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Arts & Entertainment

Mamaroneck Artists' Guild's Summer in Westchester

Spend the rest of the summer in Westchester with the Mamaroneck Artists' Guild

Perhaps you walked by the Mamaroneck Artists' Guild recently and thought you saw the lights on or movement inside?

You were not mistaken. MAG, usually closed during the month of August, is now open with a limited schedule.

Mitchell Visoky, new President of MAG, explained the new schedule, "We felt that even though many residents take vacations during this time, the economic times we faced prompted us to keep our doors open and continue to provide member artists a venue to show their work for Larchmont residents and visitors as well as those in the Sound Shore area."

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Lucky for us. Currently on view at MAG and running from August 4-21 is Summer in Westchester ll, a group exhibit featuring an eclectic selection of artwork created by members of the artists' cooperative. The exhibit includes over 60 works and within that number, whatever your preferred artistic medium—painting, printmaking, fiber, etc.—it is represented here, often evoking the inevitable comparisons to Masters both real and imagined (the comparisons, not the Masters). In any event, the show does not disappoint.  

 Caulfield Russell's Sunday is done in oil and acrylic. The pastoral painting of a boat on a lake with cottages in the background are reminiscent of French Impressionist Claude Monet's Water Lilies, a series of paintings depicting the aquatic gardens that Monet cultivated on his property in Giverny, France. In Sunday, Russell's' vivid colors include shimmering blues created through rapidly applied Monet-like brushstrokes.

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Artist Ann Colody lives in Port Chester by way of Rye Brook and has studied and created art for the past 45 years.

"As a child I studied dance," said Colody. "I've been an abstract impressionist and sculpted for a period."

The 65-year-old artist currently describes herself as a "geometric artist" working with archival pens.  "A friend once told me that in my work I must be calling upon my inner Lichtenstein or Picasso."

Indeed she must. Sometimes creating her drawings in a matter of days, sometimes weeks, Colody, with a free hand, painstakingly sketches in pen first and then fills in the geometric designs either in color or in black and white.

In her pieces, Life is Amazing, and Black and White, one might see the work of a Roy Lichtenstein or Pablo Picasso protege.  Her use of red, black, and bold yellow in Life is Amazing replicate Lichtenstein's colors of choice in much of his work.  With its abstract shapes, viewing Blank and White may bring to mind Picasso's 1961 Le Déjeuner sur l'Herbe after Manet . Or Guernica. In addition to her artwork, Colody is a designer of jewelry.

According to Visoky, this is an "... August summer show that gives our members the opportunity to exhibit their work. The content can be very literal to the theme or taken in a purely abstract manner. There were no limitations."

MAG was founded in 1953. It is the oldest artists' co-operative maintaining its own non-profit gallery in Westchester County. The Guild has more than 300 member artists who work in all media, including painting, ceramics, fiber, jewelry, sculpture, and photography.

The cooperative encourages its artists to take an active part in the gallery, and they do. Visits to the gallery in August will find artist volunteers staffing the gallery and answering questions. Recently artists Lynne Lederman (printmaker), Barbara Clapman (oils and abstracts), and Edith McMann (acrylics and sculptures) served as the gallery's well informed, gracious hosts. Lederman's linocuts, Old Mamaroneck School House and Manor Park at Night are part of the current exhibit, as is McMann's acrylic Sleeping Woman. Clapman, while not represented in Summer in Westchester ll, has exhibited her work at other MAG shows, including The Landscape (http://bit.ly/9JjIbf) earlier this year.  

Other works of note include Swinging Free (oil painting) by Marie Murray and mixed media pieces Stones, Oak Tree Tavern, and Moving Shadows  by Mitchell Visoky, Sam Schwartz, and Anita Heller, respectively.

Overall, Summer in Westchester ll provides a pleasant viewing experience for art lovers wishing to experience great art without the long lines and maddening crowds of some tourist-infused galleries.

MAG summer hours are Aug. 5th to the 21st, Thursday thru Saturday; 12-5 pm

Upcoming dates at MAG include: "In Focus", Annual Awards Show, Sept. 1- 18th, Opening Reception, Fri., Sept 10th, 5-7 pm

"Altered Monotypes", solo show of MAG President Mitchell Visoky, Sept. 21st to Oct. 19th; Opening reception is Sat., Sept., 25th, 3-5 pm

Please check www.mamaroneckartistsguild.org for additional information.

 The Gallery will be closed from August 24-28 to be refurbished and will then reopen on September 1.

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