SHANE GUFFOGG OPENING SATURDAY MARCH 2

SHANE GUFFOGG
The Annunciation of Ginevra de' Benci Conversations with Leonardo
Ginevra de' Benci #51 2012, oil on canvas. Click image to view the exhibition online.
LESLIE SACKS FINE ART Brentwood
March 2 - April 1, 2013
Reception for the Artist Saturday, March 2, 2013, 5:00 - 7:30 PM Artist's talk 6:00 PM
11640 San Vicente Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90049 (310) 820 9448 info@lesliesacks.com www.lesliesacks.com
Left: Shane Guffogg, Ginevra de’ Benci #10 2011, oil on canvas, 80 x 60 inches Right: Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), Ginevra de’ Benci c. 1474, oil on poplar panel, 38.1 x 37 cm, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
On the reverse of the portrait Leonardo painted a symbolic design.
Behind the portrait is a symbolic design referencing Ginevra’s much admired character. The wreath of laurel and palm represents moral and intellectual fortitude. The wreath encircles a sprig of juniper, symbolizing chastity. (The great juniper bush, or ginepro, that dominates the landscape in the portrait itself may well have been a clever play on Ginevra’s name.) Entwined with the wreath and juniper is a ribbon like banner, with a Latin phrase meaning, “Beauty Adorns Virtue". Roughly the lower third of Leonardo’s portrait was damaged sometime prior to 1780 and was removed. In Ginevra de Benci #10 Guffogg approximates the original proportions of Leonardo’s work.   The Ginevra series, consisting of fifty-two oil paintings, evolved out of Guffogg’s immediately prior At the Still Point series, comprised of forty- one oil paintings (selected examples exhibited at Leslie Sacks Fine Art, January 2010). The combined ninety-three At the Still Point and Ginevra de Benci canvases done over the past four years reflect an extraordinarily intense application of attention, by virtue of which Guffogg has provided a window onto a personal renaissance – one that may have significant universal implications as well. He has returned to the Western canon as such is informed by abstraction, contemporary math and science (string theory), and his own sensibilities, just as the art of the Renaissance was informed by classicism, then contemporary math and science, and the sensibilities of artists such as Leonardo.   On the occasion of Guffogg’s recent 2012 retrospective at the Villa di Donato, Naples, Italy, organized by the Italian Cultural Organization Art 1307, da Vinci scholar Marco di Mauro wrote the following: “The American artist Shane Guffogg has captured the potential abstraction of the Portrait of Ginevra Benci, making a very personal interpretation of it. The result of his research is manifested in the execution of abstract paintings where the artist’s rendition takes the form of “a composition of lights and shade together, mixed with the different qualities of all his simple and composed colours…” to quote Leonardo and his Treatise on Painting. In the final analysis, Guffogg makes no attempt to imitate a masterpiece by the Renaissance genius, preferring to capture the admirable harmony of forms which, far from expressing aesthetic perfection, harbour a content that is so profound and secret that it can only be partially deciphered.”
Sources: Parchin,Stan. Ginevra de' Benci by Leonardo da Vinci. Art Museum Journal. July 10, 2010 (referencing sources below) Beck, James. Italian Renaissance Painting. Köln: Könemann, 1999, 316-321, 326-328. Brown, David Alan. Leonardo da Vinci: Origins of a Genius. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1998, 101-122. (Ed.), et al. Virtue and Beauty: Leonardo's "Ginevra de' Benci" and Renaissance Portraits of Women (exh. cat.). Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art, 2001, 11-23, 62-87, 142-153, 162-165. Clayton, Martin. Leonardo da Vinci: The Divine and the Grotesque (exh. cat.). London: The Royal Collection, 106-108. Fletcher, Jennifer. "Bernardo Bembo and Leonardo's Portrait of Ginevra de' Benci." The Burlington Magazine 131 (1989), 811-816. Levenson, Jay A. (ed.), et al. Circa 1492: Art in the Age of Exploration (exh. cat.). Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art, 1991, 270.

