Date: February 13, 2010 through March 21, 2010
Location: Kaaterskill Fine Arts, Route 23A, Main Street, Hunter, NY
Hours: Thursday 11 am - 4 pm, Friday 11 am – 6 pm, Saturday 10 am – 7 pm, Sunday 11 am – 4 pm. Closed Monday through Wednesday.
Information: 518 263 2060
Email: gallery@catskillmtn.org

Abstract art has been the subject of much debate since Marcel Duchamp first hung a urinal on the wall. While the artists in this show may not be as controversial as he, they derive their art from the same inspirations as countless abstract artists before them. The Kaaterskill Fine Arts Gallery is now featuring its first exhibition dedicated solely to abstract art Featured are four prominent, award-winning artists from widely diverse backgrounds: Nancy Rutter, Larry McKim, Ilona Sochynsky and Emily Thing.

Nancy Rutter's art has been described as "the structure of color." Fascinated with the tonal interplay of color and form, Nancy takes her inspiration from nature, specifically from the landscape of Columbia County, where she is always challenged by the atmosphere and patchwork of light and shadows that dance across the views. Born in New York City, Nancy went to the High School of Music and Art and to New York University. Years spent living in Ireland and France were important in moving her toward more abstract forms and brilliant colors. During the year she lived in France, Nancy studied at the world-famous Atelier 17, founded by Stanley Hayter, where she focused on the use of color in the etching medium.

A brilliant colorist, there's a painterly quality to Rutter's work that conveys her love of the materials she works with--the paints and the glazes. So while the work appears very free and painterly, closer examination reveals a deft geometric interplay of forms and shapes and colors, hence the label "the structure of color." Her art is also about the element of surprise. It has something unexpected, something that will linger in the mind of anyone who looks at her work.

Larry McKim lives and creates art in Frenchtown, NJ. He has a BFA in Painting from the University of Washington at Seattle and an MFA in Mixed Media from Rutgers University in New Jersey. He has shown nationally in over 30 group exhibitions and has had over 10 solo exhibitions. He has created art in the media of painting, several printmaking techniques and drawing. His paintings and prints are non-objective compositions that are experiments with the basic elements of visual art.

Ilona Sochynsky is a prolific fine artist, graphic designer and educator. A graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design and Yale University School of Art, Sochynsky has been exhibiting her works in multiple media since the early 1980s. Her work is held in many private collections as well as several permanent collections in New York and New Jersey. Sochynsky's most recent work in abstraction marks a progression from her roots in hyper-realism and has generated critical accolades from ARTNews.

Emily Thing is an abstract/surrealist painter living and working in New York. Her paintings have been shown in galleries and juried shows throughout New England and the Hudson Valley. She's had her work published in both national and local magazines. Emily has traveled extensively throughout North America, Europe and Asia, keeping sketchbooks of ideas for paintings. In recent paintings, Thing's work is inspired by the tactility of place. She is drawn to found objects within specific places, which she then uses to recreate a scene primarily from sense memory and intuition. Her aim is to distill the strongest impression she had during the moment of experience into an abstract symbol or symbols representing, for her, the "whole."

Image: "Inside Out," by Emily Thing. Mixed media on canvas, 36 x 24 inches. Price: $2,000