Meet Our Exhibiting Artists
Enjoy the Experience of Viewing Our Collections In-Person!
Jesús Rentería Franco
Jesús Rentería is a well-known contemporary paper artist from Mexico City. He graduated from the Industrial Division of Sciences and Arts for Design of the Autonomous University of Metropolitan-Xochimilco and his large installations adorn hotels such as the Four Seasons and the Zocolo Central Hotel. He has also created commissions for furniture, wall art and large sculptures.
Mr. Rentería’s projects are a narrative of memories, emotions and stories that become tangible in forms and colors. He constantly explores new shapes and finds that the historical and the traditional Mexico are the perfect combination for his creations. His sculptures promote the richness of the Mexican visual world and embodies them with identity and sophistication through colors, saturated textures and ornate shapes.
The pieces Jesús creates in his studio generate concepts and emotions in which the collector obtains not only a colorful original piece, but a whole sensory experience. For me, Mr. Rentería’s art reflects the culture of Mexico and its people: vibrant, joyful, and full of life.
Janet Rutkowski
A native New Yorker, Janet Rutkowski attended the High School of Art & Design in NYC. She is primarily a self-taught artist. Art and a passion for reading have been the major influences of Janet’s artistic journey. Since childhood, she was passionate about reading and drawing and she has consistently been drawn to themes of sci-fi, fantasy, ancient cultures, myths, the occult, and the metaphysical.
These elements collectively contribute to the captivating aura embodied in her steel sculptures. The theme of escape through the exploration of portals, rifts, and alternative universes are apparent in Rutkowski’s work. Through the utilization of found objects and reclaimed steel, she breathes new life into discarded materials, transforming the outcast into art—a truly alchemical process.
Rutkowski has an appreciation for the inherent qualities of rusted and patinated steel, evoking a sense of antiquity in her pieces. Laden with symbols and shapes, her artwork is textured with welds. In contrast, her brushed and flame-torched steel pieces take on a different character, exhibiting geometric, spatial and architectural elements. Her futuristic creations have been inspired from the science-fiction novels that have captured her imagination over the years. Janet currently resides in Brooklyn and has a studio in Barryville, NY.
Sarah Haviland
Born in Kansas City, Kansas, Ms. Haviland grew up in New Jersey, earned a BA from Yale University and an MFA from Hunter College. She teaches at Borough of Manhattan Community College, City University of New York, and maintains a studio in the Lower Hudson Valley.
Sarah Haviland’s is a sculptor, mixed-media and installation artist whose recent work focuses on cross-cultural human-bird imagery and the environment. “Images of real birds combine with mythical figures in my recent sculptures and installations. The artworks reflect human-avian connections in cultures around the world as well as contemporary societal and environmental issues. Using simple materials and flights of fancy, they call attention to wonderment as well as to climate change, migration of birds and people, and our own psychic condition.”
Sarah’s sculptures strike a balance between abstract form and human or avian identity. Rooted in place or uplifted in flight, these linear, semi-transparent figures embody a sense of distilled emotion and archetypal presence. They acknowledge contradictions, combining strength and subtlety, movement and stability, ancient and contemporary outlooks.
William Brayton
William Brayton graduated from the University of New Hampshire, cum laude in Studio Art, and received an MFA from Claremont Graduate University in Los Angeles. Brayton is professor emeritus of art at Hampshire College where he established the Sculpture Program and served as Dean of the School for Interdisciplinary Art for many years.
Brayton’s abstract sculpture reflects the forces of wind and water. Motion is implied through the interaction of parts, materials, and visual systems. His improvisational process is influenced by the fusion of order and chance found in bird nests, windblown grasses, sea wrack and dense thickets.
Bill has exhibited widely at venues including The Barrows Rotunda, Dartmouth College; Art Lot Brooklyn, Brooklyn NY; The Chesterwood Museum, Stockbridge, MA; Kohn Turner Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; The Hudson River Museum, Yonkers, NY and Boston Sculptors Gallery, Boston MA. His work has appeared in Sculpture Magazine, Art New England, The Seattle Times, and The Boston Globe. Mr. Brayton lives and works with Erica Wurtz and their son Gavin in Conway Massachusetts.
