Exhibitions

March 8, 2023

Jose Aurelio Baez, Deborah Claxton, Cosbe, RH DOAZ, Mark Mastroianni,
 Daniel Rosenbaum, and Francesco Tumbiolo
GROUP SEVEN
Group Exhibition
March – May 2023
Woodward Gallery


Woodward Gallery presents GROUP SEVEN, an exhibition focusing on seven artists and their varied techniques of painting. Though AI and NFT art production has captured quite a bit of public speculation, we are taking a closer look at more traditional, yet compelling techniques for making tangible art. Specifically, Woodward Gallery’s current exhibition, GROUP SEVEN, features the painted work of Jose Aurelio Baez, Deborah Claxton, Cosbe, RH DOAZ, Mark Mastroianni, Daniel Rosenbaum, and Francesco Tumbiolo and their varied methods.


Together, these artists modernize the traditional artistic mediums of painting with exciting, contemporary twists. Jose Aurelio Baez collages advertisements and wallpaper to create urban-styled paintings. Deborah Claxton hand-cuts numerous bits of tiny pieces of paper under a magnifying glass to construct her almost photographic image. Cosbe harnesses his raw emotions onto found objects to create striking works of art. RH DOAZ is a known street, public, and mural Artist who contemplates humanity and the natural world in his work. Similarly, Mark Mastroianni has mastered Casein milk paint to achieve a smooth surface with natural shapes and patterns found in stone, granite, and ice. Abstract painter Daniel Rosenbaum imagines an unnatural environment conjuring a new reality. Francesco Tumbiolo paints ambiguous gestural figures in primary colors, inviting the viewer to participate. Each Artist in GROUP SEVEN presents their own style of painting technique in contrast to the absurd notion that tangible art has lost its relevancy in the Contemporary Art World. 


GROUP SEVEN is on view in Woodward Gallery’s street-level windows from March to May 2023. Please plan to visit in person 24/7 from our street-level exhibition windows, and by private appointment. It is available with a full-color catalogue on our website and also online, on Artsy.net and  Widewalls.ch.
January 13, 2023

Gregory Corn & Alex Racine
Gregory Corn, Alex Racine: Gravity & Grace
Group Exhibition
January – February *Extended to March 11th, 2023
Woodward Gallery

 

Happy New Year! Woodward Gallery springs into 2023 with a two-person, dynamic, three-dimensional exhibition by Sculptors, Gregory Corn and Alex Racine. 

 

The human condition is modeled in metal, ceramic, and gravity. Corn’s three “dancers” spin in juxtaposition to their heavy medium and weightlessness. Racine’s expressive hands offer graceful gestures and cultural commentary.

 

Alex Racine’s ceramic sculptures employ the power of words and palmistry. The human palm has lines in it that represent language, so the artist naturally thought to sculpt words. The openings in his elegant hands encourage the viewer to also explore the inside, consider how hands articulate, and how we may interpret character from the lines and configurations of the palm of a person’s hand. Walkie-Talkie and Basic Instinct are after the human body. The fingers become a blend of leg and arm anatomy. Crossed fingers in Basic Instinct conjure the iconic cultural moment in the 1992 film of the same title.

 

For Racine, his Dog is reminiscent of youthful shadow puppets. Conversely, God is the mischievous, fun relationship with the shadow puppet and his play on its letters. Love is the hand gesture for sign language. Kindness is two hands joined creating one heart— especially relevant at this time when more kindness is needed. Incorporating a sixth finger as an optical illusion, Racine nods to early Warhol drawings, saying, “When I close my eyes,  I feel like I have a 6th finger. I like that the sculpture becomes something and does something…it is like a third eye.”

 

Gregory Corn’s sculptures utilize metal, stone, and wire to harness the delicate balance between highly-dense materials and gravity. Tall, sturdy, steel structures are held together, masterfully, by smaller pieces. Heavy objects dangle from wires and gently sway. When knocked on, each piece also “sings” differently, as Corn describes. Corn’s three sister pieces, Yellow Dancer, Orange Dancer, and Red Dancer exemplify human behavior, symbolizing the complex inner mechanisms of bodies, minds, and spirits. Like real dancers, each of the three sculptures are physically sound —strong— and yet, incredibly graceful. The fourth piece, Marionette, resembles a puppet. A heavy mountain-shaped stone is held off the ground by a complex array of cable wires, latches, and steel bars. Large, red-detailed, rectangular beams act like bones for the larger sculpture. This balance, Gregory Corn explains, represents humanity, as, in his own words: “The weight we carry holds us together.”

