"I am a free man he boasted. I live by the sweat of my pen. I need not copy Boccaccio or Petrarch. Let others worry about style and cease to be themselves. Without a master, without a model, without a guide, without artifice, I go to work and earn my living,  my well-being and my fame. With a goose quill and a few sheets of paper I mock the universe." Titian   Past To Present February 4 - February 28 Opening  for Artist Reception   Gallery Walk  February 4, 6 - 9 pm   The Work  Of   Leonardo Rafaelo Black   Ra Graphite Pencil Drawing on Gesso      Chris Wynter  Susan Sauerbrun  Nola Zirin Salvadore Rosillo  Gloria Kennedy It is with great pleasure that we present “Past To Present”, opening Thursday, February 4th, 2010 through February 28. The show will open on Feb. 4th for the Gallery Walk. The Artist reception will be held on Thursday, February 11, 6 PM – 9 PM at the gallery.   Director Henry M. Reed: “Past To Present,” was arranged purely spontaneously and totally on-the-fly …like a great improvisation, similar to a jazz or modern dance performance. For this new show, I’ve assembled artists, all of whom are masters of their realm and put them together for a major performance.   Rafaello Leonardo Black is an artist who’s graphite pencil drawings on gesso of the Jimi Hendrix Experience has immortalized him into an old world masterly. I first encountered his work at the Salomon Arts Gallery in Tribeca, by the invitation of the visionary and stalwart defender of great art and craftsmanship, Rodrigo Salomon. After encountering Rafaello’s miniature drawings, which he does with a magnifying glass, I instantly realized his gift that I was setting my eyes upon.  Inch by inch of his artwork, you can see everyday life on a cobblestone street complete with brownstones, stoops, stores and people everywhere roaming about. I have yet to see anything that precise and rhythmically done by a human hand in modern times in that dimension.   Alongside Rafaello, I present Susan Sauerbrun. Her artwork has graced our walls in the past.  Susan exhibits great dedication and insight into the craft of art Abstraction with spirit, much like the way Rothko put his heart and soul into his work to become a timeless living organism. I recall how at Susan’s first show “Silent Pictures” at the Henry Gregg Gallery, two legendary photography dealers, Howard Schickler and Billy O’Connor, arrived together to admire her work. There is good reason why Sauerbrun’s new work was recently selected for the “By Invitation Only” show at the National Academy of Fine Arts in New York!  I chose to present her work again, as it represents timelessness in art, which I believe is arts true value.   My third ‘Past to Present’ artist is Chris Wynters, the notable colorist who teaches at Pratt Institute. His piece “Orange” continually fascinates me. It is an exemplary work for our period in which the layout of forms align and is tied to Chris’ outstanding improvisational and brilliant choice of color combinations, which together bring to my mind the experience of standing before Cézanne’s “Still Life with Apples” with its depth and warmth that warms one’s soul. Yes, Chris is a great colorist, but moreover a gifted portraitist and sculptor, whose oeuvre is collected, commissioned, cherished and desired throughout the world.     The fourth presence whose work will soon hang here at the Henry Gregg Gallery is Nola Zirin. She’s a great artist, a dear friend and mentor. Her work speaks for itself. And not only to me, but to the entire abstract art community in NYC. Her choices of color, form and her conceptual framework show great spontaneity … and whether large or small they enter collections in the way of masterpieces. She’s shown works on paper, miniature paintings, all of which demonstrate rare skill and unnerving confidence. Nola is known to destroy her works where the results do not satisfy her, much in the way of Francis Bacon.   My fifth choice is Michael Price, a longtime artist of the gallery. Michael is the Renaissance scholar who has dedicated his life through intense practice to understand through experiment and painting the makings of great and everlasting works. Michael's focus since the 1990's has been the polychromatic nude, not as a representation of the phenomenal world, but as an autonomous numinous experience. The gateway to this world is through the use of natural colour, i.e. colour which he prepares himself from rocks and crystals.    My sixth artist is a fellow gallerist, as well as a close friend, Gloria Kennedy who will be presenting some of her original works. She is well known and respected in the art community and is an exceptional sculptor in her own right. The three pieces presented in this event are of highly textured white stoneware with metallic pewter and gold glazes.  The works represents the Akan Queenmother Ohemmaa and her attendants Nkotimsefo  .    Finally, the Henry Gregg Gallery presents, in-group show, the works of Salvador Rosillo.  I’ve known Salvador longer than any of the others whom I represent. He’s director of the Salvador Rosillo Museum in Tribeca. In fact, Salvador has just returned from a major presentation of his work in Mexico. He is a ‘free-jazz” painter and a great one, improvising in color and by means of a new attack, and has become a true performance artist who paints with his hands and fingers and never uses a brush. Moreover, he is a very active poet, philosopher and revolutionary whose being can jump out at you from the canvas. Salvador is the extension and embodiment of Rafael Tamayo as Jimmy Lyons is the extension and embodiment of Charlie Parker in the latter day.   