Painting by Mark Thomas Kanter.
Last week he opened a muscular new series of drawings from his Budô series, black and white images with a deep respect for the organic inspiration of happenstance and the lasting beauty of observed representation in abstract forms, at Gomen Kudasai restaurant in New Paltz.
On Saturday, June 18, he is one of seven well-respected abstract painters from throughout the state at Brik Gallery in Catskill, sharing the large, well-lit space with his peers Claude Carone, Kim Sloane, David Paulson, Richard Timperio, Garry Nichols and Peter Acheson.
All share Kanter’s own penchant for Modernist explorations of the boundaries of painting, reaching beyond the psychological into deeply intuitive area with an eye to all that’s come before them.
“My work is derived from a process of mark-making which reflects the natural movement of the human body. The resultant, organic arabesques and use of chiaroscuro configure themselves into palpable, if imaginary, forms and space, eliciting a response from the viewer which is at once psychological and physical,” he says of his aesthetic, displaying the serious sense of self-knowledge that has made him a key movement among such a company of artists. “My work exists within the interstices between Painting, Printmaking and Drawing. The work begins with printing ink applied and manipulated until underlying structure and imagery suggest itself. It is then mono-printed by hand onto paper, causing various accidents to occur. Consequently, the underlying structure opens to new suggestions, which are realized over time using India ink, charcoal and chalk, or with oil paint.”
Hats off to this Woodstocker’s new successes…and continuing journey!++
Gomen Kudasai, where Kanter will be showing through the coming month, is a Japanese noodle restaurant located at 215 Main Street in New Paltz. Call (845) 255-8811 for more info.
The opening at Brik, located at 473 Main Street in Catskill, is set to run from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday, June 18. The show then stays up until July 17, with gallery hours on Saturdays and Sundays, 11a.m.-6 p.m., or by appointment. Call 518-965-0042 or visit www.brikgallery.com for further information.
For more on Kanter’s work, including his theories on artmaking, visit www.markthomaskanter.com.
Playhouse box office open
The Woodstock Playhouse opened for its Summer Stock rehearsals this week…but we’ll give you the scoop on how jazzed we are by the revived building and professional cast next week. Suffice it to note, for now, that the Playhouse has opened its onsite box office and is selling tickets not only for its upcoming June 30 Inaugural Gala, but its first season of repertory offerings beginning with A Chorus Line, June 30 through July 10, Anything Goes from July 15 through 24, and Hair from August 4 through 13. Sightlines in the spectacular new 321-seat theater are all great and it makes sense to book reservations now — including for the big opening night bash which many are expecting to be one of those historic events we’ll all miss having attended (or pretended we were at) years from now. The box office at the Playhouse, located in the Gateway District to Woodstock on Mill Hill Road just west of where Route 375 empties into the hamlet, is open Wednesdays through Fridays, 2:30 p.m.-5:30 p.m. Otherwise, call (845) 339-4340 or visit www.WoodstockPlayhouse.org.++
Pouget’s Salon
They say that salons started in 16th century Italy before migrating to France. That only adds to the perfection of the so-named events that artist Evelyne Pouget has been bringing to life with regularity over the years — including the Sunday, June 19 event to benefit the mid-August Phoenicia Voice Fest. After all, the Paris-born Pouget looks back at her time in Tuscany, an inspiration for her home’s gardens and interior design, as a turning point in her life.
“My salons, they are indeed a great source of joy for me. I have been hosting them since 1986, back in my East Village time,” Pouget noted this week, amidst preparations for this weekend’s Champagne et hors d’oeurvres event. “I do not have a fixed schedule for them. I host one here and there, when the muse strikes me or when I meet a talent I absolutely need to share with my friends.”
Pouget did add, however, that the events she started in New York, continued in Stone Ridge, and has been running with partner Mitch Ditkoff since moving to Woodstock over a decade ago, will be repeated at least another three times this year, with salons scheduled with musician David Sancious on September 17, with Layne Redmond, Tommy Brunges and Steve Gorn on November 19, and with a benefit for Karl Berger and the Creative Music Studio on December 2.
As for the Sunday, June 19 event, which starts at 3:30 p.m. and was still taking reservations as of press time, Pouget’s idea is simple: to share her enthusiasm for the opera and voice festival founded and organized by Louis Otey, Maria Todaro and Kerry Henderson, that grew a few thousand to Phoenicia last summer. It promises to be even bigger when it unrolls August 4-7, when performances of Don Giovanni and Vivaldi’s Gloria, augmented by concerts featuring gospel diva Rozz Moorehead, noted Arab musician Simon Shaheen, and the Woodstock Chamber Orchestra.
“Donations will help raise funds for them to hire the Woodstock Philharmonic for the upcoming festival in August,” Pouget noted. “RSVP ASAP! Space is limited and this is going to be a very popular salon…”++
For further information, and reservations, on this 3:30 p.m. event Sunday, June 19 (taking place just outside the village center at Pouget’s and Ditkoff’s home) e-mail evelynepouget@hvc.rr.com or contact the Voice Festival by either calling them at 688-1344 or visiting www.phoeniciavoicefest.com.
