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Connecting Art to Life Art Exhibit

at Mills Pond Gallery | Sat Apr 22 - Sat May 13

Location

Mills Pond Gallery

660 Route 25A
St. James, NY 11780
(Map)
Tel: 631-862-6575
Contact Name: Allison Cruz
Visit Website: Website.

Date & Time

Cost: Free Event
Description

Smithtown Township Arts Council is pleased feature Connecting Art to Life, an exhibit featuring the artwork of two Long Island artists Anthony Freda and Margaret Minardi.  The exhibit will be on view from April 22 through May 13, 2017 at the Mills Pond House Gallery, 660 Route 25A, St. James, NY.

Mills Pond House Gallery hours are: Wednesdays – Fridays 10 am – 4 pm and Saturdays - Sundays 12 pm – 4pm. The gallery is closed Mondays and Tuesdays. Please call 631-862-6575 or visit www.stacarts.org for more information. STAC invites the public to an opening reception on Saturday, April 22 from 2-4 pm to meet the exhibiting artists and view their work.

Both Anthony Freda and Margaret Minardi began their journey with art early on as a powerful and innate need to create. Both artists have the extraordinary ability to convey emotions and messages that speak a universal language. While each artist may express a personal emotion through their art, we hope viewers will create their own experience with it. We invite viewers to experience the works as visual conversations, even if they see the world in completely different ways.

Anthony Freda works as an editorial illustrator, visual political activist and as part of the adjunct faculty of the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. In addition to many mainstream clients, such as Time, The New Yorker, Rolling Stone and The New York Times, Esquire and Business Week. He has also earned a reputation as the go-to artist for many alternative news websites and publication, such as Code Pink, Activist Post, Washington’s Blog, Global Research, Cindy Sheehan’s The Soapbox and The Trends Journal. Trained at Pratt Institute and Tyler Art School in Rome, Italy, his works often include an element of social commentary.

“My work is designed to make people think outside the narrow parameters defined by the establishment. I’m just an artist trying to make sense of the world, using my art as a vehicle to channel the passion I feel about the injustice I see everywhere.” Anthony likes to work on found objects and American ephemera and re-purpose them with contemporary social commentary. “I like to work on found surfaces because I find that they have a character to them and a quality that I really can’t create when I’m starting with a blank piece of canvas. I especially like old objects. I scour from flea markets for them.  I like to create my own imagery commenting on what is going on in today’s society but at the same time making it feel like it’s something that’s been around for a while.”

The artist decided the skills he has acquired working for many years as a visual communicator for ad agencies and magazines should be devoted to promoting peace and understanding. I hope my work can be a starting point for a conversation about alternatives to endless war. My work is always asking the simple question…”Why?!” While the medium changes, his message of “question everything, seek truth, resist the agenda” is ever present in his artwork.

Margaret Minardi’s mixed media paintings juxtapose realism and expressionism. Combining years of classical training with a pure gestural mark making, she is inspired by the Expressionists of the 1950’s collage. “I am constantly in search of new mediums and processes that can be synthesized into my works. Important to me is serendipity. Mistakes keep me interested, intellectually challenged, and excited."

Within Margaret’s works the viewer is constantly challenged to interpret and reinterpret what they see. There is a narrative beneath the surface of all her works. “Each brushstroke is a voice for my inner world."

She uses her life experiences in her works… emotional renderings of how the world or life has affected her.  This exhibit will show a series of her works call Infertility. “This series took 14 years of obsessive drawing before, during and after work. Some of the pieces took more than 100 hours to complete.”

 STAC, a 501(c) (3) not-for-profit organization. Funding is provided by Town of Smithtown and Private Donations

Photos