Friday, June 15, 2018

CITY PAPER: City Gallery’s Headline Exhibit for July



Featuring Artists William Frucht, Mary Lesser, and Michael Zack


Extra! Extra! Don't miss City Gallery’s latest exhibit, CITY PAPER featuring artists William Frucht, Mary Lesser, and Michael Zack, on view from Thursday, June 28 - Sunday, July 29. There will be an Opening Reception on Thursday, July 12 from 5-7pm, and an Artists’ Talk on July 29 at 2pm.

With a focus on medium, CITY PAPER presents three diverse artists working primarily on paper, each with their own interpretations of time and place.

William Frucht’s haunting photography explores the heartless beauty of decay and the edges of civilization. There, he explains, “time stops, wind stops, there is no sound, even the dust stops falling. What you feel is different too: no happiness but an ecstatic sense of order, no sadness but a restless, willful movement toward one knows not what. All is forgotten, there is no world, only a former world.”  

In similar dreamlike environments, artist Mary Lesser explores the dissonance between joy and excitement, angst and loneliness. In her distinct paintings — intentionally naïve with tertiary hues of pinks, yellows, olive greens, grays and reds — she considers issues of gun violence, war, environmental destruction, urban pollution, and solitude while simultaneously portraying the humor, ridiculousness, and child-like beauty of human existence.

One can imagine that the silhouetted figures created by print maker Michael Zack must surely inhabit the same worlds imagined by Frucht and Lesser. Shorn of distinguishing facial features and clothing detail, his figures become anyone and everyone, yet they are uniquely individual and somewhat mysterious. Taken out of context and rearranged into a panorama that has a narrative all its own, the figures naturally relate to each other and the space in which they are placed, supported by a vibrant, subtle and nuanced range of colors.

The CITY PAPER exhibit and events are free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served. City Gallery is located at 994 State Street, New Haven, CT 06511. Gallery hours are Thursday - Sunday, 12 noon - 4pm. For further information please contact City Gallery, info@city-gallery.org, www.city-gallery.org.