Roost Restaurant & Union Arts Center

BridgeMusik Summer Festival Young Artist Concert 1
2019-08-04 18:30 - 20:30 (America/New_York) | Roost Union Arts Center, 2 Union Street, Sparkill, NY, 10976, United States
Join us for BridgeMusik Summer Festival Young Artist Concert #1 at the beautiful Union Arts Center in Sparkill. Program will feature solo works by a group of talented flutists, violinists and cellists from the South Orangetown Central School District as well as from neighboring schools in NY and NJ. The program will also feature the Young Artist Festival Orchestra assisted by festival faculty and performing works by Pachelbel, Gershwin, Porter and Coldplay. Concert is FREE (Sugg. donation: $10/adult and $5/student via Eventbrite).

Drawing With Fire (Quincy Hall)
2019-08-01 17:00 - 19:00
About The Exhibit

Opening Reception: Thursday, August 1, 5:00 – 7:00PM | More Info
Through Friday, September 27, 2019

This series of drawings was begun during an Artist Fellowship at the Creative Glass Center of America, Wheaton Arts Center in 2014. The most recent edition was created at Urban Glass in Brooklyn, NY in 2019.
In this body of work I work directly on paper, drawing with molten glass. As in all work with hot glass, the artist must work quickly- almost as if it were a dance. The resulting imagery reflects this sense of immediacy, creating gestural marks that reflect the quality of molten glass itself.

About The Artist

Joan Harmon received her Bachelors Degree of Fine Arts from the California College of Art where she began working in hot glass and worked directly with William Morris and Dale Chihuly at Pilchuck Glass School, Stanwood, Washington in its early years. She received her Master of Fine Arts in Drawing and Sculpture from Rutgers University. Harmon has received numerous grants and fellowships including an Honorarium from Burning Man in 2017. She is a sculptor and multimedia artist who works in a variety of media including cast cement, wood, fired clay, glass and wax and sometimes incorporating sound and light.

BridgeMusik Summer Festival Chamber Concert
2019-07-28 19:00 - 20:30
Join us for a BridgeMusik Summer Festival Chamber Concert at the beautiful Union Arts Center in Sparkill. Featured artists include soprano Halley Gilbert with Tanya Witek (flute, BridgeMusik co-founder), Krystof Witek (violin, BridgeMusik co-founder), Kevin Matson (violin, The Elizabeth Faidley Studio Faculty), Vincent Lionti (viola, The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra), Frederick Zlotkin (cello, New York City Ballet Orchestra Principal). We are also very excited to present our new initiative BridgeMusik Singers – a youth chorus under the direction of Priscilla Peña-Carney (choral faculty, South Orangetown Central School District). Program includes works by Bach, Mozart, Handel-Halvorsen, Villa-Lobos, Gershwin as well as a surprise appearance by a very special guest. Tickets on Eventbrite ($20/adult, $10/student).

Schumann – The Complicated Genius
2019-04-28 15:00 - 17:00
Sparkill Concert Series presents: Schumann – The Complicated Genius
(Pre-Concert lecture Dr. Lisa Yui)
Oxana Mikhailoff and Vassily Primakov have known each other for nearly 30 years. Both spent their formidable years at the Moscow State Conservatory under the tutelage of the legendary professor, Vera Gornostaeva. Sharing these experiences created an unbreakable bond between these two pianists that inspires them to perform such substantial programs educating and entertaining their audiences.
Complete Piano Sonatas.
Sonata #1 F Sharp Minor op.11
Sonata #2 G Minor op.22
Oxana Mikhailoff, piano
Sonata #3 F Minor op.14
“Concerto without an Orchestra”
Vassily Primakov, piano

The Laurence Hobgood Trio feat. The Solar String Quartet
2019-04-27 20:00 - 22:00
t e s s e t e r r a: CD Release Concert
With t e s s e t e r r a, Laurence Hobgood combines his love of jazz trio and composing for string quartet with nuanced and exquisite arrangements of the “expanded songbook” – repertoire ranging from Cole Porter to Sting, Hoagie Carmichael to Paul McCartney, Chopin to Crosby Stills & Nash. t e s s e t e r r a embodies the signature style of composing and arranging Hobgood has become known for: imaginatively innovative yet melodically memorable. This concert features The Laurence Hobgood Trio: Laurence Hobgood, piano, Jared Schonig, drums, and Matthew Clohesy, bass – with The Solar String Quartet- Leonor Falcon and Tomoko Omura, violin; Jen Herman, viola; and Brian Sanders, cello.
Click here for Video
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t e s s e t e r r a is Laurence’s new program of standards re-woven for jazz trio and string quartet. Titles are as diverse as Wichita Lineman, Blackbird, Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic, We Shall Overcome — even a Chopin Waltz (Opus 64 no. 2 in C#Minor), all vividly arranged in a style we’re calling “third stream nouveau” — the sound of the string quartet brings a definite classical element to this project, but the central idea is for the trio to shine as a fully functioning jazz trio, weaving improvisatory exploration within the fabric of thoroughly composed orchestrations.
The words “weaving” and “fabric” are quite intentional; the word t e s s e t e r r a is Laurence’s invention, and translates roughly as “the sonic fabric of the world.” It’s an amalgam of tessitura and terra. Terra is latin for ‘earth’; ‘tessitura’ means ‘texture’ in Italian but musically refers to the most favorable portion of a voice’s (or instrument’s) overall range. So perhaps an even more accurate definition would be “the world’s most pleasing musical textures.”

Laurence Hobgood’s new album is grounded in a deep and rich musicality… like nothing I’ve heard in decades. It is at different times surprising, thought-provoking, nuanced, and always exquisite. What do Debussy, Ravel, Miles Davis and Johnny Cash have in common? They were all superb crafters of melody, harmony and rhythm who decided, as Hobgood does here, to explore texture-driven music, elevating timbre and orchestration to equal standing with their better known musical accomplices. Hobgood is continually pulling rabbits out of hats, getting me to rethink and re-feel songs I’ve heard thousands of times, shining a light on hidden structure and interplays I had never noticed before. From meter shifts to harmonic innovation and textural elegance, tesseterra should be on every playlist for years to come.
~DR. DANIEL J. LEVITIN, MUSICOLOGIST, PRODUCER, AND AUTHOR OF THIS IS YOUR BRAIN ON MUSIC

Tchaikovsky. Album Op. 72 -By Asiya Korepanova
2019-01-25
About The Exhibit

Closing Reception: TBD
Through January 25, 2019

Tchaikovsky. Album Op. 72: by Asiya Korepanova
This exhibition is by the illustrious Russian pianist, Asiya Korepanova. It showcases 18 works in mixed media, all of which are inspired by Tchaikovsky’s last piano work, “Morceaux opus 72.” The collection represents impressions, images, and feelings based on the work. The Tchaikovsky work struck Asiya, because “you can hear sadness written in a major key,” she says.
The Album Op. 72 was originally issued in 2010, and is dedicated to the 170th anniversary of the composer’s birth. The premiere performance took place in Moscow’s International House of Music on October 28, 2010.
Click below to learn more and read her corresponding poems that go along with these drawings:
https://www.asiyakorepanova.com/tchaikovsky-album-op-72
Asiya Korepanova is a creative force. Her virtuosity as a pianist is best defined by a supreme level of technical aptitude, combined with her acutely individualized musical interpretations. A broad and unique artist, she expresses herself through several mediums; transcription, visual arts, poetry and composition. Through exploring and combining these art forms, Asiya continually rediscovers new ways to apply her creativity. Having an extensive piano repertoire, she is most fond of performing entire piano cycles. She is currently the only pianist to perform the complete 24 Franz Liszt Etudes at the same recital, a collection of pieces notorious for their prowess and dexterity, each etude effectively serving as a symphonic poem within itself.
Learn more here: https://www.asiyakorepanova.com/about

