Time To Pick The Cream Of The Crop
It’s fall, and in spite of a minor Indian summer that’s come and gone, all the elements of autumn are manifesting one by one, those warm days we may be having are only just that as nightfall reminds us of the cooling temperatures taking place, it’s also a time where we take the produce we’ve grown from our garden all summer long and turn it into a fresh feast just waiting for its fantastic recipes to be made and enjoyed divinely, it can also set the tone for holidays such as Halloween and Thanksgiving, but fall is also a time of new beginnings, it’s found here in New York City with art at its peak, not only does art harvest new pieces blended with classics, but new spaces are born in September along with the September issue found in fashion, DANIEL PLUS LAUREN recently got to see the newest and most curated gallery in lower Manhattan, it’s the Perseus Gallery at 456 West Broadway, where renowned art curator, Debbie Dickinson, brought her Debbie Dickinson Gallery to this new art space with a roster that includes Bill Buchman, Eva B. Gorson, Evan Sebastián Lagache, Geraldo Perez, Matt Stock, and also Debbie Dickinson with her very own photography; you will also learn more about the works of budding artists at Perseus Gallery which co-founders, Renat Safin and Iana Safina are proud to have in their space.
Bill Buchman
As a painter, there’s no limit to where beauty is found, or what other types of art forms play into your work, Bill Buchman, who’s work with acrylic, oil stick, and paper on panel are simply platform where his musical background comes to life, it exist as one sees the musical notes painted onto his portraits, Bill also goes deeper beyond his range for Perseus as Bill seeks out African influence through artifacts and African women in power found in the the second and third images.
In the top image, Bill puts his acrylic in a new orbit titled “The Queen”, letting the colors stay solid with music notes staying present, but the mainframe of this work features the woman who celebrates the sex that she is, with notes of the “Statue Of Liberty” immigrated for the face and head of this female, showing off the importance of all aspects that make women so important to humanity, civilization, and society.
Eva Gorson
There’s no other way to tell about your love for an object that means so most to you than through paintings, it’s a place to play with multiple colors layered upon each other so you can convey to your audience the idea you’re putting forth, three of Eva Gorson’s pieces display acrylics a moment of feeling, starting with “Touching Point”, where you see a finger like object leave fingerprints in white to brown to orange colors layer itself out very loosely in their work, “Chocolate” cannot be better described with Eva’s next painting, starting out in true brown before transitioning to black, with points of color on the fringes as being what could be white chocolate.“
C-Twin” in black, sand, and blue line up mirroring form with one another, also giving a beach and ocean feel to the shape of this work, which leads into Eva’s deep exploration of the ocean in “Surfer Wave”, both sides of the sand features minor greening resembling trees going deep into the inland with red and black surrounding it, the right side of the sand are three shades of blue, layering out the many pristine waters of what are our beautiful oceans on this earth.
Evan Sebastian Lagache
If you take any raw material found on this earth, you will find that each and every stone, soil, steel, marble, and also cities have their own layers which are discovered as you chip away at their element, and even before getting to the foundation, each layer will hold hidden gems or maybe hidden parts of the city or another city in itself you never knew existed, such beautiful colors come alive with the acrylics that Evan Sebastian Lagache uses in all four of his paintings, Evan’s customary use of colorful layers comes out vividly with his first painting of “Haku” using multilayered variations of purple, lavender, and pink that blend to be in one family with gray and white fringing along, the dual pairing of “Flora” on the top begins with floral black patches surrounding a lightly layered foundation deep into darker shades, and “Tacca” stays consistent with floral patches appearing in a layering of arbitrary patterns just black and white.
A foundation of layers can only be illustrated through the elements of the earth, “Sand” starts at the surface for its light brownish sand resemblance before hitting a dark spot of wetness that only gets slightly drier again as it grows darker down into the painting, and “Soil” meets a consistent layer of white, brown, and blue since the minerals of the earth are in no shape or form a mystery, but are a great help into building our habitat continuously for recycled use for many lifetimes.
Geraldo Perez
Acrylics are not just heavy uses of color that bring out an object, it’s use also conveys a situation that’s a snapshot of a moment where real life gets enhanced into an important message that brings out not so much emotions, but a social idea and even a celebration, Geraldo Perez has to be one artist who takes his portraits and turns them into literal explanations, Geraldo combines acrylics with charcoal with three of his works.
“Wheels On The Bus” has to be the most familiar of his work as we see human beings engaging less with other and more on their phones, “Carnival In Santo Domingo” goes 50/50 with color and acrylic-charcoal combination to show off celebrations masks, costumes, hats, and decorations all throughout the city, with one lying on the street celebrating with mask and being naked, and “Currency” takes foothold on the message rather than the work itself, it’s more of a charcoal ratio than acrylic because you see images of money and U.S. Federal Reserve stamp being engrained onto Geraldo’s work without missing it, we see the shades of people being swarmed into how currency is the only use of trade as a gateway to what we want.
