2col  winter

George Siejka, “Winter River,” 2007,  oil on linen, 28 by 42 inches.

Photo scanned 1-23

FOR 2/1

GEORGE SIEJKA ‘FLOWERS’ AT FISCHBACH GALLERY FEB 14 w/1 cut

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NEW YORK CITY — The solo exhibition, “George Siejka: Odyssey,” and “Say It With Flowers,” a group show, will open at Fischbach Gallery February 14 and are on view through March 15. A reception will take place Thursday, February 14, from 5 to 7 pm. “Odyssey” is Siejka’s debut at the gallery.

“Odyssey,” a series of recent landscape paintings, reflects Siejka’s unstable life: his birth in Europe, to his family’s migration to the United States and his college studies in New York City in the late 1960s through 70s, to his professional establishing in New Orleans in the 80s until he has been forced to find refuge in Beacon, N.Y., to escape from the devastation bought by Hurricane Katrina.

A contemporary Odysseus, Siejka’s journey is not a consequence of exploration and thirst for knowledge, but a continuous change forced by necessity; and Siejka’s paintings in “Odyssey” have become an expression of this journey in life forced by personal and climatic changes beyond his control. Although initially quiet and tranquil, his paintings slowly reveal the subversive but prevalent sense of temporality, erosion and decay. Through this series, Siejka’s ultimately reveals “the apocalyptical vision of nature’s prevalence over human culture as personal warning to all humankind against the possible catastrophic consequences of excessive and large scale abuse of nature.”

“Say It With Flowers,” a group exhibition, features the following artists: Alice Dalton Brown, Joe Brainard, Leigh Behnke, Daisy Craddock, Patrick Gordon, Nancy Hagin, Glen Holland, Carl Plansky, Meg Shields and Lowell Tolstedt.

Once described as “things that just about buckle may knees with pleasure” Brainard’s (1942­–1994) drawings, collages, assemblages and paintings are in the collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art and others. Dalton Brown’s paintings, also in the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, vividly portray her knowledge of color and careful attention to light and shadow.

Behnke’s (b 1946) style reflects a postmodern concept that is partially photographic in its source and involves rethinking the meaning of the pictorial space. Craddock (b 1949) portrays her close study of colors from the natural world to depict morning glories in her recent series of diptychs.

Hagin (b 1940) juxtaposes the crispness of exposed sunlight with the vibrant colors of “found objects” and textured fabrics in her still life. The still life paintings of Holland (b 1956) infuse ordinary objects — lemons, apples, onions, carnations, glass vases, etc with a mysterious but subdued tension.

Plansky’s canvases burst from their frames and refract luscious color into their surroundings vividly illustrating his passionate love and obsession for paint. Shield’s (b 1953) still lifes incorporate an array of colorful objects whose placement create relationships, which are active and challenging.

In his still lifes, Tolstedt (b 1939) meticulously layers colored pencil to accomplish effects of light and texture.

The Fischbach Gallery is between 24th and 25th Streets at 210 Eleventh Avenue. For information, 212-759-2345 or www.fischbachgallery.com.