Three Solo Shows

Russell DeYoung - Richard Kagan - Tony Thompson and upstairs photography by Shaina Marron

Reception: Saturday, Oct 1st from 5 to 7pm

September 29, 2005 through November 6, 2005

Carrie Haddad Gallery is proud to present the work of four artists in their upcoming group exhibit, which opens September 29 and runs through November 6. An opening reception with the artists will be held at the gallery on Saturday October 1, from 5pm to 7pm. The event is free and open to the public.

Tony Thompson began his artistic career as an abstract painter during his early studies at both Cornell University and the Rhode Island School of Design. Thompson is passionate about non representational painting, but upon his move to the Hudson Valley a decade ago, he was inspired by the local landscape. He now divides his time between abstract and landscape painting. Thompson will be exhibiting two types of landscapes in this upcoming show - traditional and double landscapes. To make the double landscapes Thompson paints a bucolic scene on the top half of the canvas then turns the canvas upside down and paints it again. The image is not reflected but rather reversed and upside down. The end result creates an entity that is part abstraction and part landscape. Thompson's work has recieved numerous awards and has been exhibited in galleries across the United States and Europe.

Richard Kagan photographs beautiful old tools where each black and white print showcases an object against a dark or totally black background. They are carefully lit to highlight their edges, leaving a very formal and quietly dramatic image. Richard Kagan was born in Philadelphia in 1945 and followed a circuitous path to become a photographer. He bought his first camera and began doing street photography while a student at Temple University. However, after leaving college in 1965 to practice Zen Buddhism in New York City, he became so impressed with the silent eloquence of handmade objects he pawned the camera to buy woodworking tools. After 2 years of apprenticeships, he opened his own shop in 1972 where he designed and made one-of-a-kind and limited production furniture. Kagan taught at Philadelphia College of Art/University of the Arts from 1977 to 1987, and exhibited his furniture at the American Craft Museum in NY, and museums and institutions throughout the U.S. In 1990 Kagan went back to his photography and has since had 15 solo photography exhibitions in the US, Britain, and South America and articles about the work have appeared in Black & White Magazine and the Photo Review. His work is represented in public and private collections including the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Washington Convention Center, Lehigh University and others. He lives and works in Philadelphia.

While deeply indebted to landscape and its relationship to the development of modernist painting in the United States, Russell DeYoung's new body of work entitled, The Sinatra Paintings, consciously alludes to biomorphic abstraction of the pre-atomic age. Roundish forms nearly fulfill their desire for simplicity and perfection, but disruptions in the picture plane and figure/ground reversals goad their neo-platonic daydreams into a restless instability. Inspired by the decay of a post-industrial upstate New York and the work of early American modernists such as Arthur Dove and Milton Avery, these paintings are an inquiry into his own relationship to modernist painting. DeYoung currently teaches painting and drawing at the College of Saint Rose in Albany, NY.

Shaina Marron's love of photography stems from an unhealthy fear of change. She pours over old photos, relishing their permanence. By taking photos Marron has a chance to pause an ever-shifting environment. To Marron, it's about how time, mood, space, and subject combine to make that perfect moment. The other side to her photography is color. "I try not to alter what you see at all. I don't use a flash, a filter or other digital means. I love it that when the lights go down in a theater it becomes a completely different place or the way a street lamp can transform the world." Marron currently lives in Brooklyn, New York. She has a degree from the State University of New York, Albany in Photography and was voted Best Local Visual Artist 2004 by Metroland.

Carrie Haddad Gallery is located at 622 Warren Street in Hudson, NY. The gallery is open Thursday through Monday from 11a.m. to 5p.m. For more information, call (518) 828-1915, or visit the website at www.carriehaddadgallery.com.

Richard Kagan