Stuart Country Day’s Faculty Art Show
TALENTED TEACHERS: (Left to right) Phyllis E. Wright’s “Ascending,” Deborah Land’s “Umbrella Factory” and Andrew Wilkinson’s “Bonsai Geometry 03” are on exhibit in the Considine Gallery at Stuart Country Day School of the Sacred Heart, October 16 – November 22, 2016. All the exhibitors are local artists and faculty members. The public is invited to an opening reception on Sunday, October 16 at 2 p.m.
The fall gallery exhibition in Stuart Country Day School’s Considine Gallery will include new work by local artists and faculty members Deborah Land, Phyllis E. Wright, and Andrew Wilkinson. The public is invited to view the art faculty show on display from October 16 through November 22. The gallery is open from 8 a.m. — 6 p.m., Monday through Friday, when school is in session. The opening reception is Sunday, October 16, from 2 – 4 p.m., and a gallery talk with the artists is Tuesday, October 18, from 1 — 2 p.m. The public is welcome.
Deborah Land is a photographer who has recently travelled to other countries with the “Jeremiah Project,” making gifts of heirloom quality portrait photographs to individuals and families in the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, and Thailand, who would not otherwise have access to such photographs. The creative body of work represented in this show is more abstract. It reflects her re-examination of earlier techniques in the wet darkroom of sandwich printing with two negatives to create abstract and surreal effects, and also rewinding film inside the camera to create double exposures. Unlike joining two disparate images, these images were taken within moments of each other and offer the viewer a fresh and personal view of the subject influenced by geographical as well as pictorial elements. Ms. Land received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Bennington College and a Master of Fine Arts from Hunter College, CUNY. She is an award-winning photographer and artist whose work has been exhibited widely and is held in private and public collections. She teaches Lower School art at Stuart where she is also the gallery director. “Umbrella Factory, Thailand” reflects a recent trip to Chiangmai, Thailand in July of 2016. More of her work can be viewed at www.deborahland.com.
This new work of Phyllis E. Wright is focused on color harmonies in each of the works. There is no subject. Whatever the imagery that reveals itself is between the viewer and the painting. She did not intend to focus on an object of any kind. These are abstract works. Her favorite quote is from Tolkien’s Hobbit “All those who wander are not lost.” It reminds her that although she may not have a specific destination, she knows it when she gets there.
Ms. Wright is very comfortable doodling with paint. It is a sort of automatic writing. She works with formal issues in art such as color, shape, line, movement, and balance. She is a student of Abstract Expressionism, investigating concepts such as surface texture, spatial relationships, tension, movement, and color.
Ms. Wright received her Bachelor of Fine Arts from Carnegie Mellon University, and her Master of Fine Arts from The George Washington University in Washington, D.C. She lived in Baltimore for 20 years, teaching for a decade at the George Washington University. She returned to hometown Princeton in 2003, where she has been teaching art to Middle and Upper School students since 2007. She loves to travel, paint, make prints, take photos, and work en plein air with oil pastels. To learn more about Ms. Wright visit www.phylliswrightart.com.
Andrew Wilkinson is formally trained in both fine art and media communications and combines both disciplines to create captivating reconstructions of everyday objects into works of art that challenge even the most devoted perception. Iconic cultural imagery is gently riled up to encourage a reevaluation of nostalgia and settled perceptions. Of his work, Mr. Wilkinson cites, “The artist is the custodian of identifying what is current and exploiting the content into another accessible medium. I aim to constantly exploit the aspect of accessibility.” Mr. Wilkinson teaches photography and graphic design in the Upper School at Stuart. His work has been featured in galleries throughout New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, and Arizona, as well as other venues overseas in Russia and Beijing. Mr. Wilkinson has received national recognition with reviews by the New York Times, Visual Arts Journal, Ad Busters, Trenton Times, Phoenix New Times, Bucks County Herald, Princeton Packet, US1 News, Town Topics, Princeton Magazine, The Inteligencier, and more. Visit www.arwilkinson.com to for further information.
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