Autumn is a great time to see art close to home. From legendary French artists to some of your very own neighbors, there is much to enjoy in the local art scene this fall.
Armonk Outdoor Art Show
Perfect fall weather greeted the 55th annual Armonk Outdoor Art Show, a two-day juried event featuring paintings, drawings, sculpture, printmaking, photography, ceramics, jewelry, and other tactile arts by 185 artists. Ranked among the top art shows nationally, the event draws established and emerging artists from across the country. In recent years, the show has hosted a tent for local high school artists, who, like other participating artists, must be juried into the show, giving them a glimpse of the professional art world.
Painter Rosalind Oesterle has participated since moving to Armonk the 1970s. Her paintings have changed over the years from delicate florals to pastel and jewel-toned nonrepresentational paintings, winning her the nod each year from the jury, since even long-time participants must re-apply and have their work evaluated each year.
Oesterle, a member of the American Watercolor Society and a veteran of countless art shows across the country says her favorite is close to home. “The [Armonk] show is fabulous. It’s the best show.”
Armonk resident Judi Offenberg returned to show her luxuriously-colored silk paintings this year. Originally a textile designer, she fell in love with silk painting when her daughter Melissa did a high school project. She “bought supplies, read books, and taught myself,” she said. Her work has been exhibited widely, but “winning a prize at the show two years ago, was the biggest honor of my life,” she said.
Armonk resident Lana Sidoti, who exhibited her bold and beautiful enameled jewelry and wall pieces for the fourth time this year, and Luis Perez, a longtime show volunteer who entered his watercolors and drawings for the first time, are both members of the Northern Westchester Artists Guild (NWAG), which has been an important catalyst for many local artists to begin showing their work.
The winner of this year’s first $1,000 Sylvia Rogers Best New Artist prize at the show is another NWAG member, Natalya Aikens from Pleasantville. Her amazing quilts based on her photographs use reclaimed fabric and repurposed plastic bags to make a beautiful environmental statement. Debra Graham, an NWAG member from Scarsdale, won 3rd prize in the Printmaking, Drawing and Pastels category, the second time she has won a prize for her intricately detailed drawings.
Northern Westchester Artists Guild
The Northern Westchester Artists Guild (NWAG), has several treats in store locally. Their show collective expressions at Art and Sound Gallery in Greenwich, Conn. runs through the end of October. When that show ends, the Guild will also be sponsoring a pop-up show at Art and Sound Gallery featuring drawings, paintings, mixed media, and photography on the walls as well as tactile art. It is scheduled for November 12 through December 23, Tuesday through Sunday and by appointment. Check the website artandsound.com for more information.
Art In Rye: Armonk artist Perez and prize winner Aikens are among the 16 Guild artists exhibiting their work at a unique show sponsored by the Strong Oestriech team from the Armonk Real Estate office of Douglas Elliman. Each artist will showcase their work in a separate room of a spectacular new $7 million home coming on the market at 135 Highland Road, Rye. The show opens October 28 with morning (8:30-11 a.m.) and evening (6-8 p.m.) receptions and continues October 29-30, 2-5 p.m. A portion of the proceeds benefit Rye-ACT, which helps battle underage drinking and drug use.
Katonah Museum of Art
Matisse Drawings: Curated by Ellsworth Kelly from The Pierre and Tana Matisse Foundation Collection opens at the Katonah Museum of Art, October 23. The exhibition features 45 drawings by legendary French artist Henri Matisse, curated by Ellsworth Kelly before his death in 2015. Works from Kelly’s own large-scale Suite of Plant Lithographs (1965-66) accompany the show. Kelly earned an international reputation by the early 1950s as one of the most important Minimalist artists in the United States.
“There are many ways to look at and appreciate art, but seeing through the eyes of one artist onto another can be both transformative and illuminating,” says Museum Executive Director Darsie Alexander. The show, organized by the American Federation of Arts and the Mount Holyoke College Art Museum in collaboration with the Matisse Foundation, runs through January 29, 2017.
Bruce Museum
Her Crowd: New Art by Women from Our Neighbors’ Private Collections, which opened at the Bruce Museum in Greenwich, Conn.` in September and runs through Jan. 2, offers a singular opportunity to view art from the walls of some of America’s most influential contemporary art collectors living in Fairfield and Westchester Counties. Themes specific to women such as motherhood, beauty, gender, and sexuality are in evidence, as are works from both established artists such as Yayoi Kusama and Tara Donovan, and up-and-coming artists. Kenneth E. Silver, Mia Laufer and Zvi Grunberg curated the exhibition.
A film series and lectures by scholars and show artists Alessandra Expósito and Margaret Lee compliment the exhibition. See www.brucemuseum.org for the schedule.
ArtsWestchester
Remedy, which looks at the healing power of art, opened at ArtsWestchester in White Plains this month and runs through Jan. 14. “The artists in this exhibition engage with the relationship between arts and healing on a number of levels,” says Gallery Director Kathleen Reckling. “Some are inspired by the methods, instruments, and institutions that diagnose and treat our ailments. Others remind us that art is a remedy in and of itself.” The artists from across the country work in many media. “The work is provocative, it is humorous, and it is also poignant,” says Reckling. For example, works such as Laura Splan’s “Prozac, Thorazine, Zoloft,” oversized “pill-ows,” soft and welcoming, offer a humorous take on the comfort provided by the prescriptions they represent while “Asylum,” haunting photographs by Christopher Payne, document abandoned mental institutions across the country.
Gallery hours: Tuesday-Friday 12-5 p.m., Saturday 12-6 p.m. Free events during the show’s run include a Healing Drum Circle, Saturday, October 22, 1 p.m.
Marianne Campolongo is a professional photographer and freelance writer from Chappaqua. A member of the Northern Westchester Artists Guild and other arts oriented organizations, she enjoys exploring new ways to use Photoshop and other digital magic to see where her imagination can take her photographs.
MARIANNE A. CAMPOLONGO PHOTOS
