Roland Kulla at 527 Madison Avenue

527 Madison Avenue is pleased to announce an exhibition of paintings by Roland Kulla in the Lobby Gallery from July 17 – November 27, 2019. Located at 54th Street and Madison Avenue, the show is open to the public 9 AM – 5 PM, Monday through Friday. This will be the sixteenth exhibition in 527 Madison’s ongoing program showcasing noteworthy emerging and mid-career artists.

 The exhibition features six of Kulla’s photo-realist paintings, which depict detailed renderings of New York City’s many beloved bridges. Fascinated by engineering and the built environment, Kulla began examining and painting the bridges of his native Chicago in 1998, and subsequently expanded his oeuvre to other “bridge cities,” such as Boston, New York, Pittsburgh, and Berlin. Reflecting on what these bridges tell about their builders and the human experience, he abstracts the structural elements from their context and renders them in a way that highlights their monumentality and the creative thought inherent in their production.

Of his first solo exhibition in New York at George Billis Gallery, Maureen Mullarkey of The New York Sun said, “He is interested solely in the structural dynamism of bridge forms and the functional splendor inherent in their components: trusses, bolts, girders, railings, arches, beams, struts, ties and cables. His hard-edged paint handling is as austere and rigorous as his subject.”

Transitioning to painting from a 30-year career as a social worker, Kulla holds a BA from Bellarmine University and an MA from the University of Chicago. He has shown his paintings in numerous exhibitions nationally and internationally including solo exhibitions in Chicago, New York, Boston, Ohio, Pittsburgh, Maryland and Berlin. His work has been featured in publications such as American Art Collector and New American Paintings. Roland Kulla is represented by George Billis Gallery in New York.

This exhibition is presented in partnership with George Billis Gallery.

Laura Fayer at 450 Park Avenue

450 Park Avenue is pleased to present works by New York-based artist Laura Fayer in the lobby gallery from April 16 – July 25, 2019.  This is the ninth show the building has mounted as part of its new program of rotating contemporary art exhibitions. A reception and artist talk will be held on Tuesday, May 21 from 5-7 PM in the Phillips Auction gallery and 450 Park Avenue lobby.

Fayer’s vibrantly colored and expertly layered paintings are heavily influenced by her time living in Japan as a child. There she learned the Japanese tradition of wabi-sabi, an aesthetic worldview centered around the acceptance of transience and imperfection. Using landscape as her subject, she embraces the happy accidents that result from her painting process, delicately balancing the inherent order and chaos of nature, which makes her organic forms feel so authentic.

Laura Fayer lives and works in New York City, and has exhibited her work nationally and internationally. She holds a degree in Visual and Environmental Studies from Harvard University, as well as an MFA in painting from Hunter College. She is a recipient of numerous grants, including from the Pollock-Krasner foundation, International Residencies for Artists and the Massachusetts Cultural Council. Her work is included in a number of corporate and public collections, including Pfizer Pharmaceuticals, MGM Mirage, the Bellagio in Las Vegas, Ritz Carlton in Atlanta and Shenzhen, China, and the US Embassy in Djibouti.

Splendor, acrylic and Japanese paper on canvas, 48 x 62 inches

Barnaby Furnas Panel at 375 Hudson on March 20

You are invited to attend a panel discussion on Wednesday, March 20th about Barnaby Furnas’ paintings, currently on view in the Lobby Gallery at 375 Hudson Street. The event begins at 5:30 pm with light refreshments, and the panel will start at 6:15 pm. The event is free and open to the public, but do come early as we have had a strong response and seating is limited!

The panelists will discuss the works on view, Furnas’ career and touch on his use of color, gesture and religion as subject matter. 

Panelists will include: 

Stephanie Cash, a New York-based editor and writer was the Executive Editor ofBURNAWAY in Atlanta in 2013-18, and a staff editor at Art in America magazine in New York from 1993 to 2012. Ms. Cash wrote the essay that accompanies the show.

Matthew Ritchie, well known for his installations incorporating painting, sculpture and moving images which investigate the complex and transient nature of information. He has shown in major contemporary art surveys including the 1997 Whitney Biennial, the 2002 Sydney Biennale, and the 2004 São Paulo Art Biennial. Ritchie is represented by James Cohan Gallery, New York.

