Norwegian artist captures the 'Winter Mood' in latest show

The Trygve Lie Gallery, located on the lower level of the Norwegian Seaman Church in Midtown East, is currently presenting a collection of photographs by Sigrid Thorbjørnsen for the show Winter Mood.

For her third solo show in New York, Thorbjørnsen presents black and white photographs depicting scenes of Norway in the wintertime. She prints her photographs on handmade Washi paper, some of which Thorbjørnsen created herself. The word “Washi” mean Japanese paper and is made from Gampi, Mitsumata, or Kozo wood as well as bamboo, hemp, rice, and wheat. Making Washi paper has been practiced in Japan for centuries.The Washi paper in this show comes from the Kozo tree, which is often cut in January when the bark is at its best quality.

Winterflowers by Sigrid Thorbjørnsen 

As the title of the show suggests, Thorbjørnsen effectively captures the isolation and solitude that’s often associated with the winter season. For instance, the image Way of Life depicts a log cabin sitting in a secluded area by a frozen lake on a ground covered in snow with several pieces of wood behind it, appearing to be holding it up. A similar image known as Winterflowers was taken on a snowy day with flakes rapidly blowing in the wind as a house can be seen alone in the distance with the rooftop covered in snow.

Another photograph taken with fast moving snowflakes is one known as Forbindelsen (meaning “connection”) where telephone poles and power lines are partially obscured as they’re seen from afar. This powerful image represents resilience as the wires remain unbroken and therefore connections are unbroken. One of the most notable pieces in the show is the image Counting my Blessings, a close-up of a baby angel resting its chin on its arms and looking up to the Heavens evoking feelings of love and warmth during the holiday season.

Thorbjørnsen was born in Japan but was raised in Norway and this exhibition eloquently captures her roots in both places.

At the Trygve Lie Gallery, 317 East 52nd St., through Dec. 12. The gallery is open Tues.—Sat. from 12 p.m.—5 p.m.

Nancy Beal's illuminating landscape and still-life paintings on view in Chelsea

The Blue Mountain Gallery in Chelsea is currently presenting a collection of work by Nancy Beal for the exhibition Landscape/Still Life/Tuscany. For this show, Beal offers landscape and still-life paintings that are rich in color and light and evoke a sense of tranquility with their simple, natural beauty.

Flowers are a popular subject, especially in her still-life paintings. One notable piece titled Red Hollyhocks, petunias Portugal features a ceramic vase holding an assortment of flowers with the bright red color of the hollyhocks contrasting with the other rose and lavender colored petunias and the white daisies. The scene takes place outdoors on a bright, sunny day with the vase resting on an outdoor table where fields of grass and the clear blue sky clearly visible in the distance.

Pink Flowers, Green Vase (2014) by Nancy Beal

Similarly, Spanish Pot, Tomatoes is also set outdoors and features an assortment of yellow, orange, and blue flowers in a ceramic pot and on a table with a floral tablecloth with four red tomatoes next to it. Another notable floral still-life piece titled Pink Flowers, Green Vase is a close-up image of a green vase with assorted pink, red, lavender, and white flowers on a table with a white floral tablecloth inside a home.

Beal offers several landscape paintings many of which she completed during a residency program in Tuscany at Macina di San Cresci. One notable painting titled Mimma’s Window depicts the vista from outside the window of where she was staying. In this piece, she uses several different shades of green for the grass, bushes, and leaves on trees. In a similar image titled Basil and Tomato, Chianti Window, the wooden window panes are visible with a flower pot containing basil, and a bowl of small tomatoes on the ledge, overlooking the clear blue sky, hills, trees, and villas out in the distance.

At The Blue Mountain Gallery, 530 W. 25th St., through Nov. 28. The gallery is open Tue-Sat. from 11 a.m. until 6 p.m.

Diane Drescher captures the beauty of northern Manhattan in latest show

The Bowery Gallery in Chelsea is currently presenting a collection of work by Diane Drescher for an exhibition titled Urban Landscapes: Off the Grid. For her second solo show at the gallery, Drescher unveils several plein air paintings that capture scenes of the bridges and parks in northern Manhattan.