Opening March 28th - Judith Belzer: Edgelands/THE STUDY: Bret Slater

Judith Belzer, Edgelands #30 (2013), Oil On Canvas, 56h x 56w in (Left) Judith Belzer, Edgelands #12 (2012) Oil On Canvas, 10h x 10w in  (Right)  Edgelands #13 (2012) Oil On Canvas, 10h x 10w in Judith Belzer, Edgelands #8 (2012) Oil On Canvas, 40h x 40w in JUDITH BELZER  EDGELANDS Morgan Lehman is pleased to present Edgelands, Judith Belzer's second solo exhibition with the gallery. The exhibition opens on March 28th, with a reception for the artist from 6-8pm, and will be on view through April 27th. In a statement about the work, Belzer writes: My new paintings explore the complex relationships between nature and culture through the lens of the landscapes we have created. The current series investigates the edge lands where the built environment and the natural landscape converge, clash and interlace. The engagements that occur along these boundaries are dynamic, unpredictable and sometimes chaotic. Using a broad painting language of mark-making and a kind of bent, vertiginous perspective (often from an overhead angle), the paintings evoke a visceral sense of what it feels like to live in a landscape in the process of being transformed by our own industriousness. Working in the San Francisco Bay Area, Belzer makes good use of what she sees everyday: a fabricated landscape built into, upon and around a natural one. The paintings reflect the tension of this relationship and the uncertainty we feel about the industrial conquest of the natural landscape. As in Belzer's last series, where she examined the patterning of wood and its grain up close, Edgelands explores our relationship with nature through a calculated abstraction. Pulling in and out of focus, Belzer simultaneously offers a flattened study of cellular patterns and a volumetric aerial view of developed and activated terrain. The resulting landscapes are at once dystopic and thrilling in their energy and movement. Judith Belzer studied painting at the New York Studio School. Her work has been exhibited widely across the country including solo exhibitions at George Lawson Gallery (San Francisco and Culver City), Valerie Carberry Gallery (Chicago), dosa 818 (Los Angeles) and the Sonoma County Museum. Originally from Chicago, Belzer currently lives in Berkeley, California. This spring, concurrent with the gallery exhibition, Belzer's work will be included in two museum group shows in New York: Against the Grain at the Museum of Arts and Design and Drawn to Nature at Wave Hill. For more information, please visit morganlehmangallery.com, or contact the gallery at 212.268.6699.   Bret Slater, Black Soap (2013) Acrylic on Linen, 7.25h x 5.5w x 1.25d in BRET SLATER Artist statement: I see each painting as an inanimate being with a living soul. In the way that a painting is literally a time-capsule, my paintings embody not only completeness in their individuality but literally in the process of their making encapsulate souls of their own. My work is simple but nuanced, sophisticated as well as clumsy. Bret Slater's work has been exhibited internationally, including solo exhibitions at Thomas Robertello Gallery (Chicago), Marty Walker Gallery (Dallas), and Elaine Levy Project (Brussels). His work has been featured in Modern Painters and New American Paintings, and is part of significant private and public collections, including the Indianapolis Museum of Art and the Dallas Museum of Art. He currently lives and works in Dallas, TX.  Current Exhibitions: Kysa Johnson: Empire Loop THE STUDY Project Space: Firelei Baez February 21 - March 23, 2013    Upcoming Exhibitions: Judith Belzer: Edgelands THE STUDY Project Space: Bret Slater March 28 - April 27, 2013    The Armory Show: Kysa Johnson March 7 - 10, 2013 Booth 532 | Pier 94 | New York City 535 West 22nd Street New York, NY 10011 email: art@morganlehmangallery.com phone: 212.268.6699 fax: 212.268.6766 web: morganlehmangallery.com

