Elisa Contemporary Art Room 227
FIVE FEMALE ARTISTS EAST COAST
WEST COAST
Amy Genser
Kimber Berry
Heidi Whitman
Stephanie Cate Carol Bennett
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Elisa Contemporary Art at Aqua Art Miami Five Female Artists from the Coasts Elisa Contemporary Art will be presenting five female artists from the East and West Coasts at the 2016 edition of Aqua Art Miami in Room 227. From the East Coast, two paper constructionists will be shown – one inspired by City Grids, Ancient Ruins and how the Mind works, the other reimagining Nature. Boston artist, Heidi Whitman, will have her Lost City series featured. According to Whitman, the inspiration for this series is “The structure of the city and the structure of the mind. I’m interested in states of mind, how experience is translated into thought, how memories are layered, and how dreams jumble reality. Contemporary city grids and plans of ancient ruins are layered and edited along with references to mental networks.” These paper constructions are built from drawings in ink, gouache, and acrylic. Boundaries and often conflict are part of these "deconstructions" or mental mash-ups. The depth of the work varies as shadows and cut or painted shapes interact. Connecticut artist, Amy Genser sources her inspiration from Nature and the Seas, “I often look to the natural world for inspiration. I am fascinated by the flow of water, the organization of beehives, and the organic irregularity of plants, flowers, rock formations, barnacles, moss, and seaweed. Aerial views of our landscape can also be compelling; it is interesting how the organization of our landscape becomes quilt-like when viewed from above.”
Genser’s dimensional artwork is created from rolled and cut sheets mounted on painted board or canvas. The papers are rolled from 12" strips of a variety of multi-colored papers providing contrast and diversity with each group. The rolls are sealed and cut into a range of sizes – each is push or pulled or squeezed to provide a unique shape and viewer engagement.
Heidi Whitman Mappamundi (1) Ink, Gouache, Acrylic, Paper, Shadows 30 x 30 x 2, Shadowbox framed to 35x 35 x 3
Elisa Contemporary Art www.ElisaContemporaryArt.com Lisa@ElisaArt.com 212.729.4974
Heidi Whitman Lost City of A Ink, Gouache, Acrylic, Paper, Shadows 28 x 18.5 x 2, Shadowbox framed to 33 x 23.5 x 3
Elisa Contemporary Art www.ElisaContemporaryArt.com Lisa@ElisaArt.com 212.729.4974
Heidi Whitman Lost City of A Ink, Gouache, Acrylic, Paper, Shadows 43 x 31 x 2, Shadowbox framed to 48 x 36 x 3 Elisa Contemporary Art www.ElisaContemporaryArt.com Lisa@ElisaArt.com 212.729.4974
Amy Genser Lochness Landslide Rolled Paper and Acrylic on Canvas 12 x 36 x 1.5 Shadowbox framed to 17 x 41 x 2
Elisa Contemporary Art www.ElisaContemporaryArt.com Lisa@ElisaArt.com 212.729.4974
Amy Genser Tanzanite Glow Rolled Paper and Acrylic on Canvas 18 x 18 x 1.5 Shadowbox framed to 22 x 22 x 2
Elisa Contemporary Art www.ElisaContemporaryArt.com Lisa@ElisaArt.com 212.729.4974
Amy Genser Moss Octopus Rolled Paper and Acrylic on Canvas 18 x 18 x 1.5 Shadowbox framed to 22 x 22 x 2
Elisa Contemporary Art www.ElisaContemporaryArt.com Lisa@ElisaArt.com 212.729.4974
Elisa Contemporary Art www.ElisaContemporaryArt.com Lisa@ElisaArt.com 212.729.4974
Elisa Contemporary Art will be presenting five female artists from the East and West Coasts at the 2016 edition of Aqua Art Miami in Room 227. From the West Coast, the work Abstract Artwork of Flow Artist, Kimber Berry and Emerging Artist Stephanie Cate will be highlighted. Our exhibit features the Plastic Gardens series by Berry, and the Europa series by Cate as well as debuting her Alchemy series Both are inspired by organic World, but in very different ways. According to Berry, the Plastic Gardens series focuses on how we live and interact with Nature. “How are we, as a society, going to create harmony and balance with the Earth? Is the creation of plastic gardens enough to offset the damage we're doing?.. I've constructed this series of paintings inspired by these plastic gardens. Plastic refers both to the materials I use, but also to the flexibility of these organic environments to exist and take any form the gardener wishes. Continuing my exploration of digital and paint, reality and illusion, new and old technology to take a closer look into the duality of societal expansion and growth. We need to ask ourselves