Jim Kempner Fine Art is pleased to announce an exhibition of recent works by Jay Kelly from November 23rd through December 23rd. Executed in pastel and graphite on vellum, the intimate nature of these small-scale minimalist works on paper draws the viewer into a world of pure, simplified geometric shapes and subtle tones. Concurrently, there will be an exhibition of prints by Ed Ruscha. The gallery is located at 501 West 23 Street (corner 10th Avenue and 23rd Street). Hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 10-6.

Jay Kelly continues to distill the essence of balance and harmony of modernist architecture and design from the 1950s and early '60s in these new drawings, as he deftly plays variations on opaque and translucent rectangles of color. The artist, who grew up in New Jersey, is influenced by the architecture that surrounds him; his interest in industrial landscapes is very apparent:

“Even as a child,” Kelly says, “I loved the industrial landscapes around Newark. The rusty barrels and old trucks weren’t just barrels and trucks; they were graphic elements and colors that fascinated me.”

Kelly’s artistic style began in the form of photorealistic watercolors. He would painstakingly capture every detail of the urban landscapes he had become so taken with which would sometimes take months to finish. Four years ago he began experimenting with his current style, producing photorealistic watercolors by day and geometric drawings on translucent vellum at night. For the time being, he has abandoned his realist style and works almost exclusively in the realm of geometric abstraction.

When asked Kelly will dispute that there is any contradiction in his two approaches. His subjects are still the ethereal landscapes of his youth. His geometric forms are simply the old trucks and barrels reduced to their basic forms. According to Kelly,

“I’m working in a different way now but I don’t think I’ve moved very far at all.”

Jay Kelly’s work is represented in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York and The British Museum. For further information and visuals, please contact us at [email protected] or call us at 212-206-6872.

Jim Kempner Fine Art is pleased to announce an exhibition of recent drawings by Jonathan Santlofer from September 12 through October 19. Concurrently, there will be an exhibition of prints and unique works by Andy Warhol. The gallery is located at 501 West 23 Street (corner 10th Avenue and 23rd Street). Hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 10-6.

In this new series of graphite drawings, Jonathan Santlofer continues his long-standing fascination with illusion and reality as well as his exploration of artists and icons. Issues of truth are pushed to the extreme: trompe l’oeil painted tape, meticulously rendered rips and tears all telegraph to the viewer that what he or she is looking at is “real.” The drawings hover somewhere between photography and documentation while playing with and challenging both of those mediums.

In these mock ‘photographs’ artists such as Man Ray, Duchamp, Robert Mapplethorpe, Georgia O’Keeffe, and Andy Warhol intrude upon their most famous images: Mapplethorpe poses between his gorgeous study of an eggplant and his notorious Man In the Polyester Suit; Warhol bears witness to Jackie and Marilyn meeting in his studio; Duchamp kisses Andy Warhol’s gun shot wounds.

At once mechanical and hand-made in appearance, these ambitious, often ambiguous works on paper are equally witty and deadpan. They invite the viewer into a conversation not only with the artists depicted in each drawing, but with a much larger dialogue on the nature of image-making, narrative, truth and illusion.

A separate exhibition of works by Andy Warhol will feature some of the artist’s best his silkscreen prints including Marilyn #30, 1967, Rebel Without a Cause (James Dean), 1985, and Shoes, a silkscreen with diamond dust from 1980. All eleven images from the Flash, November 22, 1968 portfoilio of images related to the John F. Kennedy assassination will be on view, as well as rare, early ink-blot drawings of children from a private collection.

For more information please contact us at 212-206-6872 or [email protected]

Jim Kempner Fine Art is pleased to present our third solo exhibition of recent minimalist paintings by Greg Parker. Through the multi-layered manipulation of gesso, graphite and oil on hardwood panels, Parker’s paintings exist eloquently between the boundaries of painting, drawing and sculpture. In this recent series of works, which are often incised with linear patterns, the artist continues his exploration of geometric abstraction. Ranging in sizes from 4 x 24 x 2 1/4” to about 36 x 48 x 2 1/4,” several of the paintings in this new series are two panel pieces, with different qualities expressed in separate but joined panels of dissimilar size and/or joined on different planes. The gallery is located at 501 West 23rd Street (at Tenth Avenue). Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 10-6 and by appointment.

The beauty of Greg Parker's paintings lies in his ability to seduce the viewer with his elegance and order. He builds the painting's surface with up to 30 layers of sanded gesso then etches and scores expressive lines into an obsessively smooth finish. Parker's exquisite use of drawing and mark making in his paintings are the most obvious expression of both the physical and emotional unconscious. The surfaces of his paintings have a paradoxical history as well evidenced by the controlled handling of materials juxtaposed with a poetic unraveling of this order.

Greg Parker lives and works in Maine and has an MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art. His work is represented in the collections of the Portland Museum, the Farnsworth Museum of American Art, the DeCordova Museum & Sculpture Garden and The British Museum. Recent solo exhibitions have included those at Miller Block Gallery in Boston, June Fitzpatrick Gallery in Portland, Maine, and Richard Levy in Albuqerque, New Mexico.

Contact us at 212-206-6872 or email us [email protected]