Lisa Lloyd
Lisa Lloyd is a 3-D paper artist who takes inspiration from nature; the beauty of its symmetry, texture, colors and patterns. “I’m inspired and affected by what’s happening in the world now, I want to express mixed feelings of joy and anger, hope and frustration. The physical aspect of sculpting and hand cutting paper, enables Ms. Lloyd to connect with her materials in a dynamic way; releasing emotions through expressive movement, color and texture.
These are the original paper models and they are completely unique. They are made entirely from paper, the body structure is constructed from card and the texture for the butterfly is made up of over 3,000 hand cut paper tabs, meticulously hand glued freehand to create the pattern. Each piece is tiny and hand cut and fringed. The difficulty with the piece is the symmetry, working from the bottom and outside edges and working inwards and upwards to the top.
Duke of Burgundy – A species of butterfly found mainly found in southern England. Each piece is tiny and hand cut and fringed. The difficulty with the piece is the symmetry, working from the bottom and outside edges and working inwards and upwards to the top.
Ritual – I’m particularly drawn to birds, they are incredibly beautiful and expressive. Their ability to fly and rise above things resonates with me. I try to capture as much of that energy and movement as possible in my work. I want to try to bring my pieces to life.
Hazel Glass
Hazel Glass refined her skills at the Savannah College of Art and the Pacific North West College of Art in Portland, Oregon after 20 years as a self-taught creative. During a particularly challenging time in her life, Hazel began her Paper Strata journey. She found simple satisfaction in drawing and cutting tiny bits of paper into evolving patterns for hours. This practice evolved into her “Paper Strata” technique.
Ms. Glass’s art has evolved over time to be what she calls “precious windows into abstract worlds.” Up to 101 layers of paper create intricate images with detailed, exciting depths. “They begin life with the whisper of pen on paper, gaining volume as the design develops, a clear melody of mood rising to the surface. As each layer of my originals are hand-cut using an X-ACTO blade, they build up from those 2-D sunken into relief sculptures.”
Hazel has showed in many art shows including Germany, The Netherlands, Spain, Denmark, Switzerland and England. We’re thrilled to show Hazel’s beautiful art this season!
Tom Schneider
Tom Schneider is a multi-faceted artist. He has been self-employed as an illustrator, graphic designer, sculptor, and painter for many years. Mr. Schneider’s formal training from the Philadelphia College of Art was in Illustration. His most recent wall sculpture series invite curiosity and inward contemplation.
Inspired by the elegant lines of Asian architecture and the Japanese aesthetic of wabi-sabi, “Ecstatic Gates” is a collection of shrine or chapel-like wall sculptures. They express the ethereal duality of the eternal and finite.” Each piece incorporates bones, natural fibers, and decaying wood grains. The suspended forms echo the delicate balances of nature while giving each piece a rhythmic movement. The shimmer of gold peeking through the doors offers the suggestion of what lies beyond our world.
Tom Schneider is a highly skilled sculptor. His shrines are intricately crafted with patience and care. The exquisitely balanced designs incorporate interesting materials resulting in beautiful and unique pieces of art. Tom works from his studio in the historic Beaver Mill in North Adams, MA and we’re excited to exhibit his shrines for our 2024 season!
Lucy Jean Green
Coming to us from West Yorkshire, England, is kinetic art and paper sculpture artist and prop maker, Lucy Jean Green. Greatly inspired by mythology and the birds that surround her environment, Lucy creates sculptures and delicate automata by hand-cutting paper and hand-crafting brass mechanisms. Each sculpture is unique and each commission is bespoke.
Ms. Green sells her work at various galleries and events throughout England. This is her first show in the United States!
