The Summer Show
Alaina Enslen, Anthony Finta, Jenny Nelson, Dora Somosi, and Susan Stover
Opening Reception: June 17th, 5-7pm
June 16, 2023 through August 7, 2023

Carrie Haddad Gallery is pleased to present the Summer Group Show, featuring four abstractionists, Alaina Enslen, Anthony Finta, Jenny Nelson, and Susan Stover, with cyanotype and abstracted landscape photography by Dora Somosi. Surveying a range of media from oil painting to encaustic collage, these artists exemplify how abstraction can be used to reinterpret seemingly ordinary objects and imagery. The exhibit will be on view June 16 – August 6, with an artists’ reception on Saturday, June 17th from 5-7pm. All are welcome to attend.
Cornwall-On-Hudson based artist, Alaina Enslen, will exhibit a new series of paintings made with pigmented beeswax, fabric, and damar resin on cradled Birch panel. Interested in the emotive properties of cloth, Enslen repurposes fabrics tied to experience and memory like worn heirlooms or discarded clothes. The segments are then cut, re-arranged, and layered in fluid compositions before being fused with wax, which provides a textured yet delicate matte surface. With this latest series, Enslen introduces bold indigo and copper fabrics and gesturally painted monotype collage into calming neutral toned arrangements. Born into a military family, Enslen has traveled and lived across the globe and her experiences of diverse cultures have deeply influenced her work. She has exhibited internationally and nationally over the last twenty years, including the Caleidoscopio at the University of Lisbon.
To say that Jenny Nelson’s paintings are a celebration of process as much as their final, balanced composition would be an understatement. Each one of Nelson’s compositions is a unique roadmap into how her brain operates. Curious, experimental, persistent, dedicated; hers is a confidence built over years of sustained diligence in the studio. Based in Woodstock, NY, Nelson has developed a unique language of artistic expression. Paintings in this series present improvisational, gestural strokes balanced with structure and open space. “By layering, adding and subtracting, a history develops on the canvas. Shapes have a story to tell. Lines that have been obliterated and resurrected have an emotional charge. What started as a wild party ends up as a contemplative, carefully edited composition, involving precise modifications, while hopefully leaving some life force intact”, says the artist of this process. Jenny Nelson has formally taught her approach to abstract painting and drawing in workshops and classrooms for many years. After two decades of exhibiting with Carrie Haddad Gallery, she has the fan base of collectors, critics, and students to affirm that the strength of her work speaks volumes to her viewers.
Dora Somosi’s work as a fine art photographer is singular in its ability to document emotional dimension. For this exhibit, Somosi presents selections from She Was A Little Bit Blue where images of tree canopies are captured digitally and printed using the cyanotype process. Invented in 1843 by Anna Atkins, a British photographer and botanist, cyanotype is an alternative, nontoxic printing process in the darkroom that turns images Prussian Blue. Somosi likens this distinctive color to all that it conjures; “the blue of moodiness, the blue of reverie, the blue of midnight, the blue of remembering, the blue of singing the blues, the blue of veins…In this limited color space, I see the temperature of what makes us alive and connects us.” Images are printed on a cold press watercolor paper and available in limited editions. Dora Somosi was Director of Photography at Conde Nast and Hearst Publications, and has won numerous awards for her editorial contributions. She lives with her family in Old Chatham, NY and Brooklyn.
Susan Stover will present a series of small constructions made of hand sewn cardboard collage. Inspired by aesthetic traditions from around the world, Stover incorporates her interest in textiles and the symbolic meanings tied to patterns, objects, and places. Stemming from a series based on Indian textiles exhibited at the gallery in 2020, the new assemblages employ a similar patchwork of colorfully painted cardboard sewn with latex coated thread, but break from a strictly geometric, tapestry like form and adopt an irregular, amorphic sensibility. Stover received her MFA from the California Collage of Art and has exhibited nationally since the early 90’s. She recently relocated to the Hudson Valley from San Francisco.
Anthony Finta draws inspiration from landscapes, architectural facades, or views through windows, and reimagines them in a geometric framework. Familiar scenes are distilled into a grid of composed linework made in graphite and charcoal, where delicate pastel planes are juxtaposed with eye-catching accents of bold color, layered brushwork, or text and collage elements. Finta studied painting and sculpture at The School of Visual and now lives and works on his art full-time in Clermont, NY.