what is our true relationship with nature?” Berry uses digitally manipulated photographs of paint, natural and plastic organic plants and flowers along side and embedded in actual paint.. The Europa Series by Cate is based on the moon, Europa and Stephanie’s fascination with this planet, it’s structure and the potential for life. Europa (Jupiter II), is the sixth-closest moon of Jupiter, and the sixth-largest moon in the Solar System. It is slightly smaller than Earth's moon and is unique in the solar system, being thought to have a global ocean of water in contact with a rocky seafloor. If the ocean is proven to exist, Europa could be a promising place to look for life beyond Earth. Its surface is smooth and bright, consisting of water ice crisscrossed by long, linear fractures. This dynamic environment is captured in the thick acrylic brushstrokes on wood panel. We will also be featuring the Water and Swimmer artwork by Hawaii artist Carol Bennett. Bennett uses water as a meditative journey through space and life. “Presently I’m fixated on just water itself, always present yet moving and changing, first it’s a mirror and then a window.” The exhibit will include a series of new works created on a hand-grained wood paper.
Kimber Berry A Walk through Wonderland Mixed Media on Canvas 48 x 36
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Kimber Berry Pixie Dust and Other Magic Mixed Media on Canvas 40 x 30
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Kimber Berry Thank you for the Magic Carpet Ride Mixed Media on Canvas 48 x 48
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Stephanie Cate Europa 21 Acrylic on Wood Panel 48 x 36
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Stephanie Cate Europa 22 Acrylic on Wood Panel 48 x 36
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Stephanie Cate Alchemy Acrylic on Wood Panel 48 x 36
Elisa Contemporary Art www.ElisaContemporaryArt.com Lisa@ElisaArt.com 212.729.4974
Stephanie Cate Saturn 13 (left) Acrylic on Paper 18 x 24 (framed to 26 x 32)
Elisa Contemporary Art www.ElisaContemporaryArt.com Lisa@ElisaArt.com 212.729.4974
Stephanie Cate Europa 2 Study (right) Acrylic on Paper 24 x 18 (framed to 32 x 26)
Carol Bennett Dissolve Acrylic, Oil and Varnish on Wood 24 x 24
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Carol Bennett Open (Periwinkle) Acrylic, Oil and Varnish on Hand Wood-Grained Paper 9.25 x 13.5
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Carol Bennett Archer Acrylic, Oil and Varnish on Hand Wood-Grained Paper 8 x 12
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About the Artists: Carol Bennett She is a native of Los Angeles, who has spent the last 20 years living in Hawaii in Kaua'i. She spends all of her time surrounded by water, and a great deal within it. Her work is a meditative journey through both the water and through life. She is intrigued by how life continues to flow and change, being both in the moment and timeless. The viewer will experience being in a state “flow” – where the currents of the ocean suspend life and self, and the unexpected floats to the surface. Carol’s fascination with the swimmer imagery began when she was living in Los Angeles and swimming at the LA Athletic Club. According to Carol, “The floor beneath the pool, with its ethereal skylight, was an underwater observation room...used by Olympic coaches in the 1920's. I would feel like a voyeur, watching the swimmer's private time and drawing in their beauty. I became the swimmer I observed in the images I later created.” Her work has been featured in many solo and group exhibits throughout the US. Carol has created a number of public art commissions worldwide including “Water as a Point of Departure” for the Nawiiwili Harbor in Oahu and a 48' x 8' photovoltaic glass canopy for the Hawai'i State Art Museum Sculpture Garden. Her work is in numerous public and private collections including The Contemporary Museum of Art (Hawaii) and The Persis Collection of Contemporary Art. Elisa Contemporary Art has been representing her art since 2008. Kimber Berry Kimber is a Los Angeles artist, who is part of the "Flow Movement," a term coined by Art Critic (and curator) Peter Frank. Her artwork is vibrant and dynamic mixed media combining acrylics, resins and digitally altered photographs of her paint-strokes. As a native of LA, Kimber loves to blur the line between what is real and what is illusion.
