Date: February 4, 2020 at 7PM

At: Westbeth Community Room

Presented by the Westbeth Literary Arts Committee, Joan Hall, poet and collagist, will read from her new book of poems, “Journey to Somewhere”.

Guest readers include Roger Braimon, Pique Kelly-Buford, Joel Rooks, and Reef Hall.

Native New Yorker Joan Hall is a pioneer in the field of collage and assemblage illustration. Known for her collages and assemblages, she has been exhibited in galleries and museums worldwide, including the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris and the Museo Tamayo in Mexico City.
Along with careers as a mime, teacher, artist, and lecturer, Joan has also been writing poetry since she was a child.
She is a winner of the 2018 Miriam Chaiken Foundation Award for her poetry. “Journey to Somewhere” is a collection of those winning poems.

Westbeth Community Room
155 Bank St
NY NY
between West and Washington Its
enter through courtyard

Ingenuity writ large; technique knit large

Show Dates: Feb 5 – Feb 23, 2020

Special Closing Event

The Gold Standard: Juror and Artist Talk
Sunday February 23rd from 1pm to 5:45 pm

Between 40-45 artists will be at the gallery on Sunday 23rd to talk about their work.

1:00pm to 3:00pm artists-with name tags on will circulate or be by their work to discuss it with interested viewers.

3:00pm to 3:30pm Lauren Whitley, the juror will speak in the main gallery.

3:30pm to 5:45 pm artists will be by their own art work to speak about it to interested folks and to answer any questions.

6:00pm the show closes

Questions please contact: Joan.mann.diamond@gmail.com

Westbeth Gallery and The Textile Study Group of New York are pleased to announce an exciting new show that explores the visual, dimensional and artistic language of fiber and textile.

“At a time when our collective attention is dangerously adrift, trapped in the freefall of our social-media feeds and snared in a pit of fake facts, handwork provides a firm anchor. It cannot be spun. It gives us something to believe in.”
Glenn Adamson, Senior Scholar,
Yale Center for British Art

How do 80 artists, working primarily in fiber, hone their conception of beauty and truth while integrating a mixture of materials ( both natural and synthetic ) with technique? The amazing feature of this show is how the work of individual artists working within the same medium can be totally different… even provocative.

The debate about fiber art as fine art is, thankfully, moot. Contemporary fiber art prioritizes aesthetic value over utility. Manual labor, choice of materials, and process are prized elements of a work’s significance. Dialectical thinking guides the work of these multi-layered artists in a way demonstrating that ingenuity triumphs over all.

For example, who knew that cable ties could be employed in such a seductive way? Who knew that leather and suede cut with an xacto knife could express so much about urban life… while weaving in social commentary? Who knew that electronic sensors cold be seamlessly integrated into an alluring form? We could go on and on.

Handwork cannot be described. It must be seen. “It gives us something to believe in.”

The Textile Study Group of New York (TSGNY) in its 42nd anniversary this year, is dedicated to the study and appreciation of fiber arts in all forms, from historic cloth to contemporary installation, from textile design to tensile architecture.

Show Juror: Lauren Whitley, senior curator in the David and Roberta Logie Department of Textile and Fashion Arts at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, helps oversee a global collection of 55,000 textiles, costumes, and accessories. She has curated more than 14 exhibitions including #techstyle and Hippie Chic. A Ph.D. candidate, she is focusing her research on textiles at the 1933 New York World’s Fair.

