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Exactly like you, Bob Parker
Jul 03, 2024
'Bob never got through a gig without having a good time and having a laugh,” said Wanda Houston at Music Mountain’s Gordon Hall on Saturday, June 29. She was there performing jazz classics in a tribute concert, and the “Bob” in question being honored was the late West Cornwall resident Robert Andrew Parker, who Houston described meeting at The Wake Robin Inn in the mid 1990s as she was still getting used to the music scene of rural Connecticut. Parker was a veteran of just that scene. Outside of his work as a prolific watercolor painter and illustrator whose work was featured in The New Yorker and the collection of The Museum of Modern Art alike, was also a drummer. In his free time, Parker, who died in 2024 at the age of 96, was a member of the jazz band Jive by Five along with members like pianist Scott Heth.
“Bob was a legend, both as an artist and a drummer,” Oskar Espina Ruiz, Music Mountain’s summer concert series’s artistic director, said of Parker in describing why the Falls Village concert hall had chosen to honor his legacy this summer. “His son Chris also is very famous, and so it’s a family of musicians. At Music Mountain, we build relationships with the artists. That’s what’s special about Music Mountain. We invite artists back year after year, after year, after year... Bob Parker performed at Music Mountain with Jive by Five, his band, for over 30 years.”
Wanda HoustonAlexander Wilburn
“I know that was very important to him, always having a gig,” said Parker’s son Nick who was in attendance for the evening. “That’s what musicians call it: ‘gigs.’ And his mother used to tease him about it. But he loved having a band, he loved having that camaraderie and musical expression with players who appreciate the same kind of music as him. I think if he could have, he would have just been happy as a successful musician and successful illustrator.”
The summer of 2022 was the last time Jive by Five performed at Music Mountain, a grand return after the COVID-19 pandemic halted the band’s live gigs for a few years. On Saturday night, Jive by Five made another return, this time sharing stories and memories of Parker instead of playing beside him. The jazz ensemble included Heth, as well as Bob’s son, drummer Christopher Parker, guitarist David Spinozza, Kris Jensen on saxophone, Peter McEachern on trombone, Joe Salamone on bass, and a new addition in young saxophone player Jack Brandfield. The live evening’s program was filled with jazz standards like Duke Ellington’s 1939 composition “In A Mellow Tone,” and his 1931 composition, “It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing),” as well as “Exactly Like You,” popularized by singers like Nina Simone.
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Judith Singelis at Argazzi Gallery
Natalia Zukerman
On Saturday, June 22, The Argazzi Gallery opened “Looking for the Light,” an intimate exhibition celebrating the work of Jimmy Wright, an artist whose relationship with sunflowers has spanned decades.
Wright moved to New York City in 1974. Growing up gay in rural Kentucky, he wasn’t able to express himself openly, but upon immersing himself in New York’s gay scene in the 70’s, he finally found he was able to live his life freely. He began to depict his social scene, making large-scale drawings of nights out at gay clubs in unapologetic detail. Three of those drawings are now on view at the Whitney Museum, high praise and validation that Wright is giddy about in the sweetest and humblest of ways.
Wright met his partner Ken Nuzzo in those early days in New York. Sadly, Nuzzo was diagnosed with HIV in 1988 and passed away three years later. Bereft, Wright found he was unable to paint for a while, but then something miraculous occurred.
“I had no idea it was going to become an obsession,” Wright reflected on the genesis of his sunflower series. “I was a primary caretaker for someone critically ill for three years. That takes you very much out of your head and out of a studio practice.” His first encounter with a sunflower was serendipitous. “I bought a giant sunflower at the farmer’s market, and that became my first subject. Then it eventually became the only subject.”
Wright’s technique is as meticulous as it is passionate. “I work on the same series of paintings for three years,” he noted. His approach is deeply immersive, driven by a desire to explore the emotional resonance of his subjects. “I’m more interested in the painting itself, from a formal point of view,” he said. “It’s all about the ability of paint to hold emotion and communicate emotion.”
Judith Singelis, whose gallery is named after her grandparents, Antonio and Giselda Argazzi, brings a deeply personal touch to her curatorial practice. She has a deep connection to loss herself and surrounded by the images of Wright’s sunflowers, she spoke of her late husband with a quiet reverence. “I married the only man I could have married. I’ve never met anyone else like him in my life.” This sense of personal history and emotional depth permeate the gallery, creating a fitting backdrop for Wright’s evocative works.
Wright paints and draws the sunflower in all states of glory and decay. The writhing figures are infused with narrative, allowing for a process of transformation. “The work is about not only the beauty, but the fragility of life,” said Singelis. Of the title she chose for the exhibit, “Looking for the Light,” Singelis explained, “I wanted something uplifting…and sunflowers are always looking for the light. So, for both Jimmy, who just had his 80th birthday, and with everything that’s going on in our crazy world, on all counts, I thought this is so appropriate.”
