“Land Escape” at Fridman Gallery in Beacon

Linda Marston-Reid, Executive Director, Arts Mid-Hudson for The Poughkeepsie Journal

The gallery scene in Beacon was recently enriched with the opening of Fridman Gallery in a second location outside of New York City. For the inaugural exhibition, “Land Escape” features new works by Nanette Carter, Athena LaTocha, and Wura-Natasha Ogunji. Each artist exhibits works on paper with a variety of media creating conceptual landscapes.   

Wura-Natasha Ogunji’s works are influenced her Nigerian heritage. She draws on architectural tracing paper and embellishes the works with hand-stitching. “View from Atlantis” dominates the far end of the gallery, with its four panels featuring delicate layers reminiscent of geological strata and underwater scenes. Studying this closer, stitched lines provide nuances similar to the Nazca Lines, ancient lines drawn into the Peruvian desert that is only seen from the sky. In “Opening” there is a multi-colored starburst emitting from a face resembling an African mask. “Navigation by beauty” shows the artists’ drawing skills combined with the stitched lines – in this piece she adds in small points of collaged paper. Ogunji also created a site-specific installation using brightly colored threads in the gallery windows that welcomes visitors inside.  

Athena LaTocha uses materials from the earth in making her ethereal artworks. In this exhibition she shows her latest works, Studies for Bulbancha, utilizing earth and moss from the Mississippi Delta region as art materials. Bulbancha is a Choctaw word for the place we currently call New Orleans. In this series, LaTocha could be referring to the traumatic cultural histories that are remembered through indigenous oral traditions and use of natural surroundings that sustained life prior to the industrial revolution. The artist also utilizes vestiges of industrial materials in mark-making; as described in her statement: “Working from the inside out, I disperse a palette of earth-toned inks with distilled water and industrial solvents, and use aggressive tools such as wire brushes, scrap metal, and reclaimed tire shreds to push the ink around.”  

Nanette Carter exhibits works from the series, “The Weight,” and wrote in her statement; “Working with intangible ideas around contemporary issues has been my motivating force. Reading the news about different developments taking place around the world has turned me into a chronicler of our time. How to present these ideas in an abstract vocabulary of form, line, color and texture is the quest.” Carter alludes to the increasing pressure of living in today’s society in her abstract layered works. For instance, in “The Weight #32,” the spare, undulating horizontal lines, devoid of humans or structures could hint at the view of a future world. While in “The Weight #28,” viewers see patterns of cut papers that the artist has put together in a lively composition. 

There will be a musical performance by Lesley Flanigan and Mark Trecka on Beacon First Saturday, June 5 at 8:00 pm on the lawn adjacent to the gallery. This performance will be the first in a series of outdoor events presented on the first Saturday of each month in collaboration with The Howland Cultural Center, located next door.  


If you go:

“Land Escape” is on exhibit through June 27, 2021.

Fridman Gallery is located at 475 Main Street, Beacon, NY.

Hours: Thursday – Monday, 11:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.

+1 646 345 9831 | info@fridmangallery.com | https://www.fridmangallery.com/land-escape  

Special event: Saturday, June 5 at 8:00 pm on the lawn adjacent to the gallery: live musical performance by Lesley Flanigan and Mark Trecka – free and open to the public.


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“Something Blue” at Emerge Gallery in Saugerties