PARTICIPANTS

Liz Alpert Fay, Ludmila Aristova, Meredith Armstrong, Kate Barber, Polly Barto, Katherine Bennett,Stacy Bogdonoff, Allegra Brelsford, Eva Camacho, Sayzie Carr, Leonie Castelino, Anne-Claude Cotty, Don DonCee Coulter, Virginia Davis,Rachael Dorr, Chiaki Dosho, Emily Dvorin, Patricia Frik, Jayne Gaskins, Irene Gennaro,Sandra Golbert, Joyce Goodman, Carolyn Halliday, Liz Hamilton Quay, Marilyn Henrion, Susan Hensel, Pat Hickman, Eileen Hoffman, Leslie Horan Simon, Lauren Horowitz, Mary Jaeger, Tracy Jamar,Ruth Jeyaveeran, Setsuko Jimbo, Mo Kelman,Julia Kiechel, Judy Kirpich, Nancy Koenigsberg, Dianne Koppisch Hricko, Lisa Lackey, Fannie Lee, Janet Levine, Elaine Longtemps, Mary Lor,Patricia Malarcher, Saberah Malik, Ruth Marchese,mDorothy McGuinness,Susan Moss, Yasuko Okumura, Sui Park, Helen Perry,Bonnie Peterson, Tanya Prather,mEllen Ramsey, Szilvia Revesz, Patricia Rogers,Kari Roslund, CARO, Lois Russell, Ellen Schiffman, Robin Schwalb, Chizuko Sekiguch, Julia Shepley, Adrienne Sloane,Elizabeth Starcevic, Hillary Steel,mAmy Supton, Kim Svoboda,Naomi Tarantal,Sumiko Tasaka, Charlotte Thorp, K. Velis Turan,Betty Vera, Ann Vollum, Shari Werner, Saaraliisa Ylitalo, Ada Yonenaka, Pamela Zave, Betti Zucker.

Show Dates: Feb 5 – Feb 23, 2020
Opening Reception: Wednesday Feb 5 from 6PM – 9PM

At: Westbeth Gallery
55 Bethune St
between Washington and West Sts.

More info on The Textile Study Group of New York HERE

For information on the show:
Contact
Harriet Cherry Cheney hscheney@optonline.net
C:914-330-3335/T: 914-591-0198

After February 10,
Contact Ann Vollum annvollum@verizon.net
862-205-9722

When: Sunday Feb 9, 2020 from 2:00PM – 3:30PM
Where: Westbeth Community Room 155 Bank St between West and Washington Its, enter through courtyard

Grove Drugs and Westbeth Artists Residents Council present West Village Wellness, a free monthly event that deals with health issues of interest to the community. It is led by Ilana Aminov BSPharm RPH of Grove Drugs, the neighborhood drug store on 8th Avenue near 12th St, hosted by Michael Embrey and catered by Michael Stewart of https://tavernonjane.com.

For years, doctors thought the connection between mental health and heart health was strictly behavioral – such as the person who is feeling down seeking relief from smoking, drinking or eating fatty foods.

That thinking has started to change. Research shows there could be physiological connections, too. The biological and chemical factors that trigger mental health issues also could influence heart disease.

“The head-heart connection should be on everyone’s radar,” said Barry Jacobs, Psy.D., a clinical psychologist and director of Behavioral Sciences at the Crozer-Keystone Family Medicine Residency Program in Springfield, Pa. “It’s not just being unhappy. It’s having biochemical changes that predispose people to have other health problems, including heart problems.”

Orphans deals with Operation BabyLift, the name given to the controversial mass evacuation of infants and children from South Vietnam.

In the play, three sisters must come to terms with the past when an unexpected guest forces the family to face an unsettling secret.

Joel Shatzky was Professor of English at SUNY Cortland for 37 years before moving back to NYC and teaching Writing and English at Kingsborough Community College.In addition to his role as Professor, Joel is an accomplished Playwright and Author. He has a half-dozen novels, scholarly, and topical studies to his credit, Shatzky has published articles on theatre and education in the New York Times , Jewish Currents , Studies in Jewish American Literature , Players , and a half dozen other journals. As a playwright, Shatzky has written eight produced OOB shows, among the most recent, “Amahlia,” at 13th Street Rep.

Beth Griffith has performed with Vox Novus, Cosmic Orchid, Brooklyn New Music Collective, Medicine Show Theater, DownTown Ensemble, New York City Opera, Johannes Wieland Dance Company, FullStop Collective, Theater for the New City, HERE, Clubbed, New Georges, Rady & Bloom Collective, Communal Spaces Garden Play Festival, Sachiyo Ito’s DanceJapan, Nylon Fusion, a.o.

Opening Reception: Thursday March 19, 2020, 6PM – 9PM
Show dates: March 19 – April 19, 2020

Westbeth Gallery
55 Bethune St
b/w Washington and West Sts.
NY NY 100214

Gallery hours: Wednesday – Sunday 1PM – 6PM

A group of eight artists, with disparate skills and visions, who distill and interpret the world we are living in.