In addition to having three of his drawings added to the Whitney collection, Wright recently received an honorary doctorate from the University of Southern Illinois. He is also looking forward to having a sunflower drawing featured in the 191st National Academy of Design annual exhibition this fall, the longest-running exhibition of contemporary art and architecture in the United States. As for his relationship with the sunflower, it’s changed. “It’s certainly more celebratory,” said Wright. “I think that’s the main change. The colors have gotten brighter, the expression has become more fluid. And now I’m much more looking for new ways of presenting them within the framework of formalism, composition, color and scale.” Still regularly in his studio, Wright has been working from thousands of street photos of his Bowery neighborhood in that he’s taken over the years to create a new series of figures. But, he said, “The sunflowers, I still do and will do. It’s sort of like, even if I don’t want to work, I know I can go make a flower and immerse myself in that process of making something visual.”
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Left to right: David Noonan, Miller Hughes, and Michael St. John in front of Judith Linhare’s paintings at New Risen windows in North Canaan.
Natalia Zukerman
New Risen is a roving exhibition based on the belief that art should not be confined to museums and galleries. The two curators of the program, David Noonan and Millree Hughes, are committed to creating an inclusive, living, breathing experience that will evolve and grow but always remain true to the idea that beauty can be found in the most unexpected places.
There will be pop-up shows in various spaces across Litchfield County but to begin, there is a permanent window display at the intersection of Railroad and Main Street in North Canaan. Noonan explained, “I was driving my kids to school, and I drove by this window, and I saw it empty. I always kind of wanted to do a public art thing just because I thought it was cool.” With these windows, he explained, “You can go, and you don’t have to, like, encounter anyone. You can go see it whenever you want. You could see this in the middle of the night if you wanted to. In fact, it looks incredible in the middle of the night.” Noonan got in touch with the building owner who was on board with the idea. Hughes and Noonan then opened the first of their rotating exhibitions with three paintings by renowned American painter Judith Linhares. Born in 1940, Linhares is celebrated for her vibrant, expressive figurative and narrative paintings. Linhares gained recognition in the Bay Area culture of the 1960s and 1970s and has been based in New York City since 1980. Her work, influenced by Expressionism, Bay Area Figuration, Mexican modern art, and second-wave feminism, balances visionary personal imagery, expressive intensity, and pictorial rigor. Her paintings will be on display until mid-July at which point the windows will change over to show three new works by artist Michael St. John whose layered collages will transform the space once again.
“His work has almost got a punky quality,” said Hughes of St. John’s work. “It has a very bold look to it. But just beneath the surface, there’s a critique of minimalism against figuration, gestural painting against stiff painting, commercialism against real art.”
Gathering source materials by casting an inclusive and penetrating gaze on the world through which he moves, St. John layers newspaper clippings, found images, fragmented language, and everyday objects into captivating, collaged portraits of the world at present. His work, informed by Rauschenberg, Warhol, Ashcan School artists, and 19th-century American trompe l’oeil painting, reflects on notions of violence, tragedy, narcissism, racism, and indifference, drawing stimulating connections that kindle new and compassionate perspectives on contemporary culture.
“I usually make paintings about painting,” said St. John. “They’re informed by art history, the language of painting, what makes a painting, what is a painting.”
Hughes interjected, “Michael is a really influential painter. He’s influenced a whole generation,” to which Noonan excitedly added, “He’s big. We’re lucky to have him.”
Hughes and Noonan co-curated two shows in Falls Village at 105 Main Street this past winter and both were successful. But, Noonan said, “The one thing we ran into when we did this space down in Falls Village was that one of us had to be there all the time. So, if someone wanted to see the show, they had to make an appointment, we had to go open the door. You’re kind of like a sitting duck in a gallery which is fun because you get to meet people, but I started to wonder if there’s a way we can do something where people can just go whenever they want. That’s how I had the idea to do the windows.”
With insurance on the space and the artworks, New Risen operates with the utmost professionalism. “We do it very legit,” Noonan assured. By removing the barrier between artist and audience, however, boundaries are dissolved leaving room for an element of the unknown.
“We just show the work we really care about. That’s the bottom line,” said Hughes. Noonan added, “The only thing every artist has in common is that they’re incredibly brave because when you make something, you’re opening yourself up to a scrutiny that nothing else will open you up to.”
Artists are lined up for the fall with the space turning over every six weeks. While Noonan and Hughes have their eye on other spaces to potentially launch New Risen shows, there’s an excitement they share about the windows. The driving force seems to be that they are not just curating exhibitions; they’re curating experiences, reminders that sometimes, all it takes to find beauty is a simple turn of the head, a pause, and a window into another world.
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