[et_pb_section admin_label=”section”][et_pb_row admin_label=”row”][et_pb_column type=”1_2″][et_pb_image admin_label=”Image” src=”https:\/\/archive.hamiltonstreetgallery.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/road_work_postcard-2.jpg” show_in_lightbox=”off” url_new_window=”off” use_overlay=”off” animation=”left” sticky=”off” align=”left” force_fullwidth=”off” always_center_on_mobile=”on” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”] [\/et_pb_image][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_2″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]<\/p>\n
Road Work<\/strong> Hamilton Street Gallery is proud to present \u201cRoad Work\u201d, a new exhibition featuring sculptor, Fred Cole and painter, Steven Epstein. At first glance, both artists appear at very different ends of the spectrum. Steven\u2019s expressive acrylic paintings combine realistic and abstract imagery, depicting urban\/suburban activities of people doing everyday things, mostly at night. Fred\u2019s interests lie in repurposing found objects, both functional and non functional, and joining elements to form imaginative assemblages, that are sometimes whimsical in nature.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row admin_label=”Row”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]<\/p>\n Yet, upon closer examination, their work has much more in common than meets the eye. Most obvious, is that they both get their inspiration for subject matter from the street, but there is also the reference of time. Steven\u2019s work is a shadowy reflection of the here and now. His paintings possess an intense hidden undercurrent that reveals a mysterious neon world that is strange yet familiar, where people, stores, traffic \u2014 anything connected to the street, become totally immersed. Fred, on the other hand, provides a glimpse back to another time and place, with a wealth of findings of the old, chipped and discarded \u2014 things like rusted machine parts and broken toys that he has unearthed from the street. Most of these objects are obsolete and no longer needed. They have a sadness about them. Their usefulness has faded away. By combining these bygone materials with his playful, ironic humor, Fred creates bizarre, transformative pieces with new purpose. Interestingly, many of the people in Steven\u2019s paintings, emit a particular loneliness also. They appear as if obscure apparitions, repeatedly living out their lives within boundaries of dark isolation.<\/p>\n Notably, both artists have a common bond \u2014 a social\/political consciousness in sharing their interest and concern for the human condition. Within that concern exists a need to confront reality and seek out the truth, which evidently is transferred into their art. There is nothing that more powerfully exemplifies the truth than the concept of light. Both Fred and Steven share in the application of light in their work. Fred\u2019s sculptures are often electrified and lit to enhance their beauty and effectiveness. Steven creates various sources of artificial light, such as street lamps and car headlights, so to show the distorted shadows, reflections and flashes of color, necessary for the mysterious glow in his night scenes.\u00a0 Although the creative significance of light is clearly apparent, it is the high voltage that lies unseen underneath, searching, focusing, and revealing that give these artworks their spirit and energy. For artists like Steven Epstein and Fred Cole everything remains in the dark, waiting to be uncovered until they turn on the light.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_portfolio admin_label=”Portfolio” fullwidth=”off” posts_number=”30″ show_title=”on” show_categories=”on” show_pagination=”on” background_layout=”light” hover_overlay_color=”rgba(255,255,255,0.9)” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid” include_categories=”8″] [\/et_pb_portfolio][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row admin_label=”Row”][et_pb_column type=”1_2″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]<\/p>\n I paint what I see, feel or imagine. \u00a0Often trying to combine all options. \u00a0 On my long drives home at night going North up Route 1 I gradually decompress from the workday frustrations and pressures, letting go, feeling them dissolve into the colors of night. The neon lights against the dark streets, the penumbra of the traffic lights, the darkened geometries and odd shadows from the artificial light on the closed strip mall buildings I pass. The reflections on a wet night. \u00a0The roadscape becomes a world with another dimension; boundaries dissolving between the real and the abstract, the solid and the suggested. \u00a0I try and put some of that magic in my paintings. \u00a0Atmosphere, mystery, mood, possibility. \u00a0 My paintings are places or events I choose to dwell in for awhile.I often use bad digital photos as a reference or map that helps me get to that place. I \u00a0 \u00a0They are often a series of contradictory impulses leading to an indefinite conclusion rather than an ideal or vision which is frustratingly out of reach. I like to use heightened impressions of ordinary surroundings finding atmosphere and mood in the commonplace. \u00a0 I work mostly in acrylics, either on canvas or hardboard. \u00a0 When I want to get \u201cphysical\u201d with a painting, have my strokes and scrapings and marks add to the texture of the image or build thick areas of paint I like to use hardboard. \u00a0 My influences start with Modern Art. \u00a0Impressionism and after. \u00a0Expressionism and film noir. Social Realism. The masters of the horror and absurdity of the 20th century; Picasso and Bacon. \u00a0The spiritual isolation of Hopper and Van Gogh. Jazz, for it\u2019s moods without words; melodies and improvisations. \u00a0The Blues for the ecstasy of expressing the pain of existence in an often indifferent world that just keeps going on.