Olwen O’Herlihy Dowling
Born in Dublin, Ireland, Ms. Dowling emigrated with her family to the United States and grew up in California. She holds a degree in Studio Art from Smith College, MA studied at the L’Ecole d’Art, Vallauris, France as well as the Sun Valley Arts Program in Idaho. Since her career in professional theatre as a scenery designer, producer, production manager, and stage manager, Olwen has turned to creating her own art.
She is a painter, and a printmaker in intaglio and dry point/monotype prints. She uses the Berkshire mountains and visits to western Ireland for inspiration. She has exhibited in Ireland and Massachusetts.
William Cooper
Born in Oak Park, Illinois, Willam Cooper graduated from MacMurray College with a B.A in art. At MacMurray, he worked at painting and drawing but mainly concentrated on sculpture. After college, a job at a monument business in Toledo, Ohio led him to begin developing skill in stone-carving, which in turn led him and his wife Genie to purchase a monument business of their own in Benton Harbor, Michigan in 1978. They operated the business for 35 years, creating cemetery monuments, public memorials as well as public and private fine art sculptures. Cooper transitioned to creating ink and watercolor drawings and wood sculpture after selling the monument business in 2013.
Cooper states, “My present work, while strongly influenced by my interest in the natural world, isn’t representational wildlife art. I use the natural world as a departure point to an idiosyncratic place of my own invention. I often depict a world of overlapping environments and a touch of fantasy. I like to engage in the sudden comprehension of incongruity. My work has elements of tension, competition, even a bit of menace or whimsy as the spirit moves me.” Mr. Cooper’s ability to transition from 3-D to 2-D is interesting. His fantastical wildlife creatures depicted in surrealistic environments are unique and his intricate details in pen are great fun to examine.
Julia Eisen-Lester
Julia Eisen-Lester is an established artist whose work has been exhibited widely in group, solo and juried exhibitions, and can be found in private and corporate collections throughout the United States, Canada and Europe.
Eisen-Lester began her journey as an artist at the Art Students League in the fall of 1969. Here, she studied the Nicolaides method of drawing with Lester Rondell and anatomy with Robert Beverly Hale. She remained at the League as a full-time student for over four years. Shortly after, she attended the New School, where she took classes in clay sculpture and anthropology.
Her portfolio spans a variety of media including works rendered in graphite, pastel, gouache, watercolor, oil paint and collage. Eisen-Lester’s recent works are in oil, concentrating on urban life and plein air works from summers spent in Maine.
Ms. Eisen-Lester has been painting and teaching out of her Yonkers studio for the last 30 years and we’re proud to introduce her sensitive scenes to the Berkshires.
Solo Exhibitions
2019 · Noho/M55 Gallery: “Urban Tides” Drawings & Paintings, Chelsea, NYC
2008 · 457 Grand, Brooklyn, NY 1999 · Carroll Condit Gallery, White Plains, NY
1994 · Friends of Van Cortlandt Park Gund Benefit, Martha’s Vineyard, MA
1993 · Wave Hill House, Wave Hill, Bronx, NY
Awards & Juried Shows
2018 · Colors of Humanity Art Gallery, Online Exhibition “Landscapes”, 1st Place, oil painting
2018 · BWAC National Juried Art Show, Brooklyn, Certificate of Recognition, oil painting
2007 · Art Students League, New York, 1st Prize, collage
1992 · Arts Finale, 1st Prize, water color
1991 · The Women’s Mamaroneck Art Exhibition, 1st and 3rd Prizes, water color
1991 · Mamaroneck Artists’ Guild, 35th Annual National Exhibition
1991 · The beaux Arts Finale, 3rd Prize, oil
1991 · Pleasantville Arts Club Annual Exhibition, 2nd Prize, water color
Mildred Hado
A graduate of Cooper Union School of Art, N.Y, Mildred Hado studied with Robert Gwathmay, Hans Moller, and Edwin Dickinson at the Art Students League, Parsons School of Design, and at Pratt Graphics Center, NY. Her early experience in the animated commercial and film industry developed in her a sharp sense of design and the power to communicate strongly yet simply. Many of her paintings showcase conceptual ideas and illustrate common sayings in novel ways. She was influenced by Paul Klee, Saul Steinberg and Gustav Klimpt.