From January through February 2023, this exhibition will be presented at Woodward Gallery in our street-level windows 24/7, by private appointment, and as an online exhibition and Viewing Room on Artsy.net.

  • A PDF of this exhibition’s press release can be downloaded here.

Gregory Corn installing his sculptures at Woodward Gallery in early January 2023.

 

 
 
 
 
 
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November 3, 2022

Winter Mix

Group Exhibition – Robert Indiana, Susan Breen, Knox Martin, Terence Netter, Keith Haring, LA2, Rupert Jasen Smith, and Kenji Nakayama

November – December 2022

Woodward Gallery

The holidays are here! As dry, autumn leaves grace the New York City pavement and daylight grows dim, the seasons change. Woodward Gallery’s current group exhibition, Winter Mix, explores this seasonal transition in the form of artistic expression. Gallery Director, John Woodward, curates work from Artists Robert Indiana, Susan Breen, Knox Martin, Terence Netter, Keith Haring, LA2, Rupert Jasen Smith, and Kenji Nakayama. This selection tells the classic, yet exciting, tale of the natural transformation from Fall to Winter.

As the days become shorter and more frigid in climate, emotional warmth is expressed, artistically. These artists utilize primary colors (red, yellow, blue), sharp or curving shapes, and recognizable images, such as Robert Indiana’s “LOVE,” Keith Haring’s dancing figure, and Susan Breen’s icy snowflake. Themes such as love, passion, religion, and celebration unite these diverse works of art, illustrating what “mixes” together to form the season. Through Winter darkness, these Artists offer illumination. 

This exhibition is presented at Woodward Gallery in our street-level windows 24/7, by private appointment, and as an online exhibition on our website (WoodwardGallery.net), Artsy.net, and Widewalls.ch. Happy holidays!

 

  • A PDF of the Press Release can be downloaded here.
September 8, 2022
Thriller Logo

MATT SIREN

Matt Siren: Thriller

September – October 2022

Woodward Gallery

Press Release

For well over a decade, Matt Siren brought piercing, high-contrast artwork from the streets of New York City to the walls of Woodward Gallery. This Fall, the Artist’s first solo exhibition at Woodward Gallery, Matt Siren: Thriller, explores his creative evolution. Matt Siren’s collection of characters is widely-recognized and respected from the American East and West Coasts to European cities, such as London and Paris. By fusing thick-lined graphic content, sharp comic book illustrations, and playful storytelling into his art, Matt Siren’s work thrills. This exhibition highlights the Artist’s most iconic characters, who stir up imagination, and seduce. Vintage screenprints on metal signs and current hand-painted wood-block assemblages are featured together in a two-part exhibition at Woodward Gallery. Prepare for a wild ride of past, present, and future storytelling —unique to Matt Siren— transcending street and fine art.

Since 2008, the beautiful face of Matt Siren’s Ghost Girl has appeared on urban walls, became a set of vinyl toy collectibles, decorated reality television beach homes, was discussed on CBS News, was worn by the fashion world, and was even transformed into a 7.6-acre corn maze. This hard-edge, female icon with dark hair pulled to the side by a flower, harkens back to Matt Siren’s youthful love of gaming— particularly, his nostalgia for the arcade game, Ms. Pac-Man. Ghost Girl stares directly at her voyeur’s eyes, hypnotizing the viewer to follow her. The powerful silhouette of Ghost Girl is set in a variety of colors as a representation of diversity and feminism; she could represent anyone, no matter their background, size, sexual orientation, race, or ethnicity. Her universal image has become Matt Siren’s signature symbol. All women are intended to be represented in Ghost Girl’s robust and striking spirit.  

Matt Siren’s Death Face is one face of a character called a Quintesson from the 1980s cartoon, The Transformers. The fictional robo-alien race of Quintesson has 5 faces. As fans of The Transformers franchise know, the specific season where the Quintesson characters appear is filled with dark psychological undertones. Their graphic design style and deep meaning inspire Siren’s own creative twist on these characters.

Siren’s vintage Pin-ups represent the Artist’s respect for the female form and its vigor. Through his deep appreciation for women, their physical strength, and ability to be resilient in the face of pain and conflict, Matt Siren’s Pin-ups are not intended to objectify women through the problematic lens of the male gaze, but rather, to alter it to focus on feminist power through sexuality. The erotic Burlesque in the Living Room series teases the viewer to engage with Matt Siren’s event advertisements discussing performer Gigi La Femme. Specifically, Siren inverts the commercial dialogue so the female characters may utilize their femininity to regain control of the male gaze that fails to define them. 

