Dee Ann Segula Retrospective goes up June 19

We are pleased to announce the retrospective of Dee Ann Segula's work at WSG, opening Tuesday, June 21, 2011 and running through July 31. The reception is Friday, June 24, 7-10 pm. Dee Ann has been a longtime member of WSG and this will be her final show with us. Her work is always so engaging and she's a virtuoso of many media, from encaustic to gold leaf to acrylic paint to knitted woolens to needle felting. Name a media, she's probably tried it!

Dee Ann has been a full time artist since 1975. She works in a variety of disciplines, including metal smithing, calligraphy, woodworking, printing, painting, drawing and mixed media. Dee is a lover of surface design, embellishing her work with rich patterns and layers of color. Texture figures prominently in her work, as well. Even her 2-D work has relief patterns built into the surface.

Many times, her work is inspired by literature and, really, brings written passages to life in such a beautiful way that it almost doesn't matter what the writing was about in the first place. Her work gives the eye so much to look at, that it becomes its own story.

Elizabeth Schwartz: Seasons

Elizabeth Schwartz' exhibit Seasons opened at the gallery last Friday with a large reception and great weather downtown!

Sometimes, opening receptions are a challenging place to really "see" and experience an artist's work. Certainly, they're meant as a celebration of the culmination of the grand effort to produce a body of work, and Elizabeth was definitely celebrated!

Now's the time to come in and really experience her paintings! The piece to the left, Edge of Spring, is a good place to start looking at her work. As she says in her artist's statement, "The theme for this series was stimulated by my ongoing reflections on the meaning and passing of life's 'seasons', for which these paintings serve as a metaphor." Keeping this in mind, look at the painting and consider the artist's words, "Spring is the season of energy, anticipation and excitement. Possibilities seem endless." Think of how green that first grass and winter wheat looks. Is it because it's really greener? Or because it's been so long since our eyes last saw that color?

Schwartz' work focuses on evoking nature, rather than depicting nature. Her concern is similar to the Impressionists' interest in capturing the feeling of being in nature, the light, the color, rather than trying to replicate a specific scene. However, Schwartz is more interested in painting in bold color, rather than muted tones.

In her technical approach, she applies many layers of paint, sometimes bold, sweeping strokes over thin washes, sometimes delicate marks and layers made with a palette knife. Texture is important in Schwartz' work, giving the feeling of looking through trees, leaves and branches, on to that deeper level of the landscape.

Schwartz is fascinated with the contradictory forces of nature - "its unpredictable, humbling power, juxtaposed with its soothing seasonal rhythms". She says, "Many of these works are painted on a large scale in order to convey nature's grandeur and power, turbulence and beauty."

Stop on in to the gallery and see the grandeur and beauty for yourself!

Nora Venturelli at Riverside Arts Center

"Figuratively Speaking: interpretations of the human form" opens at Riverside Arts Center, Friday, May 7 and runs through May 28. WSG artist Nora Venturelli has this spectacular piece on display. Vice Versa No. 25 is from a current figurative body of work and the development of this body has been incredible to watch. You can see the forms coming into view as they are sketched with the brush, modeled a bit and, finally, come to life in the foreground.

Nora is a virtuoso painter, studying landscape, still life and the figure with equal fervor. This piece should be in a museum!

Last Week for Photography Show - thru May 7, 2011

Terry Abrams

This is the last week to see Three Visions: Photography in Black and White at WSG Gallery. When you visit the show, you'll walk in to the gallery entry space and enter a meditative exhibit of images. Nature and architecture figure prominently in Terry Abrams' and Nina Hauser's pieces. Also in Dirk Bakker's work, but he photographs figures, as well, usually in a story-telling situation, in this show.

Nina Hauser

Nina Hauser uses infrared photography to create a mood in the landscape pieces in this show. Infrared photography filters out all or most of the visible light from the spectrum so that the camera reads only infrared light. This makes plants that are green almost glow, skies look dark and there are rich, dark blacks in the photos.

Dirk Bakker

Bakker has an image with an interesting perspective - a wide-angle shot that makes it almost look mapped together in Photoshop. What kind of a story is he telling?

Gallery Artists at U of M Hospitals' Gifts of Art program

Gallery artists Norma Penchansky-Glasser and Valerie Mann have work at University of Michigan Hospitals right now as a part of the Gifts of Art program. Penchansky-Glasser's bronze figures and Mann's Evening Bags for the Midwestern Woman Series will be on display through June 13, 2011. Find out the details: http://www.med.umich.edu/goa/exhibits.htm

Cantu's review of Three Visions

John Cantu, arts journalist at Ann Arbor.com, has a great review of the black and white photography show at WSG right now: http://www.annarbor.com/entertainment/wsg-photo-in-black-and-white/

Photography in Black and White opens

The new show is up on the walls at WSG and the reception is Friday, April 1, 7-10 pm. We start our summer hours in April, so note the later start and end time. Also, Festifools is going on that night downtown, so be forewarned, the parking will be unfun - may be a good night to dust off the bikes and air up the tires!

The previous post has some beautiful images from photographers Dirk Bakker, Terry Abrams and Nina Hauser. I can tell you the work is gorgeous in person!

So, JOIN US Friday the 1st! It is Nina's birthday! Wish her a happy one at her opening!