About The Artist

Photo by Emil Matveev

2019 Annual Members Exhibition
2019-01-24 18:00 - 20:00
About The Exhibit

Through March 1st

Edward Hopper House Museum & Study Center Presents:
2019 Annual Members Exhibition
January 27 – March 1st
Hopper House Members Exhibition Opening Reception
Thursday January 24, 2019
6-8 PM
Hopper House Members Exhibition Artists’ Talk
Saturday February 9th
2-5 PM

Patron Of The Arts Sunday
2018-11-26 18:00 - 21:00
About The Exhibit

Opening Reception: Sunday November 26, 6pm-9pm
Closing Reception: Sunday January 28, 2018 6pm-9pm
Through Sunday January 28, 2018

Be a patron of the arts this holiday season! Join us in celebrating excellent local artists– and enter to win a discount on your purchase of original art priced under $1000!
Post your new purchase on Instagram for a chance to win a 10% refund off the sale price of the work.
The winning patron must tag @unionartscenterny and the artist in the post of their purchased artwork. The patron with the most likes at 8:30pm 11/26/2017 and 8:30pm 1/28/2018 wins. Patrons must purchase a piece from Patron of the Arts Sunday to qualify to win the 10% refund. Two chances to win!
Participating artists:
Kathy Baruffi
Anne Bell @sohoartist
Ever Blanco Velverde @everblancoart
Giorgi Bliadze
Julie Cahn @Florafreidan
Michael Thomas Calabro @michaelthomascalabro
Charis Carmichael Braun @charisjcarmichaelbraun
Peter Ceccon @garageartgallery00
Diane Churchill @art88tk
Jane Cowles @janeccowles
Marisol Diaz @amarettogirl
Zinnor Dogonata @nyislamicarts
Betsy Feeney Franco @betsfeeney
Dan Fiore @4flowersphotos
Melissa Forbes @melissaforbes8
Ron Garafolo @rongarolfalo9
Catherine V Graham @CVGrahamart
William Graziano @grazianowilliam
Elinor A. Holland @nycalligrapher
Isabella Jacob
Behnaz Karjoo @behnazkarjoo
Alex Katsenelinboigen @Alexander46863
Lisa Lebofsky @lisa_lebofsky
Evelyn C. Lewis @evelynclewis
Daniel Lombardo @dslombardo101658
Helen Mangano @unzip_zipup
Elena McCabe @naturaly_adorned
Char Norman @charstegernorman
Rose Pizzi @codeu1
Karen Rossen @rossenkaren
Lori Shorin @lorishorin
Justin Smith @justinsmith_art
Lynn Marie Stein @lynnmariestein
Toralf Sumchen @monorecorder
Frances Wells @hudsonpainter

Scripted: Carole P. Kunstadt
2018-09-27 17:00 - 20:00
About The Exhibit

Closing Reception: September 27, 2018 5:00 – 8:00 pm | More Info
Through September 30, 2018

Union Arts Center presents Scripted: Carole P. Kunstadt, a solo exhibition featuring selections from Kunstadt’s Sacred Poem and Markings Series are a vehicle for the exploration of life’s vulnerabilities, an expression of gratitude and a platform for sanctity, contemplation and playfulness.
On display in Gallery One through September 30, 2018 Gallery Hours: Tues/Wed 1 – 4 pm, Thurs/Fri 4 – 7 pm, Sat/Sun. by appointment only.

About The Artist

I received a BFA, magna cum laude, from Hartford Art School, West Hartford, Connecticut, with a concentration in two-dimensional studies and continued with postgraduate studies at the Akademie der Bildenen Künste in Munich, Germany.
As a collagist, painter, book arts and fiber artist I often invoke a metaphysical quality of contemplation and timelessness. My works on/of paper reference the material of antique books, music manuscripts, ephemera and photo postcards – deconstructing paper, images and text, and using it in metaphorical ways. Through the exploration and manipulation of the antique materials, history, memory and time merge in a hybrid form. My devotion to books is inspired by the ability of the written word to take the reader to other places through stories, poems and prayers. My process reveals how language can become visual through re-interpretation.
I have been selected as one of eight yearly solo exhibitions at the Woodstock Artists Association & Museum by Gallery Owner Kenise Barnes scheduled for December 2018.
I am honored to be the recipient of the 2017 Kuniyoshi Fund Award selected by members of
The Kuniyoshi Fund Committee in cooperation with the Woodstock Artists Association & Museum Award Committee as well as the Medal of Honor & The Anna Walinska Memorial Award in 2017 by the National Association of Women Artists.
In celebration of the Sunken Garden Poetry Festival’s 25th Anniversary in 2017, the Hill-Stead Museum, Farmington, CT presented Boundless: Altered Book in Contemporary Art – I guest curated three unique approaches to transforming and exploring the malleability of the form, creating new structures and experiences of the codex. Works by Erin Walrath, Chris Perry and Carole P. Kunstadt were installed among the many rare first editions and early volumes in the Pope family’s historic personal library.
May – July 2018, ArtsWestchester’s Inaugural Triennial showcases my new series, PRESSING ON, having been recently previewed in Paper, Rock, Scissors at Five Points Gallery, Torrington, CT. My Sacred Poems were showcased in Books Undone: the art of altered books in contemporary art, Penn College, Williamsport, PA and in WORD 2016 at The Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art, Peekskill, NY. Numerous group exhibitions throughout the United States which have featured my work are notably, Slash: Paper Under the Knife, Museum of Arts & Design, New York, NY; The Divine and Sublime, Drawing Rooms, Jersey City, NJ; PATTERNS, Wired Gallery, High Falls, NY; Reader’s Art: Concealed, Confined and Collected, Minnesota Center for Book Arts, Minneapolis, MN; Materials: Hard & Soft, Denton, TX; Abstract Evocative and Far & Wide, Woodstock Artists Association & Museum, Woodstock, NY; The Book: A Contemporary View, Delaware Center for Contemporary Arts, Wilmington, DE; NEW YORK REGIONAL, Magnitude SEVEN and Textuality, Manifest Creative Research Gallery and Drawing Center, Cincinnati, OH; The Book As Art, Decatur Arts Alliance, Decatur, GA; and in Canada, The Art of the Book 2013, Canadian Bookbinders and Book Artists Guild, Calgary, Alberta.
The Everhart Museum of Natural History, Science & Art, Scranton, PA showcased a selection of my Sacred Poems in Between The Covers: Altered Books in Contemporary Art. The Museum of Biblical Art, New York, NY featured my complete Old Testament Seriesin the exhibition As Subject and Object: Contemporary Book Artists Explore Sacred Hebrew Texts. Representative works from the Old Testament Series were featured in And The Word Is…. in the Gershman Gallery at the University of the Arts, Philadelphia, PA and were included in Somewhere Between Creation and Destruction, Joseloff Gallery, Hartford Art School. Concurrent in Hartford, CT, in partnership, the Clare Gallery and the Charter Oak Cultural Center presented Between The Lines: Works by Carole P. Kunstadt – two consecutive solo exhibitions from September through December 2014, providing a survey of past and current work.
The PBS/OFF BOOK Book Arts mini-documentary in the series on progressive arts, features Kunstadt in the segment, Transforming the Sacred. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eC4fLk-XeeI
Public Collections include George J. Mitchell Department of Special Collections & Archives, Bowdoin College Library, Brunswick, ME; The Book Arts Collection of the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, DC; The Permanent Collection of the Center for Book Arts, New York, NY; Montclair State University Collection, Montclair, NJ; Curt Teich Postcard Archives, Lake County Discovery Museum, Wauconda, IL.