Alexi Worth, a practicing artist represented by DC Moore Gallery, New York  has received awards from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Tiffany Foundation, and the New England Foundation for the Arts. Worth has written criticism for a wide range of art publications, including The New Yorker, Art in America, ArtNews and Slate. 

The Barnaby Furnas exhibition, "Flooded Paintings" was produced in collaboration with Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York.

The event is sponsored by Hudson Square Properties and Hines.

Julian Stanczak at 499 Park Avenue

Six paintings by acclaimed colorist Julian Stanczak (1928 – 2017) will be on view in the 499 Park Avenue atrium from March 25 – September 7, 2019.  The show, accompanied by a color brochure with an essay by Joe Fyfe, is presented in cooperation with Mitchell-Innes & Nash Gallery, New York. The opening reception will be held on April 9th, from 5 – 7 PM.

Best known for his key role in the Op Art movement, Stanczak’s meditative canvases reward engaged contemplation.  A 22-foot wide, six panel work from 1989 Change With Light will anchor the exhibition, alongside other major paintings from throughout his career. Stanczak received his MFA from Yale University in 1956, where he studied with Josef Albers and Conrad Marca-Relli. His work has been exhibited worldwide, including group exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art, the New Museum in New York, and the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC, in addition to a 50 year retrospective at the Cleveland Institute of Art in Ohio. His work can also be found in numerous collections, including the Albright Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, The Carnegie Institute in Pittsburgh , the Hirschhorn Museum and National Gallery in Washington, DC, and the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Change with Light (1989), acrylic on canvas, 80 x 264”

Tatyana Murray at 450 Park Avenue

450 Park Avenue is pleased to present works by New York-based artist Tatyana Murray in the lobby gallery through April 19th. This is the seventh show the building has mounted as part of its new program of rotating exhibitions of contemporary art. An opening reception and artist talk will be held on Thursday, March 7th from 5-7 PM in the Phillips Auction gallery and 450 Park Avenue lobby.

Living in Manhattan for over 20 years, Murray uses light, etching, drawing, and mixed media to reflect the juxtaposition of chaos and calm in the city. She creates lush abstract dreamscapes with reappropriated materials, using reflective elements like staples, duct tape, and pipes, against light-absorbing flocking and recycled paper, resulting in incredibly detailed and three-dimensional works. Her mesmerizing light sculptures suspend ethereal drawings in space––the existence of the image reliant on the light which shines through the layers of translucent material. Of her work Murray says, “There is a visual tension between harmony and chaos, but at the heart of the movement lies stillness, the ‘SPACE BETWEEN,’ where the spectator can slow down, catch their breath and reflect.”

Starry Night, mixed media, 52 x 73”

Barnaby Furnas Exhibition at 375 Hudson Street

The next exhibition at 375 Hudson, Flooded Paintings, features a series of new works by painter Barnaby Furnas. The opening reception is Wednesday, February 20 from 5 - 7 PM, and the exhibition runs through Monday, August 2nd.

Furnas’ monumental abstract paintings may resemble giant brush strokes or wall-sized spills, but their origins actually lie in figurative depictions of biblical scenes. Born in Philadelphia and raised a Quaker, Furnas made his first Flood painting in 2005 as part of a commission for the Lever House on Park Avenue. For his installation at 375 Hudson, Furnas has created works that respond to the architectural space with dynamic angles and “frothy” areas of paint squirts and splatters to rival the veined marble walls and dramatic patterned floor. These works represent a break from his previous Flood paintings in that most do not retain a hint of sky and sun. Furnas has fully embraced them as abstractions, taking pleasure in the medium of paint itself. More notably, and to his own surprise, he has also embraced colors in addition to his familiar reds, adding viridian, yellow, magenta, and silver to his palette.

Furnas received his BFA from the School of Visual Arts, and his MFA from Columbia University. His work has been exhibited internationally at galleries and museums, including The Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, The Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, The Royal Academy in London, among others. He is represented by Marianne Boesky Gallery in New York and Victoria Miro in London.

Flooded Paintings installed at 375 Hudson Street