First Street Gallery 2017 National Juried Show

Happy to have 2 pieces included in this show!

Reception this Thursday, June 22, 6-8.

Show is up at the gallery 6/22-7/16.
First Street Gallery 526 W26th St., Ste. 209.

Hope you can stop by!

Denise Jones Adler

Alter(native) Facts

The artists have their say!

To further exhibit different viewpoints and artist interpretations of their art and their experiences of the world, they were asked to answer the same four questions.

Artist: Jeffrey Bishop

 

Picasso said, “art is a lie, but it is a lie by which we know the truth”

 

1) Can you explain how this statement affects the art you make?

 

It does not [affect my art]. I don’t think art is at all a lie. Nor do I think it makes one understand truth. I don’t think it has anything to do with “truth.” It is what it is.

 

2) How do you react if something is presented to you as indisputable, unquestionable?

 

I react rather negatively to absolutes, unquestionables and indisputables of all kinds.

 

3) Does that reaction, if you have one, (#2) resonates in your drive to make art? Explain briefly.

 

I am interested in making work that surprises me, makes me doubt what I do, sometimes makes me anxious.

 

4) Do you have a favorite artist whose work you think particularly illustrates Picasso’s quote? A particular work?

 

I have very many artists that are favorites at any given time but I don’t think (good) art ever illustrates an idea or even a great quote from a great artist.

Jeffrey Bishop, Quiver #16 2017

Artist: Ava Hassinger

 

Picasso said, “art is a lie, but it is a lie by which we know the truth”

1) Can you explain how this statement affects the art you make?

Someone once told me that we all have our own truths to tell and so that is something I think about when I work. James Baldwin once said, “the purpose of art is to lay bare the questions hidden by answers”. As artists we look for the answers to those difficult questions, without really knowing.

 

2) How do you react if something is presented to you as indisputable, unquestionable?

 

I think it ultimately depends on the source. If it’s someone I trust, then I might believe them and even agree. If is someone I don’t trust – well then, I am immediately skeptical.

3) Does that reaction, if you have one, (#2) resonates in your drive to make art? Explain briefly.

 

I might hear what others say but the only person I really listen to and trust is myself.

Ava Hassinger

Ava Hassinger

Artist: Suzy Kunz

 

Picasso said, “art is a lie, but it is a lie by which we know the truth”

1) Can you explain how this statement affects the art you make?

 

No.

 

2) How do you react if something is presented to you as indisputable, unquestionable?

 

Look for outliers.

3) Does that reaction, if you have one, (#2) resonates in your drive to make art? Explain briefly.

 

Maybe.

 

4) Do you have a favorite artist whose work you think particularly illustrates Picasso’s quote? A particular work?

 

No.

Suzy Kunz

Artist: Charles Olson

Picasso said, “art is a lie, but it is a lie by which we know the truth”

1) Can you explain how this statement affects the art you make?

As soon as we perceive our environment, recognize a person or a sound, we cease to see things as they are and start overlaying our own memories and judgments. Artists don’t reveal reality as it is, but hopefully how it feels or how it could be. Sometimes the most important human truths lie in the realm of emotion and possibility. These are truths that art can reveal.

2) How do you react if something is presented to you as indisputable, unquestionable?

As a scientist, I expect facts to arise from verifiable sources such as accurate measuring instruments or reliable historic records. I think that ultimately, everything we take as true is really a model of understanding that is most useful in our present moment. As our understanding develops, what we consider useful can also change. In other words, what we consider indisputable one day may become disputable another day.

3) Does that reaction, if you have one, (#2) resonates in your drive to make

art? Explain briefly.

 

As my craft develops, so do my aesthetic and conceptual options. Making visually attractive objects was not a priority for me for many years, but I think my objects are getting more attractive, even if they remain a bit awkward. Years ago, I would have been accused of “selling out”. Now I feel like I’m making deeper connections between form and content.

4) Do you have a favorite artist whose work you think particularly illustrates this idea? A particular work?

 

There are many artists I enjoy whose craft meanders in the space between elegance and awkwardness: Sue Coe, Christy Rupp, Josep Guinovart, Henry Moore and Kara Walker are a few.

Charles Olson

Artist: Stephen Cimini

Picasso said, “art is a lie, but it is a lie by which we know the truth”

1) Can you explain how this statement affects the art you make?