I am extremely proud to have succeeded in creating these associations, making possible the bringing together of extraordinary talent in a unique and timely show for our times.                   Frank Lind " An Expression Of Love" March 4th - 28th Opening Reception March 4th 6 - 9pm Special Solo Bass Performance with Hillard Greene     "A&A" 32" x 42" Oil on Canvas 2002   Frank Lind “To see the ocean is to experience the sublime.  The great beauty of the littoral, the fluctuating place where land meets sea, is mystery made corporeal.  I can’t really capture in paint something so profound; I can only respond and, in doing so, perhaps understand it a little.”    In terms of contemporary practice and art history, Frank Lind’s allegiance is to the long rainbow line of brilliant painters of nature.  Corot, Homer, Sorolla and Sargent are particular inspirations.  One less well known but who speaks from the past is James Perry Wilson, the painter of the best background images in the dioramas in the Museum of Natural History in New York City and the Peabody Museum at Yale.  Wilson used a palette of only twelve tube colors, and yet could mix an astonishing range of hues.  In Lind’s current practice, the distilled use of these twelve colors creates an intimate dynamic between paint and imagery that is transporting—looking at these paintings you smell the ocean breezes and revel in the play of light on water.   His studio is located in gritty downtown Brooklyn.  Yet, located as it is on the extreme western tip of Long Island, Brooklyn is of a piece with the pristine beaches that stretch one hundred and twenty miles to the east.  Lind often escapes from the crowded inner city to the blue sky and waves of the Atlantic Ocean, sometimes to paint, always to observe and absorb.   Some of the ocean paintings are not only depictions of the sea, but also of the complexities of human interaction with these primal forces.  His models are at times his wife, Jeanne Wilkinson, and her two sons, Aaron and Andrew Yonda.   Frank Lind’s work has been shown in New York City and nationally.  While formerly the Dean of the School of Art and Design at Pratt Institute, he is now able to devote himself entirely to studio practice.       BASSIST ACOUSTIC, ELECTRIC, FRETLESS, UPRIGHTELECTRIC, PICCOLO HILLIARD (HILL) GREENE BIOGRAPHY   Hilliard Greene has been studying music for more than 30 years and has been playing professionally over twenty. His emphasis is in classical, jazz, rock, blues, R&B, Tango as well as the music of other continents and US regions. Currently he is concentrating on solo performance.   Greene studied at Berklee College of Music in Boston and the University of Northern Iowa. He has been teaching private students and classes for over 25 years. He is currently a full-time faculty member at the Bass Collective in New York City. He continues to teach privately in doing workshops and master classes in upright and electric bass for both children and adults.   Greene performs widely in the New York City area in recitals, nightclubs, and recordings, and on television and radio programs. He has appeared in major cities throughout Europe, United States, Asia and South America.   Greene has performed and/or recorded with Jimmy Scott, currently serving as his Musical Director and with Cecil Taylor where he was Concert Master for his group “Phtongos”. He has also worked with Gloria Lynne, Jon Hendricks, Marlene VerPlanck,  Jacky Terrasson, The Inkspots, Rashied Ali, Leroy Jenkins, Jimmy Ponder, Erik Friedlander, Eddie Gladden, Nipsy Russell, Vanessa Rubin, Yoron Israel, Cindy Blackman, Electric Symphony, Charles Gayle, Jack Walrath, Don Pullen, Dave Douglas, Bobby Watson, Greg Osby, Kenny Barron, Joanne Brackeen, Carla Cook, Josh Roseman, John Hicks, Village Vanguard Orchestra, Oscar Brown Jr., Daniel Carter, Warren Smith, Howard Johnson, Lucian Ban, Alex Harding, T.K. Blue, John Esposito, Eddie Gale, Bobby Few, Sabir Mateen, Perry Robinson, Frank Lacy,  Roy Campbell Jr., Perry Robinson, Lenore Raphael, George Haslam, Barry Altschul, Steve Swell, Gebhard Ullman, Michael Marcus, Petras Vysniauskas, Vijay Iyer, Matana Roberts, Klaus Kugel, Billy Bang, Jason Moran, David Berger and The Jazz Expressions. As a band leader produced three CD’s under with his own ensemble The Jazz Expressions and a solo bass CD entitled “Alone.”   Currently he endorses Thomastik - Infeld strings and Godlyke basses. Via from France! Fernand D'Onofrio "Eros" April 1 - May 6 Opening Reception April 1, 6 - 9pm Frescos and Paintings By D'Onofrio            New York Photo Festival 2010 May 12 - 16  Show To Be Announced Soon! Philip Sugden       Metamorphose / Metaphor 2003 Sepia Ink On Hand Made Himalayan Paper   The Photography Of Robert Herman Photos From The Venice Series The Photography Of  Peter Sumner Walton Bellamy  On Exhibit Photos From "The Artist Project" "The Wilderness Project" All images signed numbered and dated. All images are Silver Gelatin Prints printed by the artist. Sold in series 1 through 10. Please call gallery for more information and availability. 718 - 408 - 1090