“Four Seasons” mural is
unveiled at Village Gate atrium
A tradition of going out to see what is happening in the galleries on a May evening had some special electricity today with the unveiling of a mural at The Village Gate by local artist Steve Carpenter. A throng of people were on hand to celebrate a moment and the patrons were on hand with art lovers, friends and family, to see the new and very large semi-abstraction now ensconced in this public thoroughfare.
The artist, in a light blue jacket, was on hand to greet his admirers and you can also catch him now on a televised interview aired on WXXI this week. A video shot in his studio follows the mural’s process and offers some insight into how and why the painting looks like it does. Featured at the opening, a smaller preparatory version was on view sitting on an easel, so you could get a compact sense of what the composition was about – figures merging with nature, colorful patches of paint that relates to the seasons. In a sense this is like a figurative Jackson Pollock, with a bit of Georges Seurat thrown in for good measure.
Down the street, I had a very interesting conversation with photographer Stephan Gersh, at his opening in the Spectrum Gallery at Lumiere Photo. In his exhibition, beautiful photos made in park land and other rugged locales, highlight natural wonders up close and personal. The digital prints on view make the most of a tonal range that is breathtaking and the subjects are in the grand tradition of Weston, Paul Strand, and Ansel Adams ( for whom Stephan Gersh once worked as an assistant ).