I sometimes think of the surfaces I create in the geometric shapes of my paintings are organic elements that don’t exist in nature but could.

2) How do you react if something is presented to you as indisputable, unquestionable?

 

Do my best to ignore it.

3) Does that reaction, if you have one, (#2) resonates in your drive to make art? Explain briefly.

 

No.

Stephen Cimini

Artist: Douglas Zimmerman

1) Art is a lie: Picasso.

Can you explain how this statement affects the art you make?

Well I wonder, is art the truth and everything else is a lie? Good art, that is. Different tricks of the trade are used to manipulate emotion. Indeed, was Picasso referring to that – how in order to transcend one’s inhibitions and repressions, does the artist need to boldly reconfigure what one what normally sees?

2) How do you react if something is presented to you as indisputable, unquestionable?

I walk away.

3) Does that reaction, if you have one, (#2) resonates in your drive to make art? Explain briefly.

Yes. I find myself walking away often. I keep walking. So finally I stumbled into an art studio and picked up a brush.

4) Do you have a favorite artist whose work you think particularly illustrates this idea? A particular work?

God. Too many to mention. But – today anyway: Soutine, Schiele, Avery, Pollack and Neal. Monet’s Water Lilies strikes me as appropriate for the quote.

Douglas Zimmerman

Artist: Leda Arensberg

 

Picasso said: Art is a lie.

1) Can you explain how this statement affects the art you make?

My work may disregard outer reality (being an illusion – a lie) but reveals my own truth in personal imagery.

2) How do you react if something is presented to you as indisputable, unquestionable?

 

In life I would tend to investigate, but in art I would disregard.

3) Does that reaction, if you have one, (#2) resonates in your drive to make art? Explain briefly.

 

I create images I love regardless of the indisputable.

4) Do you have a favorite artist whose work you think particularly illustrates Picasso’s quote? A particular work?  Miro.

Leda Arensberg

Artist: Bernice Sokol Kramer

 

Picasso said: Art is a lie.

1) Can you explain how this statement affects the art you make?2) How do you react if something is presented to you as indisputable, unquestionable?3) Does that reaction, if you have one, (#2) resonates in your drive to make art? Explain briefly. 4) Do you have a favorite artist whose work you think particularly illustrates Picasso’s quote? A particular work?

 

I could not answer all your questions. This is what I can say.

Art is a transformation of thoughts and emotions into something that exists in a different plane or realm.

Have you ever seen Bernini’s Ecstasy of St. Theresa? Bernini made marble into fabric.

Bernice Sokol Kramer

Artist: Victoria-idongesit Udondian

 

Picasso said: Art is a lie.

1) Can you explain how this statement affects the art you make?2) How do you react if something is presented to you as indisputable, unquestionable?3) Does that reaction, if you have one, (#2) resonates in your drive to make art? Explain briefly. 4) Do you have a favorite artist whose work you think particularly illustrates Picasso’s quote? A particular work?

Am not sure if this works for what you were shooting for, this is the way I can relate with your question on Picasso’s quote.

I like to answer this questions with a series of questions and this stems from my interest in questioning the veracity of historical account through generating alternative narrative to support my work.

What is a lie? What is truth?

What is fiction? What is reality?

How can art be used to subvert or questions notions of historical truth or lies? Can ‘art’ truth fill in existing gabs in history / reality?

How do we situate ourselves in History?

How is truth validated and who validates?

What is fact? factual truth?

Alternative truth / facts?

Myths?

Lies?

Truth?

Half truth?

History?

Alter(native) Facts exhibit. In foreground – The Oba’s Headdresses.

Artist: Ken Nelson

Picasso said: Art is a lie.

1) Can you explain how this statement affects the art you make?2) How do you react if something is presented to you as indisputable, unquestionable?3) Does that reaction, if you have one, (#2) resonates in your drive to make art? Explain briefly. 4) Do you have a favorite artist whose work you think particularly illustrates Picasso’s quote? A particular work?

In the work I have been doing recently, I am looking at fragments of reality – specifically small sections of street PAVEMENTS and sidewalks. By focusing on these fragmentary sections of reality, something else entirely is often the resulting product. These sections of reality become something abstract.

