Solitude and Refuge: the paintings of Jane Black & Mark Delluomo

Jane Black and Mark Delluomo are the winners of Front Street's Fifth Annual juried group show, which was themed "the Path."  On May 19th,  Mark and Jane, both painters, will present work at the gallery in a new exhibition titled, Solitude and Refuge.

A graduate of Brown University and the University of Chicago, Jane Black returned to painting full-time after a 40-year career as an art teacher.  Jane's work is inspired by the landscapes of Cape Cod, the streets of New York, and Cuba's "fine but deteriorating architecture, 1950s vintage cars, and the color palette of the tropics." 

"After many years of working with non-representational images, I rediscovered a love of landscape painting while living near the salt marshes of Long Island Sound," says Jane. "I am particularly intrigued by the intersections of land, water, and sky, by the expansive and nearly unlimited sense of space.  A visit to Cuba in 2013, however, inspired a very different series of largely urban landscapes."   

Now a resident of Bedford, NY, she is also drawn to New York City, and "the constant activity of the urban setting, particularly along its avenues and highways. The play of light and color on rainy evenings or under the subway and train tracks provide me with a different sort of inspiration."

Contrasting the city solitude of Jane's urban landscapes, the figurative works of Mark Delluomo depict a landscape of human needs in the world. "The timely and timeless theme to my work in this show is Refuge," says Mark, "the dynamic of losing, seeking, being denied or receiving shelter--be it a physical structure or emotional need." A resident of Kingston, NY, Mark says "I did not set out to suddenly become a political painter but it's apparent that my art became one of my outlets."

According to Mark, "If painting was my safe place, it wasn’t working very well. Even when I didn't set out to make an overtly political statement, the effects of the incursions and aggressions of government and media would change the direction of the work. Now, despite recent surreal world events, my work is my armor: no religion or politics here."

Two painters discovering solitude and shelter in open landscapes and personal, emotional stories. An escape from, and acknowledgment of, the still present physical and cultural environment. As Mark says, "I’d like to think through these new paintings and drawings I'm reinforcing the framework of my own refuge."

Join us for Solitude and Refuge, Friday the May 19th, 6-9pm, at Front Street Gallery.
Front Street Gallery
21 Front Street
Patterson NY 12563
www.frontstreetgallery.org

 

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Submitted by Brewster, NY

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