With painting, sculpture, installation, photography and hybrids of such mediums, our group present a varied take on documenting our times.

Each artist has presented work with their interpretation of what “Sign Of The Times” means to them.

Illtyd Barrett – Sculpture
For Sign of The Times Barrett will explore the phenomena of the rise of populism and
consumerism which has led to a climate of anti-intellectualism and religious fundamentalism. Using hand-made pigments and substrates, Barrett proposes to exhibit both sculpture and 2D elements reflecting the above concerns.

Christina Duarte – Painter
Now is the time to recognize that society requires women to behave in a particular way that often hides their true selves. My pieces are a diptych dialogue about women showing two sides of their personalities as a narration of rising against prejudice, sexism and the stigma of personal struggle.

Elizabeth Gregory-Gruen – Visual Artist
I search to understand the chaotic jolts of real life experiences that break our humanity. Using random 12-gauge shotgun blasts to lacerate the perceived “perfection” of my work produces a disruptive visceral reaction to the current environment allowing emotions to resonate.

Steve Joester – Photographer
‘The number of wild animals living on earth is set to fall by two thirds by 2020, according to a new report. The analysis, the most comprehensive to date, indicates that animal populations plummeted by 58% between 1970 and 2012, with losses on track to reach 67% by 2020. Researchers from the WWF and the Zoological Society of London compiled the report.’

Stephen Hall – Painter
I feel as an artist living right now, the compulsion to document the precarious place our planet is in, is paramount. While calling out the erosion of our ecosystems and perhaps political actions, I also try to create beauty to remind us of what we are at risk of losing.

Martin Mahoney – Photographer
Always had a keen interest in photography which has intensified recently due to the alarming acceleration in the gentrification of his beloved East Village , attempting to capture what’s left of the old neighborhood and its denizens, which are being replaced by glass boxes, banks and bubble tea joints.

Rob Plater – Painter
As an American, I’ve struggled to both understand and cope with the various stigmas and stereotypes used as tools for social engineering. My paintings function as a satire and a direct statement about that struggle to blend in as opposed to being perceived as the “OTHER”, through the use of masks. Do the masks properly serve to hide our deeply imbedded insecurities? Or do they further push the narratives about us that we so desperately want to bury away from modern society?

Robert Ross – Sculpture
STOP, DANGER, HAZARDOUS MATERIAL, KEEP TO THE RIGHT, TRESPASSERS WILL BE PROSECUTED, CAUTION, DEAD END AHEAD

Curated by Karen Wilkin

Westbeth Gallery, 55 Bethune St, New York, NY 10014
April 25 – May 10, 2020
Opening Reception: April, 25, 3 – 6 pm

Light of Day: The Language of Landscape is an exhibition of twelve contemporary artists exploring the possibilities of landscape painting today.

The show includes Lois Dodd, Albert Kresch, Stanley Lewis, Temma Bell, William Christine, Diane Drescher, Howard Gladstone, John Goodrich, Elizabeth Higgins, Elizabeth O’Reilly, Tony Serio and Kamilla Talbot.

Ms. Wilkin will present a talk, “What Meets the Eye,” at the gallery at 6:30 pm on Wednesday, April 29.

Curated by the distinguished writer and curator Karen Wilkin, Light of Day originated in brainstorming sessions amongst several NYC-based painters in 2017. The group soon expanded to include such renowned artists as Lois Dodd, Albert Kresch and Stanley Lewis. Light of Day artists include Temma Bell, William Christine, Diane Drescher, Howard Gladstone, John Goodrich, Elizabeth Higgins, Elizabeth O’Reilly, Tony Serio and Kamilla Talbot.

The long, rich history of western landscape painting is graced by the extraordinary works by such artists as Claude Lorrain, Camille Corot, Paul Cézanne and Edward Hopper. These masters reveled in the light and spaces of the natural world.

We inhabit a different era today, in which the aspiring painter may question not simply representational painting but the very value of earnest expression itself.

While cognizant of postmodernist thinking, the artists in Light of Day seek to re-engage our visual environment. They hope to embrace the contradictory forces that have historically animated painting up through the modernist era: the vital gestures of the observed world, and the innate energies of lines on a surface and colors on a palette.