Mildred Hado’s work was displayed in many of New York’s outdoor art shows, museums and private collections during the 1970’s and 80’s. I remember the excitement of her first show at the New York State Pavilion from the 1964 New York World’s Fair when she sold her first painting. She became known for her unique painting technique using translucent layers of acrylic paint, richly textured surfaces, and abstract forms through which she communicated social commentary with humor and whimsy.
Mildred exhibited and sold her work widely in Metropolitan NY and New England but looked forward to returning to her gallery in Lenox every summer.
Exhibitions & Collections
Brooklyn Museum, NY
Heckscher Museum, NY
Queens Museum, NY
Berkshire Museum, Pittsfield, MA
Bruce Museum, Greenwich, CT
WilIiams College Museum, MA
National Arts Club, NY
By Hand Gallery, Haddonfield, NJ
Fairleigh Dickinson University, NJ
American Health Foundation, NY
Innisbrook, Tarpon Springs, FL
National Heart & Lung Institute, Bethesda, MD
Riggs Center, Lenox, MA
Mindscape Gallery, Evanston, IL
Artexpo, NY
Hoadley Gallery, Lenox, MA
Clark Whitney Gallery, Lenox MA
Lisa Hado-Mark
After graduating from the High School of Music & Art and Hunter College Lisa followed her interests in art and psychology to obtain a Master’s Degree in Art Therapy from Hahnemann Medical University in Philadelphia. From art therapist, to recruiter, to a founder of a staffing firm for creative professionals, she always found time to create her own art along the way.
As an avid traveler, many of Lisa’s creations evoke imagery from the places she has visited. An outdoor mosaic pedestal is reminiscent of Gaudi’s Park Gruell in Barcelona. Many visits to medieval cathedrals across Spain inspired a model of Sant Climent Church constructed in marble, replete with internal architectural details and stonework.
Lisa’s eclectic collection of linoleum prints, wall sculptures and mosaic tables represent her travels to Mexico and Europe. She is drawn to patterns of design found in both nature and architecture. She is excited about opening the gallery for a second season and to show new artists and some previously unseen paintings from her mother Mildred Hado.
Roe LiBretto
A native Brooklynite and figurative painter, Roe LiBretto has been living in New Mexico for 32 years. Her allegorical watercolors portray shared human experiences using a unique painting technique. Each painting serves as a surreal meditative piece offering an opportunity for the viewer to gain insight into their own subconscious and unconscious self. Roe uses symbols and iconography to express her ideas in the form of allegories. Roe’s paintings have an ethereal, dreamlike and whimsical quality. She has international collectors of all ages.
The grainy texture of each piece is created by painting over a finished watercolor using a topcoat of ink or tempera paint. Once this topcoat is dry, she then washes the painting with color. LiBretto uses this technique to create work that “… most closely resembles the imagery as it appears to me, as if a scrim upon which these characters perform was dropped between me and the physical world.” The act of washing each painting ritualizes her acknowledgment that a painting is the physical manifestation of information found in what Carl Jung referred to as the collective unconscious.”
Jaynie Crimmins
Jaynie Crimmins has a BA and MA in Art Education. Her artistic career has included multiple artist residencies, exhibiting in many art shows and she has been mentioned in numerous press coverages. Her work appears in private collections in Greece, Georgia and at Montefiore Hospital in the Bronx.
How did thread and paper become Jaynie’s medium of artistic expression for so many years? Before the buzzword “sustainable”, for sure. “Nothing seemed to make it into the trash in the apartment of my Eastern European grandparents. Discarded clothing became crocheted rugs. Old curtains became aprons. Leftovers became the ingredients for new meals. Nothing was wasted, everything possible was reused. Castoff items became novel and compelling in their potential for metamorphosis.”
