May 6, 2014
MEDIA CONTACT
Sheila Moore and Allyn Gallup § 941-366-2454 § [email protected]
Allyn Gallup Contemporary Art presents
“A Few Great, Big Pictures”
May 16-July 28
This exhibit features large-scale works by Luisa Basnuevo, Dolores Coe, Leslie Lerner, Craig Rubadoux and Mike Solomon.
(Sarasota, FL) Allyn Gallup Contemporary Art gallery presents “A Few Great, Big Pictures,” May 16-July 28.This exhibit features large-scale works by Luisa Basnuevo, Dolores Coe, Leslie Lerner, Craig Rubadoux and Mike Solomon. There is no opening reception. For more information, call 941-366-2454 or visit www.allyngallup.com. The gallery is at 1288 N. Palm Ave., Sarasota.
Why large-scale?
“Sometimes bigger is better,” says gallery director Allyn Gallup.
“A large-scale artwork can anchor a living space and make a bold statement about who you are and what matters to you.” He adds that, “Too often, people make the mistake of thinking small. They underestimate the size of the paintings that will work in their residences–or shy away from statements they feel are too strong. The truth is, strong art is a reflection of your strength. Miniatures can be powerful. But there’s no denying the fact that artists pour their hearts into large-scale works. They stretch their creative muscles and show the world, ‘Here’s what I can do.’ When they succeed, the result is art you’ll love for a lifetime.”
Luisa Basnuevo was born in Cuba and came to the United States via Spain. Her paintings are included in public and corporate collections throughout Florida, including those of the Miami Art Museum, the Polk Museum of Art in Lakeland and The Ringling in Sarasota. She is the recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts/Southeastern Arts Federation, the South Florida Consortium, and the Division of Cultural Affairs, Florida Department of State. For more information, visit www.luisabasnuevo.com.
Dolores Coe is a painter, digital media artist, and former Ringling College professor who maintains a home and studio on the Little Manatee River south of Tampa. Her intrigue with the mind’s power to distill experience into stories is a constant undercurrent in her imagery. Coe entices the viewer into a journey through fantastical landscapes, crowded with fragments of iconic, American roadside imagery. According to Allyn Gallup, the gallery’s director, Coe’s work is “all about capturing experience and not letting go. It’s a meditation on time memory, art and imagination. As far as I’m concerned, it’s unforgettable.” For more information, visit www.dolorescoe.com.
Leslie Lerner, who died in 2005 when he was 55, was a beloved painting instructor at Ringling College of Art and Design for 15 years and twice a recipient of a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Achievement Award. He was a prolific artist with the restless spirit of a wanderer. In his later works, his images depict recurring characters on enigmatic pilgrimages: “The Man with the Wooden Arm” and “The Lost Boy” explore panoramic landscapes reflecting the vistas of Lerner’s own global and spiritual travels. Lerner’s last body of work,”My Life in America,” explores “oil, wealth, and foreign policy, which takes the form of a donkey.” His work is in numerous museum collections, including the Corcoran Museum of Art, Arkansas Arts Center, Oakland Museum, the Progressive Corporation and the Norton Museum of Art. “Lerner’s works are as strong and compelling now as they were when he was alive,” says Gallup.
Craig Rubadoux primarily works on paper and canvas. His paintings are intensely personal glimpses into particular emotions, and he frequently speaks of his work as a journal. Greatly affected by his environment and a love of nature, Rubadoux focuses on line, color, and spatial relationships in his work. While the subject matter varies, it embodies the artist’s personal conception of the world and his feelings and responses to that world. His art is included in many public and private collections, including the Guggenheim Museum, New York; the High Museum of Art, Atlanta; the Museum of Art, Fort Lauderdale; the Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg; and The Ringling in Sarasota. “I’m delighted to once again represent Craig,” says Gallup. “His mastery of figure and form, composition and gesture are plain to see in every painting. A critic wrote that his style is inimitable and unmistakable and I could not agree more.” For more information, visit www.craigrubadoux.com.
Mike Solomon is the son of the celebrated abstract expressionist, Syd Solomon, and was raised in the art world of the 1960s. The younger Solomon launched his own artistic career at the age of 15, after winning a national printmaking award. “Whether it’s genes or environment no one can say,” notes Gallup. “But he’s definitely got it in him.” As an artist, he applies the same attention to detail creating his abstract constructions. Such works comprise many layers of transparent tints; each layer remains visible as he adds more layers on top. Solomon created the series of constructions showcased in this exhibit in 2012. Some works employ multiple layers of rice paper imbued with watercolor and embedded in epoxy; others feature layers of acrylic on wood panel. For more information, visit www.mikesolomon.com.
Syd Solomon, whose vivid abstract paintings hang in New York City’s Guggenheim and Whitney museums, the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, D.C., and Israel’s Tel Aviv Museum, among other international institutions, helped turn Sarasota into a nationally known artists’ colony in the 1950s. He and his wife, Annie, held open house for a bevy of artists, writers, architects and activists, including John D. MacDonald, Elia Kazan, Budd Schulberg, Betty Friedan and Kurt Vonnegut Jr. The artist often drew inspiration for his work from the seascapes at his homes in Sarasota and the Hamptons. In 1962, his painting “Silent World” became the first purchase from a living artist by The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art. Solomon died in Sarasota in 2004 when he was 86.For more information, visit www.sydsolomon.com.
About Allyn Gallup Contemporary Art
Allyn Gallup Contemporary Art was established in 1991. Since the beginning, its founder, Allyn Gallup, has been committed to providing serious art to the community. Through this commitment, the gallery has earned the reputation as the leading place in southwest Florida to view contemporary art. The gallery’s collection includes paintings, sculptures, mixed-media assemblages, works on paper and prints by mid-career artists with well-established exhibition records. The gallery also occasionally showcases works by promising emerging artists. Visit www.allyngallup.com.
