Past Exhibitions

May 11, 2021
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Moody
Direct Current

May – July 2021
at Woodward Gallery
artsy viewing room


In the shocking era of the 1980s, the streets were where art was made. There, on the blank, concrete canvases of New York City, street artist, Moody, developed his technique. Moody perfected his style alongside other street artists, back in a time when there were no legal spaces to show off their work, forcing many to operate in secrecy. After connecting with other street artists and, subsequently, earning their respect, Moody refined a successful studio practice, where he continues to create work today. This summer, Woodward Gallery presents Moody’s paintings in the all-new solo exhibition, Direct Current. This body of work, stems from his knowledge of electricity and circuitry, charging the outlet for human connectivity.

 

The COVID-19 pandemic struck Moody’s local community of Bensonhurst, Brooklyn particularly hard. Through this past year, painting brightened Moody’s artistic vision. In his detailed plans of electrical circuitry, the artist’s minimal line patterns felt soothing to paint; his geometric, abstract grids flow together on wooden surfaces. Moody completes each hand-painted work with a clear varnish coating as insulation for his wiring panel— a protection for the circuit’s current, connection, and energy.

 

Like the colors of traffic lights, Moody’s precisely-painted wires are signaled in cautionary red, chaotic black, walk-signal white, and then grounded in green. These grounding wires serve as an alternate path for current to run back to its source, preserving positive, renewable energy. In circuitry and in life, grounding reduces the risk of electrical overload. As in the human mind, numerous wires lead back to a conduit, which switches on and off throughout life.

 

This series of paintings considers interconnectivity to ease emotional shortages, illuminate positivity, and prevent isolation by bringing us together.

 

Please visit Moody’s Direct Current paintings in person at Woodward Gallery’s street level exhibition windows 24/7; online on WoodwardGallery.net, on Artsy.net, and step into the virtual Artsy Viewing Room.

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April 2, 2021



Sybil Gibson: Fresh Flowers
Artsy Online Exclusive Exhibition
April 6 – May 30, 2021
artsy viewing room
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Woodward Gallery is excited to present an Online Exclusive exhibition and viewing room by Artist Sybil Gibson.
 

Gibson’s enduring legacy is preserved with the colorful floral arrangements of a passionate, soulful, eccentric personality. Sybil Gibson (February 18, 1908 – January 2, 1995) was born in Dora, Alabama to a wealthy coal mine operator and farm owner; despite her prosperous upbringing she spent most of her adult life in poverty. Gibson is regarded as one of the leading female folk artists from Alabama. Woodward Gallery represented the Artist’s Estate from 2011- 2016.

 

Gibson gave into her impulse to draw, paint and record later in life after working as an educator. Gibson often expressed that art had to come from within and made due with very little means.

 

She recorded her childhood memories knowing that each viewer could relate. Her soulful, mesmerizing works speak for themselves and reach out to touch the viewer’s consciousness. Gibson used brown bags, scraps of paper, newsprint, and cardboard. She would wet and flatten the surface of these papers to prepare for her original watercolor/gouache/tempera technique. As she waited for the paper and paint to dry on one painting, Gibson would satiate her spontaneous expression on additional surfaces: “I just go from one brushstroke to another and I do it fast… as soon as the idea comes I use it real quick,” she would say.

 

Sybil Gibson, seized by a compulsion to paint over three decades, grew out of touch from family and friends. She sought escape from daily realities and responsibilities with a pure commitment to her art: “Painting is my happiness.”

 

Sybil Gibson’s art is featured in permanent collections such as: The Museum of Art, Alabama; The Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, Alabama; The Miami Museum of Modern Art, Florida; The New Orleans Museum of Art in Louisiana; The Museum of American Folk Art, New York; The Brooklyn Museum, New York, and The New State Historical Society.


Woodward Gallery is making this curated selection of works from Sybil Gibson available for the ARTSY Online Exclusive Exhibition only.