The twelve artists have divergent backgrounds and pursue various styles, from brushy expressionism to resolute, geometric realism. But they share the goal of confirming how, even in the twenty-first century, landscape painting remains vital, just as long as land can be made to press against sky—and trees to rise, and clouds to loom—with a power and eloquence unique to painting. The challenges daunt, but the love of nature compels and traditions of painting inspire.

The opening reception will be 3-6 pm on Saturday, April 25.
The show will be open for preview on April 24.
There will be a closing reception 3-6 pm, on Saturday May 9.

A full-color catalog with essay by Karen Wilkin accompanies the exhibition.

Gallery hours are 1-6pm, Wednesday through Sunday.

For more information, please visit light-of-day.com or contact Diane Drescher at (917) 660-0684 or dresch900@gmail.com

New York-based independent curator and art critic Karen Wilkin is the Contributing Editor for Art for The Hudson Review and a regular contributor to The New Criterion, Art in America and The Wall Street Journal.

Sheila Schwid has been a painter and printmaker for over 50 years. She has had numerous group and solo exhibits of her work, is currently at Carter Burden Gallery, and is represented in many private collections. She was a pioneer in many Women select Women artist shows in the 1970’s, was part of the 10th Street artist enclave, and has devoted her life to her work.

Westbeth Icons is a project that celebrates the life and work of senior Westbeth artists who continue to work passionately in their artistic field. It is produced by the Westbeth Artists Residents Council.

The Icon evening features a filmed interview produced and directed by Ted Timreck with Terry Stoller, interviewer, as well as tributes by colleagues of the artist and words by the honoree. A special Icon gift is presented to the artist at the close of the evening.

The evening is free, open to the public, and refreshments are served.

When: Thursday Feb 20, 2020, at 7PM

Where: Westbeth Community Room
155 Bank St
in the West Village
enter through courtyard

When: Thursday Feb 27, 2020 at 7PM
Where: Westbeth Community Room. 155 Bank St b/w West and Washington Sts, enter through courtyard

Westbeth Movie Night is a free open-to-the public monthly series of screenings of curated films

Finding Vivian Maier is a 2013 American documentary film about the photographer Vivian Maier, who working most of her life as a nanny and housekeeper, took over 100,000 photographs secretly and hid them in lockers until they were discovered decades later. She is now considered one of the greatest 20th century American photographers.

The film documents how Maloof, the film’s co- director, discovered her work in a box of photo negatives at a 2007 Chicago auction, then scanned the images and put them on the Internet, which inspired a Kickstarter campaign to produce a film of her work,

Upon release, the film received critical acclaim and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature at the 87th Academy Awards.

When: Wednesday, March 4, 2020 at 7PM
Where: Westbeth Community Room 155 Bank St b/w West and Washington Its, enter through courtyard

Join us for an incredible literary evening with established Westbeth authors reading from their works in progress. Hear where their thoughts are leading!

Anna Shapiro is reading from her novel Family Stories—a child’s abandonment in Hungary at the turn of the century leads to three generations of daughters struggling with their mothers and motherhood in America.

Anna Shapiro is the author of three novels and a collection of essays.

Jack Dowling is reading from his novel The Holly Blue.

Jack Dowling is a painter, printmaker, curator, and writer.

Terence Burk is reading from his novel Cast Iron Kate—a woman born in 1885 decides to tell her story in 1955. A story of young love, countless tragedies, then years of silence. As I say in the novel: “When stories are resurrected from the deep, rich soil, the land grows silent, and trees bend waiting for their return.”

Terence Burk—Actor, Playwright, Novelist. From Broadway to Universal Contract Player, TV and film. Studied with the great Uta Hagen. Early Judson Poets Theatre member. Westbeth resident since 1979.

Kate Walter is reading from her novel in progress, The Guest Checked Out Early,
a queer murder mystery that takes place in the 1980s at a funky LGBTQ resort in the
Sullivan County, Catskills.

Kate Walter is a freelance writer whose articles, essays, opinion pieces have appeared in
many places. She is the author of the memoir Looking for a Kiss: a Chronicle of Downtown Heartbreak and Healing, published by Heliotrope Books. She teaches Personal Essay Writing at NYU/SPS.

J