FEATURED ARTISTS

The Grenning Gallery is pleased to present three varied talents, Marc Dalessio, Tina Orsolic Dalessio, and Emily Persson.  

This exhibit will hang from Saturday, April 19th, through Sunday May 18th. 

Please join us for an Opening Reception on Saturday, April 19th, 5:30 – 7:00 PM.

Tina Orsolic-Dalessio (b. 1983, Croatia) is branching out of her traditional approach to painting, by taking command of paint and her passion for naturalism and channelling it into the realm of abstraction and surrealism. Having graduated from the Florence Academy of Art in 2018, Orsolic is classically trained and has excelled in capturing natural realism in her paintings. These stylized figurative paintings aim to communicate more directly the ideas Orsolic has expressed in her work in the past; using shape, color, and gesture to communicate emotion and achieve a dreamlike atmosphere unbound by the limits of realism. By integrating the figure directly into her landscapes, Orsolic holds a light to our spiritual connection to nature. 

In her artist statement, she notes, “This reemerging naturalistic movement that I consider myself a part of, rests on humility and acknowledgement of how precious, beautiful and fragile our world is. As an artist who considers it her mission to inhale the beauty that surrounds her, and exhale it as art, I hope to gently remind others of that same truth regarding the miracle and delicacy of human condition.“ Orsolic sheds light on her painting, Dance, depicting a woman in a long, striped dress, her skirts flaring in her movement, surrounded by a rich blue forest grove and bright gold sky. Flecks of golden light and light-blue stream down around the figure, mixing with the patterns of her skirt, making her one with the landscape. 

Again, Orsolic places herself in ornate golden settings in both Irises and Dreams; in  which stylistic details remind us of the Vienna Secession; the late 19th-Century movement famously led by Gustav Klimt, which aimed to break free from traditional art institutions rigid historical styles, enforce a certain open-mindedness, and reflect the spirit of the current time. Not only is the artist placed within these decorated surroundings, but she is dressed to the nines in patterned dresses. In Irises, she stands amidst a flowering of blue irises; a blue that is replicated in her underdress peeking-out along her collarbone. One could consider that she is a blooming iris herself. In Dreams the figure appears to be gracefully falling backward; at ease, as if she’s sure she will make a soft landing. She is set within a delightfully obscure setting, where it appears gemstones are raining from the sky and the world is made of wheat.  Along with recognizing the powerful influence of artists that came before her, Orsolic also considers the impact of other art forms, such as music. The coupled paintings, “Clair de Lune” and “Reverie” are in reference to the sensations evoked by these classical compositions of the same names, illustrating through abstract shape and color the synesthetic effect music can have on the listener. 

The final self-portrait of this series, Chrysalis, is unlike the previous paintings both in shape and in premise, standing at over 5 feet tall and only 20 inches wide. “In this painting, I am slowly emerging from a transitional state and into a version more free and more in tune with my ever-evolving self." This evolution can easily be traced from top to bottom of the composition. Up top, we see a realist portrait of the artist; her hair pulled tightly out of her face into a traditional bun atop her head. Her face is exquisitely rendered and captures her likeness in true naturalism. Behind her portrait, is a backdrop adorned with tiny red florets, as if the artist is standing in front of a mural or wallpaper. As our eye stems downward, it becomes unclear where the backdrop ends, as the red florets appear to gather around her shoulders and continue to blossom atop her yellow cape-dress. The further we descend, the larger the blossoms become, and once at the bottom’s edge, it appears a garden of green and red has been planted among a golden sky. This self-portrait encapsulates Orsolic’s decision to take her academic training beyond realist perfection. This whole series of paintings opens a much wider dialogue for the viewer to ponder.  

One year after her first visit to the East End, Emily Persson (b. 1991, Melbourne) delivers luscious paintings of our locale as seen through her fresh eyes. Persson thoughtfully captured both the picturesque vistas and sweet microcosms of our environs; translating, and transmuting through her very specific and personal palette-knife technique. Her generosity with the paint and layering of colors emphasizes the forms of our local landscape in ways that remind us how beautiful Sag Harbor truly is. 