Nature is an important element in Drescher’s paintings which are filled with vivid colors, strong brushstrokes, and striking compositions. Several of these paintings come from Drescher’s Bridge series where she focuses on the overhead bridge beneath the Henry Hudson parkway. One of these pieces titled Bridge Early Morning, illustrates a bike path gradually descending from underneath the bridge. Drescher effectively shows the sunlight shining through while also showing reflections of shadows exuded by trees and surrounding land. A similar piece titled First Early Morning Bridge, the bike path seems a bit wider and a red, brick building sits at the edge, and Workers Finishing the Job shows us the same scene but with two men standing by orange construction cones.

Bridge Early Morning by Diane Drescher

Many of Drescher’s paintings evoke an oasis of calm, such as Red Roof where she captures the calm flow of the Hudson River as the lush, green trees of New Jersey can be seen out in the distance. As the title suggests, two houses (one with a dark red roof and one with a rose-colored roof) can be seen by the western end of Manhattan at the foot of the river. Other notable images include Gingko Tree and Bridge depicting yellow-green grass and the George Washington Bridge out in the distance, and Urban Landscapes and Trees and Shadows, both of which depict tilted tree branches in a garden with a pink house in the background.

At the Bowery Gallery 530 W. 25th St., through Nov. 28. The gallery is open Tue.-Sat. from 11 a.m. until 6 p.m.

Renowned sculptor Matteo Pugliese presents new work at Chelsea gallery

The Bertrand Delacroix Gallery in Chelsea is presenting a collection of work by Matteo Pugliese for the show Breath of Freedom. For his first solo show in the United States, the Italian sculptor unveils several of his signature large-scale bronze sculptures of muscular men, bronze and terracotta warriors, and small animals.

Pugliese conveys notions of strength, power, and tension through his subjects. For instance, several of his sculptures which he refers to as “Extra Moenia” (a Latin phrase meaning “outside the walls”) illustrate the body parts such as the heads, arms, and legs of men emerging from the gallery walls. These men are pushing through the walls with all of their strength to represent the idea that one can break free from constraints. They might face challenges in life or endure some of the worst hardships imaginable, but with strength and perseverance, they will be able to come out the other side much stronger than they were before. Once they’ve broken through the walls, there’s opportunity for starting a new life with newly acquired wisdom and thicker skin.

Kyria (2014) by Matteo Pugliese

Pugliese’s series of sculptures known as The Guardians depict brave warriors dressed in heavy metal combat gear proudly holding weapons such as pitchforks and spears. They stand tall with astute expressions and with pride in their eyes that comes with gaining knowledge and experience.

Pugliese was born in Milan and spent his childhood in Sardinia, where he developed a passion for drawing and sculpting. 

In 2001, he organized his first solo exhibition in Milan, with two more solo shows following shortly afterward. Today, his works are on display in major cities around the world, including New York City, Rome, Hong Kong, London, Brussels, Lugano, and Antwerp. In 2014, Pugliese was selected to create an installation at Caffe Florian, Italy’s oldest café located in the Piazza San Marco in Venice. He currently splits his time between Milan and Barcelona.

At the Bertrand Delacroix Gallery, 535 W. 25th St., through Dec. 4. The gallery is open Tue.—Sat. from 10 a.m.-6 p.m.

Mongolian artist GAMA combines fairytale elements with Old Master styles

Chambers Fine Art in Chelsea is currently presenting a collection of oil paintings by an artist known as GAMA for the show Idylls of the Kings. The works in this show are quite imaginative as many of them feature animals, manikins and other characters, and also plenty of mushrooms. 

For instance, the piece Losung (Denouement) depicts a fight between two warriors riding on horses, one black and the other white, shown going head to head as they battle conflicting feelings of hostility and attraction toward each other. GAMA captures the intensity and truly makes the scene seem real as he illustrates the back of the black horse’s body obscured from behind the green curtain that he’s jumping out from. Meanwhile, the back of the white horse’s body blends into the lavender color of the warrior’s cape.