Metaphorically and symbolically, Matt Siren’s Skull represents a wartime spirit of going into battle with a vengeance. The Skull represents a sense of condemnation and a warning of impending death. However, death, as a metaphor, can also signify the end of an era— or a new beginning. Matt Siren’s Skulls are presented, not as figures of existential doom, but rather, as comical or ironic manifestations of serious caution. 

Pulling from our archives, Ghost Girl and Burlesque in the Living Room limited edition prints will be made available at Woodward Gallery, on a first-come-first-serve basis, for the duration of the exhibition. Woodward Gallery invites all to the exciting realm of Matt Siren: Thriller. A full-color, digital catalog is available on our website. This exhibition is presented at Woodward Gallery in our street-level windows 24/7, by private appointment, and as an online exhibition and Viewing Room on Artsy.net. Come one, come all!

 

Matt Siren - 5¢ Boogie Man - 2022
Matt Siren - Ghost Girl "Black" -2008
Matt Siren - Wasabasco Burlesque - 2008
Matt Siren - Burlesque In The Living Room - 2008
Matt Siren - Wasabassco Presents Burlesque Living Room - 2008
Matt Siren - Ghost Girl "Pinky" - 2008
Matt Siren - Burlesque Striptease - 2008
Matt Siren - Mistress - 2010
Matt Siren - Ghost Girl "Sue" - 2008
Matt Siren - Death Face: i am riding YOU - 2008
Matt Siren - Death Face: i am RIDING you - 2008
Matt Siren - Ghost Girl "Inky" -2008
Matt Siren - Ghost Girl "Blinky" - 2008
Matt Siren - Death Face: I am riding you - 2008
Matt Siren - Death Face: i AM riding you - 2008
Matt Siren - Ghost Girl "Negative" -2008
Matt Siren - Skeletoro - 2010
Matt Siren - Peace Angel - 2022
Matt Siren - Wasabassco Presents Burlesque in the Living Room - 2008
Matt Siren - Burlesque Striptease - 2008
Matt Siren - Burlesque in the Living Room - 2008
Matt Siren - Ghost Girl Black - 2008
Matt Siren - Blinky - 2008
Matt Siren - Pinky - 2008
Matt Siren - Inky - 2008
Matt Siren - Sue - 2008
Matt Siren - Ghost Girl Negative - 2008
June 28, 2022

SABINA FORBES II 

HEAT WAVE

July – August 2022

Woodward Gallery

Press Release

It is about to heat up in New York City this summer at Woodward Gallery! Hot, vibrant colors sizzle urban cityscapes in artist Sabina Forbes II’s premier solo exhibition entitled, HEAT WAVE. Forbes ignites her canvases with patterns, textures, and brilliant fluorescent hues as she imagines the urban skyline brought to life by the hard-working hands that build the towers and by the people dwelling within their concrete walls. Her dynamic style of neon painting is a pulsating, sweltering celebration of color, channeling the collective spirit which vibrates around us and emanates from all creations. Ultimately, this electric body of work evokes the endurance of hope, even when the world seems hellish.

 

Visual heat emanates from Forbes’ reconceived landmarks made of textural two-dimensional fluorescent paint on canvas. Blocks, bricks, and even shapes that resemble roads all come together to highlight the unavoidable unification of people in a busy urban community. Although a metropolis may feel alienating, Forbes’ precise brush strokes and lined layers of paint invite the exploration of communal, urban stability. These inspired architectural structures simmer with their own light and joyful energy.

 

“The best is yet to come” was a sentiment that Forbes’s grandfather, Malcolm Forbes, often expressed throughout her childhood and one which became an inspirational force behind her art. Each of Forbes’ paintings is a manner of portraiture whether from the singularity of the individual form, an element of nature, or the perceived sterile neutrality of a building punctuating a city skyline. Walking around the city to explore this vitality, Forbes taps into the overall human spirit through flaming color, intricate patterns, and dynamic textures animating her notable building structures.

 

Watch the heat index climb this July and August and witness Forbes’ refreshing, original works from the Woodward Gallery street-level exhibition windows at 132A Eldridge Street, NYC, in the digital catalog on WoodwardGallery.net (see issuu catalog above) and also presented on Artsy.net.