Black, White and Green opened at Gallery at 14 Maple on March 3

On March 3, 2016,  Morris Arts hosted a free opening reception for the Gallery at 14 Maple’s fifteenth exhibit, entitled Black, White and Green – attended by an enthusiastic crowd of 180 people.  Guest curator Katherine Murdock, the Exhibition Committee of Morris Arts and the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation selected works by the following outstanding New Jersey artists, Pat Brentano (Westfield), Jose Camacho (Montclair), Kathy Cantwell (Maplewood), Thea Clark (Maplewood), Carol Nussbaum (Short Hills), Casey Ruble (Milford), Nancy Ori (Berkley Heights), Jessica Rohrer (Bloomfield), and Raymond Saá (Maplewood). Two outstanding artists from New York are also featured: Richard Bottwin (Brooklyn) and Riad Miah (New York).

Inspired by the biowall, the vertical garden of living plants within the exhibit space, Curator Murdock chose to focus the exhibit on plants and selected the title, Black, White and Green, to purposefully reflect that limited color palette as a means of unifying the exhibit. What is striking, however, is the richness and variety of the artists’ unique approaches to the theme – through their use of different media (collage, oil, cold wax painting, photography, charcoal drawings, wood sculpture, etc.), composition, and subtle gradations of color. As Murdock notes, “Casey Ruble’s paper collage illustrates a bundled bouquet of invasive plant species and Kathy Cantwell’s oil and cold wax on panel explores green color fields that resemble landscape. Richard Bottwin uses plant material as a medium and highlights the wood grain with stain and paint.”  Pat Brentano combines cut paper and acrylic on canvas to highlight subtleties within the spectrum of green while Thea Clark, in essence, “creates” plant life with artificial turf, acrylic textile, cotton thread, wood and foam. Jose Camacho’s work focuses on the abstract, ghostly images of possible plant life in his black and white oils on paper.  Similarly, stark black and white is used to highlight Nature’s geometric precision in Carol Nussbaum’s striking flower mandala photos. Riad Miah’s use of electric green and geometric units suggests plant life on a cellular level while Nancy Ori’s photographs cut to the essence of botanical forms, revealing hidden structures. Jessica Rohrer’s gouache captures the green fluidity and grace of a hosta plant while the dramatic and intense charcoal drawings of Raymond Saá suggest the explosive release of energy of segmented structures that seem to collapse, yet still bristle with vitality.

 

Here are some photos from the opening:

The public is invited to view this exciting exhibit and to meet the artists at the free opening reception on March 3, 2016 from 6-8pm at Gallery at 14 Maple, a distinctive space located on the 3^rd floor of the LEED certified “green” building at 14 Maple Avenue in Morristown, NJ. Refreshments will be served.

Morris Arts gratefully acknowledges sponsorship for this exhibit by

 

 

 

with additional with additional support from

 

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The exhibit is open to the public Monday-Friday from 10am to 4pm and by appointment, and will remain on display until August 24, 2016.  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. The Gallery at 14 Maple is a barrier-free facility. Individuals needing special accommodation should contact Kadie Dempsey at (973) 285-5115, x 17 or kdempsey@morrisarts.org.