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January 24, 2021



Susan Breen
Remedy 2021
February – April, 2021
at Woodward Gallery
artsy viewing room
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Susan Breen Remedy explores our present sense of social, psychological, and physical maladies by imagining the transformation of various ‘ailments,’ to a contemporary visual representation of what might, in theory, relieve that state of being.
Remedy expresses possibility and hope where neither comes too freely. In her remarkable series of original oil paintings, Breen addresses the current notion of affliction as simply a kind of potential existing in a latent, raw state. The patterned and abstract restorative power of Breen’s stunning palette and conceptual intuitiveness is rendered with force and great beauty.
The majority of Breen’s compositions are grounded in symmetry, having derived broadly from Mandalic symbology. Breen’s interests in botany, physics, Eastern philosophy and medicine complicate notions of easy, logical order and balance. This combination has helped Breen’s work to possess a seeming openness of form, an absolute rigor in execution, and a true awareness of our universal need to heal.
There are many ways to safely take part in our current Susan Breen: Remedy 2021 solo exhibition! Visit Woodward Gallery’s street level exhibition windows 24/7 in person; view online on WoodwardGallery.net, on Artsy.net, and step into the virtual Artsy Viewing Room.

September 14, 2020



Margaret Morrison
Home
October throughout December 2020
at Woodward Gallery
Digital catalogue available below

Tuscany is Margaret Morrison’s second home. Nearly every summer, she roams through the antique markets of Arezzo, Cortona, and Lucca looking for inspiration and finds tables laden with sumptuous offerings of silver, crystal and collectables which dazzle the eye.  In addition to the gentrified, high end antiques, there are tables piled high with cast off trinkets and broken lamps that fascinate Morrison with their accidental beauty. Upon returning to Athens, Georgia, Morrison began painting in her elegant, in-town studio with high ceilings and state-of-the-art lighting.

However, once the pandemic hit, Morrison started working from home, leading her to rediscover her old home studio, the studio that she had abandoned eleven years earlier. She describes how her old space was “haunted by the ghosts of previous paintings.”   And like the attic full of dusty draped furniture from a Hollywood movie, she brought her home studio back to life. Morrison says, “It felt safe and familiar and healing. I felt at home…. at home painting the antique markets of my other home, all the while thinking of my lovely Italian friends who were passing through their own dark time.”

This season, please join us at Woodward Gallery for Margaret Morrison’s latest exhibition, Home. The glistening images Margaret Morrison has brought together for Home draw from a mixture of her past and present works of art. This latest show at Woodward Gallery, conjures her love of everything from Barbie dolls to sweets to silver. Visitors are invited to get lost in the immense detail of Morrison’s exquisite paintings, not just once but multiple times, since one viewing is simply not enough to fully discover their treasures.

Concurrently, Margaret Morrison has two Museum exhibitions underway. The first exhibition, A La Carte, featuring her sweet themed larger than life food paintings, is now on view at The Abroms-Engel Institute for the Visual Arts in Birmingham, Alabama from September 8, 2020 to December 12, 2020. The second exhibition, Margaret Morrison Paintings, consisting of sterling silver and pristine porcelain objects painted on large scale canvases, can be seen at The Georgia Museum of Art in Athens, Georgia, from August 31st, 2020 to January 17th, 2021.

Safely visit Margaret Morrison: Home from the street level windows at Woodward Gallery, New York from October to December 2020, on our website, through our Artsy.net Viewing Room, and by private appointment.

On view at Woodward Gallery

On view in museum exhibitions

A la carte Virtual Reality Tour

July 8, 2020
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Brad Robson
DELI Paintings
Summer 2020
at Woodward Gallery

Woodward Gallery is pleased to present Brad Robson’s original paintings of food this Summer season.

These days as we wait on longer check-out lines, we focus on our selection at the local deli or grocery store. Brad Robson emphasizes our essential food items in this series.  His magnified paintings of meat, fish, veggies and fruit represent the nourishment we seek especially now for our minds, bodies and souls. Robson’s confident application of paint to canvas has an immediacy, reinvigorating the traditional still life genre. His surreal deli imagery is easily identifiable, yet Robson’s choice of bright colors and loose forms also hint at abstract or action painting.

Robson lives and works in Sydney, Australia. He is a self-taught fine artist who had a career in Graphic Design and Advertising. Robson became a teacher on Album Sleeve Designs for a college in Sydney while continuously pursing his painting career. His studio paintings and street art murals have been featured in cities around the world. Robson’s large-scale cityscape canvases were exhibited at the historic Four Seasons Restaurant in NYC.

