proud to offer a new secondary-market painting by William Pachner, Oil #9, painted in 1974 at 44.5 x 45 inches.  Please contact the gallery for details.

William Pachner // Oil #9, 1974, 44.5 x 45,” oil on canvas

Sunkoo Yuh: New Works for Clayarch Gimhae Museum

MSG artist Sunkoo Yuh shares these fantastic images of his creation process for several new large-scale sculptures during his two-month residency as visiting artist at the Clayarch Gimhae Museum in South Korea. He is preparing for an October 1, 2013 solo exhibition at the Museum.

View more Sunkoo Yuh works on the MSG website // 

Marc Burckhardt on Commissioned Works

Marc Burckhardt // Scheideweg // Acrylic and Oil on Wood Panel // 96 x 48″

MSG artist Marc Burckhardt walks us through his process in creating a commissioned artwork for a client:

“The process of commissioned works has been a natural one for me, and one I find exciting. My collectors are typically familiar with my work and the language of characters within it. When possible, I like to view the space the work will live in, and meet with the collector to discuss specific works they’ve responded to in order to get a sense of the relationship they hope to have with the commissioned art. I then develop my concepts and typically provide two to three alternatives the client can choose from. Large pieces like this one can take several months, during which time I’ll send ‘in progress’ images if they are requested.”

Burckhardt recently completed “Scheideweg,” a large-scale private commission of acrylic and oil on wood panel, measuring 96″ x 48″.

Detail: Marc Burckhardt // Scheideweg // Acrylic and Oil on Wood Panel // 96 x 48″

Detail: Marc Burckhardt // Scheideweg // Acrylic and Oil on Wood Panel // 96 x 48″

View more Marc Burckhardt works on the MSG site // 

Scot Sothern // X-Rated Online + Huffington Post Review

Scot Sothern // Lowlife: Mac In response to the upcoming publication of his memoir, Curb Service (Soft Skull Press, July 2013), MSG artist Scot Sothern has started blogging.  “Cruising nighttime byways for an adrenaline fix, Scot Sothern first patronized the marketplace of curbside prostitution surfing the prurient whims of a young man. He dove to the murky depths of sexual obsession and resurfaced five years later, shell-shocked and without excuse. While there, trusty Nikon in hand, Scot, a second-generation photographer, made full-frontal X-rated exposures, black and white, filled with pathos and an uncanny realism. The pictures captured the plight of the disenfranchised in America, those forgotten and drug-addicted. Now he is ready to tell the story behind the photographs, the confessions of a befuddled baby-boomer maintaining a slippery connection to propriety while side-tripping into noirish infatuations with those low in life.” Follow his posts here. He was also featured in a Huffington Post article this month for his participation in the political exhibition ‘Capital Crimes Show’ at BC Space in Laguna Beach, California. Click here to read the review. And, Sothern is writing a twice-monthly column, Nocturnal Submissions, for Vice Magazine online.  He warns that Vice is ‘x-rated and not for everyone.’ Learn More //

Kate MacDowell at John Michael Kohler Arts Center

Fragile Endurance on View through September 22nd //MSG artist Kate MacDowell presents her exhibition, Fragile Endurance, at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, February 10 – September 22, 2013. The Arts Center functions as a catalyst for and explorer of new art forms and new ideas that impact the lives of both artists and the public. MacDowell’s exhibit explores the friction and discomfort in man’s relationship with nature. These works raise the question of our own vulnerability within changing ecological systems. Her choices of material and subject matter respond to environmental stressors such as climate change and species extinction. She chose porcelain for its luminous and ghostly qualities; the delicate reputation of the medium highlights the impermanence and fragility of natural forms in a dying ecosystem. Her case studies of two extinct species—the Costa Rican golden toad and the passenger pigeon—can be seen as thoughtful records of lost life forms and commentaries on our own culpability. Learn More //

Gary Petersen in ‘Lines and Shapes’ at US Department of State

Mindy Solomon Gallery artist Gary Petersen is being included at the “Lines and Shapes: Geometric Abstraction” exhibition at the United States Department of State. Visit the exhibit in 2013 at the Art Bank Gallery 21st Street Lobby, Mezzanine South, Marshall Wing, Harry S Truman Building, Washington DC 20520.

The de la Torre Brothers: Home for the Holidays

“We despise all reverences and all the objects of reverence which are outside the pale of our own list of sacred things. And yet, with strange inconsistency, we are shocked when other people despise and defile the things which are holy to us.”

-’Following the Equator’ by Mark Twain

Greed Talisman // 2005 // 48 x 48 x 7 inches // Blown and cast glass, mixed media

Artists and brothers Einar and Jamex de la Torre bring their inventive, irreverent, inspired glass and mixed media works—rife with tongue-in-cheek religious iconography and and pop-cultural references—to Mindy Solomon Gallery in ‘Home for the Holidays.’ The exhibition is on view from December 22, 2012-February 2, 2013, with an Opening Night Reception Saturday, December 22 from 6-8:30PM, and Artists’ Talk at 6:30PM.

