Brooklyn, NY – A diverse array of artwork by six Brooklyn-based artists, including Ella Yang, will be on display for three weekends at a property which, since its origins, has been destined to showcase contemporary art.
This exhibition is a natural extension of the house’s eclectic history. The original owner, Marius de Zayas, an early proponent of Modernist Art, and his wife displayed their collection of works by Picasso, Braque, Cézanne, van Gogh, Brancusi and other modern artists on these same walls. Perhaps this body of contemporary artwork may well be imagined as the collection of a long-lost descendent of de Zayas. Fred Bendheim’s abstract “shaped paintings” on cutout wood reflect the lines and quirky angles of the interior while adding bursts of intense hues. Similarly colorful oil paintings by Janet Pedersen bring light and energy into the otherwise quiet spaces, reminders of life back in the city. In contrast, Ella Yang’s oil paintings cast warm, richly hued tones on peaceful landscape and city views. Her paintings are complemented by the contemplative, almost abstract photographs of swirling water by Amy Williams, a nod to the beautiful Wooley Pond on the property. Using transparent layers of color and shapes, Amy Weil’s abstract encaustic paintings explore the cycles of nature with a gentle, meditative focus. The free-standing steel and bronze sculptures by Nancy Steinson, with their solid, curved and smooth shapes evoke a monolithic strength, but with organic grace not unlike that of the house.
About the Artists
Fred Bendheim studied art at Pomona College and The Claremont Graduate School. He has had numerous one-person shows and his works are in museum collections worldwide. His commissions include two fountain sculptures for Frank Lloyd Wright buildings and paintings for some of the finest hotels in the world. As well as painting, he has made: drawings, prints, collages, sculpture, illustrations for William Blake’s The Tygre, and has written numerous articles about art for the British journal The Lancet. Although his travels have taken him throughout the world, working in his studio has been his greatest adventure. He teaches art in NYC at The Art Students League.
Janet Pedersen studied art at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California. Through bold color and loose brushwork, Janet Pedersen keeps both her plein air and studio paintings fresh and in the moment. More and more she is incorporating abstract elements into her landscape and figurative oil paintings. She exhibits her work at Crow Valley Gallery on Orcas Island, Washington and at Trestle Gallery in Brooklyn, New York. Most recently she was awarded finalist in the landscape category of the Artist Magazine 2014 competition. Her artwork is owned internationally.
Nancy Steinson studied sculpture under Peter Agostini at Columbia University’s School of the Arts, and then obtained an M.A. in Art Education from Columbia University Teachers’ College. Using welded steel and bronze, she works almost exclusively with curved planar forms and linear straight edges which suggest a more organic approach to form. She has exhibited widely, both in the USA and abroad, and her sculptures are in private and corporate collections worldwide. Her commissions include a piece for the Norton Hospital, Louisville, KY. A long list of publications, such as Art News and Sculpture magazine, have reviewed her work.
Amy Weil studied at Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia, PA and earned her BFA in painting. For many years she painted in oils producing large semi-abstract paintings. Amy switched over to encaustic painting after discovering its wonderful translucent as well as opaque qualities. The encaustic process has allowed Amy to explore landscape on a more abstract and deeper level by spontaneously inscribing, scraping and adding wax that allude to and reflect on the natural process of nature. She exhibits regularly in New York City, and her works are in several private collections.
Amy Williams received her BFA from the University of Texas at Austin and has lived in Los Angeles and New York. As a photographer, her primary muse is Mother Nature: “She has a lot to offer every single day and there’s no such thing as a bad hair day for her.” Amy currently lives in Brooklyn, dividing her time between her house in upstate New York and the city. Her photographs have been featured in the French art magazine, Frog, as well as the windows of Saks Fifth Avenue, New York. Her photographs can be seen at the 440 Gallery in Brooklyn and Galerie de Multiples in Paris, and are in several institutional and private collections.
Ella Yang is a mostly self-taught representational oil painter. After almost 15 years of working in corporate and small businesses, she renewed her passion for fine arts by studying painting and figure drawing in Italy during the summer of 2001. Since then Yang has exhibited regularly in solo and group exhibitions in and around New York City. Yang can be found in the book 100 New York Painters, by C.M. Dantzic, which was published by Schiffer Books in 2006. Her paintings are in private and corporate collections in the USA, as well as Hong Kong, Italy, France, and Austria. Yang was honored recently when three of her paintings were selected to be on display at the U.S. Embassy in Geneva, Switzerland, by the Art in Embassies program of the U.S. State Department.
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