Persson’s generous application of the paint not only draws us in, but also connects us to the artist's hand and, by extension, her presence in the scene itself. Hailing from Melbourne, Australia, Persson’s genuine curiosity and appreciation for our East End landscape draws our attention to moments that we may often take for granted; the reflection of a docked boat in the water, the view of wind-rippled Peconic bay through blossoming flowers, a garden full of bright roses… Beauty that surrounds us even in the off season that, as we rush about our busy lives, Persson’s paintings ask us to slow down, to cherish, to stop and smell the roses. 

In Solo Sailing Past Havens Beach Emily Persson presents a portrait of a long-standing native tree. This tree, a detail of the landscape easily overlooked, Persson chooses this as her focus; the attention itself drawing out the beauty of the mundane. Her handling of the paint can be studied throughout this composition. From the delineation of each blade of tall, dry grasses in the foreground, to the thick layers of woody bark coating the tree’s trunk. Smooth swathes of blue and white give the sky its vast domain, which is intersected by the reaching branches and the fluttering green leaves of our subject.  Finally, a single sailboat rests along the water’s surface; reasserting our place in Sag Harbor. 

In Roses on Roses, Persson’s skillful employment of the palette knife shines as she produces layer upon layer of rose petals, each repetitious mark rippling throughout the painting in similar effect. Her cohesive style unites the composition, creating a vibrant impression of light, shadow, and the beauty of spring. The tactility of Persson’s paintings introduces an unexpected and engaging element to these familiar scenes of the local Sag Harbor landscape. 

Marc Dalessio (b.1972, California) is one of the world's leading plein air painters and is known internationally for his supreme skill and passion for capturing the present. This year, we are lucky to receive two studio paintings of Montauk’s cliffs, and of Main Street Sag Harbor. Furthermore, we will unveil new plein air paintings from his travels around Europe, from Italy, Spain, and France. Marc Dalessio dedicates his focus to light, color, and the subtle beauty of his subjects. 

His plein air landscapes, which range in subject from exotic locations around the world to his own backyard, attempt to capture both the present and the history of the environment, touching our soul with his own unique view. In “Mont-Saint-Michel” he turns his attention to this historic sanctuary in Normandy, its stunning location off the north-western coast of France. In this painting, the eponymous landmark sits a journey away from his vantage point, largely observing the open land around it. In all his works, his dedication to capturing the light, color, and the subtlety of his subjects, enraptures even the most casual observer.

In Rome Sky, Dalessio toes an intriguing line, his landscapes both impressionistic, subtle, and soft, but also deeply real and accurate. His interest lies not on the landmarks of this historic city, but in the subtlety of light through the clouds above the complex geometry of the Italian cityscape overall. Here he combines elements of representation with what look playful brushstrokes, all the while, each precise mark is actively bringing the environment to life. This skillful act of knowing just how much detail to provide, and what to withhold, is a testament to Dalessio’s mastery through his 30+ years of painting.

In Marc Dalessio’s seascapes and horizons, we see his enthusiasm for deciphering all the effects of light. He recognizes that a bright sunny day is not just expressed through the sky, but the sparkles in the sand, the water, the glare of a far-off window. In The Beach at Saint-Malo, the sun is even reflected off the brims of beach umbrellas, drawing the light in the clouds down to the wet sand on the beach, and ones eye is drawn back to the white mark on the horizon in the far-off mountains. These details are what truly bring us into the scene, the sea air, the breeze, the smell of sunscreen, all of which is shared with us through Dalessio’s sharp eye, and his passion for painting out in nature. 

SELF CARE; A group exhibition showcasing recent self-portraits and intimate views of the artist’s studio or workspace.

The Grenning Gallery is pleased to present our first exhibition of 2025:   SELF CARE; A group exhibition showcasing recent self-portraits and intimate views of the artist’s studio or workspace. 

