Press Release:

 

J. Cacciola • Gallery W is pleased to announce the upcoming exhibition: Interpreting Nature’s Palette: Rebecca Saylor Sack and Julie Friedman. The exhibition will be on view from September 14 through October 12, 2018 at 35 Mill Street, Bernardsville, NJ 07924. An opening reception will be held on Friday, September 14th from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. All are welcomed to attend.

 

Rebecca Saylor Sack and Julie Friedman are coming together for the first time to present a body of work inspired by natural elements. The work of both artists maintains unique expressions from skills, styles, and color palettes, which fuse together to create distinctive works of art. Rebecca Saylor Sack works in-studio, using flora she cultivates with bones and other natural elements that she collects, to create her distinctive still-lifes. Julie Friedman often works from memory to suggest and construct landscapes born from outside observation, working quickly, and relying on uncensored impressions to create an authentic response to her subject matter.

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Rebecca Saylor Sack is fascinated and inspired by the ever-changing processes of growth, decay, and abundance that are visible within the environment. Much of her imagery is collected from her own observation by assembling structures in the studio, created from a multitude of natural elements that she has collected. Saylor Sack’s paintings often feature a sign of the memento mori, most often referenced in Old Master still-lifes and portraits as a practice and remembrance of our mortality.

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Saylor Sack employs the properties of material and color in order to utilize their ability to evoke sensations that can seduce or repel the viewer. Brilliant reds radiate against sallow hues, while thick strokes of dense creamy paint rupture luminous transparent passages. The insistence upon materiality heightens a sense of disorientation and the hallucinatory. Saylor Sack seeks to create works that encourage the extremities of stability and riot, growth and decay.

 

Primarily considered a colorist, Julie Friedman is a master of creating abstracted landscapes with vivid, interwoven colors. Her focus as a painter is to continuously push the give-and-take of color and space, and uses those elements to support the intention of the painting. She employs the landscape to serve as a metaphor for her emotions, and uses colors to best describe those feelings. Friedman explores the power that colors possess to influence the mood and emotions of the viewer, as she seeks leave the viewer with an emotional response.

 

Julie is a nationally recognized artist who began her career in oil painting and received a BFA at the Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University. She went on to study with internationally renowned colorist Wolf Kahn, who introduced Julie to her remarkable visual approach to color.

 

For more information on upcoming events, press inquiries, additional images, and information please contact us at 212-462-4646 or email info@jcacciolagalleryw.com.