gregory hennen ::

Gregory Hennen's recent highly stylized paintings, oils on panels, feature the natural diversity of the Hudson River Valley. "The organization of space, essentiality of color and quality of light fascinate me. Depicting the natural world in its exactness is not what I do. Instead, my work reflects what I see and how I feel over time. I generally develop the painting from several small drawings worked on location."

Gregory Hennen (Garrison, NY) received his BFA from Eastern Connecticut State University. Hennen's solos exhibitions include Kenise Barnes Fine Art in Larchmont, NY and Museum of the Hudson Highlands in Cornwall, NY. He has been a featured in a group exhibit at DFN Gallery and George Billis Gallery in New York City.

Gregory Hennen appears courtesy of Kenise Barnes Fine Arts.

martin kruck ::

Martin Kruck's series Xcapes evokes travel postcards "to everywhere and nowhere". Xcapes all show the same background of a cloud-filled horizon, with a different figure in each. Here the recurrence of location and its expectation begins to frame the experience of the place. The viewer doesn't know what the figure is doing but we want to be where they are even though the person's back blocks our view.

Martin Kruck (New Rochelle, NY) has had 20 one-person and over 50 group exhibitions internationally. Recent exhibits of his work have been held in Germany, Japan, and Canada and throughout the United States. He is the recipient of grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation, the Connecticut Commission on the Arts, and the New York State Council for the Arts as well as numerous awards and fellowships. He is a professor of Art at New Jersey City University, currently living and working outside of New York City.

Martin Kruck appears courtesy of Kenise Barnes Fine Arts and Metaphor Contemporary Art, NYC.

michael iskowitz ::

Michael Iskowitz's Doll House Society, is a "a humorous yet darkly strange world" says artist Michael Iskowitz of his work. Not having access to human models Iskowitz's resourcefully uses dolls to parody the human experience in his intensely rich paintings. Not unlike a director, Iskowitz sets up his dolls like actors in staged scenes that are deeply psychological.

Michael Iskowitz (Spring Valley, NY) studied at Cooper Union School of Art. He has received an award from Fellowship Woodstock School of Art. Iskowitz has exhibited at Finkelstein Memorial Library in Spring Valley, NY, Blauvelt Library in Blauvelt, NY, The Hopper House in Nyack, NY and TAG Art Gallery in Nashville, TN.

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brett depalma ::

Brett DePalma's work comes from a serious respect for play. His spontaneous process is based on "never underestimating the value of silliness". The drawings look like illustrations that could have flooded out of the imagination of a character that lives in a fairy tale. Using toys and overly decorative period objects possibly found in an attic, DePalma weaves an iconography contrary to a traditional fine arts education.

Brett DePalma (Nyack, NY) extensive exhibition experience includes one-person exhibitions at the Tony Shafrazi Gallery, NY; Emilio Mazzoli, Italy; and the Arnold Hertsand Gallery, NYC. He is an adjunct professor at the School Visual Arts, NY since 1988. His other teaching credits include Princeton University, and Tyler School of Art, PA. DePalma is an artist and social activist.

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nancy bowen ::

Nancy Bowen series of sculptures play with ideas of "decoration" and "hybridism". Each piece begins with some bodily experience or factoid that then gets translated through the lens of decorative arts. She is interested in colliding familiar visual genres to create an uneasy fusion of information and experience using a variety of materials including glass, steel, clay, wax, resin and other non-traditional media. "My use of such materials alters one's understanding of the anatomical source material. I also draw on the form language of applied arts such as pottery, furniture and other decorative objects for inspiration," says Bowen.

Nancy Bowen (SUNY Purchase) is a mixed media sculptor who lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. She has had solo exhibitions throughout the United States and Europe including the Annina Nosei Gallery in NYC, Galerie Farideh Cadot in Paris, the Betsy Rosenfield gallery in Chicago, and the James Gallery in Houston among others. Her work has been reviewed widely in such journals as Art in America, Artforum, Glass Magazine, Sculpture Magazine and a host of newspapers. She has won awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York Foundation for the Arts and the European Ceramic Work Center. She received a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and an MFA from Hunter College (CUNY). She is currently an Assistant Professor of Sculpture at Purchase College, State University of New York. Her website is www.nancybowen.net

mia brownell ::

Mia Brownell combines painterly skill with a conceptual interest in recent advances in botany and biology. Working within the age old genre of still life Brownell injects a new relevancy by utilizing its' conventions in an investigation into our relationship with food sources, and the very keys to creation. With a fluid old masters touch and jewel-like color she depicts clusters of fruit such as grapes, plums, and pears twining in the coiling structures of DNA, amino acids, and protein chains as revealed in genome theory and genetic mapping.

Mia Brownell (New Rochelle, NY) has been included in-group exhibitions throughout the U.S. and in Italy and has been written about in various publications notably the Buffalo News, the Connecticut Review, and the Tufts Journal. She is a recent recipient of grants from the New York Foundation for the Arts, and the New York State Council for the Arts. She is an Associate Professor of Painting at Southern Connecticut State University in New Haven and is currently represented by Metaphor Contemporary Art.

Mia Brownell appears courtesy of Kenise Barnes Fine Arts, represented by Metaphor Contemporary Art, NYC.

Curators

daly flanagan | lynn stein

Daly Flanagan and Lynn Stein have been staff curators at ROCA since 2002. They have co-curated the following exhibitions: Seven (2004), Seven: Material Transformations (2005), Artists Under the Influence (2004) and Forces of Nature (2002).

daly flanagan :
is currently the School Director at the Rockland Center for the Arts (ROCA). She has over 15 years experience in art education and administration including positions as director of the Craft Student League and Elsa Mott Ives Gallery - YMCA of the City of New York and Coordinator of School and Family Programs at the American Craft Museum.

lynn stein :
is the Exhibitions Director at the Rockland Center for the Arts and a painter. She is the designer of the ROCA Exhibition catalog program including DEJONG OURSLER ZANSKY (2003) and INLINE (2005), which she co-curated with Joel Carreiro. Future ROCA projects include the TRANSHUDSON PROJECT 2006 Catalog, a collaborative exhibition involving 4 arts organization on both sides of the Hudson River.