Combining her sensibility with the shredding of junk mail illuminates the physical acts of deconstructing and repurposing. Jaynie feels a responsibility to up-cycle printed materials that can be difficult to recycle (because their inks have high concentrations of heavy metals). The power of transformation, frugality, ingenuity and handmade quality drive my practice.
Elaine Lorenz
Elaine Lorenz is a sculptor who is known for her organic abstract work in ceramic as well as bronze or fiberglass reinforced cement for larger outdoor sculptures. Born in the Bronx, NY, Elaine moved upstate when she was 10 and she spent her summers in the countryside of the Berkshires. Her parents were gardeners and landscape painters, who taught her to observe and appreciate the beauty of the natural world, a major focus in her work. Over the years Lorenz has abstracted various aspects of nature, from the large rock formations of the Southwest to tiny seedpods.
Lorenz received her B.A. from Marietta College in Ohio and her M.F.A. from the Vermont College of Fine Arts. She is a tenured professor teaching sculpture and ceramics at William Paterson University, Wayne, NJ. Elaine has numerous commissions including a NJ Percent for Art at the Meadowlands Environmental Center and recently installed an 8 ft. bronze sculpture that was donated to the town of Piermont, NY.
Awards
MacDowell Colony Fellowship,
NJ State Council on the Arts Fellowship Grants, 1988, 1999,
Athena Foundation Grant for Socrates Sculpture Park,
Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation Grant,
Virginia Center for the Creative Arts Fellowship.
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2021 “Fertile Ground,” The Court Gallery, Wayne, NJ
2019 “Organic Abstractions”, The Outside In Gallery, Piermont, NY
2012 “Channeled Earth,” Sculptors Guild Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2009 Jacobsen Sculpture Garden, Saddle River, NJ
2006 “Counter Balance” Tomasulo Gallery, Cranford NJ,
“Nature’s Influences”, Teaneck, NJ
2004 “Breaking Space”, OCCC Center Gallery, Demarest, NJ
“Pivotal Gestures”, 141 Cedar Arts Center, Corning, NY
Ellen Kantro
Throughout an eclectic career that ranged from graphic design, event management, video operations, software development and live theatre, Ellen was always an “after-hours” artist. When she reached the point where her day job was taking too much time away from painting, she mustered the courage to leave her role as a corporate executive and is now painting full-time – dividing her time between NYC and Sarasota, FL.
Ms. Kantro finds inspiration for her abstract painting in many places, but in abandoned buildings and distressed surfaces in particular. Her influences are seen in the patterns of decay, and the way nature’s elements and the passage of time re-shape our surroundings.
Many of Kantro’s paintings incorporate typographical elements. Numbers, characters, cursive hand lettering, or foreign alphabets are obscured under layers of acrylic paint to be found when you least expect to see them.
Andreas von Huene
Andreas von Huene creates carefully refined sculpture over a wide range of subjects, media, and scales, in both abstract and figurative forms. He has a technical background; an MS in Engineering/Product Design from Stanford and a BS in Mechanical Engineering. He says that he delights in developing form, and elevating materials to develop the character of a piece and give it a dynamic presence. He strives to create art that comes alive and engages his audience at many levels. “My joy is in developing the character and vitality of each work, and charging my medium to breathe life.”
Von Huene enjoys discovering and sharing new points of view, materials, and methods. “These fuel my delight in invention and enrich the widening and deepening range of projects and processes that are my grandest adventure.”
Von Huene undertakes bold, often large projects working meticulously to carve heavy stones such as granite. We’re thrilled to be exhibiting some of Andreas’s figurative stone sculptures in our expanded sculpture garden this season. He carefully includes fine details to his pieces for hooves, snout, tails and wings. I find Andreas’s ability to capture the essence and movement of his animals and birds interesting and exciting to view.