This exhibit will hang from Saturday, January 18th, through Sunday, February 23rd. Please join us for an Opening Reception on Saturday, January 18th, 5-6:30 PM. 

Furthermore, please join us again on Sunday morning 11 am-1 pm at the studio of Maryann Lucas and Edwina Lucas; both of whom are exhibiting studio interiors/exterior paintings for Self-Care. This mother/daughter duo wants to extend an invitation to the public, to enter and tour their creative space. Call or Email the gallery for the studio address.  

Laura Grenning always says, “We sell painters, not paintings”; the sentiment being that a painting is just one single moment in an artist’s oeuvre. Each sale is an investment towards the artist’s ability to paint again.   

Self-care is the conscious practice of taking care of yourself to promote health and well-being. A self-portrait can be an instrument to get to know oneself, a way of exposing one’s inner self, via their own likeness. A self-portrait is a map of your intimate world, a statement of intentions, a testimony about who you are and how you show yourself. To look within is not always pleasant; some might avoid it at all costs; yet this examination of one’s self is paramount to the phenomenon of Self-Care.  

Grenning Gallery Manager, Megan Toy, has spoken with numerous artists about creating self-portraits – and the overall response has been apathetic. Some say, “It’s what you paint when you don’t know what else to paint”; others say, “I don’t want to look at myself”. It makes perfect sense because it takes a great deal of discipline to create a successful painting.  The choice to have yourself as the subject can prove difficult, as it not only demands a specific sense of self-scrutiny and observation, but a sense of accuracy and, maybe above all, accountability. How critical is one to oneself? Are details exact or omitted? Glorified or exaggerated? How does the medium affect the overall image? 

The answer to these questions varies, between diverse stylistic qualities throughout more than a dozen artists. 

The Grenning Gallery is pleased to present Gems of the Grenning Gallery, our annual holiday exhibition featuring a variety of small-scale paintings from several artists, both local, domestic, and international! Grenning Gallery staff will scour our inventory for the best little gems from esteemed GG artists including Hunt Slonem, Ben Fenske, Daniela Astone, Marc Dalessio, Sarah Lamb, and Sag Harbor’s own Darius Yektai. Brand new paintings will be unveiled by Kelly Carmody, Terry Elkins, Amy Florence, Edwina Lucas, Maryann Lucas, Rachel Personett, and Nelson H. White. We are excited to welcome two new artists to the gallery: locally based, Doug Reina, and Florence-based ex-pat, Rolf Hellem. This exhibit will hang from Saturday, November 23rd through Sunday, January 5th, 2025. A reception will be held all day on Black Friday, November 29th.

The Grenning Gallery is pleased to present the latest paintings from three exemplary artists; Steven J. Levin, Matthias Meinel, and Melissa Franklin Sanchez in DAYDREAMS. This exhibit will be on view from Saturday, October 26th through Sunday, November 17th.

The work of all three of these artists in the exhibit have a dream-like quality, while still being representational—rooted in direct observations of nature. Steven Levin (b. 1965, Minnesota) is known for his expertly crafted realist compositions, however, his work plays with surrealism and even the uncanny. Mathias Meinel (b. 1981, Germany), in his first Grenning Gallery show, paints watery landscapes en plein air, bringing to mind the feeling of long walks, where nature allows the space for one’s mind to wander. Melissa Franklin Sanchez’s (b. 1984, England) paintings have an element of magical realism, enhanced by the hazy and reflective metal (copper and brass) she often paints on instead of canvas.

In an ode to one of the masters of surrealist dreamscapes, Steven Levin’s Magritte’s Hat he paints Magritte’s famous hat and apple from The Son of Man. As if it were an oversized egg, the apple sits comfortably in a bird’s nest. Levin loves to play with the visual similarities between feathered hats and birds’ nests. He calls it a “visual pun.” On the ledge the hat is sitting on, an eggshell has been broken out of, but—like the face in The Son of Man—no bird is in sight. Instead, a butterfly flutters above the nest.

