“Art in Buildings, Buildings as Art”
We are excited to join the Peekskill arts community as an official stop on the 2015 Open Studios tour.
When: June 6 & 7th, 12:00 – 5:00PM
Where: 1008 Main Street, Peekskill NY
Why: Because art is awesome and The Flatz wants to be a part of it
Participating Artists: Aaron Stone | Anthony Volpe | Betsy Braun Lane | Carla Rae Johnson | Eugene Allen | Genefree | Geoff Feder | Lawrence Flood | Maureen Winzig | N. Christopher Rigney
Special Activities: Live Portrait Experience & “The White Room” Premier
Full Artist Roster Press Release Event Overview Press Release
Aaron Stone
“Art to me comes from my soul and allows me to take my feelings, emotions, thoughts and internal struggles, neither right nor wrong, and put them into a two-dimensional space, in an effort to make sense of my world and evoke a reaction from the viewer. While creating art I make sense of my emotions and finds peace from within. I see art everywhere and it creates a journey of internal exploration….
Born in 1972 on Long Island, NY, I studied at the School of Visual Arts and received my masters in art education from Columbia University Teachers College. After working as a freelance artist and being published in The New Yorker, Sports Illustrated and many other periodicals, I taught in Yonkers, and for the last fourteen years have been an elementary art teacher in the Mamaroneck schools. Currently, I am the art teacher at the Murray Ave School. I have had my work on display at the Mamaroneck Artist Guild in Larchmont New York, and recently, at the Agora gallery in Chelsea, New York.”
Aaron Stone can be contact directly via email.
Anthony Volpe
“Many of my drawings have to do with the sensuous forms found in nature; the visceral response to its power, textures, life and mortality.
These linear constructions are resolutely process driven, their visceral immediacy conveyed through bold swaths of overlapping black line that attract, repel, describe and ignore. Deliberate erasure lines coupled with frottage further deny and identify form by blurring, softening and concealing. These physically demanding instinctive drawings, each have a voice of their own.”
Additional information can be found on his website at: avolpe.com
Bestsy Braun Lane
Betsy Braun Lane, began this work in response to original document research and an exhibit she created based on the oral histories of Peekskill and it’s surrounding communities involvement in the Underground Railroad. While making inquiry about the earliest settlers, she found families whose ancestors had come to the area over 250 years ago.
Flatz Gallery, Open Studios, will feature collages made up of individual portraits dating from the 1880’s and family snap shots through the 1960’s. Each ‘page’ celebrates the community’s vitality and overarching commitment to secure the rights of citizenship for the next generation.
Beginning in 2004, Braun Lane received an Arts Alive Grant, and further support for this project from the Wiggins Fund. Since 2004 The entire exhibition, Racing on a Broken Road, has been enjoyed by thousands of people in venues ranging from museums, galleries and colleges. Several institutions have referenced her research.
As a new resident of Peekskill, Betsy looks forward to continuing this project.
More information about her art is found at: www.betsybraunlane.com
Carla Rae Johnson
Images from “Portrait of the Artist as an Arrogant American Series”
Carla Rae Johnson is an artist whose media include drawing, sculpture, conceptual, performance, and installation art. She is a New York Foundation for the Arts 2005 Fellow in Sculpture and a 1990 recipient of a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant. Her work has been exhibited in solo, invitational, and curated shows in museums and galleries nationally and is included in numerous public and private collections. Works by Carla Rae Johnson have been reviewed in The New York Times, The Village Voice, The New Haven Register, The Journal News, and The Times Herald Record.
Having received a BS from Ball State University, and an MFA from the University of Iowa, Ms. Johnson has been making and teaching art for nearly 30 years. She is currently a Professor of Art at Westchester Community College, SUNY. Carla Rae Johnson resides and has a studio in the artists’ community in Peekskill, NY.
Additional information can be found on her website at: www.carlaraejohnson.com.
Eugene Allen (1937 – 2011)
A retrospective of noted Peekskill artist Eugene Allen.
Allen’s oil and acrylic works offer an unblinking series of portraits. Every picture leads you on a journey to learn more about the subject, and the secrets they hold. Allen’s style and energy leads you into the world of people who range from defiant and bold to attentive and vulnerable.
