Brought to you by
Date & Time
March 16 - April 14, 2019
Opening Reception: March 16 (Saturday), from 4 - 7 pm
Artist Talk: April 6 (Saturday), from 2 - 4 pm
The William Ris Gallery is thrilled to present FORMS & FIGURES highlighting the creative energy of nine women artists — Chris Ann Ambery, Deborah Brisker Burk, Shawn Ehlers, Madison Fender, Jan Guarino, Jennifer Hannaford, Margaret Minardi, Anne Sherwood Pundyk, and Susan M. Saunders — from March 16 through April 14, 2019.
It is without coincidence that the FORMS & FIGURES exhibition will be opening in the month which celebrates both International Women’s Day and National Women’s History Month. The Me Too Movement has renewed awareness of not only women’s rights, but also recognizing the many accomplishments made by women, the arts notwithstanding.
Leading the fine arts scene on Long Island’s east end for three years since its move into the area, owner-curator Mary Cantone says, “I wanted to bring in new talented and remarkable women artists who I feel share a community, as well as world vision and sensibility.” Asked what led to the concept behind FORMS & FIGURES, Cantone shares, “I find there’s an intimacy in them which I can identify with, and am fascinated by the different interpretations and traditions which cross all backgrounds and borders making each of them so unique.”
While Ambery, Brisker-Burk and Saunders are returning artists to William Ris Gallery and will be offering new works for the FORMS & FIGURES exhibition, this is the first time the gallery will see works by Ehlers, Fender, Guarino, Hannaford, Minardi and Pundyk. Ehlers, a former Ford/Elite model who has been photographed by Helmut Newton and Albert Watson amongst other name photographers, won the prestigious Prix de la Photographie (PX3) Gold Award in 2015 for her series Women as Birds which have never been shown and are included in the exhibition.
From Chris Ann Ambery’s joyously energetic original printworks, Deborah Brisker Burk’s colorful yet muted sensual paintings, Shawn Ehlers’ encaustic photograghs that evokes primal yet dreamlike melancholy, the intimate portraitures stirring one’s wanderlust through the lens of Madison Fender, the reverence and examined strokes of Jan Guarino’s paintings, the simultaneously sophisticated and playful images of Jennifer Hannaford’s underwater paintings, the intricately seamless merging of textile and wallpaper backgrounds to their subjects by Margaret Minardi, the textured breeziness of Anne Sherwood Pundyk’s paintings, and Susan M. Saunder’s multi-media layering both figuratively and literally giving new life and meaning to the statued subjects, FORMS & FIGURES is a beautiful collection of works from women artists we should all know.