March 23, 2020

WashYourHands.art
Online Exclusive Group Exhibition
Presented by Woodward Gallery
Opening April 1, 2020


Woodward Gallery asks Artists to respond to the COVID-19 crisis with artwork to address their feelings, concerns, hopes and reactions. We are reaching out to our global art community in order to stress the importance of remaining socially responsible— specifically, by keeping our hands clean.

Woodward Gallery is launching the virtual exhibition, WashYourHands.art, that will be updated often with artistic contributions from all over the world. Please stay home, stay safe wherever you are, and follow along as we combat this pandemic together with our call to creativity.

Artists are welcome to submit an image of one work of art with full details (name, title, medium, size, signature location) to Art@WoodardGallery.net to be considered for the show. We will consider the artist’s personal response to the crisis—How they are affected? What are they feeling now, as the ramifications of the pandemic are coming into focus? How they are reacting to it? And what message do they want to put out into the world right now?

WashYourHands.art serves as a global platform for artists to express their creativity about the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic. The specific guidelines for our open call to artists are simple: What is the individual artist’s interpretation of the directive “Wash Your Hands,” and how will they respond to the crisis through their art to help propagate this life-saving message?

With respect to current practices of social distancing, this exhibition will only be available online. Visit WashYourHands.art to take part in this ever-growing virtual art conversation.
Woodward Gallery urges everyone to support their local artists who are struggling during these uncertain times. Remember: we are all in this together.

February 7, 2020


COSBE Paintings
February 1 – June 30
Presented by Woodward Gallery

Woodward Gallery is delighted to share recent Paintings by the Neo Expressionist Artist Cosbe on view in our street level exhibition windows. Cosbe’s automatic paintings expose a frenetic, visceral reaction to his surroundings. His images are built of a textured explosion of abstracted imagery and stories. The detail in his work is surprising: hidden faces within faces and stream-of-consciousness phrases. Cosbe’s paintings offer insight to the process of this complicated, cerebral genius.


New York based artist Cosbe is a self-educated painter and mixed media artist who creates work that combines the raw, gritty edge of the street with an expressionist aesthetic. Cosbe first became known in the mid 1990s for his graffiti in the streets of his hometown, Chicago. His paintings are a layered, textured, and drippy explosion of abstracted characters. The sometimes emotionally dark content of his work is masked by its colorfulness.


Earning continued recognition, Cosbe was awarded a coveted spot as a Red Bull sponsored artist at Scope Art Fair in Miami. He is featured in books such as Going Postal and Name Tagging by photographer Martha Cooper and Stickers by D.B. Burkeman. Cosbe’s lettering style is documented in video, and his painted imagery is illustrated in articles about street art in: The New York TimesChicago Tribune, and Village Voice.


COSBE Paintings can be viewed online (WoodwardGallery.net), any time through the Gallery’s street level windows, and by private appointment.

January 26, 2020


February 6 – March 1st, 2020
Opening Reception February 6 from 6-8 pm
Presented by Woodward Gallery at the
Down Town Association, 60 Pine Street, NYC


All material forms are thrown into the crucible of reproduction and fresh diversity.  This group exhibition explores the substance of faith and things hoped for born in the spirit of new art.  It is a visual exploration of different arches of creativity. Director John Woodward selects a variety of nontraditional paintings and sculpture from seasoned artists who have spent years communicating their vision. Artists Michael Alan, Thomas Buildmore, Cosbe, Darkcloud, Tommy Flynn, Gregory Van Maanen, Jamie Martinez, Moody Mutz, Jo Ellen Van Ouwerkerk, Alex Racine, Brad Robson, Matt Siren, Swoon, and Francesco Tumbiolo consider historic, metaphysical, feminist, technical and other themes.

 

Fresh Diversity contemplates being fresh/ innovative in thought, being diverse in style, being original, being conceptual.  It is a social statement, a personality, a current take on art for the new decade.  Each work is an integral component that blends to completeness.

 

Please celebrate with us on February 6th from 6-8pm at the Artists’ Reception.  Refreshments will be served.

 

Woodward Gallery is available online (WoodwardGallery.net), always through the Gallery’s Lower East Side street-level windows, and by private appointment. Daily hours are available to view the exhibition at 60 Pine Street in the Financial District. Please contact Woodward Gallery, or call the DTA directly at 212-422-1982 to schedule your visit.

