This art work has been selected by art historian David Cohen, publisher and editor of Artcritical.com for inclusion in the benefit exhibition Pets of the Pandemic. Alpha 137 Gallery is making no profit whatsoever on this exhibition: 50% of the proceeds will be donated to Best Friends Animal Society, and 50% of the proceeds will be paid to the artist. All collectors who purchase works from this exhibition will receive a special code for a 20% discount off their next fine art purchase from www.alpha137gallery.com outside of the Pets of the Pandemic exhibition.
Artist's Statement:
“Charlie is my son in law. He is a carpenter by profession. He is also an accomplished Harmonica player and magician. Business is slow in the time of Covid so Charlie has had more time to play. As soon as his doggie Arie hears the music, he runs over and jumps on Charlie’s lap, opens his mouth and joins in! Arie loves the high notes and tries to adjust his vocals accordingly. Arie continues singing until the music stops, then he jumps down and runs off.”
This work was cited for special commendation by the competition judge, art historian David Cohen, who wrote, "Masterful double portrait."
Thelma Appel Biographical Summary
A co-founder of the Bennington College Summer Painting Workshop, Thelma Appel is a representational and abstract painter who has been working and teaching for more than six decades. Most recently, she was subject of a 50-year career survey (October, 2019 -February 2020) at the Brattleboro Museum in Vermont, entitled Thelma Appel: Abstract/Observed curated by Mara Williams. She was raised in Darjeeling, India and educated in London, England, at St. Martin's School of Art (now Central St. Martins) and Hornsey College of Art before emigrating to the United States in the 1960s. Her work has been exhibited in numerous venues, including the Bennington Museum, the Berkshire Museum in North Adams, Mass., the Children's Museum of the Arts in New York City, the Mattatuck Museum, the Brattleboro Museum, the Milwaukee Art Museum, the Robert Hull Fleming Museum at the University of Vermont, the University of Pennsylvania Fine Arts Gallery - and seen on the A & E Television Series "The Way Home." In 1974 she was awarded a YADDO Fellowship, and in 1975, Thelma Appel, along with the painter Carol Haerer, co-founded the Bennington College Summer Painting Workshop, where many distinguished painters of the day, both abstract and representational, conducted master classes. Among them were Neil Welliver, John Button, Alice Neel, Larry Poons, Friedel Dzubas, Stanley Boxer, Elizabeth Murray and Doug Ohlson – a program that continued until 1980. She has also taught drawing at Parsons School of Design, painting at Southern Vermont College and at the University of Connecticut. Appel’s work has been presented at Art on Paper, Texas Contemporary, Market Art & Design and Art New York art fairs.
Education
St. Martins School of Art: London, England: Diploma of Art and Design-
Hornsey College of Art London, Art teacher’s Certification
Art Teaching Experience
Northern Westchester Center for the Arts: Golden’s Bridge, Mt. Kisco, NY
Bennington College Painters Workshop: Bennington, VT
Southern Vermont College: Bennington, VT
Parsons School of Design: New York, NY
Bennington College Winter Session: Bennington, VT
Belle Levine Arts Center: Putnam County, New York
Studio Classes: Hudson Valley, NY
Visiting Artist Experience
Wooster Museum College of Art, Wooster, MA
Boston Museum of Fine Art, Boston, MA
Basking-Ridge Art Association, Basking Ridge, NJ
University of Vermont, Burlington, VT
Camp Eisner Retreat, Great Barrington, MA
West Hartford Art Association, Ct.
Solo Exhibitions
2019-2020 “Thelma Appel: Abstract/Observed”, a 50-year career survey, Brattleboro Museum, Brattleboro, Vermont, curated by Mara Williams
2018 "Thelma Appel: Landscapes, Cityscapes & Biblical Journeys", Edward & Bernice Wenger Center for the Arts, Greenvale, New York, curated by art advisor and gallery director Susan Seelig
2014 Thelma Appel: “Landscapes and Cityscapes”, Chashama Foundation, 1166 6th Avenue, New York, NY
2013 Bruce Kirshner Gallery, Fairfield Public Library, Fairfield, CT
2013 Warner Atrium Gallery, Torrington, CT
1999 JCC of Greater New Haven, CT
1996 Metropolitan Arts and Antiques Center, New York, NY
1992 Westchester County Center Art Gallery, White Plains, NY
1984 Adele M. Fine Arts Gallery, Dallas TX
1982, 1980, 1977 Fischbach Gallery, New York, NY
1979, 1977 Thorne Sagendorf Art Center, Keene State University, NH
1977 Gallery II, Woodstock, VT
1975. 1974, 1972 Kornblee Gallery in New York, NY
1975 Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, MA
1973 Robert Hull Fleming Museum, Burlington, VT 1971 Bennington College, Bennington, VT
Group Exhibitions
2020, “Mary Abbott and Thelma Appel”, Sager Braudis Gallery, Columbia Missouri, January-March, 2020
2019 “The Art of Experience”, Invitational Exhibition, Pomperaug Woods, Southbury, CT., December, 2019
2019 Featured Artist, Alpha 137 Gallery Booth, Texas Contemporary Art Fair, Houston Texas, October, 2019
2019 Market Art & Design Art Fair, Bridgehampton, New York,
Alpha 137 Gallery Booth, July, 2019
2019 “Thelma Appel: Times Square Series”, Absolut Project Space, Public Art Project chosen by curators of the Art New York Fair, May, 2019
2019 Art on Paper Fair, New York, NY. Gary Lichtenstein Editions debuted Thelma Appel’s “Meeting Plaza”, a 25-color Silkscreen on GSM paper
2018 “The Art of Experience”, Invitational Exhibition, Pomperaug Woods, Southbury, CT.
