NEC Art Gallery Announces Fall Exhibition Schedule

The Gallery at New England College presents “Venus Revisited” an exhibition of paintings and drawings by New England College faculty member Peter Granucci from August 25 through September 25, 2009.   The public is also invited to a reception meet the artist on Thursday, September 10 from 4 until 6 PM.

Admission to the New England College Gallery is free. Gallery hours Tuesday through Thursday from 11 AM to 6 PM and Friday from 11 AM to 3 PM. The Gallery is located on Main Street in Henniker, New Hampshire, adjacent to the College’s Administration Building. For more information, call The Gallery at 603-428-2329 or www.nec.edu (click Academics, then Gallery).

“Venus Revisited”

Paintings & Drawings

 by

Peter Granucci

at

The New England College Gallery

August 25 – September 25, 2009

Reception:

September 10 from 4:00 to 6:00 PM

Large nude paintings and several drawings by Peter Granucci will hang throughout The Gallery in “Venus Revisited.” In this exhibition, Granucci returns to the familiar subjects of mythology and allegory to give context to his recurrent study of the figure.

“My work continues the millennia's old search for the ideal of the nude as an art form that was begun in ancient Greece,” commented Granucci. “The nude is a perfect means for expressing emotions and ideas. My desire to create beautiful imagery has been a driving force since I began the artists’ journey. The human form is infinitely expressive and is a perfect vehicle to this end,” Granucci continued.

“Granucci is a classically trained painter, having studied at the prestigious School of Visual Arts in New York City, and it shows in his process as well as his finished works,” said Gallery Director Darryl Furtkamp.  Granucci works from the model, frequently calling them back to resume a previous pose, but alters it slightly—maybe a change in the gesture of the hand or the position of the torso. This series of finished paintings and drawings by Granucci are combined, edited, enlarged and reworked into dramatic and precise multi-figured compositions that exhibit vitality despite their painstakingly rigorous preparation. “ The dramatic juxtaposition of scale from the
smaller preparatory works to the largest multi-figure oils contributes to an exciting and fresh exhibition of figurative exploration by a master painter,” continued Furtkamp.

Coming next to the New England College Gallery….

IMAGE AS METAPHOR by Tom Blackwell October 3 to November 13

In October, The Gallery at New England College will proudly host “Image as Metaphor” metaphorical paintings by the world-renowned Photorealist Tom Blackwell.

Tom Blackwell - The Time Painting
Photorealism, a term coined by New York art dealer Louis Meisel, originated in the mid-twentieth century, and replicates on the painted surface the appearance of photographs— people, objects, and scenes depicted with such naturalism that the paintings resemble photographs.  In addition to creating a painted photograph of the image, Photorealism also incorporates effects of photography such as overexposure and degrees of focus. 

In Blackwell’s “Image as Metaphor,” he uses his Photorealist background to create works that are allegorical in perspective. He addresses such themes such as the passage of time and the continuity that runs though human history.  These large, dramatic paintings are rich in symbolism and the possibilities for interpretation.

Blackwell lives and paints in New York. His most recent solo exhibitions prior to coming to New England College include the Patrice Trigano Gallery in Paris and the Brauer Museum of Art in Indiana.  The Louis K. Meisel Gallery in New York represents him.