Jaimie Warren, "The Whoas of Female Tragedy II" opens January 10th

Self-Portrait as Kali Conner, digital C-print, 2012 JAIMIE WARREN The Whoas of Female Tragedy II January 10 - February 9, 2013 OPENING January 10, 6-9PM The Hole is proud to announce a new solo exhibition by Kansas City-based artist Jaimie Warren. In photographs that explore different female stereotypes from both art history and celebrity culture, distorted through the internet’s bizarre juxtapositions, disposable imagery and memes, this new body of work features the artist and her friends in roles as diverse as Zsa Zsa Gabor, Easy E, The Virgin Mary, Lana Del Rey or Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon. Like a digital age, Midwestern Cindy Sherman, Warren camouflages herself in handmade costumes, sets and extensive makeup to impersonate internet-distorted celebrities, including a section of “food-lebrities” which you can perhaps imagine (“Lasagna Del Rey”). Unlike self-portrait artist Nikki Lee who aims to “pass” in various subcultures, Warren with her Rubenesque body, big blonde hair and rosy cheeks never quite fits in anywhere, perhaps best as her idol Roseanne Barr. The juxtaposition of her non-celebrity appearance with the sculpted and contrived publicity shots of Lil' Kim or Madonna bring the unreachably idealized form back to its much funner corporeal reality. The everyday disruptions of reality or offences to taste, perhaps, put her in some relationship to Wegee or Martin Parr, while her work overall defies specific reference to the history of photography, as perhaps she has more in common with the history of camp and the films of John Waters. The works feel as they came out of a young lady in the Midwest with a vivid imagination who had to make her own fun with her friends, and she has indeed collaborated with long time friends and fellow Kansas City artists Cody Critcheloe (SSION) and fashion designer Peggy Noland. Warren writes: “The self-portraits have always been a way of entertaining myself, as I live in a smaller city, and I have been taking them long before any one noticed let alone requested more. This is also why I co-created Whoop Dee Doo [a faux public access television show for children] as we are always creating our own projects and entertainment, essentially out of necessity” In this exhibition there are three different series of new works: one where Warren is re-creating found Photoshopped paintings from art history; the second body of work takes on found Photoshopped images that mix celebrities with food; while the last is from totallylookslike.com where people pair images of celebrities with objects, animals, food, other celebrities, etc. to show how they humorously look alike.  Warren puts in an enormous amount of handmade energy to recreate these Photoshop Frankensteins without the use of Photoshop, and all works in the show are unadulterated photographic prints.  Part of the insanity is to figure out why. Warren is interested in the anonymous nature of “bored at work” Photoshoppers especially in the art history series where venerated works of art history are ridiculously and abjectly altered in the most curious ways. Many sites feature famous paintings that are “pimped out” by adding Versace clothes and glittery phones or even racy lingerie to paintings of nudes. The ersatz humour of the internet and the slightly creepy concoctions of the public when bored with the barrage of celebrity images all fit well into her vaudevillian, Roseanne Barr-ean sense of humour that pervades all her art and performances. Jaimie Warren (b. 1980 Kansas City) is a photographer, performance artist and curator known for her theatrical, humorous self-portraits set in various scenarios and locations, whether constructed or real.   Her first solo exhibition was at Higher Pictures in NYC in 2009 and was reviewed in Artforum and many other well-known publications.  Warren’s first monograph was published by Aperture in 2008. Her work was debuted on tinyvices.com by curator Tim Barber who has also included her work in many group shows. She has participated in group exhibitions at Max Wigram in London, The MACRO Museum in Rome, Colette in Paris, Deitch Projects, NYC and many more. She and Matt Roche are co-directors of Whoop Dee Doo, a faux public access television show for kids. This exhibition is variation of The WHOAS of Female Tragedy presented at the Miami Dade College Museum of Art and Design this past fall. Warren collaborated with artist Lee Heinemann who created custom costumes and props. The Hole is open Tuesday through Saturday, 12 – 7PM For available works please contact kathy@theholenyc.com

