A New Year’s Resolution for Emerging and Established Artists

First Street Gallery would like to announce: SOLO SHOWS AVAILABLE

Emerging and Established Artists, please apply for membership at First Street Gallery this year!  This is YOUR year to join an enthusiastic and passionate group of predominantly, but not exclusively, figurative artists taking control of their own careers and staking a claim to a small corner of the art world in NYC.  

 Join us by bringing your work in to be reviewed in person or, if possible, scheduling a studio visit with our members.  We accept members nationwide and looking to grow.  We believe in what we do, what we stand for, and we are excited to offer this opportunity to you! This year do something for your career, bring your art to the city, become a member at one of NYC’s most energetic cooperative galleries, GET A SOLO SHOW, and establish your own presence in the art world in New York.

For More info:  http://www.firststreetgallery.org/membership/

Tracy Collamore - Paradox

TRACY COLLAMORE PARADOX     Red Rider, 36 x 48 inches, oil on linen, 2015     APRIL 28 - MAY 23 Opening Reception: May 7, 6-8pm A paradox is an absurdity, a contradiction that oftentimes can be proven true. It is a dichotomy.  It is a term used prolifically throughout the thought-processes of reason (or the lack thereof). The Paradox of Place is a concept of infinite regress, a reality in which I find myself everyday. The paradox is simple: in order to get from point A to point B, you first must travel half the distance. Then, it's half of what's left, then half of what's left, then half of what's left... to infinity. You will never get there. This concept perfectly describes how I find myself navigating my days, where I start at A, and work and push and reach for that B, but it always falls short of my grasp. And then I get to do it all over again, each and every day. So what's the answer here? Where is the truth in this paradox I find myself living through?  I haven't figured it out yet. This struggle is too close; I feel the answers slipping through my fingers because I'm grasping at it too hard. But what I do find in each day, is a subtle shifting and moving of stuff. Stuff that collects dust from neglect, stuff that is haphazardly left in odd places, and stuff that sprawls underfoot and finds a way of tripping up my journey. This stuff slowly shifts around me, as continental plates shift underfoot. So I document it. I find these arrangements of things, and like a crime scene investigator, I suspend the movement and record the evidence that is my paradox. By working this way, by stopping the subtle shifting of life in particular areas by arresting its development, I find the witnesses of my paradox. PARADOX is Tracy Collamore's second solo exhibition at First Street Gallery. Collamore also exhibited solo shows at UConn/Stamford Art Gallery in Stamford, CT and EBK Gallery in Hartford, CT in the past year. Her work has been exhibited in numerous galleries and museums, including the Attleboro Art Museum in Attleboro, MA and The Mattatuck Museum in Waterbury CT. Notable contemporary artists, including Philip Pearlstein and Rackstraw Downes, have selected Collamore for juried exhibitions. She is an Associate Faculty member of Art at Post University in Waterbury, CT and Philadelphia University in Philadelphia, PA where she teaches Art History, and an Instructor of Studio Art at the West Hartford Art League. Tracy Collamore lives and works in Wolcott, CT.   To view more of her work, please visit our website.

Run, don't walk...

..To Kathleen Bennett Bastis' sculpture show, still up in the gallery through April 25th!

Opening Reception: April 2, 6-8pm KATHLEEN BENNETT BASTIS PERMUTATIONS   Scattered Geometry, Tobacco hooks, metal, cord, nylon screen, 48 x 48 x 2", 2014 MARCH 31 - APRIL 25 "I am inspired by the distinctive character, energy and form found in the fragments of discarded, washed up, broken or otherwise overlooked materials which I salvage from the street, river bank and scrap yards. Their unique shape, texture and hue guide my creative process as I reinterpret the history of this detritus and construct a contemporary visual narrative." ­Permutations is Kathleen Bennett Bastis' first solo exhibition at First Street Gallery from March 31 to April 25, 2015. There will be an opening reception on Thursday, April 2nd, 6-8pm. To view more of her work, please visit our website.

 Gallery Hours: 11 am - 6 pm, Tuesday through Saturday

 

Gallery Closed Friday, April 3

526 West 26th Street, Suite 209, New York, New York 10001

646-336-8053 · 646-336-8054 (fax)

FSG Artists featured...

...At the Kent Land Trust Wine Tasting in the Morrison Gallery in Kent, CT. FSG artists Tracy Collamore and Jessica McGarry Bartlet were featured in this recap by Rural Intelligence. 

What better way to enjoy Art than with some wine!

Tracy has a show coming up next month at FSG! For more information go to: http://firststreetgallery.net/2015/show15-04.html

Is First Street Figurative Gallery?

Is First Street Figurative Gallery?

Paul Cézanne, Bather (1885-1887),
 Museum of Modern Art

 Our website says:

"An artist-run gallery, First Street's dual mission is to exhibit and promote the work of talented artists and to provide the public with an opportunity to see and learn about contemporary art in a more accessible milieu than that offered by commercial galleries. The gallery remains focused on the presentation of art in the figurative tradition but embraces a wide diversity of styles, media, and interpretations of 'figuration'." 

- http://firststreetgallery.net/about.html

Hans Hofmann's painting 'The Gate', 1959–60

 What is Figuration/Figurative Art?  

I just got an opening announcement/invite for a “figurative show” and it was a show specifically for work rendering the human form.  It got me thinking.  “Figurative” is a word often misused by gallerists and artists alike.  The idea that this word means art that has to do with the human figure is prevalent but while art deriving from the human form is certainly figurative, not all figurative work involves the human form.  Wikipedia defines figuration the same way First Street Gallery does: 

"Figurative art, sometimes written as figurativism, describes artwork—particularly paintings and sculptures—that is clearly derived from real object sources, and are therefore by definition representational. "Figurative art" is often defined in contrast to abstract art:

Since the arrival of abstract art the term figurative has been used to refer to any form of modern art that retains strong references to the real world.^[1]

Painting and sculpture can therefore be divided into the categories of figurative, representational and abstract, although, strictly speaking, abstract art is derived (or abstracted) from a figurative or other natural source. However, "abstract" is sometimes used as a synonym for non-representational art and non-objective art, i.e. art which has no derivation from figures or objects.

Figurative art is not synonymous with "art that represents the human figure," although human and animal figures are frequent subjects."

-  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Figurative_art

Still Life by Ruth Miller

I speak for myself but my understanding with regards to FSG is that we are a gallery partaking in the figurative tradition but not exclusively so.  It is all about the quality of the work and the individual behind it.  Do you agree?  Do you disagree?  Why? I am interested having this discussion and getting as much input as possible on the subject.  I think that this is the best forum for this kind of discussion and I am hoping to get some opinions.  What are your two cents?

View from Smith College by Stanley Lewis