What the viewer sees is often something different than my original inspiration. The cracks, crevices and repairs in a street surface, can be viewed as a river, estuary or delta as seen from above.

Reality in this case becomes the reality of the viewer.

Reality = Abstraction

I think that due to recent events, our initial response is to question most things presented as fact. A fact can be perceived as fiction – depending on whom is presenting that “fact”.

In art, it is the artist’s job to question fact. A landscape painting, no matter how realistic, is not a true representation of reality. It is one person’s approximation of what reality was at one particular moment.

Is a landscape by Richard Diebenkorn any less a representation of reality than one by Frederick Edwin Church?

Is a still life by Matisse, any less a true depiction of objects than one by William Harnett?

Is Picasso’s Portrait of Dora Maar, any less a depiction of an individual’s personality than a portrait of our nation’s founders by Gilbert Stuart?

An artist is always trying to find the truth – But which truth? Reality = Abstraction.

Ken Nelson

Artist: Billie Cohen

Picasso said, “art is a lie, but it is a lie by which we know the truth”

1) Can you explain how this statement affects the art you make?

It does not – I try to not “think” of anything. My practice of creating art, drawing, painting, is more like a direct meditation.

2) How do you react if something is presented to you as indisputable, unquestionable?

 

I don’t think there is anything unquestionable! The initial reaction depends on the source from where it is coming.

3) Does that reaction, if you have one, (#2) resonates in your drive to make art? Explain briefly.

 

I don’t find a relationship at all.

4) Do you have a favorite artist whose work you think particularly illustrates Picasso’s quote? A particular work?

 

Does the word interpretation mean lie?

Billie Cohen

Billie Cohen

Artist: Mary Jones

Picasso said, “art is a lie, but it is a lie by which we know the truth” 1) Can you explain how this statement affects the art you make?

I think of it more as a place. I just read “Robert Lowell,” by Kay Redfield Jamison, and he described mania as a “magical orange grove in a nightmare.” The studio, the process, it’s something like that, an Oz that I find after a threatening thud with reality. It’s colorful there, and I’m looking for some courage and brains to function along the way.

2) How do you react if something is presented to you as indisputable, unquestionable?

My ideas about art are defined by movement, attention, and change. Again a quote by Robert Lowell, “The light at the end of the tunnel is just the light of an oncoming train.”

 

3) Does that reaction, if you have one, (#2) resonates in your drive to make art? Explain briefly.

I work on my craft and try to learn its language. It might be on the floor, on the wall, or in plain sight. It could be a recipe, an accident, or an intention. Like a chemical reaction, it will morph and mutate instantaneously.

 

4) Do you have a favorite artist whose work you think particularly illustrates Picasso’s quote? A particular work?

It’s Picasso’s quote, and he owns it. I like his late drawings. I like the morphing of artist into model, a fusing and exchange of sexual roles, bodies, mythologies, and power. His imagination is uncurtailed and fluid, always ahead of him, a kind of theater, and like theater, directed play revealing emotional truth.

 

Mary Jones

Artist: Leslie Jimenez

Picasso said, “art is a lie, but it is a lie by which we know the truth”

1) Can you explain how this statement affects the art you make?

It doesn’t. The art I make is based on personal experiences, and the way I render these experiences in a visual way, (I) respond to how they make sense to me. Not sure if my personal story aligns with Picasso’s who might have had an experience that prompt him to make that statement.

 

2) How do you react if something is presented to you as indisputable, unquestionable?

 

I challenge it by asking why is “that something” unquestionable, an according to

who?

 

3) Does that reaction, if you have one, (#2) resonate in your drive to make art?

Explain briefly.

 

Yes, it does resonate. In my work, subject matter may vary, yet in every context  I explore (there) being standards of beauty, motherhood, womanhood, gender, or community, I’m constantly asking myself (and the viewer) how notions and rituals come to be? How is a culture, systems of beliefs and notion of identities formed and established?

 

4)Do you have a favorite artist whose work you think particularly illustrates this

idea? A particular work?

 

Louise Bourgeois “Pink Days and Blue Days” 1997

Leslie Jimenez

Artist: Hilda Green Demsky

 

Picasso said, “art is a lie, but it is a lie by which we know the truth”

1) Can you explain how this statement affects the art you make?

