IMPORTANT NOTICE: The entrance to the June Kelly Gallery has been moved to 166 Mercer Street.  The entrance at 591 Broadway is closed.  The gallery remains where it has been on the third floor since 1987.  We look forward to seeing you.

Updated: February 01, 2012

An exhibition of paintings by the internationally known artist Hanibal Srouji at the June Kelly Gallery in October 2011 received a highly positive and perceptive review in the February issue of ARTnews magazine.  It was Srouji’s second exhibition at the gallery. The review can be read here.

A 1959 painting by gallery artist Carmen Cicero has been selected to appear in a group exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum in New York entitled Art of Another Kind; International Abstraction and the Guggenheim, 1949-1960.  The Cicero painting, Odradek, and the other works in the exhibition were acquired by the Guggenheim during the tenure of the museum’s second director, James Johnson Sweeney, who championed young and emerging artists he considered “tastebreakers.”  Other artists in the exhibition, which opens in June and continues into September, include Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock, Karel Appel, Eduardo Chillada and Anton Tàpies.

The Museum of Modern Art, which recently acquired its first sculpture by gallery artist Elizabeth Catlett, has placed the work on public display in the fifth floor Painting and Sculpture Galleries.  Entitled Mother and Child, it is a terra cotta from 1956 that measures 11 ¼ by 7 by 7 inches.  The museum, which honored Catlett with a Lifetime Achievement Award last fall, has long had prints by the 96-year-old artist in its collection, but this is the first sculpture, the medium for which she is best known.  The sculpture was acquired through the gallery.

Gallery artist Joyce Melander-Dayton will have a one-person exhibition of her new work this spring at the Joan Mondale Gallery at the Textile Center in Minneapolis, which is known nationally for promoting fiber art.  Entitled “Constructions in Concert,” the Melander-Dayton exhibition opens March 2 and will include approximately 14 of her fiber pieces on Gaterboard.  It will continue through April 14.  Melander-Dayton is a Minnesota native who now lives in Santa Fe.

Gallery artist Kay WalkingStick will have a busy January.  She will head south to Cartersville, Georgia, to lecture January 4 at the Booth Museum about her paintings in conjunction with the exhibition "Western American Art South of the Sweet Tea Line."  She will repeat the talk the following day at the Hunter Museum of American Art in Chattanooga, Tennessee.  Her painting, a diptych We're Still Dancing/ Taos Variation, is on loan from the Hunter Museum for the Booth Museum exhibition, which ends February 12.

On January 14, she will participate in a panel discussion on "A New Look at Native American Art" at the Peabody-Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts, where a new exhibition Shapeshifting: Transformations in Native American Art opens that day.  Her painting, La Primavera, a diptych from 2005, is in the exhibition, which continues to April 29.

Earlier, in mid-December, WalkingStick was interviewed over two days by art historian Mija Riedel for the Archives of American Art at the Smithsonian Institution.

And in February, WalkingStiick is scheduled to deliver a lecture at the Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire.  Her talk, on February 8, will be entitled "A WalkingStick Returns to Dartmouth," an allusion to her father, who was a student there.  The museum recently acquired WalkingStick's Remember the Bitterroots, an oil on wood panel diptych measuring 36 by 72 inches and created in 2007.

A work by gallery artist Claudia DeMonte is featured in a group exhibition commemorating the 25th Anniversary of the Atrium Gallery in St. Louis.  The exhibition continues through December 31.  DeMonte is showing Kelly Bag, a work in wood, pewter and brass from her “Female Fetish” series of 2009.

A painting by gallery artist Victor Kord was singled out for special mention in a review by Barbara MacAdam in the October 2011 issue of ARTnews of a group exhibition of abstract expressionist work last summer at the OK Harris Gallery.  Kord’s painting, Avon IV, from 2009, was in his one-person show at the June Kelly Gallery in 2010.  MacAdam wrote that the painting “expresses the interaction between the rational and the poetic, with the rhythmic cursive frieze playing against a soft pattern.”

Gallery artist Karin Batten, whose paintings that recall the views of New York City she saw from her studio atop the World Trade Center have been exhibited since July at the West Baton Rouge Museum in Louisiana, was the subject of a lengthy, gripping story in the Baton Rouge newspaper on September 11 about her experiences on the day of the attacks on the Trade Center.  (The article can be seen here.)  She shared the studio space with 13 other artists, one of whom was killed in the attacks.  The exhibition of 17 Batten paintings complemented a group exhibition of works by artists from around the country to commemorate the attacks.  The exhibitions ended in mid-September.

