Morris Arts’ Gallery at 14 Maple opens Capturing Nature on April 3rd

Nearly 180 people celebrated the coming of Spring thanby attending the free opening reception for Morris Arts’ exciting new exhibit, CAPTURING NATURE , on April 3, 2014.  The Gallery’s 11th exhibit and second invitational show, features works by textile artist Natalia Margulis (Livingston) and Joseph Losavio (Sandyston), selected specifically for the high quality of their work and for their distinctive and imaginative interpretation of nature by the exhibition committee of Morris Arts and the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation.

Internationally exhibited fiber artist Natalia Margulis, born in Russia, has worked as a full-time artist in the USA since 1993, consistently gaining recognition and winning top awards for her works.  She describes her approach to textile art as follows: “Inspired by nature’s sublime beauty, I use a needle as a versatile instrument to recreate our natural environment as an embroidered textile. With my stitchery, I investigate and express the endless transformation of nature through the seasons, from new life to decay. The fluid and supple qualities of fiber allow me to reconstruct the natural forms and textures which fascinate me… I am especially interested in creating the illusions of movement, delicacy, light and shadow.” Commenting on her medium, she adds, “Embroidered pictures, by means of their softness and vulnerability, awaken a deep sense of belonging to the organic world: through visual perception we experience physical tactility. The fragility of fiber is used to indicate the fragility of the world and reflects my passionate desire to help save and protect it. Trying to expand the possibilities to express myself, I include all kinds of hand and machine stitches and often some elements of other fiber techniques such as dyeing, fusing, gilding, beading, heat distressing and embossing. These are my tools to achieve my art.”

Above, L-R: Joseph Losavio’s The Music That Transcends All Coming In And Going Forth”, oil on canvas; Natalia Margulis’  textile Blue Reflections.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

L-R: Natalia Margulis’ textile artworks: In a Necklace of Mushrooms and Ice Berries.

Joseph Losavio’s works utilize a variety of media including oil, collage, and handmade papers and reflect his complex, nuanced and intellectually layered life view. Although inspired by a number of Eastern and Western masters, Losavio’s work is nevertheless strikingly fresh, with bold shapes, colors and images that he describes as capturing “earthly desire and spiritual transcendence, realism and abstraction.” Often combining multiple landscapes within one work, Losavio creates scenes which have a mystical, haunting and highly poetic quality and which draw the viewer into his lush and intricate world.

 

 

 

 

 

L-R: Joseph Losavio’s paintings, Iram and Atop An Underwood

 

Citing the timelessness and astonishing power of 25,000-40,000 year old cave paintings in Spain and Curator Dick Eger comments, “But, it is the very act of an artist interrupting, then rendering an image directly from nature – capturing nature – that is at the heart of this exhibit.” Eger likens Margulis’ works – which can take form two months to three years to complete – to the perfection found in the radiant illuminated manuscripts of the early Renaissance. Instead of liturgical verse, however, Margulis’ subject matter is the natural world which she captures with uncompromising skill and detail. Of Losavio’s work, Eger states Losavio’s canvases “are not merely scenes conjured in Joe’s mind but rather each, a record of this visionary’s journey – a painterly travelogue.”  Eger notes that Losavio blends multiple streams of thoughts and ideas into a cohesive philosophy and then presents it “in front of us so that we too can enjoy his world. His rich palette and exotic treatment of his subject is often suffused in the mysticisim that so fascinates him and that he has embraced in his life.”

Click HERE to see the catalogue of the exhibit.

Morris Arts thanks our corporate partner, NJ.com,  for their generous support of the upcoming exhibit, CAPTURING NATURE .

The exhibit is open to the public Monday-Friday from 10am to 4pm and by appointment, and will remain on display until August 27, 2014.  Visit www.morrisarts.org or call (973) 285-5115 for additional information, including the exhibit catalogue which contains details and sale prices for all works.

Hot off the press: photos from the Opening Reception:

  

L-R: Curator Dick Eger, guest, Artists Joseph Losavio and Natalia Margulis with Tom Werder, Executive Director of Morris Arts;  Dodge Foundation panelist Elaine Rastocky with artist Joseph Losavio and Dodge Foundation CEO, Chris Daggett; Dodge Foundation CEO Chris Daggett with artist Natalia Margulis; the artists, Natalia Margulis and Joseph Losavio.

L-R: Curator Dick Eger with Gallery Coordinator Bethany Russo and artist Joseph Losavio; Artist Natalia Margulis with Curator Dick Eger; Back-Paul Flowerman and colleague, front- Morris Arts Board President Tom McMillian with Dodge Foundation panelist Elaine Rastocky and artist Natalia Margulis; Artist Wayne Roth, Dr. Virginia Butera, director of the Maloney Gallery and Chair, Art Department at College of St. Elizabeth with artist Natalia Margulis and her husband Michael.

 

L-R: Crowds enjoying the artworks in conference room and main hall; Artist Joseph Losavio, Morris Arts Development Director Gina Moran and artist Natalia Margulis; Grow It Green staff flank Morris Arts board member and artist Dan Sroka.