EDUCATION
Stanford University
MS in Engineering (Product Design) 1988 Master’s thesis: Landscape Bridges
Worcester Polytechnic Institute
BS in Mechanical Engineering
AWARDS and FELLOWSHIPS
Ichabod Washburn Award, Worcester Polytechnic Institute 1993
Individual Artist Fellowship, Maine Arts Commission 1991
SYMPOSIA and EXHIBITIONS
Maine Coast Stone Symposium, 2017, co-organizer and participant Viles Arboretum Sculpture Symposium 2014 and 2015 co-organizer and participant Skulptoura Boeblingen/Mauren, Germany, Bildhauersymposium 2014: participant Schoodic International Sculpture Symposium 2012: Participant JC Stone Sculpture Symposium 2010 and 2011: participant June LaCombe/Sculpture 2004-2017 Turtle Gallery/Granite Sculpture- 2011-2017 Harbor Square Gallery 2008-2017 University of New England, Portland, Annual Sculpture Garden Invitational 2011-2107
Carolyn Zeitler
Basket Weavers and Woven Fiber Artists come to their craft and artistry in many different and interesting ways. Carolyn Zeitler is no exception. Upon graduating from San Jose State University in 1976 with a degree in ceramics and weaving, Ms. Zeitler began working in fire look-out with the U.S Forest Service in Big Sur, CA. In 1979, she began weaving baskets using native Coulter Pine needles that grow in the Los Padres National Forest. “My baskets evolved as a kind of marriage, combining my two loves; clay and fiber.”
Carolyn describes working with pine needles as simplistic and straightforward. Her only tools are her hands and a needle. “The repetitive rhythm of the stitches becomes a kind of meditation. It’s amazing that one can take a material as mundane as a pine needle and create something that celebrates its beauty and strength.” There are inherent limitations to the medium that create a challenge to search beyond its boundaries for something that reflects both the tradition of craft and the innovation of art.
Ms. Zeitler recently began incorporating copper to her pine needle constructions which add delightful contrasts of color and textures. The results are a series of stunning new sculptures. She states, “It is my hope that when people look at my baskets, they will begin to look at pine needles and the beauty of trees in a whole new way.”
Pamela Becker
Born in Chicago, Pamela moved to Ohio, to upstate New York and now lives in New Jersey. She has an MFA from the University of Michigan, and is a master basket weaver and fiber artist. Since childhood, Pamela describes herself as having an impulse to create since birth.
Pamela’s art has been inspired by environments and landscapes that have been part of her life and travels. “I find it easier to talk about things I see and experience in a way that relates to the way I experience them”. As an avid gardener, Pamela became accustomed to viewing her subject matter in an up close and personal manner. Becker’s art is about color and patterns of motifs and constructs with a reference to nature. They are the personal, authoritative esthetic signatures of this artist. “Perhaps that is the reason for the abstract nature of the work. Yet, no matter how abstract an image is, it still references the original impulse.”
Selected Exhibitions
2021
Interwoven: Contemporary Basketry, Cahoon Museum of American Art, Cotuit, MA
Roots & Vines, Moss Arts Center, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA – invitational exhibit
2016- 2020
Mandatory Color, Museum of Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX
“Le Salon de L’Obesssion de L’art de la Fibre”, Gravers Lane Gallery, Chestnut Hill, PA
Basketry Now: 10th Anniversary Exhibition, The Kentucky Museum at Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green, Kentucky – catalogue
Excellence in Fibers 4, Craft in America Center, Los Angeles, CA – group exhibit
New Directions in Fiber Art – Montclair Art Museum, Montclair, NJ
CraftForms 2017, Wayne Art Center, Wayne, PA
“New Variations in Basketry”, Snyderman – Works Gallery, Philadelphia, PA – invitational exhibit
“Pushing The Limits”, The Brinton Museum, Big Horn, WY – invitational exhibit – catalogue
2010-2015
Belskie Museum, Closter, NJ – invitational exhibit
All Things Considered VIII, The Grand Hand, St. Paul, MN & Fruitlands Museum, Harvard, MA
Metamorphosis, Ross Art Museum, Ohio Wesleyan University, Delaware, OH – solo exhibit
8th International Fiber Biennial, Snyderman-Works gallery, Philadelphia, PA – invitational exhibit
SOFA, New York – represented Snyderman-Works gallery, Philadelphia, PA
Deborah Smith
Deborah Smith was born and raised in the picturesque Hudson Valley of New York. Her weaving career was sparked by a basket-making class she and her kids took. Expecting this class to be a real treat for her kids, Deborah was immediately taken with basket-weaving. She purchasing supplies to take home and practice weaving with while her children were more interested in getting back home to swim.
