Life in the City

Explore new and exciting artwork by established and emerging artists who explore the magic and intensity of life in the city. Yes, many say cities are noisy, dirty, and crowded. But they are also rich in culture, diversity, and experiences and offer stunning prewar and modern architecture, bustling waterfronts, and the greenery of famous parks. At Spectrum Gallery’s newest exhibit, Life in the City experience this for yourself. The exhibit opened on January 26th and will close on March 9.

Returning favorites as well as new participants include Eileen Taylor, a long-time Boston artist working in sculpture, painting, drawing, and printmaking. Influenced by a more than 30-year career in residential real estate, she explores the impact of housing on the human condition regarding issues like income, race, history, and other demographics unique to the urban experience. Aziz Konda is a 24-year-old artist inspired by music, the environment, and various artists he admires. He presents his original work “Sandust”, an evocative and colorfully vibrant street scene painted in oil and acrylic. Mitchell Rodbell, also new to Spectrum, is stimulated by color, shape, texture, and movement found in nature. Having grown up in New York, Rodbell loves the seascapes, landscapes, and the terrain of the Northeast with his paintings and drawings created in acrylic, watercolor, mixed media, ink, and crayon pastels.

Sal Barracca, also originally from New York, is an award-winning painter, illustrator, teacher, and art director with years working in publishing and advertising. Along with his wife, he is the co-creator of the children’s book series “The Adventures of Taxi Dog.” Currently, he is a full-time fine artist working mostly in oil, whose work has appeared in shows and galleries and private collections throughout New England, North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. Also new is Tammy Tian who has worked in watercolor for over twenty years. Entranced by its versatility and elegance, she focuses on creating picturesque landscapes and graceful portraits. Amy Valiante is also showing for the first time at Spectrum for this show. Her NYC skyline shows how she uses delicate glazes to create depth and luminosity in her work. During the process there is a push and pull for light, dark and mid tone hues adjusting them as she goes until they are exactly the way she intends them to be.

New photographers presenting in “Life in the City” include Ashley Smith who captures the beauty in the mundane as she magnifies often overlooked nuances, intricate detail or elements in expansive landscapes. She has shown in galleries in Connecticut, New York, and the Midwest. Ben Asen, born and raised in New York specialized in corporate, non-profit, editorial, and portrait photography, and more recently, fine art photography. People and cityscapes including his interest in NYC fire escapes are what he loves shooting most.

Anna Mastropolo returns to Spectrum with new apparel. A textile artist, jewelry designer, and large-scale gouache and mixed-media painter, she explores pattern, embroidery, and embellishment in her clothing and accessories. Carol Dunn is a printmaker, photographer, and mixed media artist, specializing in alternative processes when creating art. She exhibits in New England and on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Beth Pite is an award-winning pastel artist who paints with loose, gestural strokes of vivid color. Also returning is mixed media artist Regina Thomas whose work ranges from representational to abstraction; she has exhibited extensively and is in private collections throughout the US, Europe, South America, and Asia. Molly Waite Lund is an analog collage artist who repurposes vintage papers and experiments with color, shape, relationships, and negative space. In this show she presents collage work with a metropolis theme. Teri Glassman also returns with several cityscapes, in both oil and egg tempura. Linda McCarthy is back with a large impressionistic cityscape. Her large acrylic and oil paintings give just a hint of reality letting the imagination fill in the rest. Robert Dietz shows a detailed Long Island cityscape surrounded by water. It is executed in pastels, his “first love” for which he has won many awards.

Sean Carney presents new works for “Life in the City”. His unique method specializes in painting with Minwax wood stain and a Dremel (rotary tool). His works resemble traditional paintings from a distance, but on closer inspection, the viewer becomes aware of their unconventionality. Lauren P. Murphy experiments primarily with painting, sculpting, and mixed media. For the exhibit, she presents a cityscape wall sculpture crafted from driftwood. Other important painters and mixed media artists returning to Spectrum include Daniel Dahlstrom, Tatiana Ferraro, Linda Hallinan, Rose Mary Gates, and Sabely Peralta.

Award-winning Carol Lowbeer returns to Spectrum. She specializes in the photography of animals, flowers, and seascapes which she enhances digitally with a variety of painterly effects to recreate the mood of the original scene. She presents several new works of vibrant flowers set in the city park in Hartford as well as an AI-assisted image entitled “Foggy City at Night.” Additional photographers exhibiting include Robert Thomas, Dianne Roberts, Paul Essenfeld, Larry Bilansky, Maria Johnson, and Mallorie Ostrowitz.

Many Spectrum fine artisans are exhibiting new work including Andy Teran who works with collage, wood sculpture, assemblage, and paint and is known for his driftwood carvings of whales. Elaine Sych presents for the first time “Flotsam City”, a large-scale cityscape wall sculpture made from found wood and driftwood collected along the Connecticut shore and forest. Marianne Dietz presents a mixed media collage and fused glass artisan, Sharon Lewis, has created an assemblage for the show. And new to Spectrum is woodworker, Sam Carlson, who creates animal portrait marquetry and intarsia.

Ceil Rossi and Marie Angersola, who create fine crafts from gourds exhibit new designs for a unique home décor accent. Beverly Waters, a metalsmith since the early 1990s, welds, fuses, solders, hammers, brazes, enamels, and cold connects metals. She is exhibiting metal cityscape wall sculptures for this show. Janet McCready creates bowls made of beach stones, which she individually handpicks from the ocean’s edge. She also creates and offers ruanas that closely resemble ponchos in tartan prints.

Other fine artisans showing include stained glass artist Maryann Flick exhibiting charming stained glass panels with a Valentine theme; decorative shell designer Barbara Hernandez-Froehlich exhibits NYC themed standing glass and slate panels; potter Niko Scharer who creates finely crafted functional serving ware is back with new items; fused glass artists Jean Gresham and Joan Weir also show new pieces.

Numerous jewelers have refreshed to bring style to even the coldest days; llampwork artisan Sandra Huber; Jillian Nielsen, polymer clay artisans Kristie Foss and Beth Terhaar and Samantha Barlow-Beamer, a jewelry designer and crafter of fantastic, tiny fairy houses. As always, a wide mix of unique and daring fine jewelry can be had in multiple styles created in semi-precious stones, fused glass, beads, polymer clay, fine metals and crocheted wire mesh used by designers such as Joan Wenzel, Jessica Dickens, Gloria Nilsson, Gabrielle DuCharme and many more.