The Figure

January 26-March 2, 2019 

  Nancy Hoffman Gallery’s first show of the new year opens on January 26th and   continues through March 2nd.  Entitled "The Figure," the   exhibition includes works by Nicolas Africano, Colette Calascione, Timothy   Cummings, Nathalia Edenmont, Judy Fox, Gregory Halili, Viola Frey, Hung Liu,   Lisea Lyons, Joseph Raffael, and Asya Reznikov.  Incorporating   paintings, drawings, sculpture and video the exhibition explores personal   interpretations and approaches to the figure as wide ranging as a terra cotta   sculpture of an African child to a pregnant mother-to-be twirling in nature   through the seasons in video.
 

  Nicolas Africano's new sculptures are part of a group he calls themes and   variations.  The two sculptures he completed recently in black and white   glass are inspired by Cecil Beaton's photographs of Greta Garbo wearing a   Pierrot costume.  On paper the artist sketches ideas, positions, poses   in a fresh, informal fashion.  His glass figures have a timeless   quality.  Captivating from all angles, they beguile in their perfection.
  Colette Calascione paints idealized women in settings she creates with   touches of fantasy and fancy.  She loves pearls and masks and hair-do's   from the 30's.  Painted in oil over many months Colette presents us with   the woman-figure more as ideal than reality.
 

  Timothy Cummings, in contrast to Calascione, paints in acrylic, mostly young   men, boys on the verge of manhood.  He loves inventing costumes, plaid   pants, patterned bow ties while he creates and invents a scenario in which to   set his characters.  Completely self-taught his paintings always tell a   story.
 

  Nathalia Edenmont, a Swedish photographer, Russian-born, dresses her figures   in spectacular creations: a dress may be composed of flowers or fruits and   vegetables.  With a team of ten it takes the artist from 5 hours to two   weeks to create the unique sculptural dress into which the model must sit and   fit.  These timeless portraits capture metaphoric life moments,   transitions from youth to adulthood being a key theme.
 

  With "The Figure" Nancy Hoffman Gallery introduces its affiliation   with sculptor Judy Fox, who creates archetype figures in terra cotta. The   artist works on each of her sculptures from months to almost a year building   the body, firing, then painting it to appear almost lifelike.  She takes   inspiration from art history researching her figures over the centuries to   arrive at a distillation of the figure and its meaning in contemporary   culture.
 

  Gregory Halili, Philippine born, resided in the US for 20 years. While here, he created a series of   watercolors of New Yorkers at lunch hour, walking, rushing, talking on their   cell phones, each anonymous in his or her own world.  Recognizable as   citizens of our City these people-figures walk past each other without   acknowledging those around them, each rendered in watercolor with superb   detail.
 

  Viola Frey has been called one of the great artists of the 20th   century.  She is best known for her larger than life monumental figures   in clay standing 10-12 feet in height glazed in her signature palette of   blue, orange and red. She was also a   consummate drafts-person, drawing from the model in her studio at least once   a week.  Surrounding the figure in her drawings are figurines, floral   patterns, bits of her three-dimensional vocabulary creating a swirl of   activity, not unlike her studio activity.
 

  Hung Liu has been called the most important Chinese artist working in this   country. Until the past few years her work depicted Chinese people inspired   by historical photographs.  A few years ago, Liu's focus shifted to her   first non-Chinese body of work, based on photographs of Dorothea Lange from   the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression.  Having been part of the   Cultural Revolution, and having lived in camps for four years, Liu could   relate to these images.  She pours her passion and pathos into the   portraits of the people Lange photographed.
 

  Lisea Lyons has spent years photographing a favorite subject, her   daughter.  She has captured her from the time she was a young girl,   through adolescence, alone, in nature, with friends.  Her daughter   stands as a touchstone to memory for others as well as for the artist.
 

  In the 60's Joseph Raffael, now known for his sublime depictions of nature,   painted what were called his white ground paintings.  His watercolor of   this era includes an idealized male figure along with fragments that appear   like dream images: a couple embracing, a woman’s bare chest, a sign of male   bravado all for the viewer to piece together or interpret.
 

  Asya Reznikov spent six years working on a series of videos inspired by the   birth of her two children.  She takes the viewer through her pregnancies   from her flat belly to her rounded one; through the breast feeding process as   she pumps milk; and equates the creation of life with the seasons of the year   as she turns unclothed in her backyard from summer to fall to winter and   spring.
 

  For additional information and/or images, please contact [email protected]
 

  With all best wishes for an excellent 2019,

  Nancy Hoffman