Gary Fisher and Judith Judy exhibit to open Sept. 16 at Gallery 50
Gallery 50 is pleased to announce a new joint exhibition of new works by artists Gary Fisher and Judith Judy this Friday, Sept. 16 5:30 to 8:30 p.m.
Gary Fisher is known for his vivacious use of color and this exhibit is no exception. This captivating collection of works will primarily focus on Fisher's newest Abstract series - oils on canvas or wood panels.
A longtime environmental enforcement attorney with the U.S. Justice Department, Fisher started painting almost 30 years ago and now works as a professional artist in Rehoboth Beach and Washington, D.C., with much of his work consisting of commissioned pieces. His works are in many private collections and corporate collections, and they have been exhibited in numerous galleries and public establishments throughout Washington, D.C., Maryland and Delaware.
He has been featured in special exhibits at the Children's National Medical Center, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, and embassies and U.S. government buildings. In 2001, Fisher was selected by the U.S. State Department for participation in the prestigious Art in Embassies Program. Fisher's work was displayed in several U.S. embassies around the world until 2005.
His works have been featured in Delaware at The Philip Morton Gallery, The Blue Moon Restaurant, Dos Locos, Detail Gallery and the Peninsula Gallery. He is currently represented at Gallery 50.
He has participated in many community-based projects, painting an elephant for Washington's Party Animal project in 2002 and Rehoboth's Dolphins Around Town project in 2003. He is a member of the Rehoboth Beach CAMP Rehoboth Art Steering Committee and regularly donates his art to CAMP Rehoboth, HRC, Food and Friends in Washington D.C. and numerous other charitable organizations.
Fisher is a native of Wyoming and received both his BA and JD from the University of Wyoming. He studied art at the Corcoran School in Washington, D.C., and is a graduate of the Vander Zee School of Art in Alexandria, Va. He currently resides in Washington, D.C. and Rehoboth Beach.
Artist Judith Judy has mastered the ability to translate nature's expressive power onto canvas. In this show at Gallery 50, Judy captures the mystifying feelings of nature's overwhelming and fantastic beauty. Judy's luminous paintings combine layers of oil paints with materials such as gold leaf, to become breathtaking compositions. While the paintings' images are grounded in nature, Judy's scenes transcend their earthly physicality and take on a heavenly aura.
From a review in the Washington Post, "The Northern Virginia painter is not an abstractionist, yet her warm, radiant landscapes aren't modeled on particular places. Indeed, they seem designed as portals, visual entrances into the world of light. Soft-textured trees and grass define the foreground and vaporous sky the background, but the action transpires between the two, on the plane where sunlight bleeds into a rich, indistinct glow."
Judy paints in oils on board prepared with gesso, which provides a chalky white backdrop. For some of these pictures, she adds gold or copper leaf, amplifying the sheen. Rather than render distinct areas of shiny metal, as classical painters once did, she works the gold or copper into the multiple glazes of thin pigment, a technique that provides a loose, mottled luminosity.
Aside from the complimentary metallic shades, yellow is often the key to Judy's pictures, representing leaves, grass or diffused sun. She uses crimson less frequently but just as vividly. Dark shades are not unknown in Judy's work; there are shadows beneath the trees, and loamy soil along stream beds, but the browns and blacks, like the greens, are just there to make the hotter colors blaze more brightly.
In addition to her U.S. exhibits, she has exhibited in France (Paris and Cannes) and Italy (Assisi); in 2009, her work was featured at the Lithuanian National Museum of Art as part of its European Capital of Culture celebration. The museum acquired two pieces for its permanent collection seeing an updated American landscape tradition in her vision.
Judith was one of the featured artists in Washington Spaces magazine's summer 2007 article "Celebrating Art: A look at the Regions Artistic Diversity". Her work is also the subject of critical review by Florie Gilbard and Eleanor Kennelly, and is finding its way into private collections in the United States and abroad.
Judith Judy maintains studios in both Northern Virginia and Fenwick Island, Delaware. She received a degree in Fine Art from Towson University in Baltimore, Maryland and further studied oil painting in various classes and workshops.
A wine and hors d'oeuvres opening reception to meet Judith and Gary and view this beautiful, colorful, ethereal exhibition is this Friday, Sept. 16 at Gallery 50 Contemporary Art. Everyone is welcome to attend. The exhibit runs through Oct. 4.
A preview of the show is currently displayed on Gallery 50's Facebook page.
Gallery 50 is located at 50 Wilmington Ave. in Rehoboth Beach, next to the Henlopen City Oyster House and Salt Air restaurants. Call 302-227-2050 or go to www.gallery50art.com, or email info@gallery50art.com. As always, visit the frame shop for the best in framing in Delmarva and beyond by master framer Ed McGann.
