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May Issue 2007
Joie Lassiter Gallery in Charlotte, NC, Offers Three New Exhibitions
The Joie Lassiter Gallery in Charlotte, NC, will present three new solo exhibitions including: Introducing Monica Cook; Selections from THE WAY OUT WEST, featuring photography by Michelle Van Parys; and Atmosphere, featuring new works by Linda Fantuzzo. All three exhibits begin on May 4 and continue through May 31, 2007.
Born in Dalton, GA, in 1974, Monica Cook moved to Savannah, GA, to pursue a Bachelor's Degree in painting at the Savannah College of Art and Design. Since graduating, summa cum laude in 1996, she has earned a number of distinguished awards from the college and the community, including voted best local artist 2005. Cook recently completed a residency at the School of Visual Arts in New York City, where she currently resides.
Cook's paintings describe a stark, sometimes disturbing, objectivity of the figure, by heightening various textures on the body, the translucency of the flesh, how the veins surface and recede. Her paintings allude to stories exposed by history trapped inside the skin. Exaggeration of these details enhances the mortal presence of the subject and their psychological complexity, objectifying the condition of raw. Cook builds her paintings of memories and new experiences, identifying lost and found. By constructing each painting in the way which a memory is formed, a patchwork of hyper detail and blurry eyed recollections, she captures the figure in a state of flux, between composed and decomposing, formed and formless. While each painting is essentially a reflection of her own self, Cook hopes to make a universal connection that shows the precarious balance of strength and vulnerability that speaks honestly of what is to be human.
Selected exhibitions include the King Bridge Biennial at the Columbus Museum in Columbus, GA, (2005), Migration at the Pinnacle Gallery in Savannah, GA, (2005), and Art Link at Sotheby's in Amsterdam, New York and Tel Aviv (2000-2003).
Selections from THE WAY OUT WEST is the premier exhibition at the gallery for Michelle Van Parys. She received her BFA degree from the Corcoran School of Art in Washington, DC, in 1982; and her MFA degree in Photography from Virginia Commonwealth University in 1986. Her work captures the development of the land with ephemeral or temporary structures and scenes.
In 1986 Van Parys began working on a series
which she titled The Way Out West. This series of photographs
chart her response to the Southwest landscape in which humans
have insinuated themselves. She seeks to juxtapose 19th century
art historical notions of the sublime landscape with the ways
in which we live on the land today. At times we appear oppositional
and destructive to the land and at other times harmonious and
custodial.
Van Parys is mostly interested in the myriad forms this relationship
takes; humorous, ironic, dangerous, and fatalistic to list a few.
Her photographs have been exhibited internationally. Her
work is included in several museum collections such as the San
Francisco Museum of Modern Art, The High Museum, and The Virginia
Museum of Fine Art.
Linda Fantuzzo
Linda Fantuzzo is one of the core members of the Charleston, SC, art scene. Originally from New York, educated in Pennsylvania and Italy, Fantuzzo's passion for rich, vibrant light led her to reside and paint in Charleston.
Best known for her mellow, textured landscapes and still-life paintings; Fantuzzo goes beyond recording what she sees, to examining the very energy that emanates from her still-life landscapes in an almost spiritual manner. Meticulous consideration and the atmospheric conditions of each moment shape Fantuzzo's response to her subject. As the conditions and consequentially the response to them changes, spatial ambiguity will often arise within the paintings between the various compositional elements.
Architectural forms are often employed as an abstract element, their solidity creating a sense of stability. Fantuzzo's work shows a deep sensitivity to the balance of abstraction and representation. Documenting a sense of transition and impermanence without giving way to sentimentality this artist unveils, with transcendental luminosity, the fabulous details within the fabric of everyday life. Painterly realistic with a painstaking overlay technique; Fantuzzo constructs through layers of careful glazing and building of surface these pure, rich and sensuous works which vibrate with energy and light.
Fantuzzo has lived and worked in Charleston for over 25 years and is recognized as one of the premier painters of the southeast. Refusing to succumb to commercial demands and the paving of her own unique path has ultimately led to Fantuzzo's status as a museum artist and she was recently acquired by the Greenville Museum of Art for their permanent collection. The artist has been invited to exhibit in many other museum shows over the last several years and travels extensively to execute commissions, find inspiration, and continue her lifelong pursuit of painting from nature.
For further information check our NC Commercial
Gallery listings, call the gallery at 704/373-1464 or visit (www.lassitergallery.com).
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