Review in Gallery & Studio Magazine


"I Love Manhattan" Exhibition
By J. Sanders Eaton

While themes are often imposed on group shows merely as a pretense to gather disparate artists at cross purposes under a coherent banner, "I Love Manhattan," a recent exhibition curated by Renée Phillips, at Equity Properties Lobby, 850 Third Avenue, was one exhibition that truly lived up to its name.

The ten artists in the show were selected from a national competition organized by Manhattan Arts International, a twenty year old network of "Artrepreneurs," of which Phillips, an artist career counselor and author, is director. One of several theme exhibitions that the organization plans for public spaces throughout the city, the show captured the indomitable spirit of the city and its people post 9/11even as new reports of possible biological terrorism had some among the citizenry sealing their windows with duct tape.

In this regard, one of the most relevant works in the show was Gerda Kastl's painting "Approaching Hoofbeats: The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse." That this image of sinister symbolic figures emerging from clouds above the Manhattan skyline was actually painted prior to 9/11 made this work not only powerful but prophetic and garnered the artist much media attention.

Raul Manzano, an artist who has had made The Statue of Liberty a recurring theme in his work was another auspicious presence. Manzano's Magic Realist painting of the statue seen from behind, facing toward the Twin Towers, magically restored by the power of art, was especially affecting.

Lady Liberty also figures prominently in Bill Heard's large, horizontal harborscape "Blue on Blue," as well as in another canvas of tourists gazing from the observation windows in her crown, set against a starry nocturnal sky. Heard, like Manzano, is a painter who imbues realism with strong emotional content.

The internationally exhibited Swedish-born artist Benny H.V. Andersson may or may not have had the victims of 9/11 in mind when he painted "Angels Over Manhattan," a spiritually uplifting little picture, in which the city's glowing lights competes with the numinous beings soaring through the night sky. In any case, this image seems a suitable tribute, as do other meticulously painted visionary compositions by Andersson in the series entitled "The Other Side," depicting tiny figures in heavenly vistas.

The most abstract painter in the show is Joanne Turney, whose canvases combine lyricism with rugged tactility in a manner akin to color field painters such as Jules Olitski. However, Turney's scroll painting, "Springtime in NY," an acrylic on canvas with agate, captures a sense of its subject in nonobjective terms.

Donna Cameron, Brooklyn Bridge, archival pigment on canvas

Donna Cameron, a McDowell fellowship recipient whose avant garde films are in the collection of MOMA, also takes an abstract approach in works in archival pigment on canvas such as "Brooklyn Bridge," where a familiar landmark is schematized in a compelling geometric composition.

Equally abstract in their own manner, the digital photographs of Carlos Esguerra extract a severe geometry from light and shadow on the glassy facades of familiar corporate sites such as Metlife and Citigroup Center. Esguerra's pictures make us see the dynamic thrust of our native urban architecture from new and exciting angles.

Most of the artists in this show, however, take a more representative approach. Patti Mollica captures local color in boldly slashing strokes in paintings such as "Gridlock," in which cars, buses and yellow cabs caught in stasis create a strong composition, and "TKTS," where a familiar Times Square ticket outlet comes alive with vigorous hues.

The C-prints of photographer Jolene Varley Handy capture similar subjects from yet another highly original perspective. Handy's "Times Square NYC" focuses on the patchwork patterns of Broadway show posters over a Sbarros pizzeria, with pedestrians and colorful traffic adding to the lively visual cacophony at street-level.

Then there is Melissa Fleming, whose digital prints present the quieter poetry of watertanks and bridges silhouetted dramatically against deep blue skies. Fleming also gives us her own interpretation of Times Square as a jumble of neon signs scribbled onto darkness like Cy Twombly's elegant graffiti.

Curator Renée Phillips scored a real success with this sharply focused gem of a group show, which held up a mirror to the city in a suitably public space, inspiring a sense of civic pride among all who passed through the Equity Properties Lobby.