Catherine Howe (left) and Peggy Cyphers (right)
Cross Contemporary Art at 81 Partition Street will hold an opening reception on Saturday, Nov. 8 from 5-8 p.m. for a show featuring the prints and paintings of New York City-based artists Peggy Cyphers and Catherine Howe, curated by Ford Crull. The work is done in a modern expressionist technique grounded in classical tradition, with use of various materials including sand, metal leaf, ink and oil paint on canvas. Cyphers responds to the multi-dimensional experience of the landscape from various points of view (animal and human) and Catherine Howe looks to art history and its exuberant, fleshy subject matter as her starting point.
In Brooklyn Rail, Cyphers’ art is described by Jonathan Goodman.
“Peggy Cyphers’ painted characters and landscapes vibrate in dialogues of rhythm and repetition that influence sensory perception. Her surfaces recall color field, where abstract forms operate in a psychological dialogue of association — congestion and vast span, hyper-speed and recognizable icons. Cyphers’ painting is automatic writing — a stream of consciousness between geological, primordial and cultural time.”
Roger Denson writes about Catherine Howe’s work:
“Howe especially lingers over exquisite portrayals of beautiful objects, both man-made and organic, envisioned by the Dutch and Flemish masters to convey the transience of life on earth. In this respect Howe disregards the severe and blunt vanitas paintings of skulls and decay in favor of over-ripe and peeled fruit, liquors languishing in food- and lipstick-smudged glassware, and the blooms of flowers showing the first signs of their demise to come.”
Exhibition curator, Ford Crull, has chosen these artists to show together because their personal, emotional engagement in painting is an inspiration to his own career as a painter.
“Both Peggy and Catherine represent what is exciting about gestural and expressionistic art-making in the 21st century. They are painter’s painters. The way they both handle the brushstroke and composition can only be achieved through painstaking time and effort, and continually willing to push the limits. They continue to redefine what can be, and exemplify the continued relevance of painting in our contemporary art forum. This first rate work by these two New York painters is truly art that matters. It’s great to curate this two-person exhibit and bring it to a new gallery in the Hudson Valley region where we all derive so much inspiration for what we do.” The exhibit runs through Sunday, Nov. 30. (845) 399-9751 or Facebook for more info.
Proserpina (Frenchie) by Catherine Howe
Woodpecker by Peggy Cyphers