Gifted. An Artful Celebration Of The Season

Online, November 18, 2011 (Newswire.com) - Elisa Contemporary Art is pleased to present our new Riverdale New York gallery show, Gifted. On exhibit now through January 14, 2012.

While our title acknowledges this season of giving and receiving, it is a celebration of the talent, creative mediums, and visionary perspectives of our artists.

The exhibit will debut newly created paintings by:
* Los Angeles Expressionist, Kimber Berry
* Austin Pop-stractionist, Allison Gregory
* Figurative artist, Daryl Zang

And recent series from:
* California Flow Artist, Suzan Woodruff
* Turkish artist, Yasemin Kackar-Demirel
* Chicago Artist, Priscilla Humay
* Reclaimed wood sculptor, Jon DePreter

The exhibit explores the diverse use of mediums and styles to create contemporary art today. Glass, resin and enamel paintings by Allison Gregory. Reclaimed wood sculptures by upstate NY artist Jon DePreter. Billowing colored pencil landscapes from Chicago artist, Priscilla Humay. Luminous, moving paintings by Flow artist, Suzan Woodruff. And the latest series of vibrant cityscapes by Turkish artist, Yasemin Kackar-Demirel.

We also have a series of special events and resources for the holiday:

* Sunday, November 20th from 2-5pm. We'll have a special musical performance by classical guitarist, Steve Oates at 3pm

* Saturday, November 26th 10-6pm. We're joining with American Express on Small Business Saturday. Stop in for special offers and and a chance to win a coffee table book on Building an Art Collection.

* A specially created Holiday Gift Guide with original artwork priced under $350

What: Gifted

When: Now through January 14

Special Events:

* Sunday, November 20th from 2-5pm. We'll have a special performance at 3pm by a classical guitarist.

* Saturday, November 26th 10-6pm. We're joining with American Express on Small Business Saturday. Stop in for special offers and a chance to win a coffee table book on Art Collecting

Where: Elisa Contemporary Art Gallery, 5622 Mosholu Avenue, Riverdale NY

Gallery Hours: Friday/Saturday 10 am - 6pm, Sunday, November 20th 2-5pm, and by Appointment (Days/Evenings/Sunday). (Gallery will be closed 12/2 and 12/23-24, 12/30-31)

A portion of all gallery sales is donated to charities helping underserved children heal through art. We support Free Arts NYC, Arts to Grow and Creative Arts Workshop for Kids.

Meet some of our artists:

Kimber Berry
Kimber is Los Angeles artist, who is part of the "Flow Movement." Her artwork is vibrant and dynamic mixed media combining acrylics, resins and digitally altered photographs of her paint-strokes. As a native of LA, Kimber loves to blur the line between what is real and what is illusion.

She has received a lot of positive attention from art critics and curators on the West Coast and has been featured in solo and group shows with the Lowe Gallery in LA and Atlanta. She has been part of recent exhibits at the Riverside Museum and the Huntington Beach Art Center in California.

Jon Depreter
In Jon Depreter's sculptures, you are initially drawn in by his keen and intimate observations of the natural world. But there is also an instinctual connection with Native American and African Tribal cultural influences that deepens the experience.

According to Jon, "Usually my sculptures start out as a drawing and slowly evolve into three dimensional forms. Some of the initial shapes and patterns relate to the wood itself, such as remnants of wood designs created by insects, patterns from elm or maple fungus, the cellular structure, growth pattern or place of origin of the wood." The wood comes from hikes he's taken in the Taconic Hills and Hudson Valley, near his home.

Jon has exhibited in solo and group shows throughout the US since the early 1980's. He lives in Pine Plains, New York with his wife, Andrea.

Allison Gregory
Allison is a dynamic artist who grew up in San Antonio and is currently based in Austin Texas. From the age of 10, she knew she wanted to be an artist.

According to Allison,
"My work is orchestrated by the spatial arrangements of color, line, texture, shape and pattern. I employ a variety of materials to cover my canvases, such as poured acrylic, polymer resin, dripped enamels, and all three mixed together at times.. My palette is always bright and alive, with every color combination possible. My pieces are meant to be energetic and stimulating, thus maximizing the overall impact on the viewer. My ultimate desire is to hypnotically engage the observing eye."

Allison calls her latest series of works "Pop-stracts" combining influences from pop culture with Abstract art. Her work has included several public arts projects including the 2010 Austin Cow Parade (she was the first artist to create four sculptures) and 2006 Austin Guitar Town project.

Yasemin Kackar-Demirel
Yasemin is one of our new emerging artists. She was born in Istanbul, received her MFA in DeKalb (IL), and currently lives in New York. Her work is a fragmented and reconstructed journey through the places she has lived and traveled, both real and imagined.

According to Yasemin, her latest series:
"Explores the rise and fall of places through physical and emotional conducts. I like to work with random juxtapositions of places in nature and the urban environment and re-present them in puzzling and surprising contexts."

Yasemin has been featured in solo and group exhibitions in the US and Turkey. Her work is also in the Ipek-Ahmet Merey Foundation in Istanbul, Turkey.

Suzan Woodruff
Suzan Woodruff is a co-founder of the Los Angeles "Flow Movement," whose expressionist paintings are inspired by the forces of nature and physics. Her medium is acrylic on wood panel - allowing thinned acrylic pigments to flow across the canvas forming rills, deltas, waves and eddies and appearing as voluptuous, sensual landscapes, seascapes, and natural spaces.

According to Suzan, to paint is to embrace chaos. "It's the one thing I can count on," she says. To make a pact with chaos, she explains, means maintaining an intuitive balance between concentration and recognition of the forces of natural occurrence, understanding the rigor required in allowing for the unanticipated in her art.

Suzan's work has been exhibited in galleries and museums in the US, Canada , Europe and Asia. She most recently was featured in an exhibit of solo shows in Santa Monica (CA), Amsterdam, Miami(Fl) and Budapest. Her work has been collected in museums, corporate and private collections including the House of Saud (the Royal Family of Saudi Arabia), actors Will and Jada Pinkett Smith, and businessman/entrepreneur Todd Wagner.

Daryl Zang
Daryl Zang's paintings reflects some of the simple pleasures of childhood, family and home.

According to Daryl,
"The images I create reflect my own experiences and I often describe my work as autobiographical. At
home as a new mother I painted about pregnancy and the early stages of motherhood, focusing on all the ambivalence, isolation, and exhaustion as well as the tenderness. When it was rest I needed most, my work became about private, restful moments and quiet relaxation. As my children grew, I found endless inspiration in them. By letting them guide me, I shifted my priorities and let myself get lost in their world."

Daryl's work has been exhibited at Michele & Donald D'Amour Museum of Fine Art in Springfield, Massachusetts,the 57th Annual National Exhibition of Contemporary Realism in Art (MA) and recent exhibits in New York and Connecticut.

For additional information or images about the exhibit or artists contact:
Lisa Cooper
212.729.4974
[email protected]