By Robert Liberace
Eleventh Street Arts presents “NUDE: a figure drawing exhibition”
May 15-June 15, 2015 | Opening reception Friday, May 15, 6-9 p.m.
46-06 11th Street, Long Island City NY 11101
Long Island City, NY – Eleventh Street Arts is thrilled to announce its next show — NUDE: a figure drawing exhibition. Curated by artist Colleen Barry, NUDE convenes twenty-five emerging leaders of the contemporary realist revival for a drawing show that celebrates the human form. Opening reception Friday, May 15th, 6-9 p.m.
NUDE features the work of Andrew Ameral, Juliette Aristides, Steven Assael, Colleen Barry, Stephen Bauman, Anthony Baus, Patrick Byrnes, Jacob Collins, Carla Crawford, Jon DeMartin, Rebecca Gray, Amaya Gurpide, Brendan Johnston, Darren Kingsley, Joshua LaRock, Robert Liberace, Edward Minoff, Iliya Mirochnik, Gregory Mortenson, Edmond Paul Rochat, Travis Schlaht, Jordan Sokol, Dan Thompson, Scott Waddell, and Katie Whipple.
Exhibited works will display a cross-section of styles, many representative of the pedagogies of the world’s foremost art academies: The Gage Academy, The Florence Academy of Art, Studio Incamminati, Grand Central Atelier, The Art Students League, and the Repin Institute. Celebrating an artistic practice that reaches back to the Renaissance, the works of NUDE offer compelling evidence that the legacy of great western art continues to live on through the practice of artists of today. With the human body as the shared origin of inspiration, these works present a dazzling synthesis of technical skill and personal vision.
Various approaches to the subject of the human form will suggest the particular style, sensibility, and motives of individual artists. From tightly rendered graphite drawings that honor the subtlest subforms of the body to large-scale charcoal works that revel in exuberant mark making, drawings on view showcase an incredible range of artistic choices — resulting in works that are open to many interpretations. “The human form has strong symbolic meaning,” says exhibition curator Colleen Barry. “And given that it can be a vehicle for expressing profound human emotion, the nude has the potential to be both individual and universal.” NUDE: a figure drawing exhibition will be on view through June 15, 2015.