Up in Phoenicia
Mystery may be the theme for the group show in the rambling main galleries at The Arts Upstairs, but skin’s going to be the big draw for this month’s Phoenicia openings this coming Saturday, June 18, when Sunday Dawne-Marie of Skinflower Tattoos takes over the venue’s solo spaces and draws in a host of her clients ready to show off the art works she’s created for them over the years. Cosmic Art From Beyond is the way Sunday trumpets what she does. With music, a potluck, and the longest Saturday of the year all rolling together, everyone’s expecting a grand old time at 60 Main Street.
Cabane Studios, just up (or down) the street at 38 Main, is also opening its new summer exhibit the same evening, featuring photos of the Tuscan landscape by Ron Garofolo and some hearty abstract paintings, prints and drawings by Rachel Unter.
From what we hear, there’s also a major dance party planned for the general area June 18, as well, featuring that mystically-great band, The Catskill 45s. Ask around and an invitation might just appear…we’re hearing they’ve progressed their already grand setlists from 1965 to 1966 hits.
Such is the grandeur of the Phoenicia scene. Be there. ++
Fact and fiction
What Richard Bosman offers with his painting — opening in a much-anticipated regional solo show at the Kleinert/James Arts Center in Woodstock this Saturday, June 18 — is more than himself and his own estimable talents. He gives us not only his unique, nuanced, narrative-fueled view of the world that surrounds us, but also our history, both cultural and fact-filled, in an intimate manner that makes it all understandable in instantly-recognizable ways.
Parts of the Bosman exhibition, curated by uber-artist Portia Munson, will include an installation of copied historical paintings, views of famous artists’ studios, images of museum walls, and some newer depictions of historical matters captured in their re-telling.
“Art History: Fact and Fiction,” as the show’s being called, ends up being all about such painterly actualities as scale, surface and gesture, as well as larger contemplations about the manner in which gestures, and small, personal memories of the ways in which actions transpire, can change the meaning of history’s unfolding. In other words, they go beyond the mere surface elements of art — the act of communicating personal observations — into deeper ideas as to the ways in which narratives get formed, and then create newer narratives and the entire idea of a “history.”
Suffice it to say, this is heady stuff…but also quite fun given the unpretentious and heartfelt manner with which Bosman paints, as well as the unobtrusive manner with which he engages big concepts.
For some of us, the works of a Berghman or Shakespeare, a Leonard Cohen or Duke Ellington, have always been as entertaining and invigorating as anything pure pop or audience-pleasing. This is art for those who like their thinking tickled with their shots of beauty.
An opening reception for Mr. Bosman, born in India and now living in Esopus (with works showing in galleries and museums the whole world over) will take place 4 p.m.-6 p.m. Saturday, June 18 at the Kleinert-James. The show will then stay up through July 24, with gallery hours on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, noon-6 p.m., or by appointment.++
The Kleinert/James Arts Center is located at 34 Tinker Street in Woodstock. For further information call 679-2079 or visit www.woodstockguild.org.
Viva Vivo
You remember all that brouhaha about the lovely sunburst over at Vivo Fine Art, located in the old Riseley Barn next door to Cucina? What’s inside the gallery for its new season will push local memories forward a few notches, beyond such planning issues (at last).
On May 25, the year-old gallery owned by Marco Ferrero and Jennifer Glickman, managed by Veronica Fannin, re-contextualized itself from being a simple showcase for “dynamic art” to adding in a long-promised stage and further promising a series of lectures and mini-concerts over the months to come. It began with an early June gig by the ever-effervescent Mike & Ruthy.
More importantly, Vivo has added an artist to the stable it’s maintained since its inception. Jason Boyd, a lighting technician whose new illuminated oil paintings have previously been seen in the area solely in Hudson, now joins psychedelic pioneer Isaac Abrams, etched glass, folk-like graphics artist Calline Welles, mixed media collagist Jill Allyn Stafford, from California, and Maui-based furniture-embellisher Erica Danielle Franz to spark up the already lively space a notch or two.
“Inspired by the surrounding nature, dramatic skies and images of light reflecting on water or through space I began to make studies in my studio, experimenting with various light sources to backlight canvases,” Boyd has written on the new works he started painting after moving to our Upstate mountains a few years back…and capturing Vivo’s essence at the same time. “I feel that the nature of light is that of an invisible dimension. My work reflects aspects of light and shadow and how they exist in our world and the invisible world. They often have the feeling of unknown nebulas, abstracted seas or heavenly realms of the sky.”
The work is washy, dreamy, Quaalude-like. Which allows it to match, in intuitive form, the speed-acid sharpness of Abrams vision, Franz’s stoner swirly fun, Stafford’s Californian sunny-ness and Welles’ Santa Fe altitudes.
Talk about a whole world of Vivo, all on the edge of town here in Woodstock.++
The gallery is now open Wednesdays through Sundays, noon to 8 p.m., at 105A Mill Hill Road, in the Gateway across where Route 375 comes into town. For further information, including all the new events coming into the gallery, call 679-2162 or visit www.vivofineart.com.
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