Naomi Nemtzow's Urban Landscapes at the Bowery Gallery

The Bowery Gallery in Chelsea is currently presenting a series of recent works by Naomi Nemtzow for a show entitled Close to Home. Urban life is one of Nemtzow’s most common themes and for her eleventh solo show at the gallery, she unveils several drawings and paintings depicting daily life in her quiet, Brooklyn neighborhood.

Through her effective use of color and light, she conveys a sense of the time of day. For instance, Red Tree, Blue Sky offers the notion of a windy, Autumn day with the swirly brushstrokes of the light blue sky and the red leaves of a sidewalk tree whose branch is bent, leaning toward the street against some parked cars. On the other side of the sidewalk is a park with trees that have green and yellow leaves whose branches are leaning in the opposite direction of the red trees. With Red Tree, Gray Day, the viewer gets a sense of a cloudy, dreary afternoon with a gray sky, and trees whose leaves are leaning toward the ground of the sidewalk, casting their shadow.

Red Tree Blue Sky  by Naomi Nemtzow

Besides trees, Nemtzow uses other objects to capture the character of her neighborhood. With works like her two Windsor Place July paintings and her two Across the Street paintings, represent how the houses and trees on her block and neighboring blocks look in the summertime. Nemtzow also depicts the different aspects of 7th Avenue with works like 7th Avenue with Mailbox, with a communal mailbox on a street corner, 7^th Avenue with White Minivan, with a parked, white minivan, and 7^th Avenue with Garbage Cans featuring a group garbage cans outside resident’s homes.

7th Avenue with Mailbox by Naomi Nemtzow

In addition to her ode to the neighborhood she’s lived most of her life, 

Nemtzow also offers a painting inspired by Giovanni Bellini’s painting The Ecstasy of St. Francis (a.k.a. St. Francis of the Desert). Like the Italian Renaissance master, Nemtzow captures St. Francis of Assisi stepping out from his cave, into the sun, taking in his surroundings.

St. Francis lived under poor conditions in the beginning of his sainthood and used to participate in isolated spiritual retreats at monasteries. Both Bellini’s and Nemtzow’s depictions are perhaps the most symbolic portrayal of the saint with animals in the picture representing His love for nature and animals.

Study, Bellini's St. Francis No. 2 by Naomi Nemtzow

At the Bowery Gallery 530 W. 25th St., through May 19. The gallery is open Tue.-Sat. from 11 a.m. until 6 p.m.

Rita Baragona's luminous and poetic scenes of nature at the Bowery Gallery

Luminous Cadence Roses by Rita Baragona

Rita Baragona continues to focus on the beautiful and natural aspects of life in an exhibition entitled Cadences currently on view at Chelsea’s Bowery Gallery. For this show, Baragona presents a collection of paintings and drawings mostly depicting flowers, landscapes, and oceans that have a poetic rhythm about them and reflect a luminous glow. 

A couple of Baragona’s still-life floral paintings that stand out include Luminous Cadence Roses featuring a group of richly-colored red rose in a white and blue China vase sitting on a bright room dining table; and Orange and White Dahlias where a group of mostly pure white dahlias sit in a clear vase on a living room table next to the window as they take in the sunlight. As the name suggests, a couple of vibrant orange as well as some pale melon colored dahlias are also included in the vase.

Orange and White Dahlias by Rita Baragona

In addition to these colorful images, Baragona also presents close-up ink and watercolor pieces illustrating the botanic life cycle. Her piece entitled Flower Cadence-Blooming features a daisy-like flower with its petals blossoming out in the open indicating new life. By contrast, Wilting Over Time features a flower whose petals are a faded yellow and orange with dried out brown edges indicating the later, somewhat withered stages of the life cycle.

Flower Cadence Blooming by Rita Baragona

Baragona also illustrates the various moods of the ocean beginning with the turbulence of the waves of Stormy Ocean before the waves transition to a calmer state in Ocean Cadences LBI. Also of note is a drawing called Composite Landscape While Driving depicting a scene viewed from inside a car of a winding road in the woods eventually leading to a destination. Baragona is attentive to the changes occurring with her chosen subject even as she is working.  Her paintings are not only about place, but also about time passing. 

At the Bowery Gallery 530 W. 25th St., through May 19. The gallery is open Tue.-Sat. from 11 a.m. until 6 p.m.

Dena Schutzer--Wash and Fold

Red Folding (oil on canvas, 2017)

The Bowery Gallery in Chelsea is currently presenting a collection of work by Dena Schutzer for the exhibition Wash and Fold. For her third solo show at the gallery, Schutzer unveils paintings and etchings that primarily depict a typical day inside a Yonkers laundromat. "A local laundromat was my source, a place to watch for action that I could twist into a composition. I was attracted to the intimate displays of basic struggle to maintain order and dignity. The handling of fabrics that we cover, dry, and wrap our bodies in is private yet becomes shared in public," explains Schutzer.

Man Folding (oil on canvas, 2017)

Schutzer's combination of blue, yellow, and green colors are highlighted in Laundry-Blue and Yellow depicting a woman wearing a yellow-green T-shirt as she stands in front of a washing machine carrying a $20 in her hand. She wears a blue bracelet and blue nail polish and highlighted blue dreadlocks in her hair. This blue, yellow, and green color scheme is also seen in the colors of the washing machine, which is dark blue, the bottle of detergent which is yellow with traces of green, and a sky blue-colored dryer.

Laundry-Blue and Yellow (oil on canvas, 2017)

Another notable painting with a similar color scheme is Girl on Yellow Chairs that effectively illustrates the notion of lazy, summer days. As the name suggests, the painting features a young woman, presumably in the summertime as she’s wearing grey shorts and a sea-green colored tank top in light pink flip-flops, lying on her back sprawled out on a row of bright yellow seats, her arms outstretched over her head carrying her smartphone in a blue case. Above her on top of the machines are three bottles of detergent; two green and one outline in yellow. A similar black and white etching entitled Girl on Chairs With Figures features the same image of the outstretched woman but features her lying on the chairs with her head and arms facing the right side of the images rather than the left and other patrons are seen taking their clothes out of dryers or putting them away.

Girl on Yellow Chairs (oil on canvas, 2017)

Girl on Chair With Figures (etching, 2017)

Besides her laundromat paintings, Schutzer also offers paintings depicting daily life in her Yonkers neighborhood. These include Man on Soda Bottle depicting a man in the park relaxing on a blue picnic blanket resting his head on a nearly empty bottle of soda or Gatorade. On one side of him are a pair of headphones and on the other side a woman can be seen resting on her stomach with her head resting on her arms, and in the background are trees with curved branches and park-goers strolling around the hilly landscape. Another painting that takes place outdoors in an open area entitled Pushups depicts two teenage boys facing across from one another pushing their body weight using an exercise table with tree in the foreground with the branches leaning over to the left of the image.

At the Bowery Gallery 530 W. 25th St., through Mar. 24. The gallery is open Tue.-Sat. from 11 a.m. until 6 p.m.

Man on Soda Bottle (oil on board, 2015)