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Markowicz Fine Art Presents Anne Valverde

Art Couture welcomes you to - “CONTEMPORARY ART ATTITUDES”

Art Couture welcomes you to - “CONTEMPORARY ART ATTITUDES”

Starts on Oct 8, 2012 and Ends on Nov 8, 2012

Gallery viewing timings- 10AM till 11PM – Daily

Opening at Olga Korper Gallery - Susanna Heller

Immaculate: Reflections of Mary - Opening Reception

“Immaculate: Reflections of Mary”

Group Showing

February 11^th, 2012 through March 17^th, 2012

MF Gallery is proud to present “Immaculate: Reflections of Mary” opening reception February 11^th, 2012 from 7 PM to 10 PM.

The Virgin Mary has played the longstanding role of a mother, daughter, wife, and saint. This iconographic female figure’s influence on artists has been expressed through songs, poetry, paintings and statues throughout history. Today she is represented in film, television, t-shirts, stickers, tattoos, and even visualized on toast, allotting her a most unusual occupancy in popular culture.

Immaculate: Reflections of Mary seeks to reveal artwork influenced by the Virgin Mary.  This unique collection will show us how her image has transcended from a figure in religious institutions into modern culture.

Artists participating in this exhibition hail from a variety of mediums such as printmaking, tattooing, painting, sculpture, animation, and traditional drawing methods. Artists include: Alex McWatt, Un Lee, Liam Sparkes, Shannon Beal, Greg Maillard, John Russo, Dean Raoofi, Matt Ellis, Tamara Waite-Santibanez, Russ Spitovsky, Max Kahan, Martin Mazorra, Daniel Albrigo, Eddie Peralta, Sue Jeiven,

John Cebollero, Rie Hasegawa, Justin Sanz, Bruce Waldman, Martina Secondo Russo,

Frank Russo, Drew Maillard, Shannon Daugherty, Kirsten Flaherty and more to be announced.(Bianca Panzaram)

MF Gallery is located at 213 Bond St. in the Gowanus area of Brooklyn, curated by Kirsten Flaherty and Shannon Daugherty. Opens Saturday, February 11^th, 2012 and runs through Saturday, March 17^th, 2012.

Viewings by Appointment Only

Contact, Shannon Daugherty Phone: 917-971-7367 Email: shannon.daugherty@gmail.com

Contact, Kirsten Flaherty Phone: 914-393-9293 Email: kirstenflaherty1@gmail.com

Mill Basin's Deli The Peach Pit Room Opens

Mill Basin's Deli The Peach Pit Room Opens

The Grand Opening and Tasting Event for the Mill Basin's The Peach Pit was hosted by Mark, Sheila, and Jordan Schachner, featuring the artwork of Chagall, Lichtenstein, Erté, Mucha, Rizzi, Impiglia, and others. Enjoying the festivities and food were Marty Markowitz, Brooklyn Borough President, Alan N. Maisel, NY State Assemblymen, Helene Weinstein, NY State Assemblywomen, Roberta Sherman, New York  District Leader and Democratic State Committee Woman, and Donald Cramer, Director of the Brooklyn Children's Museum. Mill Basin Deli donated Kinetic Steel Sculptures, by Fredrick Prescott Studios to the Brooklyn's Children's Museum at 145 Brooklyn Ave, Brooklyn (Horse & Elephant Sculpture Pictured Below). -- by Jamie Ellin Forbes, assisted by Joan Himmelstein

5823 Avenue T, Brooklyn NY 11234 -- 718.241.4910 -- www.millbasindeli.com

From L to R, Franklin, Alan N. Maisel, Jordan Schachner, Mark Schachner, Marty Markowitz, Helene Weinstein, and Roberta Sherman

Fredrick Prescott

Horse & Elephant Kinetic Steel Sculptures

Slideshow of the Opening

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