 

Selected Press
WIDEWALLS

November 20, 2019

SEDECIM XVI
Group Exhibition

November 22, 2019 – January 24, 2020
Presented by Woodward Gallery at the
Down Town Association, 60 Pine Street, NYC
Opening Reception: December 6th from 6-8pm

Featuring: Willem de Kooning, Natalie Edgar, Richard Estes, Paul Gauguin, Richard Hambleton, Keith Haring, David Hockney, Robert Indiana, Franz Kline, Roy Lichtenstein, Margaret Morrison, Kenji Nakayama, Terence Netter, Robert Rauschenberg, James Rosenquist, Andy Warhol


Woodward Gallery presents Sedecim, a group exhibition of sixteen distinctive artists. Each artist harnesses the power of the materials and ideals of their time to challenge the conventional wisdom of art.


A 1967 painting by Willem de Kooning elevates waves of color to an abstract mountain ridge while Natalie Edgar deftly employs negative space with color to take the viewer on her abstract journey. Original works on paper by Franz Kline confidently show action and movement with little color or discernible forms. British Artist David Hockney’s series from the Six Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm invites the imagination to roam freely. A former Jesuit priest Terence Netter paints minimalist landscapes in an offering of serenity.Conceptual Artist Richard Hambleton is known for his energetically painted black figures jumping, running, lurking on urban walls around the world. His Shadowman, painted permanently on canvas, stands with confidence in order to evoke our reaction. Paul Gauguin contrasts darkness with the rawness of a primitive style in his woodblock prints. The cartoon icons of Keith Haring simply announce his pop culture message. Robert Indiana emphasizes his important message of L-O-V-E and H-O-P-E in capital letters, arranged in a square with a tilted letter “O”. Pop art cartoon figures and text are combined in parody in Roy Lichtenstein’s work.Richard Estes creates and masterfully renders photorealist cityscapes. Margaret Morrison tantalizes us with her realist oil paintings of decadent Italian beverages. James Rosenquist adapts the visual language of advertising and pop culture to the context of fine art. Andy Warhol in his pre-pop work creates a whimsical series of society recipes catering more to the artistic than the culinary — more to expressionism than to realism. Warhol’s early ink drawings are rendered in clean lines displaying his exceptional draftsmanship of figures. Kenji Nakayama unites organic flora and urban scenes in precise multi-layered stencils using spray paint. Robert Rauschenberg’s use of solvent transfer, collage and silkscreen are previously used only in the commercial process.


Together these sixteen artists represent over one hundred years of art inspiring and transcending their genres. Woodward Gallery is available online (WoodwardGallery.net), always through the Gallery’s street-level windows, and by private appointment.


Selected Press
WIDEWALLS, Sixteen Artists Spanning Centuries Take Over Woodward Gallery, November 2019
Wall Street International Magazine, Sedecim, December 2019

September 1, 2019

Deborah Claxton
Cut Paper Cut,
Hand- Cut Paper Paintings
Down Town Association
60 Pine Street, NYC
September 14 – November 8, 2019
Artist Reception September 25th from 6-8pm

Traveled in part to Woodward Gallery Windows
132A Eldridge Street, NYC
Throughout December, 2019

 

The Deborah Claxton show Cut Paper Cut, Hand Cut Paper Paintings has traveled to our 132A Eldridge Street location. 


Woodward Gallery presents the solo exhibition of Deborah Claxton in Cut Paper Cut, Hand-Cut Paper Paintings. Claxton conjures up sculpture, drawing and photography skills to create realistic images. She precisely cuts small bits of paper herself, not with a laser, but with miniature scissors and a magnifying lens.

 

Claxton envisions the picture from the final layer in, and reverse engineers the composition. She essentially builds her desired image by blending and contrasting, neutralizing or bringing out the vitality of an adjacent solid color. Playfully cutting out shapes to nourish her imagination, Claxton makes it look easy!

 

The ultimate themes are engaging places, expressive figures, and floral still lifes inspired by her own photography. Claxton is singularly able to convey dimensionality by layering colored paper. The resulting immensely detailed paper paintings inconceivably come together.

 



Selected Press

WIDEWALLS