After graduating from Peekskill High School in 1957, Allen was awarded a scholarship to the Art Career School in NYC. He continued his studies at the prestigious Art Students League under William Earle, and later earned a BA in graphic and commercial art from NYU. Allen paintings can be found in galleries and private collections in the US, Canada and Mexico.
Geoff Feder
For years I have been fascinated by the sense of potential that fishing offers. Looking at a collection of lures in a tacklebox, I often wonder, “What could I catch with that?” as I prepare for a fishing trip. The bright colors, dynamic shapes, sharp barbed hooks and exciting names suggest the satisfaction of reeling in a giant fish from the inscrutable depths of dark waters. This has also been my primary inspiration for my work; I create gigantic fishing lure sculptures made from carved wood or welded steel, brightly painted, and with welded steel hooks in the style of traditional lures. I rely on nearly 20 years of experience as a blacksmith and metal fabricator to form durable structures, and I use a wide variety of hand-carving tools for woodworking.
I have found a way to express my passion for fishing in my art by creating exaggerated versions of lures with streamlined forms, glossy multi-toned colors, and fantastical names. This is what my work addresses; wonder, excitement and the potential of victory.
Additional information can be found on his website at: www.geofffeder.com
GeneFree
GeneFree is the name used by Marcy B. Freedman and Gene Panczenko when they work collaboratively. They have been artistic partners since 2002. Together, they have planned, shot, edited and produced more than two dozen single-channel videos, which have been shown in galleries and museums across the tri-state area and beyond. They have also created multi-channel video installations and hosted free public screening events inPeekskill,NY. One of their most unusual projects involved a specially equipped “video vehicle” that was driven through the streets, bringing video art (on three small monitors) to pedestrians around town.
At Open Studios 2015, they will be launching “The White Room.”
More info can be found at: www.marcybfreedman.com
Lawrence Flood
Creating art has been a part of my life since I was a small child. I enjoy drawing and painting immensely. Both have been near constant activities throughout my life. Yet there has been an ebb and flow to their importance in my life. During my first career and while raising a family they were mere amusements. Presently they are front and center as I work to establish an encore career as an artist.
The meaning of my art is still under development and remains a work in progress. My muses can be both internal and external sources. I lean towards positive or neutral images and when possible slip in some humor. One of my main objectives is to produce art that resonates with viewers. My main goal is to create a body of work that will be judged to have had artistic merit.
My formal training in art cumulated with a BFA from the School of Visual Arts in 1980. My informal art training has involved decades of: visits to museums and galleries; a continuous reading of books about art; and living and experiencing an interesting life.
Lawrence Flood can be contact directly via email.
Maureen Winzig
“I refer to my representative work as stylized realism. I began in art with drawing portraits. Later years, focus shifted to water and sky mainly the Hudson River. But now people; portraits and figures have crept back into my psyche. I’m working on a new series painting women and in ways that are unique to them. Portraits, figures, landscapes, require exacting detail within the world of representation. So much so that I sometimes need to clear my head by painting straight from my core. Dreams, messages, fear and strength come to me asking to be painted. Some of those release pieces are shown here at the Flatz showcase.”
Winzig’s fine art studies have been in painting portrait, landscape, and abstract work with oils and watercolors, coupled with graphic art in illustration, design and commercial art. Her training has been at PACE University, SUNY Westchester, and through private study by local masters in New York State. She shows in solo and group exhibits from Manhattan to Beacon and various points in between. Her work is in several private collections. She is a member of several art associations such as the Ossining Arts Council, the Garrison Art Center and the Peekskill Arts Alliance of which she is currently president.
N. Christopher Rigney
Christopher is bringing the democratization of portraiture to Open Studios through the Peekskill Open Studio Live Portrait Experience. He believes that portraiture is not something that only a select few should get the privilege of experiencing. During Open Studios, he will be painting quick study portraits on a walk in basis. All that is required is that you share a bit of your time. Christopher received his BFA from Emerson College, as well as a degree in Trompe l’oeile from Institut Guegan in France.
Additional information about Rigney can be found at his website at: https://www.rigney-christopher.com
