april ushers in spring with blossoms blooming everywhere and no better time to open three new solo exhibitions for donald martiny, kim testone and jenny nelson. we schedule out exhibitions at least two years in advance so the anticipation for us is really high by the time the show rolls around. it all starts with a conversation full of ideas concerning the direction the artist is thinking about taking for the upcoming exhibition. once the work is in progress in the artist’s studio often times the creative flow may take the work toward a slightly different outcome. therefore after many months of hard work it is an absolutely joy to see the results hanging on the gallery walls. we sat in donald martiny’s kitchen in chapel hill a little over 18 months ago talking art and dreaming about how his incredible wall sculptures would look like installed at the gallery. just as we thought they are mind-blowing. donald worked tirelessly with golden paints to come up with a method to create his wall sculptures from polymer and pigment mixed together on top of an aluminium base. the power of a single brush stroke defined and hovering over the wall insinuating motion. the results are powerful and seductive. jenny nelson’s oil on canvas abstract paintings are complex through their many layers of paint. she spend countless hours working through compostions layer after layer until the perfect balance is found on the surface. her palette is limited to blues, greens and coral pinks with the occasional yellow popping through. on each canvas you can see the push and pull of jenny’s brush work seeking out the ideal tension. we absolutely adore kim testone’s ice cream cones paintings and decided to ask her if she was up for painting a series of different flavors for her next show. we were thrilled when her excitement matched ours. trompe l’oeil paintings are meant to trick the eye and kim has mastered the technique. seeing all the paintings lined up in the gallery is truly a happy sight. the only problem is it is very difficult to chose a favorite flavor. we hope you enjoy the new exhibitions as much as we do!
donald martiny was born in schenectady, ny in 1953 and currently lives and works in chapel hill, north Carolina. he studied at the school of the visual arts, the art students league in new york, new york university and the pennsylvania academy of fine arts. museum exhibitions include the fwmoa, courtauld institute of art, alden b dow museum of art, falmouth museum, and the cameron art museum. donald’s work is in the permanent collections of the crocker art museum in sacramento, ca; the newcomb art museum at tulane university in new orleans, la; the fwmoa, fort wayne, in and the lamborghini museum in bologna, italy.
martiny’s water-based polymer and pigment on aluminium paintings are made on the floor using mostly his own hands to manipulate the paint to capture the essence of a brushstroke. he is considered a action painter; one who physically acts out their emotions through paint. mounting the works on aluminium suspending off the wall results in a sculptural relief.
“brushstrokes are dances trapped in paintings.”
donald’s work is in the permanent collections of the one world trade center in new york city; the crocker art museum in sacramento, ca; the amon carter museum of american art in fort worth, tx; the newcomb art museum at tulane university in new orleans, la; the fwmoa, fort wayne, in and the lamborghini museum in bologna, italy as well as the grahm gund family foundation, cambridge, ma; patrick duffy, chairman, las vegas art museum, las vegas, nv; the phoenix art museum, phoenix, az; erin lawlor, sainte-marie de re, france; city of pont de claix, france; john hudson, new york, ny; mae gall, basel, ch; c. laville, montreal, qc, canada.
his work is also displayed at los angeles international airport.
jenny nelson attended maine college of art in portland, maine, and graduated with a bfa from bard college where she received a scholarship to the lacoste school of the arts in france. she has been living and working in woodstock, new york for 18 years. her early artistic training was focused on the classical and representational but it has always been her natural instinct to depict the surroundings in abstract forms. most of the paintings evolve as an intuitive reaction to her surroundings, be it interior space, inner space, or landscape. to evoke this kind of sensory memory in her work jenny applies many layers of paint, using gesture and an internal sense of color. traces of previous layers will remain visible, allowing colors to interact in ways they could not have anticipated. her compositions develop through a series of decisions that are both conscious and unconscious. with great sensitivity to these evolving colors and forms, a very personal abstract language emerges. she tends to focus on particular shapes or compositions for long periods of time resulting in a series of closely related paintings. the paintings are an ongoing process of addition and subtraction until everything on the canvas co-exists with a depth and intensity that seems balanced.
kim testone holds a ba in drawing from the university of central florida and a masters in arts administration from savannah college of art and design. kim is a former art magazine editor, writer and theme park caricature artist. her paintings focus on ordinary objects, with a bit of a quirky and sentimental twist. she paints subjects that celebrate imagination and entertainment, from nostalgic toys and games to colorful desserts to trompe l'oeil pieces that aim to fool the viewer's perceptions. she resides in syracuse, new york, with her husband and their three cats.
“my hope is to capture a little bit of unexpected joy in everyday subjects and surprise the viewer. if my work can elicit a smile or help someone recapture a warm memory, that’s a pretty good day.”
