EXHIBITIONS / EVENTS

STRUCTURE:
The art of architecture
Exhibition plus special events:
March 8 – April 6, 2008
Opening Reception:
Sunday, March 9
1 PM – 3 PM
studio 6

"It's an exhibition built with brick. It's anything, and everything man-made.," said a spokesman for the Rockaway Artists Alliance as they unveil their newest showcase, STRUCTURE; the art of architecture. "It builds from the miniature right up to the monumental."

Accordingly STRUCTURE will ‘cut the ribbon' with an opening reception on Sunday March 9 from 1-3pm. Rockaway Artists Alliance openings are well noted for their good company, artistically arrayed refreshments, lively entertainment and surprises. Many of the artists will be on hand, and many of the works will be on sale by the individual artists. STRUCTURE will run from Saturday March 8 to Sunday April 6 in the sTudio 6 gallery at Fort Tilden's Rockaway Center for the Arts (RoCA) at Breezy Point, Rockaway.

Many of the works in STRUCTURE go beyond the nuts and bolts of mere buildings and bridges and strive to capture their soul. For instance Marvin Schwartz' photograph "Holiday Inn-New Orleans" with its gigantic clarinet is both musical and magical. Larisa Levina's painting "Far Rockaway" almost evokes the land of Oz, with its far away buildings, blue and winding ‘road' formed by a ribbon of surf and little dog running along the shore. Igor Grushin's oil on canvas "A Remembrance – The Crimea" calls up flagstone and mortar and also fancy and distant memories.

Some artists take the viewing experience in a whole new direction by not only depicting structures but also making their works structures in themselves, like Geoff Rawling's sculpture "A Man of Letters". Or as "Night From A Train" painter Charles Zigmund puts it, "Why restrict oneself to two-dimensionality? Why can't a painting grow outward as well as well as on a flat plane?"

Sam Smith, creator of the oil on panel "Last Hold Out-East Northport" adds, "Imagine being able to reach into the …image to the furthest (point), grabbing the background and pulling it outward towards you. In essence you have pulled the illusory perspective inside out."

Other artists open the doors to STRUCTURE and invite in viewers in a different way. Stephanie Volvovar sets her photo "Home In Stone" against a washed blue and gray sky and the subdued building colors of "Parking" against a foreground of bright flowers. Stephanie Schmidt's "Aqueduct, Spain" and "Arch, Spain" offer mystery and timelessness. These were taken in "Segovia, Spain," says the photographer, "I like the texture of the stone in these images."

From stone touched by the hand of ancient builders, STRUCTURE moves to the architecture of the everyday and grandeur tucked in amongst the pedestrian, as in Jonas Mlenak's photo realistic "Atlantic Oceana" and "Crescent and Fulton." As the accomplished painter says when speaking of his favorite artistic subject, "I strive to depict the timelessness and beauty of Brooklyn…, evoking memories of the borough as it was, as it is and as it will always be…"

With STRUCTURE the RAA has mounted an exhibition built of brick and with a heart and essence all its own. Viewers are invited to caress its columns, walk under its archways and travel its cobblestone roads into a new world of art.

"Brooklyn Bridge"
by M. Elliott KIllian, Watercolor

"Crescent & Fulton"
by Jonas Mlenak, Acrylic

"Early Moon"
by Mary Beth Brunner, Photography

"Refuge"
by Penelope Atheras, Stained Glass Sculpture

"No. 1"
by Ludmila Vaynburg, Watercolor

Gallery hours are Saturday 12-4p.m., Sunday 1-4 p.m. and by appointment. For information call (718) 474-0861, e-mail rockart116@aol.com

RAA works in partnership with the National Park Service at Gateway National Recreation Area and in part is supported by NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, JP Morgan Chase, The Independence Community Foundation and Brooklyn Brewery.

Fort Tilden, located in the Rockaways, is an historic and now decommissioned U.S. Army post. Today it is home to many cultural, community and sport activities and serves as a premier part of Gateway National Recreation Area, a unique urban national park that spans several boroughs and incorporates beaches, marshlands and bird and wildlife refuges. Winter and summer its beaches, fields and trails offer sanctuary to many a city weary traveler.

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