BridgeMusik: an Evening of Classical Solo & Chamber Music
2018-08-06 19:30 - 21:30
We are excited to welcome BridgeMusik to Union Arts Center featuring world-class performers and young up-and-coming student musicians in concert together. Please join us on August 6th at 7:30pm for an evening of delightful solo and chamber pieces featuring BridgeMusik Festival students and faculty.
Tanya and Krystof Witek founded BridgeMusik to create bridges between aspiring young musicians, professional artists and the community. The Witeks were inspired to initiate a new local arts collaboration after watching their own children, Annamaria and Lukas, thrive in the award-winning public school music program of the South Orangetown Central School District. BridgeMusik hopes to enrich the outstanding work of the teachers and students already happening in local schools and conservatories. Many thanks to the Union Arts Center in Sparkill, NY for their support of this endeavor.
Tanya Witek is a member of the New York City Ballet Orchestra and the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra at Lincoln Center. She has performed with American Ballet Theater, the Metropolitan Opera, the New York Philharmonic, and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. Formerly on the faculty at Montclair State University, she has also worked as a teaching artist for the New York Philharmonic, Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center Institute. Ms. Witek received her Master and Doctoral degrees from The Juilliard School as a student of Carol Wincenc.
Krystof Witek plays violin on Broadway with the Lion King orchestra and with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra at Lincoln Center. Mr. Witek is also concertmaster of the Greenwich Symphony in Connecticut. Born in Poland, he came to study at the Juilliard School in New York with Joseph Fuchs, where he received his Bachelor, Master and Doctoral Degrees. Mr. Witek has appeared in solo and chamber music concerts in Europe, Canada, Japan and the US. He has performed with the NYC Ballet, NYC Opera, NY Chamber Symphony, Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra and the NY Pops.
BridgeMusik Summer Festival 2018 proudly presents cellist Madeleine Golz.
Ms. Golz is a chamber musician and recitalist and has participated in numerous music festivals, both in the United States and Europe. She served as a member of the artist faculty of the Brevard Music Center in North Carolina for many years and, as a member of the Golz Duo with pianist sister Evelyn, she frequently presented recitals both in the New York area and on the West Coast. She is a founding member of the Zanoli String Trio, in residence at New Jersey City University. Ms. Golz is currently on the faculty of the Manhattan School of Music, where she received her BM and MM degrees, the Thurnauer School of Music in Tenafly, NJ and the New Jersey City University. Her students have been featured on Sesame Street and the Nickelodeon Network, have won many prizes in local, national and international competitions and a number of them have now gone on to have successful careers in music. Her own teachers include Peter and Gabor Rejto, Ardyth Alton and Scott Ballantyne.
BridgeMusik 2018 Summer Festival announces our pianist: Dr. Henry Sung-Ho Yang.
He currently serves as an adjunct faculty member at the New Jersey City University.
Dr. Yang graduated with a Bachelor of Music and Master of Music in piano performance from the New England Conservatory of Music studying under Wha Kyung Byun. He received Doctor of Musical Arts in piano performance (minoring in music theory) at the University of Wisconsin, Madison advised by Christopher Taylor, Brian Hyer, and Leslie Blasius. Since February 2016, he worked at the Thurnauer School of Music as a collaborative pianist before joining the faculty at NJCU.
Introducing our guest flutist and BridgeMusik 2018 Summer Festival Production Assistant: Melissa Aleles.
Ms. Aleles is an Orangetown resident and graduate of SOCSD.
She completed her undergraduate studies at the Conservatory of Music at SUNY Purchase College, where she earned a B.M in Music Performance. She studied with Tara Helen O’Connor, Bart Feller, and Wendy Stern.
Currently Melissa is pursuing her Master’s Degree at the Manhattan School of Music studying under Michael Parloff.

Dreamscapes: Photographs By Qi Zhao
2018-07-19 17:00 - 20:00
About The Exhibit

Opening Reception: Thursday, July 19, 2018, 5 – 8 PM | More Info
Through Tuesday, September 18, 2018

About The Artist

Qi Zhao is an artist that discovered her artistic gift through her life long pursuit for peace. Through her lens, she has captured the world through a dream. Qi Zhao is an arts with insight, passion and a unique perspective. As one explores her pictures, one begins to truly appreciate her use of colors, compositions and the wave of calm and peace that washes over her audience.

Mike Holober & Balancing Act, Jazz Octet
2018-06-17 15:00 - 17:00
Mike Holober & Balancing Act, Jazz Octet, Premiere of Chamber Music America New Jazz Works commission, funded by The Doris Duke Foundation
“Don’t Let Go” is a Chamber Music America New Jazz Works commission and will be premiered at two concerts in the Metropolitan region. This CD-length project is structured as a song-cycle in the tradition of Robert Schumann, Samuel Barber, and Ralph Vaughn-Williams. “Don’t Let Go”explores the nuances and complexities of the concept of “hope” in the context of current social, political, and environmental realities.
Premiere recording Balancing Act was released to critical acclaim in 2015 on Palmetto Records.
“Startlingly creative….emotionally persuasive…” Carlo Wolf, DownBeat
“Full of joy and energy…” Mark Sullivan, All About Jazz
“A work that speaks to both solidarity and individuality..” Dan Bilawsky, All About Jazz
“Find this music and take it into your heart….” Richard B Kamins, Step Tempest
“Approaching the rhapsodic at several turns…” Mel Minter, Musically Speaking
“This exquisite jewel…agile, savvy…extraordinary and compelling” Volker Mantel, Ragazzi

BIO
Mike Holober has established an international reputation as a jazz orchestra composer, arranger and conductor. With the formation of his octet “Mike Holober & Balancing Act,” and the release of its premiere recording in 2015 (Palmetto Records), he has recently refocused his creative energies to a small group format. The intimately scaled instrumentation has provided a vehicle to explore a more personal musical statement.

