Alexis Serio: Everywhere and All the Time

June 4 - July 20, 2016

Press Release:

Greenwich, CT- The Drawing Room is pleased to present Everywhere and All the Time, a solo exhibition of recent paintings by Alexis Serio. The exhibit will run from June 2- July 20, with a public reception on Saturday, June 4th from 4:00-6:00 pm.

The title of the exhibition, Everywhere and All the Time, speaks to Serio’s recent work and her continued interest in time, memory and perception. Included in this exhibit are paintings from two bodies of work, one of which is comprised of oils and watercolors from “The Colossal Memory” series; inspired by her experiences traveling during a summer residency at the Gullkistan Residency for Creative People in Laugarvtan, Iceland.

Alexis Serio’s paintings explore the mood and light revealed within the landscape and how emotionally expressive and charged the memory of a place can be. Hazy, subtle washes of transparent color become reflections of the distant past: a fleeting, transient moment that still lingers in our mind. Through contrasting uses of thick and thinly applied paint, pigment and light appear to refract throughout the picture plane, making a romantic countryside become both real and dreamlike.  Through such means, she contrasts the concepts of solid versus ephemeral and perception versus real.

She states, “My paintings are selective and ideals of truth. They are reflections of my past, the days that I have drawn out in my mind as precious time. The landscape provides stillness and solitude, a moment to reconnect to a personal history within the world.”

Alexis Serio was born and raised in Potsdam, NY and currently resides in Troup Texas. She received her M.F.A. in painting from The University of Pennsylvania and her B.F.A. in painting from Syracuse University. Serio is Professor of Painting and Drawing at The University of Texas at Tyler where she was the recipient of the B.J. Dub and Riter Professorship from 2009-2014.  Serio serves as art editor for the The Wallace Stevens Journal, an international scholarly publication by the Johns Hopkins University Press. She is an award-winning painter and has shown her work alongside artists such as Andy Warhol and Richard Diebenkorn and has an extensive national exhibition record. Serio was recently selected as a finalist for the prestigious 2014 Hunting Art Prize, completing an International Artist Residency at the Gullkistan International Residency for Creative People in Laugvartn, Iceland and participated in an international group exhibition at the Tokyo Metropolitan art Museum in Tokyo, Japan.

The Drawing Room Art Gallery is open Tuesday- Saturday, 9 am-5pm and is closed on Sundays & Mondays. For more information about this exhibit and the gallery’s events, contact The Drawing Room at (203) 661-3737 or email at info@thedrawingroom.cc

 

 

 

erson exhibit, focused on the graphically charged work of Michele Kishita and Eliza Stamps and their unique approaches to painting and drawing, respectively.

The Drawing Room Art Gallery’s upcoming exhibition, “Graphic Tales of Elegance”, is a two-person exhibit, focused on the graphically charged work of Michele Kishita and Eliza Stamps and their unique approaches to painting and drawing, respectively. This exhibition opens April 2 and runs until May 17, 2016.

Inspired by both Milton Avery’s serene landscapes and Katsushika Hokusai’s depictions of water, Michele Kishita’s vibrant paintings are striking works in which the paint itself visually interacts with the whorl of the grain visible on the wood panels she paints upon. Her choice of medium is indicative of the message she looks to convey: She’s inspired by how nature and man-made forms interact. Her careful orchestration of color, shape and composition, which are suggestive of landscapes, display this dialogue. She states, “By drawing correlations between the wood grain of my panels and the water that created it, I delineate the fluid resonances inherent in these seemingly disparate elements.” These visually striking works cause one to sense fond memories of a landscape once removed, and relish in the lively color palettes which could only be culled from an artist’s mind.

Kishita is a visual artist based in Philadelphia and Adjunct Assistant Professor at the University of the Arts.

Eliza Stamps’ spellbinding drawings are void of color entirely, and instead are meditations on the evocative quality of line itself. Her process of working slowly and methodically, involves working with a single line that delicately threads its way across the page, creating loops and extravagant journeys, which result in mesmerizing works of intricate detail. When contemplating the meaning of the work, she states, “I have long-winded treatises on sociologic and philosophical principles that underlay this work but the truth is, I don’t believe this is important. I would like the viewer to have their own discoveries, unfettered by grandiose explanations that may or may not be evident. Instead, I want to make bold assertions with a single chord that evoke ideas that I could never imagine.”

Eliza is an artist who works and lives in Brooklyn, NY, and her artistic practice ranges from drawing, sculpture and performance, all with an interest in facilitating experiences for the for the viewer that allow for introspection and discovery.

This event is free and open to the public.

The Drawing Room Art Gallery is open Tuesday- Saturday, 9am-5pm and is closed on Sundays & Mondays.