The title of my art, “Climate Change Is Not Happening,” is a lie. It is a lie to call attention to the truth. Our earth is drowning slowly by rising waters. I think about water all the time…what we drink, and how we often pollute our rivers and lakes. Rising temperatures and melting glaciers are scary. All of these environmental conditions scare the heck out of me, and it affects my work.

 

2) How do you react if something is presented to you as indisputable, unquestionable?

I have a hard time ACCEPTING ANYTHING THAT I AM TOLD IS INDISPUTABLE. I believe there is flexibility in the interpretation of almost everything. I make art because I have to—it’s what I do– but I have oft times politicized my work by painting about issues that concern me deeply, i.e. global waters being polluted. Detritus is washing up on our shores in many countries. Lately I have avoided painting floating garbage and am painting what is beautiful and essential in our environment.

 

3) Does that reaction, if you have one, (#2) resonate in your drive to make art?

Explain briefly.

 

My second painting, “The Sky Is Falling” is about polluting our skies. The cosmos is full of garbage.

 

4)Do you have a favorite artist whose work you think particularly illustrates this

idea? A particular work?

 

Lee Krasner. I like her quote,

“I am never free of the past.

I have made it crystal clear

That I believe the past is part

Of the present which becomes

Part of the future.”

I can relate to her highly personal marks which come from the subconscious.

Hilda Green Demsky

Hida Green Demsky

Artist/Curator: Denise Jones Adler

 

The questions are made up by me. The manifesto comes out of my intense inquiry into this topic when it came roaring into our consciousnesses with recent events. Knowing what I know, some clarification seemed to be necessary and what better reason to put on a show than that? I do not believe that art is a lie, but that it has at it’s heart a willingness to be open to other possibilities.

Denise Jones Adler

The Stoning

Alter(native) Facts – Almost Closing Reception Thursday June 8th! 6-8

Pleiades Gallery

530 West 25th Street, Rm 406

Door Prize Raffle for tickets to

IN & OF ITSELF  

IDENTITY IS AN ALLUSION

CREATED & PERFORMED BY

DEREK DELGAUDIO

DIRECTED BY

FRANK OZ

The prize – 2 vouchers good for 2 tickets to the show!

There are set dates and performance for which the vouchers may be used.

Raffle tickets will be given to the first fifty visitors who come to the Reception and one lucky person will be chosen at random! Please note: you must be at the gallery in order to win.

http://inandofitselfshow.com/#home

Alter(native) Facts: Look Closer

A really real group show

Curated by Denise Jones Adler

Pleiades Gallery, 530 W 25th St. Ste 406, NY, NY 10001

Alternative Facts: The Manifesto

Alter(native) Facts exhibit. In foreground – The Oba’s Headdresses.

Alter(native) Facts: Look Closer

A really real group show

Curated by Denise Jones Adler

Pleiades Gallery, 530 W 25th St. Ste 406, NY, NY 10001

 

Alternative Facts: The Manifesto

OUR WORLD IS ON INFORMATION OVERLOAD. We are inundated with news and visuals via social media, on our TVs, radios, computers and smartphones. We are on constant alert and in CONSTANT CONTACT. Each of us has developed filters to try and CONTROL THE BARRAGE OF INFORMATION, but it is difficult to manage when all forms of diverging interests spend trillions to keep us tuned in. MARKETING IS OMNIPRESENT with the sole goal to MANIPULATE and convince us of the necessity of a product, honesty of a person, or voracity of an idea. As a child of the sixties I see all of this visual and mental stimulus putting us into a kind of “INFORMATION SHOCK.” WE CAN’T PROCESS everything happening around us, so we try to tune it out, and it’s not always easy. LIMITING INTAKE and managing understanding, hashing out the relevant from the firewall of BS can take a lot of energy. Meditation and mindfulness in a world SUPERCHARGED WITH DISTRACTIONS is a growing challenge. But it is MINDFULNESS AND MEDITATION with an equal dose of EMPATHY that can help us deal with this changing world and LOOK CLOSER!