Abstraction: Eileen Karakashian
2018-05-20 18:00 - 20:00
About The Exhibit

Opening Reception: Sunday, May 20, 2018, 6:00-8:00PM | More Info
Through Saturday, June 23, 2018

About The Artist

Eileen Karakashian received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1994 from the School of Visual Arts in New York City, majoring in Advertising Design. Since graduation she was an art director in advertising, producing both national TV and print campaigns. Her work has been featured in Adweek and Advertising Age magazine. She continued her fine art studies at the Art Students League in NYC, concentrating on painting, design, color, composition and collage.
Today, Karakashian makes paintings and mixed media artworks. By emphasising aesthetics, Eileen tries to develop forms that do not follow logical criteria, but are based only on subjective associations and formal parallels, which incite the viewer to make new personal associations. Her paintings are based on formal associations which open a unique poetic vein.
Multilayered images arise in which the fragility and instability of our seemingly certain reality is questioned. By rejecting an objective truth and global cultural narratives, she creates with daily, recognizable elements, an unprecedented situation in which the viewer is confronted with the conditioning of his own perception and has to reconsider his biased position.

Appalachian Spring: Paintings By Ali Printz
2018-05-20 17:00 - 20:00
About The Exhibit

Opening Reception: Sunday, May 20th, 2018, 6:00-8:00PM | More Info
Through Monday, July 9th

“Appalachian Spring” seeks to give agency to the women of Appalachia, from New York to Georgia, and highlight the rich heritage that the region has contributed to American culture, as well as the stereotypes it has perpetuated. Despite its poverty, religious misconceptions, perceived political leanings and propensity to be taken advantage of for its natural resources, Appalachia is filled with a distinction and beauty that is often overlooked.
Ali Printz uses vintage photographs and sculptural fabric to reconstruct the lives of the forgotten women of Appalachia, while combining elements of contemporary issues facing the region that have been constants in her West Virginia upbringing. Miners, snake charmers, weavers, debutants, and shamans; all have a place for women as cornerstones in the whole of the culture. Through the traditions of folk art and craft combined with traditional portraiture and figuration, Printz hopes to reconstruct the importance of women’s roles as caretakers, heroines, and constants that permeates the culture and history of Appalachia.

About The Artist
Ali Printz is a historical figurative painter and curator who splits her time between Brooklyn and Philadelphia. She works with various mediums including oil, acrylic, collage, sewn fabric, as well as technology based mediums. Ali runs a curatorial and artistic collective with artist and fellow Sotheby’s alum Jenna Gard, known as NewYorkKillsArtists, which showcases the work of unrepresented artists by challenging them to make political and social statements. Her most recent projects include “Debtfair,” a piece by Occupy Museums in the 2017 Whitney Biennial, “Appalachian Spring” a traveling solo show, and a number of group shows in 2018-19.

Ali was born in Martinsburg, West Virginia and considers herself an Appalachian artist. She has lived and worked in Spain, Panama, and Washington, D.C, before moving to New York City for graduate school in 2010. She received her BFA in Painting and a BA in Art History from West Virginia University in 2009 and an MA in Contemporary Art from Sotheby’s Institute of Art in 2012. She is currently pursuing a cross disciplinary PhD in Modern and Contemporary Appalachian Art and Painting at the Tyler School of Art at Temple University.

2017 – 2018 Classical Concert Series Finale
2018-05-20 15:00 - 17:00
To conclude our very successful 2017-2018 season Sparkill Concert Series has aligned a myriad of phenomenal artists. Some of these artists played during our opening season while some will grace our stage for the first time.
Vassily Primakov will play solo, then dazzle the audience with some “one piano four hands” paired first with Natalia Lavrova and then Oxana Mikhailoff. He will also perform in a cello – piano duo with multi-talented Ben Capps.
Special guests include a rising Star countertenor, Logan Tanner, who has been heralded for his striking musicality, thrilling ornamentation and burnished vocal tone.
Joey Chang, who brought the house down at Sparkhill’s April 29th concert, has agreed to return to perform one more improvisation. Avoid having to tell your friends that you missed BOTH opportunities to witness a budding genius.
Don’t miss this spectacular fireworks display of musicians.
Ben Caps, Cello
Natalia Lavrova, Piano
Vassily Primakov, Piano
Logan Tanner, Countertenor
Oxana Mikhailoff, Piano
Music by Handel, Schubert, Schumann, Strauss, Rachmaninoff & more…

WaterWays: Paint Works By Brooks Frederick, Lisa Lebofsky And Elaine Su-Hui
2018-04-22 18:00 - 20:00
About The Exhibit

Opening Reception: Sunday, April 22, 6:00-8:00PM
Through Sunday, May 13

Join Union Arts Center this Earth Day in bearing witness to historic and on-going ecological deviation as depicted by the master painters Brooks Frederick and Lisa Lebofsky. Water Ways also includes an alternative: Reach for peace and harmony that honors our Earth and all of our neighbors with hand painted linoleum block prints by Elaine Su-Hui.

About The Artist

Brooks Frederick is an internationally exhibited artist, an environmentalist, and a social activist. He was raised along the Gulf Coast, and lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. His recent body of paintings—made with oil and tar from the 2010 BP oil spill—have been shown widely, and have inspired community activism against unabashed environmental destruction. Brooks leads collective art making events with people of all ages to find solutions to societal challenges. Brooks Frederick is an active partner with UER (United to End Racism) and Fort Greene Peace. He is an adjunct professor at Adelphi University and the director of the Brooks-lyn Art Academy.
“My work is created with tar from the BP oil spill that was spilled on the wetlands and in the waters near my hometown of Houma, Louisiana. These nontraditional “oil” portraits and landscapes are attempts to represent the human cost for our dependence on fossil fuels. The paintings depict the ancient and mysterious swamps I played in as a boy, and my friends and family that I grew up with along the gulf coast.
In this work, I am trying to take an unflinchingly look at the reality of our increasingly dire environmental predicament, while at the same time showing the dignity of folks who often aren’t given enough consideration- indigenous communities, the working, yet struggling fishermen and shrimpers, and the children who grow up on houses built on fast vanishing wetlands and toxicity. The physical surface of the work shows this struggle, this place between horror and beauty, between the grim and the hopeful.
I long for a day when I can no longer get access to oil greedily and carelessly extracted from my home. I’d like to have a reason to stop making this artwork. But in the meantime, I am grateful for the opportunity to share this work and use it as a starting point to facilitate artistic environmental empowerment workshops that focus on our connection to our precious planet and its waterways.” Brooks Frederick