GAMA references Hans Christian Andersen’s classic fairy tale The Princess and the Pea with the piece Gemach II (Chamber II) illustrating a stack of colorful mattress stack one on top of the other. The top mattress appears to have a mountain of dirt rising from it where mushrooms are growing, and some dirt with mushrooms can be seen coming from the sides of the other mattresses as well. A figure resembling a small, stuffed doll is balancing at the edge of the top mattress as she holds a bottle of liquor in her hand.

Losing (Denouement) (2010) by GAMA

Another intriguing piece titled Waldbuhne: Scene in the Woods combines indoor and outdoor settings with bedroom fixtures such as a dresser, a lamp, a table, two windows, and a rack for hats and scarves. There are also tree branches as well as a dirt floor with mushrooms growing. Also, in some of the paintings, you’ll see that the main image does not fully extend to the edge of the canvas to convey the notion that an oil painting is simply oil applied to a canvas that was once blank.

GAMA also pays homage to many of the great Old Master and 19th century German Romanticism paintings. For example, Havarie (Ocean Flame) is modeled after Caspar David Friedrich’s 1824 masterpiece, The Sea of Ice depicting a shipwreck in the middle of a broken ice sheet with pointy shards piling up in the middle. GAMA’s version is nearly an exact replica of his idol’s but also features a small house far out in the distance, burning down.

GAMA was born in Mongolia and lives and works in Berlin. He was raised in a traditional nomadic family, where he and his parents would move every four months as the seasons changed. He was inspired by his great aunt who was a shaman, as he was fascinated by her ability to connect with the supernatural world. He studied oil painting at the Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA) in Beijing before moving to Germany to attend the Karlsruhe Academy where he was exposed to the figurative painting of New Leipzig School and began studying the works of European Old Masters as well as contemporary German painters such as Georg Baselitz, Sigmar Polke and Gerhard Richter.

At Chambers Fine Art, 522 W.19th St., through Dec. 19. The gallery is open Tues.—Sat. from 10 a.m.—6 p.m.

Benjamin Degen illustrates how 'Where We Live' becomes a part of one's identity

The Susan Inglett Gallery in Chelsea is currently presenting a collection of work by Benjamin Degen for an exhibition titled Where We Live. As the title of the show suggests, Degen offers several paintings where he examines the different relationships that individuals and groups of people have with the place they call home and how it becomes part of their character.

The inspiration behind these works came when Degen came back to New York City after having lived elsewhere for three and a half years and barely recognized the city he once knew. Many of his old neighborhood haunts were gone, yielding to tall luxury buildings making him feel somewhat out of place. He describes his fond memories of his friends and neighbors as “ghosts [being] whited out by new glass buildings that didn’t know them or leave much room for memory.”

Rip Van (2015) by Benjamin Degen

Degen references the story of Rip Van Winkle in the pieces Rip Van and New Construction, and Dawn. Rip Van depicts the head of a man sleeping just as Washington Irving’s protagonist did, while in New Construction, the man’s arm can be seen as he’s pointing to several new, tall buildings in front of him that weren’t there when he went to sleep. Dawn features a woman sleeping in a simple, familiar environment with several colorful trees waiting to greet her as she arises.

Similarly, a piece titled Bird illustrates an indigo colored bird flying across the center of the image with a skyline of some small buildings revealing a dark sky. However in Migration, the bird plus another bird behind it can be seen flying south as more and more tall buildings rise up behind them.

Other notable works include portraits of individuals in the comfort of their homes and neighborhood haunts such as with Park, featuring a young man walking his dog with a soccer ball behind him, and Drawing, Drinking, Sleeping, Dreaming depicting a couple sleeping on their bed side by side with a table containing a pencil, paper, and a can and bottle of beer. 

Degen also includes still-lifes of porcelain pottery with Chinese designs such as with Fragile Box illustrating a vase inside a cardboard box, Plant in Dragon Pot featuring a flower pot resting on a windowsill with images of dragons and clouds on the side, and Ming depicting an urn about to fall over with a black cat lurking behind with bright, green eyes.

At The Susan Inglett Gallery, 522 W. 24th St., through Dec. 5. The gallery is open Tues.—Sat. from 10 a.m.—6 p.m.

