We are pleased to announce that we have reopened the newly renovated Grenning Gallery with a select group of works by one of our artists, Leo Mancini-Hresko. His beautiful interior called "Studio Hallway Light" graces the major newly built display wall. This is an elegant painting of the light and reflected light in the hallway outside of his studio. He is currently based in a high floor of a refurbished factory building outside of Boston. This is where he built his living/working studio upon returning from 11 years of study and teaching in Florence, Italy. In addition to several great summer scenes, we are especially interested in the charming snow scenes that he's been painting lately. His muted palette and refined sense of color truly evoke winter. This series of autumn and winter compositions represent some of his finest plein air landscape paintings to date.
There is also a very rich nocturne that was painted during his trip to Russia. Interestingly, we have selected Marc Dalessio's small oil sketch of the same subject to hang right next to Leo's impressive take on this very difficult subject. The subtle value shifts in the deep blue black night sky juxtaposes the bright lights reflecting off of the Volga River, making this a very strong painting.
Another great image is "Down Easter" by Michael Kotasek which graces the cover of Dan's paper last week, February 13th. Using the ancient technique of egg tempera, Kotasek has been selected several times now for the cover of Dan's. His Wyeth like tones, layered on top of spartan yet emotional subjects makes Kotasek one of our most American painters.
To round out the show we are also showing Joe Altwer's apartment interior "Where We Rest Our Heads", as well as "Leo's Footsteps in the Snow", which was painted with Leo on a trip to the Alps. We are also showing Travis Schlaht's "Red Suspenders" and Sarah Lamb's "Mussels and Pitcher" next to a John Morfis tool painting. This combination of paintings bring us right into the spirit of season, with Schlaht's sensitive faced plaid wearing portrait, then Lamb's delicious winter meal and finally Morfis' almost sacred take on the antique hand tool of his grandfather.