Lisa Lebofsky is a painter from New York. Her paintings explore the emotional and physical human relationship with nature She holds a BFA in metalsmithing from SUNY New Paltz, and an MFA in painting from the New York Academy of Art. Her work has been exhibited in solo and group shows both nationally and internationally. She has earned the BRIO (Bronx Recognizes Its Own) Grant from the Bronx Council of the Arts (2010, 2014); and is the recipient of several residencies including: Terra Nova National Park, Newfoundland (2010), New Bedford Whaling Museum, MA (2013), Saltonstall Foundation, Ithaca, NY (2014), Jennifer Keefe Studio, Fogo Island, Newfoundland (2017), Cuttyhunk Island, MA (2017), Jentel, WY (2018). Lebofsky finds inspiration by traveling extensively to immerse herself in different environments. Recent travels include Antarctica, Labrador, Greenland, and The Maldives. Currently, Lisa is in the midst of a multiyear mission to paint across North America to better know the changes happening in our environment and the people it is affecting.
“My paintings bear witness and memorialize landscapes facing transformation or extinction as a result of human impact, in order to increase awareness of our changing planet, and inspire through appreciation of the natural world a more responsible and proactive stewardship. To convey these changing and ephemeral environments, I paint on surfaces that remain visible to permeate the entire image, guiding the viewer through various layers of paint. When I use an aluminum surface, the image becomes obliterated when light reflects off of it when viewed from certain positions. This fluctuating luster also mimics the subtle movements of light as experienced in nature. On canvas, I begin with a dark and murky underpainting – often created using elements from nature such as raindrops – that influence the softly painted upper layers of the piece. The push and pull of lights and darks, opacity and transparency, abstract and real, mirrors our complex relationship with nature, while the transient quality of the resulting image enhances the fragility of these endangered scenes. By painting our depleting planet in this dichotomous manner, nature also becomes a metaphor for our emotional struggles and encounters. In humanizing the story of climate change by revealing nature’s vulnerabilities as our own, it is my intention for my audience to be moved to respond personally and proactively.
I find inspiration by traveling extensively, often to remote parts of the world, to immerse myself in different environments and cultures. I seek out areas around the globe that are particularly susceptible to the impacts of climate change, and meet with local residents to discuss how their community is impacted. To a great extent, these personal interactions inform what areas and what subject matter is ultimately painted. I have traveled to regions such as Greenland, Labrador, and The Maldives, either staying on a ship or on the move. Accordingly, I produced small studies en plein air in these locales, later followed by the production of larger paintings in the studio.” Lisa Lebofsky

Elaine Su-Hui Chew (b. 1978, Sydney, Australia) makes prints and drawings about ecology and consciousness. She is also the founder of Inner Fields NY, a roaming events project exploring Buddhist and Taoist philosophy through art, music, ecology and ritual. She has been training in printmaking for the past 15 years and has been the recipient of various printmaking awards, scholarships, fellowships and residencies in New York, San Francisco and Melbourne, Australia. The primary focus of her work is to nurture each viewer’s innate, natural wisdom and offer a reminder of our interdependent relationship with each other and the planet.

An Evening of Tango
2018-04-20 20:00 - 21:30
After two decades performing with the most important interpreters of tango in the United States, Pedro Giraudo debuted his own Tango Orchestra at Lincoln Center’s Midsummer Night Swing in July 2015. The Pedro Giraudo Tango Orchestra features some of the finest tango musicians of today to interpret tangos ranging from the great traditional, classic tangos, to more modern tangos and original compositions.
Among the many noteworthy events in his career, in 2014 Pedro recorded bass on Ruben Blades’ CD “Tangos”, which won two Grammy Awards. He is also the musical director of Tango for All’s “Blind”, Mariela Franganillo Company’s “Tango Connection” and “Tango Recuerdo,” and performed with U.S.’s most prominent tango ensembles including Pablo Ziegler (Piazzolla’s pianist), Luis Bravo’s “Forever Tango,” Hector Del Curto Quintet,” Fernando Otero’s “X-Tango” and Daniel Binelli’s “Tango Metropolis.”
Tickets are $35 and include a glass of beer or Wine or two non Alcoholic drink.

Channeled: Spiritual Abstractions By David Young
2018-04-15
About The Exhibit

Through Sunday, April 15

“Being surrounded by all of this incredible art had a profound effect on me so I started painting again after taking a few years off while I wrote my books.”

About The Artist

Interdisciplinary Artist Composer Channels Paintings from the Spiritual Realm…
Sometimes an artists’ story is as profound as the art he creates. David Young’s new collection of soft abstract contemporary paintings are vibrant, positive and filled with spiritual energy. David Young is also a twice Grammy nominated multi faceted musician known for playing two Renaissance flutes at one time and selling over 1,000,000 copies.
He started his company with his last $100 at Venice Beach in 1990 under the name Celestial Winds and now 300,000 people every day are uplifted by his 60 recorded albums at healing centers around the world. He started painting in 2011, selling his paintings at the biggest art festivals in America. His career transformed into presenting meditation events in 2015 after he wrote three books.
David met his ex girlfriend Maria Del Carmen Alvarez at one of his meditation events in 2016 and had an instant connection. While spending time with her in her Miami apartment, David was inspired by her tremendous collection of original paintings by the most famous Cuban artists: Fabello, Oliva, Choco, Nelson Dominguez and Tomas Sanchez.
https://www.davidyoungart.com

Body Stories by The Embodied Dance Project
2018-04-13 20:00 - 22:00
“Body Stories” by the Embodied Dance Project is a collection of personal narratives carefully woven into choreography by Allison Pagano and dancers with the intention to bridge the healing arts with performance. The ambience of sound healing and live music are designed to create an atmosphere of reflection and healing. This performance features local dancers and guest artists under a theme of “Redefining Relationships.” In unearthing our unheard stories, we begin to transform our relationships with ourselves and each other with the aim of opening to new perspectives, unblocking thought forms and remembering our inherited limitlessness.
Allison is an MFA candidate at Montclair State University and an adjunct professor at Manhattanville College. This production is a culmination of her 20 years in the healing arts combined with the art of performance in completion of her degree at Montclair this May.
More info:
www.embodied-dance.com
Dancers:
Andrea Frade
Contessa Hinderliter
Mellie Lonnemann
Alyssa Padial
Allison Pagano
Rachel Johnson
Byron Romero
Cello:
Claude Gilbert
Sound Healing:
Peter Alexanian

Car Parts: Laurie Peek
2018-03-18 18:00 - 20:00
About The Exhibit

Opening Reception: Sunday March 18, 6:00PM- 8:00PM | More Info
Through Monday April 23, 2018

“‘Car Parts’ is a series I started photographing in the fall of 2012. Attracted to the light and abstract pattern in a reflection on a parked car door, I began noticing these ‘paintings’ on cars everywhere and I set out to collect them. For me these dream-like images combine elements of gestural energy from Abstract Expressionism with the bright colors of Pop Art in a tribute to the glamour that American society has long associated with the automobile. They are akin to what John Chamberlain was doing with his metal sculptures of crushed cars. Coincidently, Chamberlain lived and worked for twenty years in my hometown of Sarasota, Florida, and I think we both responded similarly to the intense Florida sunshine and salt-air rusted metal.
“Looking for the extraordinary in the ordinary, the metal hoods, roofs, bumpers and doors are canvases for my photographic ‘paintings.’ Their bright colors, scrapes and dents speak to me and present enigmatic landscapes of the imagination, refracting reality, waiting quietly in plain sight to be discovered by those who are willing to slow down and observe these hidden vistas in a busy world.”

