Opening Reception: Thursday, July 26th, 6-8:30pm
On view through August 12, 2018

Please join us for Act 4 in our 5th anniversary exhibition, “. . . in 5 Acts,” featuring artist and master portraitist, Patrick Jewell. This will be the artist’s exhibition debut of his resonant subway drawings which capture his fellow straphangers in moments of contemplation and self-reflection. A nomadic art practice which emerged from time and space constraints in his daily life, the subway drawings are also a testament to the strength of observation and relentless dedication to one’s craft.

In March of 2016, I decided that I needed to do two things. First, after a long period of painting and drawing mostly from photo sources, I wanted to reconnect with observational drawing. Second, with the rollicking, jam-packed schedule of a growing family, I wanted to fit art-making into all the in-between spaces in my day. So I started carrying a sketchbook everywhere.
 

It didn’t take long to remember the satisfying, engaging pleasure of drawing from life. But in the extreme political climate of 2016, as I filled page after page with images of New Yorkers of endlessly varied backgrounds, appearances, and ages, the work began to resonate even more deeply with me – it became a little celebration of the electric and beautiful diversity of our city. We are all thrown together on subway cars and platforms and stairways, those odd, transitional spaces in our crowded city, where we’re acutely aware of the spaces between us, and of this simultaneously public and private space and time we occupy between where we come from and where we go. – Artist Patrick Jewell

See Available Works HERE

Photo Credit: Salim Hasbini