“Something Blue” at Emerge Gallery in Saugerties

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

The color blue is overwhelmingly everyone’s favorite color choice. While a number of surveys over the years have theories explaining this phenomena, the color blue ultimately is something different for everyone. For instance, the sky above us on a beautiful day, the limitless ocean, or shadows we see on snow are imbued with the color blue. Emerge Gallery has organized their current exhibit around this idea with “Something Blue,” where 70 artists exhibit their recent work with one common element – the color blue.

Emerge Gallery proprietor, Robert Langdon, selected 128 artworks for this exhibit, bringing together abstracts to realism, watercolors to oils, mixed-media to sculpture: in this exhibit that transcends subject matter and style, the color blue hums quietly throughout the gallery. Langdon commented: “Themed shows are always popular at my gallery. Many of the artists I work with look forward to the challenge of creating to a theme, and the use of color seems to be a common interest. Blue has always been a favorite color of mine and I find that many times I have to stop myself from bringing in too much blue when curating a show. With “Something Blue,” I've allowed myself the freedom to celebrate the diversity of this color that is so emotionally powerful. It's a color that can wash over me with happiness and sadness and offers a chance to be introspective or to allow my emotions to take control. The color energizes me in many ways and I've found through the curation of the show that this is the case for many artists.”

The exhibit features painterly traditional landscapes, including those by Linda Lynton, and Terry Preisner. Laura Avelo’s “Hudson,” shows the sweeping views of the Hudson River in a diminutive watercolor landscape. In several of the works artists utilized encaustics, which are a mixture of beeswax, resin, and pigment, to create luscious, transparent surfaces. This is seen in Regina Quinn’s “Deep Winter,” where the artist lays these surfaces atop watercolor. Laura Martinez Bianco’s “Cold Places” combines a miniature encaustic landscape and places it on top of a surface embellished with a vintage postage stamp.   

Andrea Geller turns her painterly eye towards water, with a sublime series on bathing and swimming pool scenes reminiscent of David Hockney’s California series.  

Abstractions are well-represented with works such as Bruce Barnard’s “Exoplanets III,” a lively design of shapes and overlapping colors forming an unknown universe. The “Orb” by Shelly Davis, seems to reference cellular beginnings of life. 

Susan Burlew’s ceramic sculpture “Mended,” resembles sacred artifacts that are passed down through generations because they hold meaning. Created using slab construction, Burlew melds organic torn edges and sgraffito along with geometric shapes embellished with metallic to create this sculptural piece. 

Natali Bravo-Barbee’s cyanotypes featuring baby dresses are remembrances of gender classifications from the moment of birth. In “Girls Wear Blue #2,” we may first note the delicate drawing capturing the details on the dress – the lively blue is the antithesis of pale pinks normally assigned to girls. 

If you go: 

“Something Blue” is on exhibit through April 25, 2021.

Emerge Gallery & Art Space is located at 228A Main Street, Saugerties, NY

Hours: Friday-Saturday: 1:00 – 6:00 p.m. and Sunday: 1:00 – 5:00 p.m.

Artworks can also be viewed and purchased virtually: https://www.artsy.net/show/emerge-gallery-ny-something-blue

845-247-7515 | emergegalleryny@gmail.com 

The gallery observes Covid precautions, including masks and social distancing.

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“Land Escape” at Fridman Gallery in Beacon