About The Artist

Laurie Peek is a fine art and documentary photographer with a knack for elevating the everyday. With an MFA in Photography from the Visual Studies Workshop / SUNY Buffalo, she worked at The George Eastman House Museum in Rochester, NY and then taught photography in Washington DC. Moving to New York City, she became a photo librarian for Sygma Photo News and then a photojournalist covering issues like toxic dumps, crime, politics, negligent landlords, as well as anti-nuke and other protest movements for publications that included The Village Voice, Brooklyn Paper, City Limits, The Progressive and NYTimes. As staff photographer for NY City, she documented the city’s community gardens, housing, and Mayor Ed Koch. Peek has exhibited widely in the Hudson Valley and NYC metro area where she is active in local civic and environmental causes.

Olympus Piano Trio
2018-03-18 15:00 - 17:00
Ben Capps, cello • Konstantinos Valianatos, piano • Areta Zhulla, violin
“Astounding…unique in every sense” (Athens Estia);
“passionate commitment to every note…incredibly velvety tone” (NY Concert Review)
Conceived at Juilliard in 2010 to celebrate their passion for chamber music and a shared Hellenic heritage, the Olympus Piano Trio performs a repertoire of classical, romantic and modern masterpieces.

Sparkill Concert Series: Pavel Nersessian
2018-02-11 15:00 - 17:00
We are extremely fortunate and thrilled to present in solo recital one of the most remarkable Russian pianists of his generation. Professor of Piano at Moscow Conservatory and Boston University, laureate of numerous international competitions and Honored Artist of the Russian Federation, Sparkill Concert Series is delighted to present Pavel Nersessian.
The Sparkill Concert Series features sparkling and virtuosic classical piano performances in a unique gallery setting. Union Arts Center’s Quincy Hall showcases a 9′ Yamaha grand piano.
Halo and Horns Kitchen will offer delicacies and a wine-beer bar after the concert, with a special meet and greet with the performer.
Reservations are required by February 1 for the post-concert reception. Advance concert tickets are available until 12pm the day of the performance. Concert-only tickets are available at the door for $30.

Chakras: Melissa Forbes
2018-01-28 16:00 - 18:00
About The Exhibit

Opening Reception: Sunday, January 28th from 4:00PM-6:00PM
Through June 21st

Yantra is a creative visual activation tool that serves as an awakener to discover ones’ soul’s intelligence. I’m sharing seven yantra paintings that contain the Vedic symbols revealed to the Ancient’s. A study of the seven subtle power centers. The details of this model are adapted from the Satcakranirupana, one of the source texts on the chakra model.
My passion for sacred geometry and yoga were unified when I discovered the subtle energetic centers of the body called Chakras – and the associated sacred symbol, yantra and sacred mantra or bija. These are tools for concentration which serve as a path to transformation.
With each Chakra, one finds the meaning of the chakra name, location in the body, Bija, Petal sounds or Vrittis. These are the tendencies of the mind, aspects, element, color, shape of the form, predominate sense, sense organ, work organ, element, Loka (plane), ruling planet, vehicle of the bija and Deity.
I hope you will enjoy my exploration.

About The Artist

Melissa Forbes has been a student of yoga since her mid twenties. Her interest in yoga became more singularly focused after finding inspiration in the tradition of the yogi scholar Shi T. Krishnamacharya and his students Pattabhi Jois, and T.K.V. Desikachar. Melissa began her career teaching Desikachar style yoga and was the co-founder of the internationally renowned Heart of Yoga. She has taught yoga in numerous schools throughout the United States, among them, the Olive Leaf Wholeness Center in New York City, where she worked closely with Dr. Rudolph Ballentine, a student of Swami Rama, who founded the Himalayan Institute.
Melissa began her study of art, as well as dance and movement in her youth. Painting and design, along side dance and movement, are her ongoing passions. Melissa’s art career began with her studies of textile design at the Moore College of Art in Philadelphia, followed by a five-year full scholarship in printmaking at New York’s National Academy Press. She was the recipient of an Ogden M. Pleissner Fellowship, a Nancy O’Malley Fellowship, a Ricky Fingerhut Fellowship and a Ralph Fabri Fellowship. Melissa was also granted the prestigious Pollock-Krasner Grant.
She is presently involved in an independent study of Vedic Yantras, having studied in India with students of Harish Johari. Her Yantric renderings reflect both her artistic expression and intimate experiences of Yogic disciplines. They are quite unique as they combine Eastern and Western Sacred Geometry. Most recently, sixteen of Melissa’s vibrational Yantra art paintings were featured in the book, “Karttikeyan Yogic Method”, published by Gatherinsight.com. Her art has been exhibited in galleries in New York City, Philadelphia, and the United Nations. She maintains a studio in New York while frequently traveling and painting in majestic locations around the world.
For the five years leading up to his passing in 2007, Melissa traveled with the late sage U.G. Krishnamurti, and made Switzerland her home. Upon his passing, Melissa moved back to the United States, and is currently living in the Taconic Hills of New York State. Melissa is presently an Adjunct Professor of Art at the University of New Haven, Connecticut, while continuing to teach yoga.
In addition to her interests and experiences in yoga and art, Melissa has formally studied Neuro-Linguistic Programming under Richard Bandler cofounder of NLP, Shiatsu (Certified Ohashiatsu Practitioner), Certified Divine Intervention TeacherMinister, and Certified Teacher of Mayan Sacred Geometry, graduate of Suluk Academy school of Sufi studies, the Four Wind Society Light Body School and the American Viniyoga Institute EYT 500 hour program.
She is the author of No Teaching Yoga, The Authentic Guide, a work reflecting her time with U.G. Krishnamurti, a brief history of yoga, a collection of Vedic Yantras and Melissa’s eight Miracle Combination practices.

Edward Hopper House: Various Artist Members
2018-01-21 16:00 - 18:00
About The Exhibit

Opening Reception: January 21, 4-6pm
Through March 11, 2018

Artist Members of the Edward Hopper House are featured in this annual show. Browse some images of the show below.

Sparkill Concert Series: Oxana Mikhailoff & Vassily Primakov
2018-01-07 15:00 - 17:00
Join us for a very special celebration of Russian Christmas. Acclaimed pianists Oxana Mikhailoff and Vassily Primakov will perform one piano four-hand works by Schubert, Schumann, Mendelssohn, Bortkiewicz, Mussorgsky and Tchaikovsky.
Vassily Primakov was recently called “a pianist’s pianist. He is a giant of the keyboard.” (Deseret News, Salt Lake City). Since the release of his recording of the Chopin Piano Concertos, Vassily Primakov has been hailed as a pianist of world class importance. Gramophone wrote “Primakov’s empathy with Chopin’s spirit could hardly be more complete.”
Oxana Mikhailoff was hailed in a recent review by Jon Sobel as “a titan of the Romantic Piano Literature.” Of her playing, Vladimir Feltsman said “…(Oxana Mikhailoff) is a mature and accomplished musician…Her playing has character, imagination, and is poetic. She has a strong personality and stage presence.”
The Sparkill Concert Series features sparkling and virtuosic classical piano performances in a unique gallery setting. Union Arts Center’s Quincy Hall showcases a 9′ Yamaha grand piano.
Halo and Horns Kitchen will offer delicacies and a wine-beer bar after the concert, with a special meet and greet with the musicians.
February 11: Pavel Nersessian
Reservations are required by January 5 for the post-concert reception. Advance concert tickets are available until 12pm the day of the performance. Concert-only tickets are available at the door for $30.

