Five Artists in “Secret Gardens”
The Nabi Gallery celebrates the delights and mysteries of spring with a group show that opens Thursday, May 4. The exhibit, Secret Gardens, brings together five artists: Cyril David, Rae Ferren, David Lowe, Alex Russo, and Megan Williamson. It runs through June 17.Both Rae Ferren and Alex Russo live and work in East Hampton, L.I., an area whose natural beauties have attracted artists and writers for over a century. Ms. Ferren’s gardens are luxuriant, joyful, bursting with rich greens and floral hues.
Rae Ferren, Garden Tales, oil on canvas, 24x36, 2006
Mr. Russo paints in a more abstract and somber idiom, creating images that invite the viewer to seek out mythical figures, animals, or mountain and forest shapes that seem to emerge and dissolve as if in dreams.
Alex Russo, Lights of Cornwall, acrylic and collage on canvas, 35½x72½, 1998
Cyril David, who lives in Sag Harbor, L.I., also finds his subjects in landscape but distils them into meticulous drawings which from a distance appear photographic in their realism, but on close inspection reveal a magical sense of light and shadow.
Cyril David, Lee in the Grape Arbor, graphite on paper, 12x8, 1992
Megan Williamson is a Chicago artist who makes a specialty of chronicling that city’s hidden gardens, while David Lowe, who lives in Dobbs Ferry, N.Y., draws inspiration from his frequent travels in Tuscany and Umbria.
Megan Williamson, Facing North, oil on canvas, 13x14, 2005
David Lowe, Once Upon a Time in the West, #253, oil on wood, 14x19, 2004-05
More Images from Secret Gardens