Selected Paintings & Sculpture

Artists' Reception: Saturday, October 7th, 5-7pm

by James O'Shea, Susan Stover, Adam Cohen, Ginny Fox & Dai Ban

September 27, 2017 through November 12, 2017

James O’Shea’s abstract paintings will be the focus of Carrie Haddad Gallery’s front room this fall, part of “Mixed Media: Painting & Sculpture”, an exhibit that also includes paintings by Adam Cohen and Ginny Fox, with encaustic pieces by Susan Stover and wall sculptures by Dai Ban. The exhibit will be on view from September 27 to November 12, with an opening reception for the artists on Saturday, October 7 from 5 – 7 p.m.

The success James O’Shea’s painting is two-fold; the skillful fluidity with which he can traverse mediums and palettes and an innate ability to reconcile his perception of nature with what he creates on the canvas. His color stories are reflective of what can be found in nature; muted-earth tones, soft pastels, and pops of hot pink and yellow vary in opacity and come together to mirror the changing seasons. Surfaces with fresh, unfussy strokes are reworked to incorporate translucent veils of neon yellow and turquoise. This is layered over richer tones of indigo and mossy green, all connected with unifying line work. We arrive finding balance in each composition that often seems to be a mere swath of something that is vastly more continuous- a landscape, a city grid, or an aerial view of the neighbor’s pool. This exhibit will include a variety of oil, acrylic, and fresco-secco paintings, along with encaustics and collages on paper. James O’Shea studied at the City and Guilds of London Art School and then Goldsmith’s University of London. He currently splits his time between New York City and the Hudson Valley.

Adam Cohen returns to Carrie Haddad Gallery this fall with his iconic acrylic works on canvas, and as usual, they’re teeming with energy. Cohen’s broad canvases overflow with opaque, syrupy splatters of paint in vivid hues, demonstrating the artist’s incredible sensitivity to chromatic relationships and compositional balance. The selection of work, which spans a period of five years, displays a stylistic evolution that comes full circle. Recent paintings made in response to older work demonstrate Cohen’s energetic creative process, where pools and splashes of color are imbued with zeal and executed with gusto. Since Carrie Haddad first exhibited his work in 2013, Cohen’s work has catapulted into international recognition. In 2015, Cohen was awarded the International Art Prize Giuseppe Gambino in Venice, Italy and received an honorable mention and award at the Art Olympia International Competition in Tokyo. These successes led to representation by galleries in Italy and Holland, as well as a feature in the Canadian Art magazine where Cohen was named a rising star in abstract painting.

Ginny Fox’s soft and subdued acrylic paintings will be on view as well. As with her past work, Fox builds up each non-representational piece with overlapping streaks of paint that frequently span two or three panels. Working with rags instead of brushes, Fox’s hand moves along parallel paths, emergent colors cascading gently towards the edges of the compositional plane. There’s something vaporous to the outer layers of the work, the interwoven strands of color offering glimpses at the painting’s earthy base and hinting at the artist’s gradual process. Having received her education from New York University in the 1970s, Fox has since exhibited throughout the United States, especially in New York City and the northeastern U.S. This will be her second show at Carrie Haddad Gallery.

Also on view will be Susan Stover’s “Indigo” series, so-named for the artist’s use of indigo-dyed silks and fabrics, among other mixed media. Drawing on traditions that exist in other cultures, Stover hand-dyes fabrics in indigo that are then adhered to wood panel with neutral colored wax. While the compositions are pattern-based, they’re anything but simple—the work incorporates a distressed surface texture, enhanced by the unexpected addition of industrial materials. Rusted hooks and bolts, although miniscule, contradict the expected fragility of the piece, rooting it in something rugged and intriguing. Stover is one of the few artists at Carrie Haddad Gallery who is not local to the Hudson Valley. Since the 1990s, Stover has been exhibiting her work almost exclusively on the west coast, where she’s based in San Francisco (incidentally, Carrie Haddad’s hometown!) We are delighted to bring Stover’s work to a fresh audience.

Japanese-born artist Dai Ban will be showing mixed media wall sculptures with lively geometric shapes, minimalist color palettes, and clever titles to tie it all together. Using the simplest tools and materials, the form comes first on this three-dimensional canvas. The flat, angled planes aim to experiment with light and shadow, since the sculpture will appear slightly different when illuminated from the left rather than the right (or vice versa). Dai Ban received his education from Musashino Art University in Tokyo, and moved to Brooklyn in 1985, where he remained for eight years before relocating to the Berkshires. With a background that includes theater set design, model making for TV commercials and films, and jewelry design, Dai Ban’s abstract sculptures break conventional standards, serving balance between reflection and reprieve.

Carrie Haddad Gallery is located at 622 Warren St., Hudson, NY, and is open seven days a week, 11– 5. Contact the gallery with inquiries at (518) 828-1915 or info@carriehaddadgallery.com.