Animaluchadora // 2008 // 40 x 15 inches // Blown and cast glass, mixed media

The blown and cast glass sculptural works featured in this program are largely taken from the de la Torres’ 2012 exhibition at the Chrysler Museum in Norfolk, Virginia. In addition to the museum works, the brothers’ recent explorations in digital art and mixed media round out ‘Home for the Holidays’ at Mindy Solomon Gallery. The works on display showcase the multiplicity of their religious and political story, always with an eye toward humor. One example of note is the sculpture ‘Animaluchador’ (2008). In Spanish, ‘anima’ translates to souls burning, and ‘luchador’ means wrestler. The figure appears to be standing in a religious pose of prayer, but is wearing the costume of a wrestler. His body is engulfed in flames, while he stands astride a pop-cultural doll. The relationship between religious icon and heroic figure (masquerading as an object of significance) personifies the de la Torres’ irreverence for cultural iconography as nothing more than cartoon. This objectification of symbolic masculine and spiritual strength enables viewers to tackle their own senses of religious alienation with candor and humor.

Rally du Mort // 2010 // 26 x 12 x 21 inches // Blown glass, terra-cotta, mixed media

The baroque quality of many of the de la Torres’ forms is the perfect foil for the contemporary nature of the dialogue conveyed by their narrative: a conversation rich in history, religion, and politics. Active in the glass art world since the 1980s, Einar and Jamex de la Torre are well-known for their assemblage style of making. They utilize hot glass as if it were a magic wand flowing with liquid amber―brilliant colors fused together with a nod to the grotesque. Their unique approach has been recognized internationally, and the brothers have exhibited their work in France, Japan, Canada, Germany, Venezuela, and Brazil as well as in the US and Mexico. They are included in the permanent collections of some of the finest glass art institutions in the world.

Read more about the exhibit and view more works by the de la Torre Brothers >>

Exhibition Information:
Mindy Solomon Gallery presents ‘Home for the Holidays: The Inventive, Irreverent, Inspired Works of the de la Torre Brothers‘ December 22, 2012-February 2, 2013. An Opening Night Reception takes place Saturday, December 22, from 6-8:30pm, with Artists’ Talk at 6:30pm.

Mindy Solomon Gallery is located at 124 2nd Ave. NE, St. Petersburg, FL 33701. The gallery is open Wednesday-Saturday from 11am-5pm. For more information, please contact the gallery at info@mindysolomon.com or 727-502-0852.

Subversive Narratives at balzerARTprojects Opens January 11th in Basel

Mindy Solomon Gallery’s exhibition ‘Subversive Narratives: Exposing the Raw Side’ opens January 11th at balzerARTprojects in Basel, Switzerland, with an Opening Night Reception from 5:30-8pm.  Mindy will be presenting photography by Jeremy Chandler, Becky Flanders, Generic Art Solutions, Scott Sothern, and Muir Vidler on themes of cultural identity including gender, taboo, and power.

“I really believe there are things nobody would see if I didn’t photograph them.” -Diane Arbus

The artists featured in this exhibition display honesty and candor in their approach to photographic narrative, oftentimes choosing to illustrate subjects frequently overlooked and ignored, such as prostitution and gender dynamics. With a touch of humor, a nod to art history, and a global perspective, this exhibition will illuminate and inspire deeper examination of the subjects presented.

Below, an article in Swiss magazine ‘Art Collector’ previewing the show, which runs through February 23rd at Riehentorstrasse 14, CH-4058 Basel:

Constructions and Compositions: The Work of James Kennedy

“The artist constructs a new symbol with his brush. This symbol is not a recognizable form of anything which is already finished, already made, already existing in the world—it is a symbol of a new world, which is being built upon and which exists by way of people.”
-Eli Lissitzky

James Kennedy // Untitled 1 // 2012 // 26 x 58 inches // Mixed media construction

New York artist James Kennedy brings his beautifully rendered constructivist works to the Mindy Solomon Gallery from September 15th – November 3rd, 2012, with an Opening Reception from 6-8pm and Artist Talk at 6:30pm Saturday, September 15th. Kennedy’s paintings to date have consisted of complex spatial arrangements that are both painted and built through a process of hard-edge technique coupled with varying dilutions of media. The result is a unified visceral surface that is so knitted in structure it is frequently perceived to be collage.

James Kennedy // Untitled 3 // 2012 // 24 x 36 inches // Mixed media construction

Kennedy’s work is highly sought-after, finding homes in important public and private collections all over the United States. Mindy Solomon Gallery is proud to present Kennedy’s first solo exhibition in the Southeast United States.

Exhibit Information: Mindy Solomon Gallery presents ‘Constructions and Compositions‘ Sepember 15th – November 3rd, with an Opening Reception from 6-8pm and Artist Talk at 6:30pm Saturday, September 15th. Read on for the Curators Statement. Mindy Solomon Gallery is located at 124 2nd Ave. NE, St. Petersburg, FL 33701. The gallery is open Wednesday-Saturday from 11am-5pm. Call 727-502-0852 or visit www.mindysolomon.com for more information.