The Bachelier Cardonsky Gallery in Kent, CT, opens a new exhibition on Saturday, October 3rd. It features five artists of great diversity: one sculptor, two painters, one photographer, and one collagist.

KIRILL DORON has shown with the gallery for the past 18 years. By his fourth show in 1995, he was described as a “magic realist” in a NY Times rave review. A master of still life and landscape paintings, his current works are both. All are in reverence to the past: weathered barns, rusted tools, glorious vistas. Originally from Moscow where he studied and taught, Doron has lived in CT since 1982 and is a recipient of many awards.

ANNE HUIBREGTSE is a fabulous sculptor whose weighty subject is the cow. “My work is about cows and it is not about cows”, she states. “I play with time, perspective and changing point of view. . .” Her bronze cows are graceful and lyrical and beautifully colored in deep, rich patinas. In 2000, she completed a stunning commission for the MTA/Arts for Transit at the Wassaic, NY train station.

BIBIANA HUANG MATHEIS is an extraordinary photographer with exhibitions and publications worldwide. Describing her recent photographs, she writes that they are “tied together by a sense of harmony. . .I changed gears here and mostly directed the lens toward a feeling, rather than a particular subject matter.” Beautifully colored in glowing light, they are printed on handmade papers that make them even more poetic.

ROBERT OHNIGIAN has numerous NY Times reviews from exhibitions in NYC since 1983. They are all raves for work that is so quiet, so minimal in color, so intimate in scale, that its strength is a total surprise. They are layers of old thin papers in grid form, some transparent, some pale colors, some of subjects – a face, a landscape, a fragment. “What Ohnigian does is to maintain a dialogue in whispers. . .” (John Russell)

BJORN RUNQUIST lives along the Housatonic River and is deeply inspired by its abstract patterns and rhythms. His paintings are gorgeous landscapes that defy the usual expectations of that form. They are all about reflections, both literally and figuratively, and are as vibrant and changeable as the river itself. “Runquist’s work is highly original, filled with vitality, wit and beauty.” (C. Lanchner, MOMA, NYC)

A reception for the artists will be held on Sat, October 3rd, from 4 to 6 pm. The show will run through November 8th. The gallery is located at 10 N. Main St, Kent, CT, and is open on Saturday and Sunday from 11 to 5 pm, and during the week by appointment. For further information, please call Violaine Bachelier or Darby Cardonsky at 860-927-3129, or email: info@BachelierCardonsky.com

 

"Going Places"

The Bachelier Cardonsky Gallery in Kent, CT, opens a new exhibition on Saturday, August 22nd. “Going Places” brings together four great painters: Mary Armstrong from MA; and Kathryn Frund, Suzanne Howes-Stevens, and Judith Wyer, all from CT.

MARY ARMSTRONG has been showing her work since 1985, with solo shows in NYC, MA, and CA. Her works on paper are delicate and strong, inspired by a teaching residency in Venice. “Memory of Desire: Mapping the Venetian Lagoon” is the title of her series and it reveals her past experience: “With every breath, I took it all in: the cobalt green of the lagoon, the molten gold light reflecting on the water, the pink palaces on the Grand Canal, . . .the infinite variety of the arterial rivers of Venice.”

KATHRYN FRUND’s landscapes are gorgeous meditations on nature. They are oil paintings, collaged with old letters, land deeds, and cloth. Both small and large in scale (some are 6 inches, others 4 feet tall), they are amazingly intimate and powerful. They speak a universal language about our place on earth. Since 1992, Frund has had many shows in CT, Boston, and NYC, with a strong review from the New York Times.

SUZANNE HOWES-STEVENS is deeply engrossed in history and travel. She has seen much of the world and her work reflects a passion for exploration. Her paintings are warm landscapes, atmospheric and far-reaching. Old maps from the places she paints are imbedded in each canvas, which connects the past and present in a truly unique way. Since 1973, she has had numerous exhibitions and received many awards.

JUDITH WYER, as reviewed by the New York Times, is a painter of “the figure, rendered with poignant narrative simplicity”. Her people are often drawn from the city, crossing streets, passing through museums, commuting in trains. While in the midst of commotion, they have a quiet solitude, reminiscent in a way of Hopper. Wyer is a master painter, inspired by “those hidden expressions and pure gestures of humanity”.

 

"Human Nature"

The Bachelier Cardonsky Gallery in Kent, Connecticut, opens a new show on Saturday, July 11th. “Human Nature” features five amazing artists: four painters and one sculptor, each working with the figure or nature, and in some cases both.

DAVID KONIGSBERG is new to the gallery but a master painter with many years of exhibitions. His paintings are wonderfully spirited, full of movement and texture, colorful landscapes with figures in motion. His imagination is always as play, his people often on adventures in airships or cars. These paintings are beautiful uplifts!

ANDREW NASH is rooted in nature with paintings of simple flowers that are gorgeously complex. Multi-layered with oils and wax, his works are scratched and scraped and layered again. They are rich in detail with “transformative power”, as written in a NY review. “If you don’t know Andrew Nash’s work, you should.”

LEIGH PALMER’s landscapes are celebrations of nature. They are encaustic, composed of beeswax, pigment and resin, with a lustrous, enameled effect. Beautifully lit in glowing colors, they are vast even when small. His current works appear almost as windows or doorways, with a framework of paint that surrounds each majestic view.

KATHY RUTTENBERG is an extraordinary sculptor, a highly accomplished ceramic artist in numerous shows and collections. Her figures are tender and funny and full of emotion. They tell stories with brilliant, luscious colors and intricate, complex details. How they are constructed and pieced together is truly ingenious and stunning!

NORA STURGES returns this year with a fabulous series of paintings. Each one follows the imaginary events in the travels of Marco Polo. All together, “they form an absent story of a wealthy westerner, both drawn to and made uneasy by the foreign-ness of the exotic places he visits.” Sturges is at her best with these exquisitely detailed works. Like Renaissance illuminations, but with quirky twists, every one is a gem.

 

"Open House"

The Bachelier Cardonsky Gallery in Kent, CT, opens a new exhibition on Saturday, May 23rd. “Open House” celebrates the start of the 2009 season, the twenty-first year of the gallery, and features five artists whose subjects are houses and those who fill them.

DAVID EDDY is a self-taught artist with a long list of shows and a New York Times rave review. His subjects are people in odd domestic scenes, beautifully executed with naïve sophistication. They portray tender stories in raw, bold, textural paint.

WILLARD LUSTENADER is a masterful painter with 30 years of shows. His works are beautiful, quirky still lifes from his series called “cutouts”. They combine surprising paper cutouts, mostly houses, wonderfully arranged on subtle, shadowed surfaces.

KATHRYN McAULIFFE works with shaped forms, creating images “based on indigenous American architecture”. In the round or on walls, her sculptural works are colored in muted pigments and simplified to elegant abstraction. A resident of NYC and Litchfield County, she formerly served as deputy director of the Museum of African Art.

MELISSA STERN creates a world of figures who summon memories of awkward moments. In clay, wax, paint, and found objects, her sculptures are deceptively simple. From a New York Times review, they “often have no faces but a definite nobility nonetheless. In their essentialness, they are patterns for all humans”.

LAURI ZARIN paints her surroundings. From NYC and Litchfield County, she layers her paint, drawing and scratching the colors beneath, exposing the vibrancy of a swirling life. Her overviews of the city are heartfelt in both their innocence and sophistication.

A reception for the artists will be held on Saturday, May 23rd, from 4 to 6 pm. The show will run through July 5th.