Ms. Smith says, “while initially drawn to the simplicity and economy of creating Shaker baskets, I soon began to experiment with a freer, more sculptural kind of basket weaving.” Deborah taught herself the rib technique through the study of the Appalachian egg basket. She then incorporated pieces of found driftwood into her weaving to create unique sculptural pieces of art in a variety of colors and sizes. Ms. Smith has years of experience exhibiting her woven art in many galleries and craft shows. I hope you enjoy her work.
Selected Exhibitions
Craftforms 2021, Wayne Art Center
Philadelphia Museum of Art Craft Show
American Craft Council, Baltimore
American Craft Council, Charlotte
American Craft Exposition, Evanston, IL
Philadelphia Furniture and Furnishings Show
Nishiki Sugawara-Beda
Nishiki Sugawara-Beda is a Japanese-American visual artist based in painting and installation. Born and raised in Japan, where all schoolchildren learn calligraphy, Nishiki developed an understanding of her culture. Studying calligraphy enabled Ms. Sugawara-Beda to recognize the existence of underlying meanings in all forms—language, images, even the mundane interactions of being. “This craft provides the foundation and inspiration for my practice.”
The soft, flowing shapes and exquisite designs of Sugawara-Beda’s works connect across space and time. She experiments by using ancient Japanese materials and techniques including Sumi ink, Kakejiku landscapes, and rice paper, to merge them with abstract and expressive forms familiar to the modern Western aesthetic.
Sugawara-Beda is passionate about immersing herself in all of the materials she uses to make her art. She fabricates her own gesso and even creates her own soot which she uses to prepare her own sumi ink. The gentle lightness of her brush strokes contrasted with the lush richness of dark ink colors create soothing yet powerful images.
Exhibitions
Can You Find Your Space, Meijer Artwat, Indiana East University, Richmond, IN
Will You Be There, Fine Arts Center Gallery, Viterbo University, La Cross, WI
The Land and US, Sheetz Gallery, Penn State Altoona, Altoona, PA
With the Land – Artist Spotlight, Dennos Museum Center, Northwestern Michigan College
I’ll Be There, Susan O. Ahern Gallery, the Thelma Sadoff Center for the Arts, Fond du Lac, WI
Zero at Home, Texas Women’s University, Denton, TX
HANA, Thonson Gallery at the Morris Graves Museum of Art, Eureka, CA
Spirit of the Day, University Gallery, Saint Joseph’s University, Philadelphia, PA
Tonality, Execute Project, Dallas, TX
Words Walking, Upper Traylor Gallery, Berea College, Berea, KY
Word Within II, Marmot Art Space, Spokane, WA
Word Terminal, Northcutt Steele Gallery, Montana State University, Billings, MT
Trace, Fitton Center for Creative Arts, Hamilton, OH
Written Unwritten, Cultural Arts Center Gallery, Montgomery College, Silver Spring, MD
Publications
“See You There” – a full-color art survey book by Sugawara-Beda from 2012 – 2020
“New American Paintings,” Expose Art Magazine
AEQAI
Athenaeum Review
London Post
Awards
Diversity Fellow Program, a Seed Grant, International Enhancement Grant, Idaho Arts Fellowship, Sam Taylor Fellowship, and the Tusen Takk Foundation residency that have supported her artistic research.
Lois Gold
Lois Gold obtained her BA from Boston University and her MA in French from Columbia University. Although initially, a language teacher, Ms. Gold fell in love with painting when she took a Watercolor class. Lois attended the National Academy of Design and the Art Students League in NYC and art became her career. Ms. Gold states:
“In the spring of 2009, I went to see the Pierre Bonnard exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Lois states that she kept returning to study these glorious late paintings many times. Each time I saw them, I found that I was becoming more drawn to the idea of painting-driven by color and pattern alone.
