Gemma Kahng is the Founder of the Beekman Arts Club and a graduate of the Art Institute of Chicago. Best known for her work as a fashion designer, Gemma has dressed numerous celebrities including Madonna, Pink, Julia Roberts, and Sharon Stone. Today, Gemma brings her unique talent to the canvas where her most recent work centers around paintings of bold and bright birds and animals. Her interest lies in the innate ornamentation, the fascinating subtleties, and the astonishing beauty found in different species. Gemma's paintings are reminiscent of her glamourous clothing with mysticism, dynamism, and a natural progression towards nature.
Rebecca Ambrosini lives and works in Beacon, NY. She attended the School of Visual Arts and Dutchess Community College where she received her associates in Fine Arts. Ambrosini works primarily with acrylic at a large scale, blending realism and abstraction in landscapes inspired by her cross-country travels.
Eric Hado is an artist and technician in New York’s Hudson Valley. Inspired by nature and the world around him, much of his work includes found driftwood from the Hudson River. He incorporates repurposed metals using blacksmith and metal working techniques. Viewers will notice repurposed welding rods converted to flowing curves, pulsing moiré circles, the occasional bird feather, and 150-year-old landscaping iron throughout his work. Eric’s practice is ever evolving as he seeks new techniques and materials inspired by nature and the world around him.
Cynthia Karalla works with the camera and also mixed media. She returned to the camera while working with Andres Serrano. The project she is presenting is her Morning series. Photographed in the graven of the Sassi di Matera, Italy, are her Poppies. She would wake at 3am to catch the light falling over the mountain, a light that is rarely seen, because the world is still sleeping. Karalla's work is in MOMA, NYC, / Cooper-Hewitt Museum, NYC / Yokohama Museum, Tokyo, Japan / New York Public Library, NYC / Daniel Katz, London, U.K. / Omer Koc Holding, Istanbul, Turkey / Jasmine Kassulke, Australia / Edward R. Downe Jr, NYC / Esra Ekmekci, Istanbul, Turkey / Kenji Suzuki, Japan / Verena Johann-vor-der-Brüggen, Germany / Marcus Kiefer, Germany / Nils Halberg, Norway / Ronnette Riley, NYC / Jeff Carey, NYC. to name a few.
Tom Liesegang finds inspiration in world events. His work has political undertones and he sees himself as a “visual journalist”. His work is diverse both in subject matter and materials used. The artist works through, what can be described as, thematic process. From 2002 to 2013, Liesegang lived abroad and European history weighed heavily in his print work from that era. He is co-founder of New Art Brut, an online international platform that celebrates and promotes artists whose work confronts injustice.
Using pen and ink, and mixed media, Sara Nesbitt's work creates scenes of unsettled idylls. She uses ambiguous space as well as figures and animals running, dancing, and chasing each other through the present day architecture of our world to represent the urban heartbeat. Her work tells a story, half imagined, half experienced, always influenced by the cities she's lived in; New York, London and Rome.
Peter Pezzimenti is an American artist and musician whose work spans painting, collage and performance. The work often references itself which adds a silent introspective angle. The artist's hobbies and interests are a source for his subjects. Classical subjects like architecture and the figure appear in modern painting styles while formal elements like drawing meander in and out of importance. Pezzimenti went to the School of Visual Arts and studied under Jack Whitten, Mary Heilman and Luccio Pozzi. His work was shown at Monya Rowe gallery in New York.
Michael Pierce is a Hudson Valley resident whose love for design has led him to have a successful architecture design firm. A graduate of the Harvard Graduate School of Design he enjoyed painting and had a show before forcusing solely on architecture. Now reemerging as a multi-disciplinary artist, Michael uses a type of process he describes as "draw-paint" using a mixture of acrylics, oil sticks, and ink.
David Reardon has been drawing and painting his whole life. Almost strictly drawing in black and white charcoal until recently, color and paint are a somewhat new and exciting frontier. The idea of taking a part of himself, putting it out there and seeing if it sticks, continuously inspires David. Prior to creating the image, David comes up with a preliminary idea or feeling wants to communicate. Reardon's work is eclectic, in his words "even disjointed," but the source of his work is simple; joy and pain.
If there is a conceptual thread that links Harvey Weiss's works together it's his impulse to blur boundaries in order to connect disparate realms. His current practice involves photo based work he either collects or shoots digitally, which he marries to other mediums. Improvised methods of painting, drawing, and collage are added in ways to amend images which engage him. Figurative and abstract elements often overlap or merge while conveying themes that have included memory, transcendence, loss, and connection. At the core of his practice he yields to a vague sense of informing how and where to direct the work. This process often leads him to challenge an image's status quo. Weiss' works have been exhibited in the U.S., Canada, and Europe. His publications include "head trip," and "This is Where We are Spending the Afternoon," (available at Blurb.com.) He holds an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Born in New York City, he grew up in Miami, Florida, and currently lives in the Hudson Valley.
Copyright 2021 Beekman Arts Club