About “The Son of Man” Magritte said "Everything we see hides another thing; we always want to see what is hidden by what we see. There is an interest in that which is hidden and which the visible does not show us. This interest can take the form of a quite intense feeling, a sort of conflict, one might say, between the visible that is hidden and the visible that is present."

The perfect, even surrealistic, sky in Magritte’s Hat, is again on view in White Peonies with Ribbon. In the foreground, a luscious bouquet of white peonies erupts from a traditional glass vase. From buds eager to burst on the left, to the growing and fully open flowers that look almost as if they are breathing, to the falling flowers and their lost petals; the whole lifecycle of the flower is on display.

In the largest work we have from Levin this year, he returns to a favorite subject: museum interiors. Three portraits by Rembrandt and three museumgoers populate the canvas. Interestingly though, the portraits seem to be more present than the people. One woman gazes, not at the paintings but off towards another seated woman who is engrossed in her phone. The man in the scene casually looks at one of the portraits from the side. The figures in the portraits meanwhile seem far more grounded and aware, watching the people and even us, the viewers.

In a similarly muted mood, Message shows two people in an office with a bird in between them, flying in from the window. There is something uncanny about this image. Perhaps it is that there are two people in a room overly focused on ‘communicating’ yet completely unaware of each other and nature. We also noticed that there are two paintings on the wall in front of the man, yet he is staring straight into the blank wall in between. We can’t help but see a visual similarity to the Renaissance paintings where the Virgin Mary receives the news that she is pregnant. Perhaps Levin is using this white dove as an emissary from Nature begging the 21st century couple to wake up to nature and humanity?

Melissa Franklin Sanchez’s hints of magical realism invite her viewers’ minds to wander into her luminous paintings, suspending their disbelief while they watch flowers grow from floral carpets and walls, or simply travel over to the Italian countryside where the artist lives. She paints real places, like her home, backyard, and still-lifes, painted from life. She faithfully represents her subjects yet manages to conjure an otherworldly dimension on her copper and brass canvases.

Summer Over Bridgehampton depicts an evening on the beach from when Franklin Sanchez and her family visited us this summer. We feel the warm air turn cooler as the sun goes down. The water is so inviting, it is as if we can just dip our toe in from the gallery.

In Beauty Takes Time, Franklin Sanchez turns to a scene we love seeing every year: the view from her window. This painting is a reminder to slow down in step with nature. Little sprouts are starting to grow on the windowsill but will take time until they are as magnificent as the flowers on the desk. There is also a magical iris growing in the negative space to right of the desk.

We are excited to introduce Mathias Meinel (b. 1981, Erzgebirge, Germany) to Grenning Gallery’s followers. After finding his images on Instagram in 2019, Gallery Manager Megan Toy felt compelled to reach out to Meinel. At the time, we were curating an early summer group show titled “Thick & Wet,” which unveiled new works from Grenning Gallery stable, Nelson H. White, and our first time handling the works of Darius Yektai and Emily Persson. Although it was too last minute to get Meinel on the roster for “Thick & Wet,” Toy continued to follow his career, and purchased a small Meinel for her personal collection in 2021. We approached Meinel again in late 2023 to see if we could incorporate him into our 2024 calendar, and we are thrilled to have over a dozen original oil paintings, carefully sent from Germany.

Meinel excels at observing and depicting the textures of the natural world around him. His watery landscapes of meadows and flooded fields bring a sense of calm and quiet. In Meadow with Marguerites IV and V Meinel sets the viewer sitting or lying amongst the wildflowers, enveloped in the tall grass. We can almost hear the gentle swaying and swishing of the meadow in the breeze as the rest of the world slips away.

Meinel is particularly deft at capturing the beauty of a wet landscape, not a seascape, but a muddy, puddle-strewn field. In Marshland I, we see a reflective foreground of flooded grassland, leading up to a horizon of baren trees and an overcast sky. In Grass Tuft I, Meinel zooms in on his wetland subject, honing-in on the beauty of an ordinary spot of grass, surrounded completely by silvery blue water. Beneath the surface, Meinel hints at the swallowed earth sleeping in the shallows.