I followed my intuition and joyful images appeared as if rising from an inner well spring. I paint spontaneously with no preliminary sketches. Memories, dreams, music and dance all contribute to my inspiration. I have always been interested in ancient frescoes and textured surfaces. I strive to reproduce something akin to them in my paintings. There are translucent as well as impasto areas of paint which alternate to make my painting surface recede and advance. I find inspiration in anything from nature, everyday images to fabrics, and from my immense collection of art books.
My process is an intuitive mix of strokes with not only brushes, but fingers as well. I am not afraid to send water across a section of paint resulting in streaks and splashes, or what I like to call “happy accidents”. Acrylics are layered over coats of beaded gel. This method results in a luminously reflective surface. I like to scumble light colors over darker ones, use wonderful handmade papers which I tear and collage, sponges, stamps, stencils and gold leaf-anything which contributes to an interesting varied surface. When you run your hands over the final image, they can be felt as well as seen. My color choices range from the warm drama of Turner to the pastel colors of Monet.”
Robert Irwin Wolf
Robert Wolf holds both undergraduate and graduate degrees in Art and Design and Professional Studies in Art Therapy and Creativity Development from Pratt Institute. He studied fine art, photography, and sculpting at Pratt Institute and The Tyler School of Art at Temple University. His sculptural forms have been influenced by Brancusi, Arp, and Moore. They are composed of organic, linear, and gestural images that are translated into abstract form. These contemporary sculptures integrate elements of human form and movement, with the natural beauty of a variety of types of stone and wood.
Wolf also works with digital photographic media and the production of unique portraits and urban and rural landscapes. He is currently a professor of studio art and art therapy professor at the graduate school of the College of Mount Saint Vincent, in NYC. His photographs and sculpture have been published and exhibited internationally throughout the United States, Costa Rica, Europe, and South Korea.
Dawn Klein
Dawn Klein’s interest in photography stems from her childhood love of nature and for creating visual stories. She grew up wandering the fields of a 100-acre dairy farm in the southwest corner of Wisconsin. “I explored meandering brooks filled with crawfish and snakes. The hillsides beckoned with intriguing wooded areas and magical encounters with foxes and deer.” During this time, Ms. Klein developed a powerful connection to nature. She moved to the Berkshires at the age of 12 and later relocated to a horse stable which her family owned. She continued to discover the beauty and magic that surrounds us all in western MA. Dawn describes a life interwoven with the outdoors, animals, people. “Nature, as it is for many, is my primary muse. My eye is caught by nature’s truth. The way light interacts with the landscape is an inspiration and a pursuit I try to catch with the camera. Photography allows me to also tell a story visually. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words.”
Dawn Klein is a middle school English teacher, mother, writer and photographer. She lives in rural West Cummington, MA. We welcome Dawn to the Hado-Mark Gallery for her inaugural gallery exhibit.
Xiang Lan
Xiang Lan grew up in southern mainland China. He attended Parsons School of Art & Design at The New School where he studied Design and Management. He is passionate about painting and his body of work has been developing at a quick pace over the past few years. As a UX-Designer, Xiang lives and works in New Jersey. We are excited to bring some of his beautiful work to the Berkshires.
Lan paints with a sense of joy which is apparent in his clear, abstract pieces painted in bright, fun colors. He has a striking sense of design and uses clean, bold shapes and lines to express many of his thoughts and feelings: “Raw ones, fun ones, naughty ones, and scary ones.”
Xiang says of his work; “I am fully aware of the chaos and nonsense in the world, but where is that tiny bit of innocence? That 30 seconds of joy we had as a child, which is warm, carefree, and fearless.”
I first viewed his work during the South Orange-Maplewood Art Walk in fall, 2020 and I was immediately taken by his paintings. I hope you enjoy them!