"Nature's End" - a group show featuring photographers Gary Bartolini and James Slezak and oil painter seascapes of James Johansen.
ZeigersArts @ Dodds & Eder Home, 11 Bridge Street in Sag Harbor.
August 8 - September 22, 2015
Hours: Wed – Monday, 10a-5p. Sunday 10-4p. Closed Tuesday.
Art Contact: Kathy Zeiger @ 917.239.0493
Please NOTE new website: www.zeigerarts.com
Simply beautiful, nature reigns supreme in our diluted world of compromised events caused by man’s indifference.
GARY BARTOLONI
Photography became Bartoloni’s obsession beginning at the age of nine. Not entirely satisfied using Instamatics, Bartoloni soon discovered his fascination with a camera’s F-stops after shooting with his dad’s Kodak Tourister. The big roll of film combined the flexibility allowed by f-stops, Bartoloni was hooked.
His passion for science and photography married when in an early Botany class, the technique of plant diagnostics was introduced. Infrared film is used to photograph plants to search for the potential disease in plants, but Bartoloni soon discovered it had a unique ability to capture the light aura of plants. This aura is indicative of the energies emitted by trees and all green plants through photosynthesis. He immediately saw the infrared film's ability not just to create a diverse rendition of the visible, but it opens us to the world of what otherwise is invisible. Humans cannot see in infrared. The infrared film creates a stunning tonal range that is a nude reflectance of heat creating sublime auras to mimic that of the plant.
Not satisfied with just the bending of the perception of and interpretations experienced in infrared images, he began working with older and wider aperture lenses. The result a compelling visual vortex, it draws the viewer into the images. He prefers large format cameras – 4x5, 8x10 and 11x14 - even today in our digitalized world.
He studied photographic art at Pratt and L.I.U. He has shown in various photo and art groups in and between New York and Florida. His work has been chosen most recently for the internationally juried exhibit, "Camera 2015”, held at the Von Liebling Center in Naples Florida. Also, his work has appeared in The Sarasota Center for the Arts, The Southampton Art Center (New York), OK Harris, and Soho Photo exhibits.
JAMES JOHANSEN
James Johansen is a self-taught artist born in Huntington, NY. A painter for over 25 years, his artistic career began in private homes and commercial settings painting murals and faux finishes. In 1995, James first received significant exposure for his design work and painting of restaurant, Campo de Fiori, in Aspen, Colorado. This acclaim culminated in an award by Food and Wine Magazine for “Original Artistic Atmosphere.”
James works with all types of mediums, although to capture the movement of water for his wave or seascape paintings he uses oils on canvas. He will often apply an under glazing or and over glazing to his oil paints to evoke the atmosphere of light in the surroundings. James spends a lot of time watching the sea and its changes as the wind, sunlight and the pull of gravity ripple its surface. James views himself “like a spy in the natural landscape, waiting for a happening.” The subtle and ever-changing nature of the water and tides inspires his hope is to bring peace to the viewer.
James has shown in East Hampton, Bridgehampton and Soho, New York and Ravenheart Gallery in Aspen, Colorado. His work has been featured and mentioned in USA Today and Architectural Digest. His paintings have also been popular at local auctions for charity. James currently resides in his hometown of Huntington, NY.
JAMES SLEZAK
Slezak never thought of himself as an artist. He trained as a scientist in a Ph. D program in experimental psychology many years ago. He is educated, and this leads to a scientific approach to his art. He left psychology and worked in information technology for two decades. In 2010, he finally found time and resources to pursue his art, as a digital photographer.
Kathy Zeiger, the curator of this exhibition, visited Mr. Slezak’s studio fall 2014. Together she and Mr. Slezak researched over 600 of his recent works. Ms. Zeiger saw a pattern emerge. Slezak - trained as graphic artist – creates Photoshop collages from the subject (s) he records in nature. He photographs various outdoor imagery then returns to his studio. He creates compositions in Photoshop to produce his collages; these are now his signature look that clearly defines his voice. As an artist, Slezak desires to isolate subject(s) into a stark white background and then insert a graphic line of color into the vast horizon. The result is a reflection natures' true capacity to make us feel alone in the larger world that quickly spins. One can almost see the influence of mid-20th century painter Barnett Newman’s Zip paintings – inserting a single line of color into the horizon – it divides the image yet completes the composition.
In the short time he has declared photography as a profession, Slezak has received acclamation from many art organizations and print publications. His images exhibit widely in juried shows at East End Arts, Art League of Long Island, Suffolk County Historical Museum and Southampton Cultural Center. His prints have published in the Riverhead News-Review, "Attencion" (a newspaper in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico), The Wine Press, The New York Times and The Sun magazine.
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Image Information:
Gary Bartoloni
“Corpes de la Femme”
8 x 10 Infrared film
Printed Inkjet
32” diameter
2007
Photo courtesy Gary Bartolini, 2015
James Johansen
“I Love It When You Do That”
Oil on Canvas
2015
30 x 48 inches
Photo courtesy James Johansen, 2015
James Slezak
“Leaning Tree Ten”
Digital C-Print
2014
12 x13 inches
Photo courtesy James Slezak, 2015