September 28 - October 27, 2007
Kathleen Cullen Fine Arts is pleased to present a group show featuring the works of Pam Glick, Gail Leboff, Mary O’Malley and Maria Vergara.
Pam Glick concisely describes her artistic process thusly; “first of all I am a painter. And I put things together.” Using her time to create whole works at once rather than working on them piecemeal, she then deconstructs the works, cutting images out of their backgrounds; collecting huge piles of fragments and snippets of her original paintings. Then the pieces are lined up so she can pick and choose which ones will be in the lead, and which others will serve in more supporting roles. The result creates an atmosphere all its own with the bits of paintings serving as its elements.
Gail Leboff’s inspiration comes from the natural world. Her landscapes display both the tangible qualities of nature such as the migration of birds, a winter stream, or a fawn in a meadow and the intangible quality of one’s memory and experience of nature. Leboff draws from the Hudson River School of Painting, using symbols such as that of the deer to symbolize the innocence and purity of the natural world as opposed to man’s intrusion upon that world. The dreamy and mysterious atmosphere of her photographs suggest the imagination, desire and romance that people associate with these surroundings and all of nature. It Is this duality that makes Leboff’s works much more than the beautiful photographs that they are.
Mary O’Malley’s work begins with a fascination with nature and natural processes in all its complexity and richness. This spirals to include a range of inspirations from botanical illustration and microscopic scientific imagery to textile patterns and Victorian decorative arts. All of these diverse elements come together in a landscape of lush abundance somewhere between the wildness of nature and the orderliness of a lace pattern. The forms ambiguously weave together in this landscape, constantly in the process of becoming, evolving and multiplying or beginning to break down and decay. The end result is boldly decorative, unapologetically feminine and undeniably beautiful.
Maria Vergara’s work is as fascinated with the cult of celebrity as most of America and indeed the world seems to be. Her work explores our fascination with wealth, beauty and power and the people that embody these ideals. Her subjects include the British royal family and contemporary events such as Paris Hilton’s arrest or the 2007 Oscars depicting the new American royalty. Vergara often includes herself in these scenes as an “anonymous fan,” so we can live vicariously through her artwork as we fantasize what it would be like to spend an afternoon with the Jolie-Pitts.