Matt Stock
Looking back at the Debbie Dickinson Gallery of “Chroma: The Property Of Light” back in July, DANIEL PLUS LAUREN was introduced to Matt Stock, now he’s returned with Debbie Dickinson at Perseus Gallery with his ode to what’s now the fall season called “Autumn Harvest”, drawing out the perfect shape of a woman in all of her beautiful features where as fall for Matt is nothing but perfect, Matt constructs his canvas on the floor so his shapes of leaves and circles are nothing but perfect, solid acrylic colors take a perfect note of fall and display it not just a time of ending, but a time of rebirth, and a time of self-renewal for what’s ahead.
Debbie Dickinson
Art is not just reserved for the canvas, colors, and the paintbrush, art is also found in snapshots, real-time looks of what you see with your own eyes, we now turn to the camera to find images photographed by our art curator, Debbie Dickinson, who’s lent her photography talent onto her own gallery here at Perseus, Debbie went out and captured three images that speaks of the hard foundations of our society, the first is “Electric Plant” that captures an electric power plant at night in the Wynwood Miami Art District, the same location now captures a school bus in the shot called “Electric Education” where workers at this plant are bused in from another highly populated location to report to work at this plant day or night, and “Freedom Tunnel” gets another artist with graffiti in the background, one of many talented graffiti gems in Wynwood.
Olga Nenazhivina
Continuing to reach beyond paints and instruments used to stroke colors, the Perseus Gallery touches onto ink with its fine detail and precision storytelling for an idea that could be fantasy or illusion, enter Olga Nenazhivina as ink opens the door to more possibilities of exploration, “Fish” is a metaphoric outlining of humans as dishes, court jesters watching over the fishes swimming while they and the art observer are overseeing eggs waiting to be hatched, the art festival decadence of costumes and jesters continues on in one of three ink arts from “On The Earth” gathering round the “Solar Circle” done with watercolor, gold ink, and paper, and it all comes together in a parade of people, places, and things in Olga’s “Life Story”.
Drew Griffiths
Fine art has come a long way from being on a single canvas, it has graduated to being 3D dimensional without losing its place or being frowned upon in the art world, Drew Griffiths destroys the idea of 3D art and shapes it into a new idea, where you can create a single shape at any given moment to come out with works such as “Teal No. 3”, “Sunday Flower No. 10”, and “Sunday Flower No. 6”, all giving their own paper meaning with spray paint and acrylics that cannot be duplicated, not even by the original artist.
Alicia Brown
Art work doesn’t just have to come from designated artists, it has an open door policy to come from someone who simply finds inspiration no matter what state they’re in, Alicia Brown has found inspiration from people who suffer with mental health issues, in “Badlands”, Alicia uses layers of fibers from wood, stretched canvas, steel mesh, plaster compound, gesso, acrylic, natural and up cycled fiber, banana paper, leather suede, and copper mesh to address the layers, struggles, and challenges of mental health patients, they also have a say in Alicia’s art as they literally shape this fabric intense piece.
Oksana Lerman
The dimension of fine art continues not just in making art come to life off the regular canvas, but on canvas also with illuminated colors and ideas, Oksana Lerman expounds the canvas with the use of vegan and animals combined to make “Turkey-Tail-Mushrooms” both in green and sky blue, turkey shaped wings are expansive with a multi-layer of colors, watercolor, watercolor pencil, golden acrylic, watercolor paper, and the coolest unprecedented use of all, acrylic-grow-in-the-dark.
Kehinde Balogun
Art that’s based on rich ties to your ancestors is a piece of history that shouldn’t be taken lightly, it deserves to be delicate, and deserves the utmost respect, Kehinde Balogun takes her work to a much richer legal with her piece that is “Awaiting”, tribal culture of Nigeria and Africa where parts of this country’s history is delicately laid out, the work of the sun and moon with the woman leader are very fragile, it’s 37 by 96 inches of oil on canvas.
Oleg Khvostov
It’s no secret that you can find talent for the world of art not just with apparent artists, but also on another platform, not necessarily media, but in the fashion world as well, as close as the runway as DANIEL PLUS LAUREN has seen many times over for the last 10 years, meet Oleg Khvostov, a fashion model who draws on another gift she has, painting, acrylics are deeply invested, almost above three dimensional, comparable to 4K not on screen but on canvas with works such as “Oranges”, a simple pedestal of oranges lined up to be just the beautiful fruit they are, and “Landscapes” in two parts, one with the traditional layout posing in bold panoply aided by aviation, the second “Landscapes” are a forest that typifies fall, leaves turning red and yellow in the deepest story ever told.
Kent Youngstrom
In all forms of media, whether it’s electronic media, or mixed media art we see here, there’s only one message that you can convey to the public, no matter what appears on canvas or on screen, it’s “Love”, there’s no other way to express any art you take up (fine arts, performing arts, media arts) on what it means to you, “Love” is also a message you need to send out to the world, no matter what object or device it comes from, Kent Youngstrom expresses love with other words of utter importance in dark red, tapping it all off with none other than electronics, neon light that says “love”.
A fresh “Harvest Exhibition” by the Debbie Dickinson Gallery at the Perseus Gallery on 456 West Broadway in SoHo’s lower Manhattan here in New York City delivers a highly bold entry into autumn, warm expressions of talent from all the participating artists who pass along their talents to convey what’s important to all types of people in the world, work that leaves you and me not just to interpret art, but to leave this exhibit with more questions, questions about our life, you can see what questions you come away with about you from now until Friday, October 19.