Please join us for the opening reception for two new exhibitions at Matney Fine Art Gallery - Saturday, February 28, 2-5pm. "Lost and Found:Holidays and Other Excursions" features photographs by Neil Rough and Paul Thomas. Elizabeth Menges:"Intimate Portraits" showcases paintings by the Boston based artist and educator. Enjoy refreshments and meet artist Neil Rough who will make a personal appearance at the opening.
"Lost and Found:Holidays and Other Excursions" featuring the photographs of Neil Rough and Paul Thomas
"These photographs span 20 years and were made during many peregrinations throughout North America. Some belong to a recent project called Off Season/ Myrtle Beach, which exists alongside a documentary that takes place in Myrtle Beach and is a somewhat darker, less whimsical, sibling to Errol Morris’ Vernon Florida. It is driven by a dozen very singular individuals and touches upon God (or His absence, depending), time, memory, survival, redemption, dreams, death, love, etc, and creates a space where documentary ends and fairy tale begins. Others are more random, half remembered blips along the way. Many of the photographs on display own a small relationship to travel, to tourism, to a sense of arriving at a destination."
Neil Rough
Sackville, New Brunswick 2015
"Patrons and admirers of Paul Thomas, an artist living and working in Athens Georgia, know him as "an artist's artist," someone who enchants everything he touches. His legendary status as a key figure in the Athens art and music scene has gained him followings in New York and Amsterdam where he exhibits his prints, paintings, and video morphs. Before retiring three years ago to pursue his art full time, Paul was owner and sole proprietor of the X-Ray Cafe, a highly selective vintage book and record store that was a gathering place for collectors, local hipsters, and curiosity buffs. Paul's Facebook pages and fan sites (see Paul Thomas Presents "My Uncle") showcase a unique sensibility and humor assembled from found thrift store photographs, family memorabilia, homages to beat generation wizards and 60's geniuses all stirred together in an atmosphere of liberatingly wicked innocence and spot-on empathy. If you want to experience the profundities of fun and the tender mercies of wise madness, Paul's your man."
Elizabeth Menges:"Intimate Portraits" showcases oil studies, pastel sketches, and egg tempera paintings by this Boston based artist and educator.
"I am an artist and high school art teacher with my MFA in Painting from Boston University. My work primarily uses portraiture to explore my role as a female in society and my blend of traditional (Greek and Cypriot) and contemporary (feminist and American) roots.
"Both series of work, albeit using different mediums, allow the viewer to interact intimately with these subjects, and their size and delicacy nod to the intimacy of my own relationship with them.
The pastel and oil sketches of women going through everyday private rituals give the viewer a glimpse into everyday moments made even more vulnerable by the changed landscape of these brave women’s bodies as breast cancer survivors.
The small egg tempera “icons” pull from my love of Byzantine iconography with their traditional materials and personalized, hand-carved frames".
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A portion of the proceeds from sales of this show will go to Beyond Boobs!, a not-for-profit organization providing support for young women diagnosed with breast cancer and breast health education for all. With their philosophy of "Living Life with an Exclamation Point!," Beyond Boobs! helps young women use a life-threatening breast cancer diagnosis as a catalyst for positive growth and transformation. Learn more at www.beyondboobs.org.
Additional sponsorship for these exhibits by:
Walls Alive, Inc.
4264 Casey Blvd.
Williamsburg, VA 23188
(757)229-0086
Walls Alive, Inc. is a small family business offering a variety of services since 1970. In addition to specializing in the wall covering, window treatment, and custom picture framing industry, we also provide many other products including an extensive assortment of fine artist supplies and materials. For more than 40 years, we at Walls Alive strive to provide our customers with top notch customer service. Come in and see us!
Thanks also to Casa Forensics, 887 Garrow Rd, Newport News VA., (757) 833-6317
and Abe's Self-Storage of 5435 Richmond Rd., Williamsburg, VA., (757) 221-7201