Thursday, October 28, 2021 – WONDERFUL ART DONE DURING A DARK TIME
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2021
THE 506th EDITION
ARSENAL GALLERY RE-OPENS
Paul Hunter: Confinement Gardens
Current Exhibit
October 25, 2021 – November 18, 2021
Current Exhibit
October 25, 2021 – November 18, 2021
Paul Hunter: Confinement Gardens
Created during the COVID-19 pandemic, Paul Hunter’s “Confinement Gardens” series was inspired by the artist’s walks through New York City’s public parks and gardens during lockdown. As he sought refuge from these restrictions in the city’s greenspaces, he experienced the restorative power of flowers in bloom, which gave him hope despite the surrounding pandemic and political turmoil. In this series, his non-figurative compositions combine floral and leaf forms with wholly abstract linear patterns. To achieve the paintings’ luminous power, he applies several coats of translucent acrylics over an under-layer of aluminum leaf which reflects and refracts light through the layers of semi-transparent paint.
Images: Paul Hunter, Confinement Garden #AA, 2021, aluminum leaf, acrylic on canvas
CENTRAL PARK, NY — For the first time in a year and a half, Central Park’s Arsenal Gallery has reopened to visitors — and has a new art exhibition to draw them in.
The gallery is located within the 1840s-era Arsenal, the imposing brick building just in from Fifth Avenue near East 64th Street, next door to the Central Park Zoo. It had been closed since March 2020, as COVID-19 hit New York.
On Monday, the gallery reopened with “Confinement Gardens,” a series of paintings by the artist Paul Hunter.
The works were inspired by Hunter’s walks through New York City’s parks and gardens during lockdown, where he “experienced the restorative power of flowers in bloom, which gave him hope despite the surrounding pandemic and political turmoil,” the Parks Department wrote.
« From the very beginning, my internal vision has been determined by my ongoing desire to express the emotional intensity of experiencing light and color. »
Paul Hunter is an artist based in the United States whose paintings have been exhibited nationally and in Canada. In addition, his art is featured in the permanent collection of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (Canada), the Art Museum of Princeton University (U.S.), etc. Hunter’s works endeavor to capture the poetry and drama of light. He most often creates using acrylics and gilding on canvas.
Hunter gave the paintings a “luminous power” by applying several coats of translucent acrylic paints over an under-layer of aluminum leaf, refracting and reflecting light through the semi-transparent paint.
Find out what’s happening in Upper East Side with free, real-time updates from Patch. Your email address Let’s go! The show will be on view through Nov. 18. Proof of vaccination and mask-wearing are required to enter the gallery, which is open Monday-Friday from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. on the Arsenal’s third floor.
“I am fully aware of the deteriorating natural environment, and the artifice of cultivated gardens, an ‘unnatural’ space where plants are protected,” Hunter said in a statement. “However, during this time, I was nonetheless seeking a vision of hope, and celebrated nature’s ongoing luxuriant beauty in these lush green paintings punctuated with colorful notes of imagined flowers.”
Parks Commissioner Gabrielle Fialkoff called the works “a timely reflection on the inspiration New Yorkers have found in greenspaces” during the pandemic. “For decades, the Arsenal Gallery has showcased artworks that explore nature, urban landscapes, and park history, and we are happy to reopen the space to visitors for the first time since the start of the pandemic,” she said. To attend in a group of more than five people, visitors must call call 212-360-8114 or email artandantiquities@parks.nyc.gov to pre-register.
THURSDAY PHOTO OF THE DAY
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WEDNESDAY PHOTO OF THE DAY
THE RI LIGHTHOUSE UNDER RESTORATION
NAMES OF THOSE WILL BE SENT TOMORROW.
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