Richard Pousette-Dart's abstract drawings on display in Soho gallery

Richard Pousette-Dart is one of the most well established artists of the twentieth century and a special exhibition of his work is currently on view at The Drawing Center in Soho. The exhibition titled Richard Pousette-Dart: 1930s includes approximately 80 of his drawings from that time. Growing up in New York City to parents who worked in creative fields, Pousette-Dart was constantly inspired by the arts and culture and took up drawing and painting at age eight.

As a young man in the 1930s, he began studying the abstract sculptures, drawings, and forms of French artist Henri Gaudier-Brzeska who had passed away two decades earlier at age 23. Pousette-Dart created many abstract, three-dimensional drawings during this time with many of them focusing on human and animal forms all while taking into account relationships between positive and negative space.

One of the works in the show that truly stands out is Bird and Fish, a piece that eloquently illustrates harmony. As the title suggests, the piece features outlines of the two creatures filled with a forest-green watercolor paint. The bird sits to the left, perched with its eyes closed and wings resting at the sides of its body while the fish lays in a diagonal position close to the bird, upside down with its eyes closed with his head facing the bird’s back feathers and its tail facing the bird’s beak. 

Bird and Fish (1930s) by Richard Pousette-Dart

The study of dance is also a very popular subject of Pousette-Dart’s drawings. One intriguing untitled piece illustrates the outline of a man against a sky blue background, his upper body larger than his lower body as he stands in a pose with his feet stretched out and holding his arms out in front as he makes mysterious movements with his hands.

One of Pousette-Dart’s most raw works in the show is Agony depicting a man suffering that dreadful state of being. The man stands with one knee bent as he’s hunched over with his arms and head hanging as though grief and the weight of the world are bearing down on him. The crimson background brings added gravity. In Walking Man, Pousette-Dart uses two colors that starkly contrast with a bright yellow background and a crimson-colored shapes separated by thick, black brushstrokes forming the body of a man on the move. The outlines of each shape effectively illustrate the man’s muscular physique nearly resembling a robot.

At The Drawing Center, 35 Wooster St., through Dec. 20. Open Wed.—Sun. from 12—6 p.m., and Thu. from 12—8 p.m.

Freight + Volume presents Maria Walker's poetic paintings at new LES location

In its new Lower East Side location, the Freight + Volume gallery is presenting a collection of work by Maria Walker for the show Trees Breeze Green with the title of the show coming from a poem she wrote. For this show, Walker presents several intriguing works of art where she uses wooden boards to created uniquely shaped and stretched out backdrops that she covers with acrylic paintings.

One might assume that Walker worked often with light color for the first four months of the year because her piece for May only includes small glimmers of golden paint. May depicts a large pond practically dominating the image with several violet, blue, and red shapes coming from the sides and one of them closely resembling a fish. 

September (2014) by Maria Walker

Not that much paint can be seen in July which features a stroke of gray paint down the center. The gray is covered with turquoise which eventually veers off to the side to form a small head, possibly of some type of insect, as there are many in the summertime. The dominant color is purple of which there are different shades that overlap. The color starts to come back in September with round crimson shapes emerging from the top and left sides as well as shades of blue, green, and deep yellow possibly capturing the changing color of the leaves on the trees for Autumn. In the upper-left corner an outline of a horse can be seen.

Walker also includes works that reflect her experience of living in Brooklyn. For instance, she observes the scene of her daily commute in Heading Home on Atlantic that features a wooden triangular cut-out depicting a car on the road as she travels home at the peak of sunset with the warm, orange background, and a small, pink triangle emerging from under the painting illustrating the falling sun.

Also of note is Walker’s window series where she draws inspiration from actual windows inside her studio, in her home, or in her mother’s or sister’s homes. The windows represent something we look through and look at, relationships between spatial and perspective views, and the quality of light arriving to the eye from a distance. Notable works in this series include Dawn, featuring two wooden boards covered in white acrylic and gesso, and Ohio Living Room With Trees featuring a zigzag pattern of tree branches and leaves.

At Freight+Volume, 97 Allen St., through Nov. 4. The gallery is open Tues.—Sat. from 11 a.m.—6 p.m.