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_2″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]<\/p>\n It is with a great deal of excitement that I have been paired with Steven Epstein to exhibit our artwork in the \u201cRoad Work\u201d show at the Hamilton Street Gallery. As I write this statement, the show has yet to be installed so it is with a great sense of anticipation and mystery that I anticipate my first glance as I walk through the gallery doors.<\/p>\n Joan Sonnenfeld and Brian McCormack at Hamilton Street have chosen to exhibit Steve\u2019s work with mine because of our mutual interest in the streets. \u00a0Steven depicts them through his paintings. I scour them for sculptural components. Streets are one of the vital connections of our lives. They encompass the culture at large through the various places with which they bring us, and the various dynamics we encounter on them. I am aware that my visual landscape has always been enhanced by movement through my immediate environment as I try and make sense of just what is going on. While traversing those same streets, they also provide me with much of the material I use in creating images.<\/p>\n Works of mine shown in this exhibition such as \u201cCleveland Avenue Bus,\u201d \u201cOn Staten Island\u201d \u201cAdam and Steve,\u201d \u201cStriped Lamp with Creature Beneath the Deep,\u201d \u201c405A Cleveland Avenue,\u201d and \u201c18 East\u201d have as their main components and main inspiration, material found on the streets in the New York\/New Jersey metropolitan area. The process of recycling found objects for artistic purposes is an old one. Those who work in such a medium find that the material often drives the direction of the piece, or the material is repurposed to meet the expressive needs of the artist.<\/p>\n My interest in assemblage pieces is many-fold: to visually capture attention and imagination; to stimulate thought pertaining to social and political dynamics; to make people smile and maybe laugh; to remind us who and where we think we are, and to bring out the iconic nature of many of the materials I use.<\/p>\n I find my main attraction with such materials is to use their illuminating colors and at times add electricity to brighten and highlight my work. It is interesting to have my work juxtaposed with the work of Steven Epstein. Steven creates images of streets though his paintings, often using the night to make us further explore our environment and find out for ourselves what lies just a little further beyond what we first see. It is this contrast concerning our uses of the streets that I will be most interested in seeing during my first glance of this show.<\/p>\n I want to thank Joan and Brian for running the \u00a0Hamilton Street Gallery for so many of us who exhibit here. This is my gallery of choice among all the places I exhibit. Thanks also J. and B. \u00a0for the confidence you have shown to partner me with Steven Epstein in this exhibition. And thanks Steven for sharing this space where you are exhibiting the work you so forcefully create from your perceptions and pallet.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Road Work January 31st to March 3rd an exhibition featuring the works of Fred Cole and Steven Epstein Hamilton Street Gallery is proud to present \u201cRoad Work\u201d, a new exhibition featuring sculptor, Fred Cole and painter, Steven Epstein. At first glance, both artists appear at very different ends of the spectrum. Steven\u2019s expressive acrylic paintings […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-422","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.hamiltonstreetgallery.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/422","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.hamiltonstreetgallery.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.hamiltonstreetgallery.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.hamiltonstreetgallery.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.hamiltonstreetgallery.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=422"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/archive.hamiltonstreetgallery.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/422\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2418,"href":"https:\/\/archive.hamiltonstreetgallery.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/422\/revisions\/2418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.hamiltonstreetgallery.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nJanuary 31st to March 3rd
\nan exhibition featuring the works of Fred Cole and Steven Epstein<\/p>\nSteven Epstein<\/h2>\n
Fred Cole Statement<\/h2>\n