A painting by gallery artist Su Kwak was one of three works deserving "special attention" in a review of a group exhibition in Washington, DC, in the summer issue of ARTnews. The exhibition, entitled "20 Years, 20 Artists," comprises works of 20 of the favorite artists of Martha Ralls, a Washington gallery owner who has created what the magazine says is a "distinctive niche" on the art scene there. Kwak's piece, entitled Sun Within from 2010, "is animated by dramatic,swooping slashes of impastoed white," says reviewer Stephen May. The review can be found here.

Gallery artist Sky Pape has won a a 32-day residency fellowship from the Bogliasco Foundation this fall at the Liguria Study Center for the Arts & Humanities in Liguria on the Italian Riviera in northwestern Italy.  Earlier Pape had received a residency of about one month at Bellagio, the art colony operated by the Rockefeller Foundation on Lake Como in northern Italy.  Her husband Al Houghton is with her in Liguria.

Pape has also completed two works on paper that were commissioned by Tiffany & Co. for company stores in Asia.  One piece was done for the luxury retailer's store on the Ginza in Tokyo, the other for display in the Tiffany store in Hong Kong.  The Tokyo piece is entitled Harmony, and was created with Sumi ink on handmade Kozo paper, 36 ¾ x 36 ¾ inches; the other work is Luster, an ink on handmade Moriki paper, 38 7/8 x 25 inches.

Pape has also received a grant from the Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance (her third) to support the book she is working on of new drawings inspired by water and the tidal salt marsh of Upper Manhattan.

Gallery artist James Little, whose most recent exhibition closed in June, has received significant attention from the news media for the show.

-- Art in America put the exhibition on its list of ten excellent shows that "stand out in a crowded field." The item can be seen here.

-- Modern Painters, the British monthly magazine that is affiliated with Art+Auction, gave a highly positive review of the show. It was written by Benjamin Genocchio, who is the editor in chief at Art+Auction. The review is here.

-- Little also received a favorable review in The Wall Street Journal. Critic Lance Esplund wrote that Little’s bold vertical stripes create an illusion of “wind in the grasses or the vibration of harp strings.” The review is here.

Gallery artist Kay WalkingStick has been awarded the prestigious Lee Krasner grant for 2011 from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation.

The gallery's November 2010 exhibition of Philemona Williamson's paintings, Fractured Tales received a highly positive review from writer Tadzio Koelb in the March issue of Art in America magazine. You can see the review here.

The gallery's December 2010 exhibition of Rebecca Welz ‘s sculpture, Steel Nets, was highly praised in a review in the March issue of ARTnews by critic Doug McClemont.  Referring to the movement of the pieces, McClemont said, “Whether the motion was imagined or the result of a subtle breeze, what wafted through the room was the experimental spirit of Calder.”  You can see the review here.

ARTnews carries an in-depth profile of gallery artist James Little in its January 2011 issue in its regular "Studio" feature, including color images of two of his large paintings and a photograph of Little in his studio.  In an interview, Little details his approach to art and tells writer Celia McGee that color "is subject matter for me -- the statement is in the interactions of certain colors, their placement, the temperature of color."  Here is a link to the article.

Gallery artist Julio Valdez has been invited to create five new prints in 2011 at the world-renowned Polígrafa Obra Gráfica, a print-making atelier in Barcelona. Valdez will produce the work in editions limited to 50 prints of each image, and Polígrafa will exhibit them at its booth at Art Basel in Basel and Miami, ARCO in Madrid and other major art fairs. Other artists who have worked at Polígrafa have included José Bedia, Christo, Eric Fischl, Ed Ruscha and Donald Sultan.

The gallery's October 2010 exhibition of Sandra Lerner's paintings, Parallel Universes, received a highly positive review from writer Mona Lolarsky in the December issue of  ARTnews magazine.  You can see the review here.

The Department of Photography at the Museum of Modern Art in New York has bought two photographs by gallery artist Ming Smith from the exhibition of her work that was shown at the gallery last summer.  The photographs are Invisible Man, New York City, and August Wilson Series, Two Pool Players, Pittsburgh, PA.  Both are prints from 1990.

