VARGA Gallery Visionary Art Collective SEPTEMBER SHOWCASE opens Saturday, September 12 from 6 - 8pm
Featured Artists:
Ellen Miret - 26 work lenticular series on the Chapters of the Dhammapada & new 3d work on the 8 Worldly Dharmas
Hatti Iles: presenting a selection of 7 works including new LARGE work that is on exhibit for the first time!
MUSIC BY SYMPATICO @ 8pm!
ALSO OPENING SEPTEMBER 12th from 4 - 6pm
"The Other Side of the Mountain" @
WAAM - Woodstock Artists Association & Museum"
with a small works show downstairs.
VAC Members in "The Other Side of the Mountain":
Loel Barr, Patti Gibbons, Howard Goldson, Lenny Kislin, Susan Asarian Nickerson, Susan Phillips, Sharon Rousseau, Sue Sammis, Lizz Smyth, Christina Varga
VAC MEMBERS IN THE SMALL WORKS SHOW:
Mercedes Cecilia, Barbara Graff, Hatti Iles, Lenny Kislin, Susan Asarian Nickerson, Susan Phillips, Susan Sammis, Lizz Smyth
CONGRATS to all the VAC Members juried into the WAAM September Shows!
LARRY & PAULETTE'S FUNHOUSE
Scott Ackerman's work is now part of the collections of both The American Folk Art Museum and the art collection of Ramapo College.
Collector LARRY BRILL, Artist Scott Ackerman & Christina Varga
Scott Ackerman with his work "WARRIOR" as part of exhibit @ Ramapo College
Brooke Davis Anderson - Director & Curator of the Contemporary Center and the Henry Darger Study Center at The American Folk Art Museum speaking to a FASCINATED AUDIENCE!
Larry & Brooke
Christina Varga with VIDEO ARTIST Shalom Gorewitz & Ramapo College curator Sidney O. Jenkins
Curators Sidney O Jenkins, Brook Davis Anderson & Christina Varga
SEPTEMBER SHOWCASE at VARGA Gallery Visionary Art Collective
The Visionary Art Collective at VARGA Gallery presents the September
Showcase opening Saturday, September 12th from 6 – 8pm with live music by
Sympatico. Featured artists will be Hatti Iles and Ellen Miret. On sale
will be the September issue of the monthly self-published magazine
"VAC'zine". The September Showcase runs through Sunday, October 4, 2009.
As the Visionary Art Collective at VARGA Gallery approaches its one year
mark, it continues to add to its ranks of exhibiting artists. The
collective is attracting curators to its well of talented exhibiting
artists while providing a space for artists to meet and exhibit work in
monthly showcases. The collective also hosts member events to share and
celebrate individual accomplishments. Past presentations include artist
talks, film screenings, theatrical presentations and an array of artist
member appearances on “Apocalypse VARGA” - Varga's weekly broadcast airing
on Woodstock Cable Access and streaming live online from 10 - 11pm every
Wednesday.
JOSE ACOSTA - New Orleans Double Island
The Visionary Art Collective also shares news of individual
members like Jose Acosta, VAC Member and Cuban-American artist awarded the
Premio Arte 2009 for Paintings & Sculpture in August at the IV Annual
Premio Arte Awards. Premio Arte recognizes Hispanic Artists in the United
States.
Three NEW ARTIST MEMBERS have joined the Collective: figurative painter
Rob Couteau - author of several books and painter of erotically splayed
women, sculptor and mixed media artist Joseph Kurhajec – director of the
Treadwell Museum of Art, and mixed media painter Marc Grabler. Rob
Couteau's works celebrate and study the female form through erotic
paintings in oils. Couteau spent a year studying the works of Picasso in
a series titled "A Year with Picasso".
ROB COUTEAU
Joseph Kurhajec, born in Prague,
Czeckoslovakia in 1938, received his arts education from the University of
Wisconsin. Moving to New York in 1963, he assisted Seymour Lipton in the
Lincoln Center project, taught at Cornell University and was selected one
of "Ten Independents" for a group show at the Guggenheim in 1972. His
sculptures have been exhibited at the Storm King Art Center, the Treadwell
Museum of Art and galleries in Rome, Paris, and Eastern Europe.
JOSEPH KURHAJEC
Marc Grabler is a mixed media painter who enjoys working with Guerra Paints and
composes thickly layers abstract works incorporating glitter, resins and
color. He enjoys heady comics and animation.
The VARGA Shoppe Exhibit features resident artist Ellen Miret showcasing
the 26 Chapters of the Dhammapadha Project in an exhibit devoted to
Dharma. Highlighted by her large lenticular works, the exhibit features
26 individual smaller lenticular works each focusing on a chapter of the
Dhammapada. In her studio will be an exhibit of a 3D version of the 8
worldy dharmas and work from the ongoing series “Lives of the
Boddhisattva”.
Long time Woodstock Artist and resident Hatti Illes will
present a selection of large works from her fantastical series of
illustrative art. Hatti came to Woodstock after traveling the world. She
is a lifelong student of zoology, natural history and archeology. Her
works are in collections throughout the country and she describes her
works as eschewing boundaries and straight lines with characters that
often interact with events and creatures outside the borders of the
painting. She cuts the edges of her works to minimize the restrictions of
the square. "There are certain images I am quite obsessed with, such as
horse noses and big feet". Hatti also loves combining human and animal
features, mythology, ancient history and the element of surprise. Her
work is about love and line.
"Sympatico," the new Woodstock ensemble of melodious rhythm, performs
during and after the September VAC Showcase. Sympatico's music grows from
the rich grooves of hand drums and African tom-toms, and every kind of
exotic percussion including bells and gongs. Melodies from strings, vibes,
voices, and singing bowls spring from the rhythm. The group includes Kevin
Johnson, Bill Ross, Peter Blum, David Budd, Eliezer Parrilla, and Nathan
Brenowitz.
On sale during the opening will be the second installment of
the self-published mag "VAC'zine" with small vignettes of member
contributions as well as select submissions from a variety of artists and
writers. VAC'zine is comprised of forty or so 2.5 x 2.5 inch black and
white works, costs a mere dollar and is an ongoing experiment by VARGA
Gallery and VAC Founder, Christina Varga, who encourages everyone from
artists to writers to submit to this new Woodstock zine.
In October, Scott Ackerman and Christina Varga are off to the
“Kunsttiendaagse” Art Festival in Bergen, North Holland with Woodstock
Artists Eric Angeloch, Josephine Bloodgood – Executive Director of the
Woodstock Artists Association and Museum and Elise Pittelman.
For more information please contact Christina Varga. The VARGA Gallery is
open Thursday thru Sunday 12 - 6 (new hours) and online at
www.VARGAgallery.com. Artists interestred in joining the collective can
email
gallery@vargagallery.com. VARGA Gallery is located at 130 Tinker
Street in Woodstock, New York. Call 845.679.4005 for more info.
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VARGA Gallery - PRESS!
130 Tinker Street
Woodstock, NY 12498
845.679.4005