Alternative facts or different perspectives on the truth can and are certainly used to cloud the information we are receiving. I would argue that alternatives to what is commonly believed are also what moves civilization forward. Looking at this from the perspective of an artist I see the varying realities make the conversation difficult. But we all have particular views. Artists, poets, philosophers, scientists, cab drivers have unique incites into the things they care about.  Each of us brings our own history, ethnicity, race, religion, and upbringing that filters our individual perspectives. Asking questions about events helps us be objective. Being curious about others deepens our understanding of ourselves and our peers. Respecting various versions of “the truth” can only strengthens communication in our communities. Accepting differences will help all of us become better, more productive members of society.

The art in this show is not political, it is personal. Each piece is singular. But it speaks of the artist’s viewpoint and in turn, will communicate different things to different people. IT RESONATES OR IT DOESN’T to new eyes and CHANGES AT SECOND GLANCE. So, is art a lie as Picasso puts it? In an ironic twist, all but a few of the artists rejected that notion! One of the artists found a better analogy in the writings of James Baldwin – “THE PURPOSE OF ART IS TO LAY BARE THE QUESTIONS HIDDEN BY THE ANSWERS.” Certainly a more artful way of saying it. For in the answers are always more questions. THAT IS THE HUMAN CONDITION: We know little yet learn more every second. It’s in the asking that our knowledge grows and through doubts we expand the evidence, bringing us closer to the answers.

So the lie is not universally accepted as a metaphor for the process, neither is any ultimate truth. Art is what it is. Perhaps the artist makes his art to surprise oneself. If that art surprises someone else,  “THAT IS WHAT IT IS.”

Or maybe it’s beyond explanation? Artists are affected by what happens around them. Maybe their art is done to cope, or escape or understand that? Their expressions are their own, put out in the world to be ingested by anyone who’s willing. Filtered through another’s perspective and changing but not negating the artist’s intention. The original still exists and is understood or misunderstood ad infinitum. The idea, though,  that was it’s main purpose does not cease to be, it’s innate.

The art I make is cathartic. It’s fulfilling. It is an alternative expression of myself; everything I’ve learned, experienced or dreamed played a part in its creation. It’s personal and only.  When someone responds to it, they are bringing their own experiences, dreams, intelligence to it but I am in there too. And that’s where alternative facts can lead us. Always LOOK CLOSER! ALWAYS ASK QUESTIONS. ALWAYS DOUBT WHAT YOU THINK YOU KNOW, ESPECIALLY WHEN YOU’RE POSITIVE. TRUST YOURSELF BUT REMEMBER THAT INTRANSIGENCE IS A FLAW. LISTEN MORE THAN YOU SPEAK. PAY ATTENTION WHENEVER POSSIBLE. LOVE YOURSELF, FORGIVE YOURSELF, MAKE MISTAKES AND ENJOY IT! ACCEPT ALTERnative REALities BUT NEVER STOP QUESTIONING AUTHORity!

Sent from my iPhone

Pleiades Reception was a blast!

Take a look at the video to get a taste of the shows! Both Alter(native) Facts: Look Closer and Jean Bundy’s Underpinnings are fun and beautiful shows! Show is up through June 10th! Closing reception is Thursday, June 8th, 6-8! Hope to see you there

Alter(native) Facts: Look Closer OPENING RECEPTION Today 3-6

Alter(native) Facts: Look Closer A Really, Real Group Show Curated by Denise Jones Adler

(646) 230 0056

May 10, 2017

Alternative (n) –
One of two or more available possibilities; an option or choice; a substitute or replacement

Fact (n) –

A piece of information presented as having objective reality and indisputable significance

Alter (v) –

To change or cause to change in a comparatively small but significant way

Native (n) –

Belonging to a place or a thing by nature; inherent

Alternative fact –
To change, substitute or replace what’s inherent and indisputable about someone or something.

Ex.: The clumsy, incompetent political hack told the reporter that the lie she had just told was not a lie but an alternative fact.
A tool that the inquisitive minded use to deepen the integrity of human understanding. To open perceptions beyond the limits of experience.

Ex.: Before Pythagoras theorized the Earth was a sphere, it was considered an alternative fact to the idea that the Earth was flat or saucer shaped.

