June Kelly Gallery

As an artist, new information and experiences are vital to my work. The shifting and selection of those bits and pieces of information that are most useful spark and enlighten my creative energies. The need to know compels further exploration in the search for new ways of making “visible.” The result of this pursuit hopefully is continual growth and further development. Making visible, for me, is about the asking of questions. Questions cause search, leading to discovery, resulting in invention. This is a process that invites the discovery of new ways of realizing one’s own sensibility and voice. The kind of information I need as an artist is the result of constant search. The information that I use becomes that vehicle that best enables and encourages discovery, invention and the process of “making visible.” -Moe Brooker

Affinity with Brazil:1982-Present, an exhibition of photographs by Charles Martin reflecting near four decades of his absorbed attraction with Brazil - its environment, people, customs, and architecture, will open at the June Kelly Gallery, 166 Mercer Street, on Friday, Sept 11. The work will remain on view through October 6. While Martin says his photographs are usually unplanned and carried out quickly, there is the sense of instantaneous and deep connection with his subjects. Keen perceptiveness is probable primacy for Martin in his observation of everyday reality in Brazil - region after region.

My new series of work are inspired by the powerful moments and places I find while traveling. So, in 2018 I went to Puerto Rico and Costa Rica to find inspiration for my new works and help with the relief effort. While there, I visited Playa Negra, a black sand beach, formed from an earlier volcano. Inspired by the magma, I brought some back and incorporated it's rich and mysterious color and texture to integrate it into my latest body of work. Seeing the uniquely colored feather patterns of Costa Rican birds first hand while surrounded by fauna and butterflies left me with an intense colorful feeling that I worked to capture in my paintings. These authentic discoveries and moments help enrich each work with its own story and concept and their own unique world.

June Kelly Gallery is pleased to begin the year 2020 with presentation of Carl E. Hazelwood in his first show at the gallery. Drawings and Collages, recent work in which the visual play between minimalist color and form stimulate subliminally.