Gypsy Jazz Christmas
2017-12-15 20:00 - 22:00
Come celebrate the holidays with the swingingest Gypsy Jazz versions of Christmas favorites! These are not the same old tired versions of traditional Christmas songs but brand new, reworked arrangements.
Jazz guitar virtuoso Doug Munro has an insatiable appetite for all things jazz. On his critically acclaimed CD, “A Very Gypsy Christmas” Doug demonstrates his long standing love affair with the music of Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli. Doug has been presenting this annual holiday show to enthusiastic audiences since its 2011 release.
Featuring Howie Bujese, Michael Goetz, and Vinny Raniolo
“It’s tough to keep the knees and feet from moving! Wonderful!” -Wall Street Journal

Doug Munro: Master musician and guitarist Doug Munro is an established veteran of the New York music scene. Since 1986 he has released 18 albums as a leader and has appeared on over 75 recordings as a sideman, producer, and arranger working with a diverse array of artists including Dr. John, Michael Brecker, and Dr. Lonnie Smith. Doug has over 75 original published compositions and over 300 recorded arrangements performed by some of the finest players in the world. Doug’s latest release, “Doug Munro and La Pompe Attack: The Harry Warren Songbook” is a Gypsy Swing infused tribute to Doug’s great uncle Harry Warren. In the recording field Doug has received two Grammy nominations and two NAIRD awards. Amazon.com picked Boogaloo to Beck, on which Doug performed, arranged, and co-produced, as one of its Top Ten Jazz CD’s of 2003. Doug also did orchestration work on the Oscar winning documentary When We Were Kings. In 2011 “A Very Gypsy Christmas “ was picked as one of the top five holiday releases by the Wall Street Journal. As an educator Doug created and was Director of the Jazz Studies Program at The Conservatory of Music at Purchase College from 1993-2002. He continues to teach there as Director Emeritus.

Howie Bujese: A native of Bergen County, New Jersey, Howie first became interested in the violin in the late ’60 when watching a PBS special he heard American Traditional fiddling for the first time. He began traveling to the fiddle conventions in Virginia and North Carolina to learn to play. Over the years Howie studied and learned the traditional fiddling styles of the Southern Appalachians, Ireland, and Scotland and his curiosity eventually led him to Gypsy Jazz. Having no formal training he learned by way of the aural tradition, listening, watching and playing. Howie performs internationally and has played with a broad range of artist from Jonathan Edwards to David Amram to Noel Redding to name a few. Along with Swing du Jour and Le Pompe Attack , Howie and his wife Pam Bujese are members of Cool Struttin’, a quartet playing the Great American Songbook, and also for over thirty years with the NYC area acoustic swing band Out to Lunch.

Michael Goetz: Michael has worked with saxophonist Ira Sullivan, Steve Slagle, trumpeter Pete Minger, Ray Vega, bassist Ron Carter, singer Alice Day, guitarist Vic Juris, Joe Puma, Dave Stzyker, Joe Beck, Doug Munro and composer and multi-instrumentalist David Amram, as well as the Glenn Miller Big Band and Lou Anderson Big Band. He has played throughout the metropolitan area at clubs such as the Angry Squire, the 55 Bar, Michaels Pub, Iridium Jazz Club, and Smalls Jazz Club in Greenwich Village, as well as recording for various jingles on T.V., films (Snake Eyes, Twilight, Femme Fatale) and radio features for Oldsmobile, American Brands, Glaxco and Faberge. Michael has also worked on Broadway in such shows as The Producers, Young Frankenstein, Les Miserables, Miss Saigon, Ragtime, Beauty and the Beast and Radio City Music Hall. Michael has a B.M. degree in jazz and studio music from the University of Miami, and a M.F.A. degree in jazz performance from SUNY Purchase. Currently Michael is performing with the Doug Munro group which he has been performing with for the last seven years. Most recently he has been performing around the tri-state area promoting Doug Munro’s latest CD “Big Bossa Nova 2.0.”

Vinny Raniolo: Vinny is best known for his accompanying skills and is a very high demand rhythm guitarist. His dynamic playing has taken him to 14 countries on three continents (and still growing), and he has performed in some of the world’s most illustrious venues, including the Sydney Opera House, The Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco, Lincoln Center, and the world’s oldest indoor concert hall, Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza, Italy. Often featured on National Public Radio in duo with Frank Vignola, Vinny has become a familiar
figure on Public Television, featured previously on three popular shows, including the heavily programmed Tommy Emmanuel and Friends. Frank and Vinny’s own PBS special, Four Generations of Guitars premiered in the 2014-15 season as part of the forthcoming 13 episode series Music Gone Public. Vinny also has worked with artists like Leon Redbone, Vince Giordano, Deana Martin and Olli Soikkeli as well as on screen appearances on HBO’s Boardwalk Empire.
All seats are general admission and include one beverage (wine, beer, or two gourmet soft drinks). Advance tickets on sale until 4pm the day of the performance / $35 at the door.

Light Upon Light
2017-10-22 12:00 - 16:00
About The Exhibit

Opening Reception: Sunday October 22, 12-4pm | More Info
Through Saturday November 11, 2017

Allah is the Light of the heavens and the earth.
The example of His light is like a niche within which is a lamp,
The lamp is within glass, the glass as if it were a pearly [white] star,
Lit from [the oil of] a blessed olive tree,
Neither of the east nor of the west,
Whose oil would almost glow even if untouched by fire.
Light upon light.
Quran 24:36

This short passage from the Quran is a favorite for mystics of Islam, the Sufis. Following the idea that the source of all being is actually His Divine Light, the traditional Islamic arts try to capture reflections of this Light by use of proportion, harmony and balance. Our artwork offers glimpses of written wisdom rendered in proportional lettering or calligraphy, geometric harmony in the art of illumination and paper cutting, balance in the expansive art of marbling and scenes which are neither of earth nor of the heavens in the art of miniatures.
Artists included in the exhibition are:
Mujgan Baskoylu, Elinor Aishah Holland, Zinnur Doganata, Rabia Karakoyun Gundogdu, Behnaz Karjoo, and Nurdan Yeneroglu
This exhibit will be on display from October 1 through November 11.

Geometric Spirits: Johnny Adimando & Catherine V. Graham
2017-10-22 12:00 - 16:00
About The Exhibit

Opening Reception: Sunday October 22, 12-4pm | More Info
Through Sunday November 19, 2017

Geometric Spirits features etchings and paintings by Johnny Adimando & Catherine V. Graham. Both artists work across media between painting and printing to create a rich sense of space and complexity of pattern. Exploration between surfaces and techniques create visual structures to explore different conceptual investigations.
Graham employs geometry to push perceptions of the viewer’s understanding of natural and social sciences. Adimando exploits intricate motifs, symbols, and patterning to expose the spirituality and socially rogue attributes of omnipresent forces.
Patterns merge and emerge, revealing much of the viewer as the work seeks to create or obfuscate itself.