The term alternative facts, seems like a contradiction in terms, especially in our politics and social media teeming with “fake news” and real gossip complete with all the sinister and titillating details. These lies and half-truths about our fearless leaders have shined a pretty negative light on the alternative facts many seem to crave, to the point that no one would be caught dead defending them, right? Till now! Artist’s own alternative

facts, we love them. We search for them. Picasso famously pointed out “We all know that art is not truth. Art is a lie… The artist must know the manner whereby to convince others of the truthfulness of his lies.” Cindy Sherman manipulates her identity. Ai Weiwei asks in “According to What?” that we destroy a piece of his art. Taken separately, each part of the title: alter; native; facts, creates a clearer picture of why artists cultivate this ability and the sum is greater than any of the parts. Our alternative perceptions create a dialogue with the past, the present and the future. We are at our best when we are doubting the indisputable, seeing the significance of irrelevance, and finding evidence where none existed – changing in a small but significant way what is accepted as true. The Alter(native) Facts Exhibit is a call for art that convinces us to believe the lie and be happy about it.

With Denise Adler, Leda Arensberg, Jeffrey Bishop,
Billie Cohen, Stephen Cimini, Hilda Green Demsky, Ava Hassinger,

Lisa Hirkaler,

DJA Bio/Resume

Mary Jones,
Suzy Kunz,
Ken Nelson,
Charles Olson,
Leslie Jimenez,
Bernice Sokol Kramer, Victoria Udondian,
and Douglas Zimmerman

Attended Buffalo State University for 2 years where she studied printmaking. Graduated from Hofstra University with a degree in Fine Arts and design. She has two published books “Parallel Spell: 7 pictures 7 poems” in collaboration with the poet and writer Elena Alexander. And “Symbols” the companion book to her 2017 solo show of the same name that ran at Pleiades Gallery, April/May 2017. Fifteen of her street photographs are used as the backdrop in the production “Heart Meridians.” originally produced by DTW in NYC. She is a founding member of the Cultural Guerrillas group with the artist Mary Jones. Their mission is to produce pop up shows with a variety of mixed media artists who are using visual rhetoric as expressions of alternative cultural meaning. She is a member of the Pleiades Gallery group on W 25th St. in Chelsea, NYC. She will have a two person show “Dialog” with Mary Jones in November 2017 at the Hudson Guild Gallery. Her work is shown regularly in group shows in NY and nationally.

Opening Alter(Native) Facts: Look Closer at Pleiades Gallery

A really real group show – Curated by Denise Adler

With Denise Adler, Leda Arensberg,

Jeffrey Bishop, Billie Cohen,

Stephen Cimini, Hilda Green Demsky,

Ava Hassinger, Lisa Hirkaler,

Mary Jones, Suzy Kunz,

Ken Nelson, Charles Olson,

Leslie Jimenez, Bernice Sokol Kramer,

Victoria Udondian & Douglas Zimmerman

May 16 to June 10, 2017

Receptions: Sat. May 20, 3-6 pm & Thurs. June 8, 6-8pm

Coming Soon! Alter(native) Facts: Look Closer

The Stoning

A really Real Group Show Curated by Denise Jones Adler

Including work by

Denise Adler, Leda Arensberg,

Jeffrey Bishop, Billie Cohen,

Stephen Cimini, Hilda Green Demsky,

Ava Hassinger, Lisa Hirkaler,

Mary Jones, Suzy Kunz,

Ken Nelson, Charles Olson,

Leslie Jimenez, Bernice Sokol Kramer,

Victoria Udondian & Douglas Zimmerman

May 16 to June 10, 2017

Receptions: Sat. May 20, 3-6 pm & Thurs. June 8, 6-8pm

Pleiades Gallery

530 W 25th St. Ste. 406 • NYC 10001 • 646.230.0056 • www.pleiadesgallery.com

Symbols – Denise Jones Adler

Book release! The show catalog is available for $20. plus shipping. Please contact me for info at: deniseadler@me.com

2016 c Denise Adler

Mixed media Collage on Canvas, 30″ x 40″
2016 c Denise Adler

Symbols – New Work by Denise Adler

Darshan – 2016

Pleiades Gallery Presents

2016 c Denise Adler

Mixed media Collage on Canvas, 30″ x 40″
2016 c Denise Adler

Symbols of Strength

New Works

April 18 – May 13, 2017

RECEPTION Saturday April 22, 3-6PM

530 West 25th Street, Ste. 405, New York, NY 10001

 

Upcoming

Alter(native) Facts: Look Closer

A really real group show – Curated by Denise Adler