Sara Nightingale Gallery – Pocket Calls to Nature

Steve Miller - Principle of Imitation, 2009. carbon print, acrylic and silk-screen on canvas. 24 x 26.5 inches.

Opening Friday, Nov. 26th from 2 – 6 p.m

Sara Nightingale Gallery presents, Pocket Calls to Nature, opening Friday, Nov. 26th from 2 – 6 p.m.

The recent phenomenon of “pocket calling” – when your smart phone accidentally dials someone on your contact list while it is in your pocket or hand bag- has been known to cause miscommunication between friends. If, for example, you happen to be speaking derogatorily about the unintended recipient of the call while they are listening on the other end, you could jeopardize a relationship. If the recipient is someone who admires you, they might get excited when they see your name light up on their phone, only to be let down by white noise and the lack of a human voice on the other end. Pocket Calls to Nature explores this phenomenon as a metaphor for the current relationship between humans and nature. Green movement advances and Earth Day celebrations notwithstanding, it often seems as we if are dialing in to nature but then failing to follow through with an actual conversation: a conversation which is not only constructive, but also intimate.

The artists in this exhibition, Sue McNally, The Goldmine Shithouse, Steve Miller, Sara Genn, Eric Dever, Maggie Simonelli and Janet Goleas all address nature in their work, even if only peripherally, accidentally or unintentionally. Sue McNally’s mural sized landscapes engage with nature as the subject of the work, but don’t address social concerns as much as they document existing outdoor scenes in the modern voice of a contemporary painter. Brimming with details of intersecting branches and twigs, they reflect the zeitgeist of the TMI age. Steve Miller’s works from his Health of the Planet series, an ongoing project he has been working on since 2008, employ x-rays of rare orchids and other plant life from the endangered Amazon rain forests to reveal that too much information, from a scientific perspective, is not necessarily the answer to the ecological challenges we are facing.

While Eric Dever’s and Janet Goleas’ works are abstract and intentionally non-objective, their organic forms and patterns derive from shapes that occur in the natural world. Dever’s ambitious LUC (circle) series, for example, oil paintings restricted to only titanium white, zinc white and ivory black, offer variations on concentric circles one might see in the iterations of a raindrop falling into a (polluted?) lake, or on a more cosmic level, the planet earth and it’s surrounding orbs in the universe. Goleas’s taught gouache lines, which cross-cross her small paper works, evoke the intricate machinations of spider webs, another metaphor for our wired socialization, which can sometimes be more alienating than comforting. Maggie Simonelli uses only natural materials in her encaustic abstract works. Gold leaf, Lapis Lazuli, Turquoise and natural pigments comprise the medium of her works, in this case to illustrate stages of fire: from distant blue stars to raging bonfires and everything in between.

The open house/ opening on Friday, Nov. 26th from 2 – 6 (Black Friday) is in collaboration with Boltax Gallery, Home 114, Fallen Angels Antiques and Molly Brown Boutique. All of the businesses at 21 North Ferry Road will be open and serving refreshments. We hope to see you here!

Image credit: Sue McNally, The Last Valley- Paradise Rocks, oil on canvas, 84″ x 162″ (three panels)

For more info reply to sender.

Sara Nightingale Gallery
visit/ ship: 21 North Ferry Road
Shelter Island, NY 11964
mail: PO Box 2646
Sag Harbor, NY 11963
631-793-2256
sara@saranightingale.com
www.saranightingale.com