Art Exhibition New York - Colin Brown

THE SUNLESS SEA

MARCH  5 –28, 2009

V, 2009, acrylic on plexiglass, 16-3/4 x 19 x 3-1/4”

The Fischbach Gallery is pleased to present The Sunless Sea, a series of Blackboards of New York City at night. The Sunless Sea is Colin Brown’s third art exhibition at Fischbach Gallery.   The exhibition opens March 5 and is on view through March 28, 2009.

In childhood Brown observed the New York City skyline from his parent’s 23^rd floor apartment. Finding New York City at night a mesmerizing image, he photographed from atop the Empire State Building and the Met Life Building as well as taking helicopter flights over Manhattan. . Combining the information from his photographs with his skills as an artist Brown created Blackboards.

Brown first prepares a white undersurface on a panel, to which he then applies a pitch-black layer. This black layer is often nickel, carbon or charcoal. Working in a precisionist manner using a jeweler’s tool, Brown skillfully removes small amounts of black revealing just the right amount of white to create the illusion of light emanating from city windows, street lamps, and automobile headlights. Brown’s incredibly detailed Blackboards at first appear to be night photographs, but upon closer inspection one discovers the amazing hand of the artist.

Colin Brown’s romantic and beautiful images of New York capture the magic and vitality of the City. He brings the viewer his profound and contemplative sense of solitude of the city he calls home.

A 40 page illustrated catalog created by the artist accompanies The Sunless Sea.

Colin Brown was born in Ithaca, N.Y. in 1965. He received his M.A. from NYU’s program in Painting in Venice, Italy. He has also attended the State University of New York at Purchase where he received his B.F.A.  He and his wife Cara currently live with their two children, Gwyn and Luke, in New York City.

Art Shows NYC - Alexandra Tyng

Home and House, 2007

ABOVE AND BEYOND

8 JANUARY - 31 JANUARY 2009

Great and Little Duck 2007, oil on linen, 34 x 48”

The Fischbach Gallery is pleased to present Above and Beyond, recent work by Alexandra Tyng. The exhibition opens 8 January and is on view through 31 January 2009.

The land formations and architecture of coastal Maine are joyfully explored in the new work of artist Alexandra Tyng with her characteristic interplay of light and shadow, subtlety and intensity.

“The surfaces breathe with life, and are rich with small strokes of color,” notes Suzette McAvoy, former chief curator of the Farnsworth Museum. “The brushwork is inquisitive, actively leading the eye throughout the image, yet also deliberate in defining textures and shaping forms. Light and atmosphere are rendered with specificity and are critical to animating the compositions, each plays an active role in conveying the ‘sense of place’ that is central to the work.”

Tyng believes that true understanding of a subject takes place in the context of its environment. Her recent paintings of Maine represent a hierarchy of perspectives, from intimate views of specific locations to aerial perspectives of Maine’s convoluted coast. “To truly understand a place, I try to experience it up close and from within, then I gradually move further and further away, encompassing it within increasingly larger settings. From the air, you see the landscape open out in front of you, below you and on all sides. There’s an extraordinary sense of perspective.”

Ultimately, though, there remains something intangible in the process of showing and revealing. Tyng’s landscapes not only describe what we see, but also acknowledge that which is beyond the power of physical description, beyond understanding. This exhibit includes large aerial views, ground-level views with wide-angled perspectives, and small paintings that focus on details of buildings, rocks, trees and water.

Born in Rome, Italy in 1954, Alexandra Tyng earned a B.A. from Harvard-Radcliffe University. She resides in the Philadelphia area.  This is her sixth exhibition at Fischbach Gallery.  An Exhibition Catalog with color reproductions will accompany this exhibition.