Gallery artist Moe Brooker has been named Pennsylvania's Artist of the Year for 2010, one of the state's prestigious Governor's Awards for the Arts.  The awards have been given annually for 30 years to honor outstanding Pennsylvania artists, arts organizations and patrons who have made significant contributions to the arts.  Governor Edward G. Rendell presented the awards at a ceremony in Philadelphia.  Brooker, who lives in Philadelphia, has been an artist and teacher for more than 40 years.  He currently is a professor and chair of the Foundation Department of Moore College of Art & Design.

Gallery artists Nola Zirin and Victor Kord are among some 50 American abstract artists whose paintings are in a traveling exhibition that opened in mid-June at the Aragonese Castle in Otranto, at the southeastern tip of the Italian peninsula, and is scheduled to be shown in Berlin and London.  The exhibition was organized by Marthe Keller, who teaches art at Hunter College in New York.  She is also the director of the summer arts residency program in Otranto, which is sponsored by the BAU Institute of New York and Otranto. Don Voisine, president of the New York-based American Abstract Artists association, curated the exhibition.

The widely read internet blog Huffington Post carried a lengthy illustrated report on the exhibition of paintings by Julio Valdez at the June Kelly Gallery and the opening reception.  Written by Jim Luce, regular contributor to the blog, he said the paintings "were more spectacular than I had expected.  Perhaps their large size added to the awe."  Luce's report can be found here.

Gallery artist Stan Brodsky has published a book of his recollections as a 19-year-old G.I. in Europe during World War II, including pen and ink drawings and watercolors that he used to embellish letters to his family.  He tells of his discovery of a set of watercolors in an abandoned home in Alsace that he says got him started on his very successful art career.  The New York Times carried a brief report on the book on April 29, 2010.  That report can be found here.

Gallery artist Kay WalkingStick has been selected to participate in a major PBS-TV series entitled "Art Through Time: A Global View," which is scheduled to air starting in September.  The 13-part series examines themes that connect works of art created throughout the world in different eras and reflecting diverse cultural perspectives on shared human experiences.  Each episode features a living artist and other experts discussing the theme of that segment; in WalkingStick's episode, the 10th, the theme is "The Natural World."  Other artists in WalkingStick's segment include Jacob Isaacksz, van Ruisdael, Albert Bierstadt, Eadweard Muybridge, Robert Smithson and Utagawa Hiroshige.  WalkingStick's painting Wallowa Mountains Memory is illustrated on the program.

Gallery artist Moe Brooker has won the 2010 Artist's Equity Award for his artistic and educational achievements over more than 35 years.  The award is presented each year by the Philadelphia/Tri State Artist's Equity Association.  Brooker has taught at schools and universities throughout the United States and in China, and his paintings are included in the collections of The Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, The Cleveland Museum of Art and the Studio Museum in Harlem.

The exhibition by artist Nola Zirin at the gallery in December is the subject of a highly positive review by Cynthia Nadelman in the March issue of ARTnews.  Nadelman writes that "Zirin's works on canvas and paper often evoke the sculptures of such powerful antecedents as Lee Bontecou and Louise Nevelson."  The review can be seen here.

A painting by gallery artist Karin Batten has been chosen for the permanent collection of the projected National September 11 Memorial and Museum at the World Trade Center site.  The piece, St. Paul's Chapel, 2002, is an oilstick on paper mounted on canvas measuring 60 by 36 inches.  Batten's studio was on 91st floor of the North Tower.  The painting was also used in a new feature film, "Clear Blue Tuesday," about the 9/11 attacks.

Gallery artist LeRoy Henderson is included in a new book, 100 New York Photographers by Cynthia Dantzic, a compendium of significant New York photographers who have made important professional contributions over the past 70 years.  Other photographers represented in the book include Annie Liebovitz, Mary Ellen Mark, Carrie Mae Weems, Joel Meyerowitz, Amy Arbus, Bruce Davidson and Hugh Bell.  The book was published in September by Schiffer Publishing.

Gallery artist James Little has been awarded a prestigious grant from the Joan Mitchell Foundation, one of a few contemporary artists to receive this year's award and its $25,000 prize. The award is granted annually to acknowledge painters and sculptors nationwide who create work deemed to be of exceptional quality. Little 's latest paintings were shown at the gallery in the spring of 2009. The Joan Mitchell Foundation was established in 1993 to fulfill Mitchell 's desire to assist contemporary artists and to demonstrate that painting and sculpture are significant cultural necessities.