About The Artist

Catherine V Graham is an abstract painter and printmaker whose work investigates the formal aspects of color and form, while creatively referencing the social and natural sciences. Graham questions human fate’s relationship within the rational and irrational, natural and constructed worlds.
Graham is attentive to possible ways the viewer will perceive and experience the work (which is dependent both upon the lighting and physical position) and results in a perpetually shifting quality. This constantly shifting state signifies the complexity of space and time as well as the breadth and limitations of human perception.
Through explorations of perception, Graham strives to make complex patterns visible in order to explore overlapping meaning within the social and natural sciences.

Johnny Adimando grew up in a series of small but highly decorated and intricately organized spaces. Proper arrangement was paramount, and even the slightest unsanctioned adjustments to this domestic-utopia lead to complete chaos. He quickly learned the camouflaging properties of beauty, the navigation of claustrophobic interiors, and the absolute virtues of order and cleanliness, omnipresence and control. He believes that the world, whether the creation of a god(s), or a network of nations tightly-monitored by ruling governments, exists as a panopticon, where rogue entities and ideologies burgeon in clandestine-processes of unlearning, defiance, and stealth.
Adimando suggests the “otherworldly” by presenting an aggregate of information, that in its micro and macrocosmic forms still manages to preserve a tether to the indecipherable. He is intrigued by the questions: Have I been misplaced, or displaced…and, what is it to be out-of-place? As such, these graphic messages, although filtered, are inevitably transmitted in a seemingly tertiary “signiconic” or codex-like form; a visual-language that bridges the cosmic and terrestrial, crystallizing all-while dissipating, and which harmonizes as it obfuscates.
He explores formal dynamics related to the representation of divinity, self-imprisonment, and ritual (tied to both dogma and spirituality). He focuses primarily on systems/structures of authority, ideas about armoring oneself against the world, and accessioning primordial escapist urges. By designing, manipulating, and reassembling a wide variety of appropriated and original motifs and symbols, he develops highly detailed sculptures, drawings, photographs, and printed matter. The visual dynamic is one of complicated symmetries, coordinated patterns, and complex constructions that form a symbiosis with elaborate codifications, spectral visions, and occult symbology.

Rene Fressola: Past, Present, NOW
2017-08-13 12:00 - 16:00
About The Exhibit

Opening Reception: Sunday August 13, 12pm-4pm | More Info
Through Sunday, October 1

This exhibition is a living retrospective of Rene Fressola, a painter who is predominantly self-taught. Self-expression has been modeled through his influences of Hans Hoffman, Willem DeKooning, Arshile Gorky and Frank Lobdell. Fressola has in turn honed his own style through continued experimentation and the building of layers of marks upon the surfaces of his pieces. He says “I don’t ever truly feel the pieces are ever complete, I always know I can go back & add more!”

About The Artist

“I see my work as a continuous mix of influences and styles which are simultaneously simplistic and complex in realization. The combination of these elements have been present in my work since its inception. I am influenced by the color in the work of Hans Hoffman, the fluid passion of Willem DeKooning, the precision of Arshile Gorky and the originality of Frank Lobdell. I am predominantly self-taught and continue to paint and define my own style through experimentation. Painting allows me to express the beauty and ugliness which exists within each of us. I enter the studio with a commitment to create new and unusual work inspired by my interactions. Generally I work spontaneously; I just start with a mark and continue to build on it, like when a dancer makes up new moves, I dance & move with the canvas and just let it lead me! Pieces can take any where from three hours to three weeks. Colors set the mood for the viewers, some serene, some dark & chaotic. I am fully influenced by the Abstract painters of the 40’s-50’s from New York and California. My mood and the music I listen to help set the tone for my sessions in the studio.”
Rene Fressola was born in 1965 in Brooklyn, New York. He began studying printmaking, photography and painting in 1979 during which time he won awards for his compositions. In 1990 he relocated to Florida where he enrolled in the International Academy of Merchandising and Design to study Interior Design with an emphasis in color theory, space planning and rendering. Fressola creates small and large-scale abstract works of mixed media on canvas, paper and wood. He is committed to creating only original work — no prints. Fressola has exhibited in over 100 solo and group exhibits and his work is held in private collections nationally and internationally. His work has been shown at galleries in Tampa, Atlanta, New York,Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles. He now lives in New Jersey w/wife Tina & their dog “Rifty” and works in Westchester, NY, doing lighting design & interiors.

Metaphysical Translation: Justin Smith
2017-07-30 12:00 - 16:00
About The Exhibit

Opening Reception: Sunday July 30, 12pm-4pm | More Info
Through Sunday, September 17

Justin Smith’s works are metaphysical exploration. Utilizing the full spectrum of the human condition his use of colors, figures, and shapes express feelings that are in a state of raw translation. Applied to the canvas with improvisational flair like the Abstract Expressionists, and be-bop jazz musicians the gestural renderings are then layered and edited. Hidden images are revealed and deeper meanings come bubbling to the surface.

About The Artist

“My work utilizes the art of sampling, which is a foundational technique employed in the culture of hip-
hop. In a purely musical context, sampling is the process of digitally encoding music or sound and reusing it as part of a composition or recording. Growing up an enthusiast of hip-hop music in its earliest and purest forms, that adventurous spirit of sampling was unconsciously carried over into the realms of my creative expression years later when I started painting. My work draws from dreams, conversations, architecture, images, landscape, music, history, and pop culture references that inspire me and organically. I am able to infuse or sample my influences throughout my art. The end result is often fresh, colorful, and vibrant work that comes from the heart but is edited with a keen, discerning eye as well. The unintentionally ambiguous nature of my work is abstract, but is made with clear and focused direction and intent. The joy that I receive when viewers of my work interpret what they see filtered through their own experiences and perspectives is unparalleled, and often provides insight into elements of the work that even I didn’t see or notice before. This not only provides inspiration but further motivates me to create from the heart, while allowing the viewers to connect with the art however they see fit.”

Justin Smith is an actor, writer, musician, and self taught artist. He was born and raised in Rockland County, NY. He graduated from SUNY Rockland with an Associates’s degree in communications. Focusing mainly on his musical and creative writing abilities throughout his early adulthood, Justin transitioned into acting in 2012. That year he made his theatrical debut at the Elmwood Playhouse in Nyack NY, performing in the stage play “A Soldier’s Play” directed by legendary local director Joe Albert Lima. The following years after, he worked under the tutelage of the great writer/director Samuel Harps, landing various lead roles at the Shades Reperatory Theatre in Haverstraw, NY. Driven by an intense desire to artistically redefine himself, he took a sabbatical from acting and began painting in 2013, quickly developing his craft to the point of his work being accepted in group art shows in Manhattan the following year. Since then, his work has been shown in various group exhibits, fashion shows, theatrical productions, and festivals throughout NYC and the tri-state area. His current solo exhibition for The Union Arts Center Metaphysical Translation is the accumulation of his best work produced in the last three years, and is truly representative of his talent and uncompromising vision.