2018 “The Female Emperor: Selected Women Artists”, Alpha 137 Gallery, New York, NY
2017 “Landscapes, Skyscapes and Cityscapes”, Group Show, Alpha 137 Gallery, New York, NY
2014 “Road Trip: America Through the Windshield”. Brattleboro Museum, June 27-October 26, 2014
2012 “The Art of Experience” Pomperaug Woods, Southbury, CT
2012 “Fabrications” Artwell Gallery, Torrington, CT
2012 Quick Art Center, “History of Woman”, Fairfield University
2011 Children’s Museum of New York City
2009 “Art of Vermont” State Collection on Tour
2001 "9/11 In Memoriam" Paramount Center for the Arts, Peekskill, NY
2000 "Artists of New York State”, Inaugural Exhibition, Selected New York State Artists, County Center for the Arts, White Plains, NY
2000 "Face to Face" Paramount Center for the Arts, Peekskill, NY
1998 "A Celebration" JCC of Greater New Haven, CT
1994, 1993, 1992, 1991 Faculty Show, N. Westchester Center for the Arts, NY
1992 "Neighbors" Lehman College Gallery, White Plains, NY
1991 "Current River View" the Gallery at Hastings-on-Hudson, NY
1990 "Aspects of Landscape" Clary-Miner Gallery, Buffalo, NY
1987 "Recent Realism" Clary-Miner Gallery, Buffalo, NY
1985 "Five" Haber-Theador Gallery, New York, NY
1983 "Women Painters of Today" Rahr-West Museum, Manitowok, WI
1979, 1978, 1977 Faculty Show at the Parsons School of Design, New York, NY
1977 "A Sense of Place" Robert Hull Fleming Museum, University of VT, Burlington
1976 "Images of Vermont 1776-1976" Robert Hull Fleming Museum
1972 Invitational Exhibition, University of Pennsylvania Fine Arts Gallery
1972 "View Point Seven" Colgate University, Hamilton, NY
1970 Invitational Exhibition Berkshire Museum, Pittsfield, MA
Public Collections & Commissions
Mattatuck Museum Waterbury CT
New York City Police Academy Museum
AT&T, NY and NJ
Cabot Corporation, Boston, MA
Bank of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
Carey-Ellis Co., New York, NY
Celanese Corporation, New York, NY
Chase Manhattan Bank Collection, New York, NY
Continental Grain Company, New York, NY Federal Reserve Bank, Boston, MA
GTE Corporation, Dallas. TX
Hale & Dorr Attorneys-At-Law, Boston, MA Hughes Tool Company, Houston, TX
IBM Corp, New York, NY
J.C. Penny Corp., New York, NY
Merck & Co., Rahway, NJ
MCI Telecommunications, Washington, D.C.
Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, New York, NY
Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, MN
NYNEX Corporation, New York, NY
Oberlin College, OH
Police Academy Museum of New York City
Port Authority New York & New Jersey
Prudential Companies of New York & New Jersey
Ruder & Finn Co., New York, NY
RJR Industries, Winston-Salem, NC
Tupperware Collection, Orlando, FL
Wellington Management Co., Boston, MA
Western Companies, Ft. Worth, TX
Xerox Corporation, New York, NY Ziff-Davis Publishing Co., New York, NY
Awards
Pomperaug Woods Juried Exhibition, “Most Expressive” and
“Best Artwork about Connecticut”
JCC of Greater New Haven Juror's Best In Show Award
Millay Colony Residency Fellowship, Austerlitz, NY
Yaddo Residency Fellowship, Saratoga, NY
State of Vermont Purchase Award State Legislature, Montpelier, VT
Publications
2019“The Arts: BMAC looks back on five decades of work by painter Thelma Appel”, The Commons, Windham County, Vermont
2012 “History of Woman” Fairfield Univ. and Montage Initiative Program
2011 “Thelma Appel -- Selected Paintings”
2009 “Art of Vermont” State Collection Publication
2004 Jewish Women in Art 1944-2004 by Hedwig Brenner, in German, publ: Hartung-Gorre Verlag Konstanz
2001 Life After Jackie, Westchester Reporter Dispatch, (NY), June 14, by Georgette Gouveia
1998 New Haven Register, May 10, Celebrating Israel’s Anniversary at Woodbridge JCC, by Judith Birke
1991 Thelma Appel’s “Rivertown”, Current River View, Gallery at Hastings-on-Hudson,
Westchester Reporter Dispatch, (NY), June 16, by Georgette Gouveia
1984 Highlight of the Cabot Collection, 1974-1984. (Cover Feature). Boston, MA
1980 Thelma Appel Drei Elemente
(The new Romanticism in Landscape), DASKUNTMAGAZIN, August, by Birichte von Arnim
1976 Thelma Appel at Kornblee, Arts Magazine by Ellen Zweig
1976 Images of Vermont, 1776-1976,
Vermont Council of the Arts and University of Vermont, by William Lipke
1976 Contemporary Paintings at the Lowe Art Gallery, Highlights of the Season, review, Syracuse University, by Victoria Platt
1975 Civitico and Appel at Kornblee, New York Times by James Mellow
1975 The Synthesizations of Thelma Appel, The Berkshire Eagle, by Winifred Bell
1975 Thelma Appel’s Landscapes, Bennington Banner by Chawoon Koh
1974 Thelma Appel at Kornblee, A Neo- impressionist, Arts Magazine, November, by Michael André
1972 “Viewpoint Seven” Colgate Univ Publication
1970 Critic’s Choice at the BAA, Berkshire Museum by Winifred Bell