Gallery artist Philemona Williamson has two paintings in a traveling exhibition, “A Complex Weave: Women and Identity in Contemporary Art,” that has been organized by the Rutgers-Camden Center for the Arts. The exhibition, which opened in 2009, will travel nationally until 2012. It was co-curated by Dr. Martin Rosenberg of Rutgers University and Dr. J. Susan Isaacs of Towson State University.

A photo feature in The New York Times highlighted the Ralph Ellison Memorial, a 15-foot-tall bronze sculpture designed by gallery artist Elizabeth Catlett. The sculpture is located in a park at Riverside Drive and 150th Street, near where the novelist lived for many years. Click here to see article and photo.

A 166-page, coffee-table monograph, Julio Valdez, has been published by FTC Group, New York, with color plates, a foreword by Guillermo D.  Clamens, introduction by gallery artist Julio Valdez and an essay by Federica Palomero.  For more information on the Julio Valdez book, please click http://www.latinamericanmasters.com/english/publications.html

Gallery artist Claudia DeMonte is the subject of a 112-page monograph entitled Claudia DeMonte, with a foreword by Agnes Gund and an essay by Eleanor Heartney.  The book, the first retrospective look at DeMonte's career and published by Pomegranate, contains approximately 120 color and black and white reproductions of her work.  Autographed copies of the book are available at the gallery for $30.00 each plus shipping and handling. See cover here.

Gallery artist Su-Li Hung has created a 138-page book entitled Hama San that highlights significant events in the area of Taiwan where she grew up.  Hung has written four short stories and three essays and illustrated them with woodcuts and pencil drawings.  The book has been published in Chinese by Chung-Hwi Publishing Company, Kaohsing City, Taiwan.  The cover of the book can be seen here.

A book of poems and woodcuts by Su-Li Hung has also been published in Taiwan. Entitled "Trees of Takao," the book contains 66 poems that are illustrated by 55 color woodcuts. Eleven of the poems have been translated into English by Tommy McClellan. (Click here to see one of her woodcuts, “Palm Leaf.”)

A number of large public murals that were created by gallery artist Karin Batten or on which she was a collaborator are among those highlighted in a new book, On the Wall: Four Decades of Community Murals in New York City, by Janet Braun-Reinitz and Jane Weissman and just published by the University Press of Mississippi in Jackson.

Il Bollettino, the newsletter of the Calandra Italian American Institute at Queens College, highlights the work of gallery artist Claudia DeMonte in an illustrated article in the winter issue. (Click here to see article.)  DeMonte says her work "is heavily influenced by my Italian Catholic background and my interest in folk art."

Herbert Vogel, a retired postal clerk, and his wife Dorothy, a former librarian, who devoted all of their spare time and money to collecting art, have donated 2,500 paintings, drawings and sculptures to 50 museums throughout the country. Included are 12 pieces by Claudia DeMonte.  The Vogels have given DeMonte’s work to the Speed Museum, Louisville, KY; Honolulu Academy of the Arts; Portland Art Museum in Maine; University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor; Frederick Weisman Art Museum at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis; Mississippi Museum of Art, Jackson; Academy of the Arts, Easton, MD; St. Louis Art Museum; Yellowstone Art Museum, Billings, MT; Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha; Las Vegas Museum of Art, and Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH.

A full-page illustration of one of DeMonte's works is included in a new book, "The Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Collection: Fifty Works for Fifty States." The book was published by the NEA and the National Gallery of Art and is available as an exhibition catalogue at each of the participating museums.

A multiple hand-made print by Lisa Mackie is among a group of prints that has been given to the Victoria and Albert Museum in London by a benefactor of the Zimmerli Art Museum of Rutgers University. Mackie's print, The First Thaw in Ludlow, was created on hand-made paper in 1987 at the Dieu Donné Papermill in New York City and was in the Rutgers Museum's collection of Prints and Drawings.

Philemona Williamson has completed Seasons, a large public artwork consisting of 18 colorful, painterly fused-glass panels underwritten by the MTA and installed at the Livonia Avenue Station of the L line in Brooklyn. The glassworks highlight shared experiences of the changing seasons. Williamson strove to capture expressions of timelessness and bring light and peace to the station environment, inspiring commuters with thoughts and memories of internal destinations and the potential of each new day.  To see Williamson's entire installation, click here.

Glass panels created by Philemona Williamson for the Livonia Avenue subway station in Brooklyn.

Broadside Print Projects, an organization that supports projects involving artists and poets and writers, has brought together artist Nola Zirin and former U.S. poet laureate Robert Pinsky to create a special portfolio based on Zirin’s paintings and a poem by Pinsky.