Works

Warner Friedman - After the Storm - 2009
58 x 76 inches Acrylic on canvas

Exhibition Details

Landscape and a studied sense of space play a prominent role in the work of Warner Friedman and Ilana Manolson.  The Massachusetts painters will be featured in companion solo shows at Clark Gallery from October 1 through 30, 2010.

Warner Friedman’s pristinely painted compositions fuse form and light to create spaces of illusion and visual exploration.  Striking vistas of crisp New England landscapes pull the viewer through rendered architectural structures and schemes such as ocean docks, porch rails, and fence gates.  Each painting transcends the two-dimensionality inherent to stretched canvas.  The effect of trompe l’oeil takes hold as the viewer considers the combined elements of natural landscape and built environment.  Formal considerations of perspective and the function of abstraction interplay with the engaging compositions, presenting relevant themes regarding the natural landscape and the ways in which it is shaped and controlled.

Warner Friedman is the recipient of grants from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation and Richard Florsheim Art Fund.  His paintings are represented in the collections of the Boca Raton Museum of Art, the Wadsworth Atheneum, Albright College Museum of Art, and numerous private and corporate collections.  Friedman was featured in a national review in the summer 2010 issue of Artnews.

Seasonal shifts and subsequent cycles of life to decay in the natural landscape are studied and celebrated in Ilana Manolson’s lush paintings.  Distinguished by fluid brushstrokes, richly layered color, and the textured exchange of crackling paints and glazes, Manolson’s compositions carefully focus the viewer’s eye on moments of stillness within the ever-changing landscape.  Each painting records the details inherent to the landscape as expressive abstractions, pushing notions of realism and the perspective with which nature is viewed.  Building her compositions upon board or, in some of the most recent works, mylar, Manolson scrapes and sands away forms such as leaves, fern fronds, and twigs.  These actions inform her process as they pointedly illustrate the effects of society’s strong influence on the environment as well as the interplay of stillness and motion within the natural realm.

Ilana Manolson is represented in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Danforth Museum, and Boston Public Library, among others.  She has been awarded grants by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, St. Botolph Club Foundation, and Artists Foundation as well as residencies at Rocky Neck Art Colony, Ballinglen Ireland Artist Residency, and Yaddo Artist Colony.  Stasis / Flux is Manolson’s fifth solo exhibition at Clark Gallery.