She has received a lot of positive attention from art critics and curators on the West Coast and has been featured in solo and group shows in New York, LA, Atlanta and London. She has been part of recent exhibits at the Riverside Museum and the Huntington Beach Art Center in California. Her work is in public and private collections around the world. Kimber was recently featured in Hamptons Cottages & Gardens, Ocean Home and Flaunt. In 2013, she created an installation at Terminal 3 at LAX. Kimber is also part of the Artists Pension Trust. Stephanie Cate Stephanie Cate is an abstract painter based out of Los Angeles, California. She spent most of her childhood in France, before relocating to Los Angeles, California at fourteen. She spent a couple of years as an apprentice for a muralist in Santa Monica, painting large scale murals for casinos in Las Vegas and private residences before she decided to pursue her own artistic path. She attended Massachusetts College of Art and Design in Boston, receiving a BFA in painting. Being surrounded by the history and architecture of France as a child and the grand decaying beauty of former centuries left an early impression on her that still influences her work to this day. After working for over a decade in a photographic based mixed-media process, Stephanie returned to her original love of pure abstraction to delve in further and reconnect with freshness and liberation of texture, line, shape and color. Stephanie's work is in public and private collections including Kelly Wearstler, Renee Zell-
About the Artists: Amy Genser Mixed Media artist Amy Genser makes dimensional paper collages. These colorful, textural, one-of-a-kind wall pieces embody movement and processes. She masterfully manipulates paper -- each piece being cut, rolled and stacked -- to mimic organic forms and natural processes. While starting as flat piles of paper, her artwork builds and grows into 3dimensional constructions filled with color, texture and patterns. Amy explains her work by saying, “I look for forms that can be repeated to create a pattern when they are joined. My work tries to capture the essence of an experience or an image I have seen.” Her exploration of paper as medium began in a papermaking and bookmaking class she took, while studying for her graduate degree in graphic design at Rhode Island School of Design. Today, her work has been exhibited at many venues throughout the United States and is in public and private collections worldwide including a large installation at the Nemours Alfred I duPont Hospital for Children in Delaware and the Ronald McDonald House in San Francisco. She been featured in publications such as Architectural Digest and This is Collossal. She earned her MFA in Graphic Design from the Rhode Island School of Design. Heidi Whitman Heidi Whitman’s paper constructions, paintings, and drawings are invented terrains or mental maps. Contemporary city grids and maps of ancient ruins are primary references. Whitman’s work was featured in Katharine Harmon’s book The Map as Art, Princeton Architectural Press, 2009. In 2007 Whitman completed a commission for the City of Cambridge (Jill Brown-Rhone Park). Her public and private collections include the McMullen Museum of Art, the Boston Public Library, IBM, Simmons College, Bank of America, Boston University, the Federal Reserve, JPMorgan Chase, and Fidelity Investments. She graduated from the University of California at Berkeley and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Whitman is a recipient of the Clarissa Bartlett Traveling Scholarship awarded by the Trustees of the Museum of Fine Arts. She is a faculty member at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts.
Elisa Contemporary Art www.ElisaContemporaryArt.com Lisa@ElisaArt.com 212.729.4974
About Elisa Contemporary Art Elisa Contemporary Art represents a portfolio of both emerging and mid-career contemporary artists, with a focus on the dynamic use of mediums and materials. Currently about 25% of our artists are from the West Coast/Pacific. Our art and artists do not fit into any particular current trend or fashion, but are those exploring and testing the boundaries of various media, techniques, materials and ideas about humanity, nature and our world.
Founded in 2007 by Lisa Cooper, Elisa Contemporary Art is dedicated to promoting the appreciation and collection of art as a way to enrich and heal our lives, our communities, and the world. A portion of every gallery sale is donated to charities helping underserved children heal through art. We support Free Arts NYC and The Art Therapy Project (formerly Art Therapy Outreach Center). Elisa Contemporary Art has participated in international art fairs in New York, Miami and the Hamptons. We have also curated over 15 public art exhibits in the Tri-State area. Elisa Contemporary Art has been featured in a number of publications including Ocean Home Magazine, Hamptons Cottages & Gardens, New York Spaces and The New York Times. The Gallery is located at 5622 Mosholu Avenue, Riverdale NY. Elisa Contemporary Art www.ElisaContemporaryArt.com Lisa@ElisaArt.com 212.729.4974
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