Dan Dougherty and his brother, Shaun
— the owners of Crescent Grill restaurant in Long Island City — are proud to
house local art in their eatery as part of the LIC Arts Open. The Crescent
Grill — located at 38-40 Crescent St. — features its own art venue, known as
Dougherty Gallery.
As part of the LIC Arts Open, the
restaurant featured five large acrylic paintings by New York City artist
Suzanne Pemberton, as well as oil, acrylic and mixed media paintings and
drawings by other city artists, including Joseph Meloy, Mike Serafino, Brandon
Sines, and Paul Zepeda. They also featured actual New York City parking meters
that were modified by artist Conrad Stojak.
Dougherty said the May 16 event was
a success and he was pleased to be participating in the LIC Arts Open for the
fifth year as a gallery.
“It provides an opportunity for new
people to come to Dougherty Gallery and Crescent Grill and further reach out to
the community,” he said.
For the artists, there’s an
opportunity to display your art and build a connection with the community.
Serafino’s connection to Long Island City runs through his work as a studio
manager and assistant at a long-time LIC artist’s studio.
“I’ve been working in the
neighborhood since 2006,” Serafino said. “My personal work has been exhibited
at Crescent Grill Gallery in at least 10 shows over the course of the last few
years.”
He considers his style of artwork to
be experimental and adventurous.
“Most of my work has an element of
chaos and chance in which I will try to find a moment of clarity and order,”
Serafino said. “The works are often searches for a feeling rather than executed
preconceived ideas. I use virtually every type of paint in my studio; oil,
acrylic, watercolor, gauche, enamel, encaustic and ink are all found splattered
on the floors and walls. Each has their own strengths that can be necessary for
a project or balanced against one another to bring material contrast into a
piece.”
Two of his favorite pieces in the
show are: “Antibes” and “The Whale Hunt.” Serafino cites traveling and a
constant appetite for reading about science as the main two inspirations for
his work.
“The visual component to travel
impacts my subsequent art. Whether it is the new landscapes or the culture of
the place I’m visiting, travel always affects a change in my mind which comes
out in the studio upon return.”
As for being a part of LIC Arts
Open, Serafino called it “an invitation to join and art community that isn’t
captured by the commercial gravity of the nearby Manhattan art megalopolis.”
“There is a [do it yourself] aspect
to the community — the sense that it is a place being created, with much
opportunity available for whoever has the courage to seize it,” he said.
“Additionally, I sense an esprit de corps among the Long Island City artists
that we’ve all chosen this path for a good reason; that a life spent creating
and expressing are worth the struggle in this city.”
Pemberton has been painting
landscapes for many years moving to what she refers to as “more abstract
interpretations of land and seascapes in the past few years.”
She said uses acrylic paint and
acrylic inks to create layers that convey the atmosphere in and around the sea.
Pemberton has been working out of
the Reis Studios in Long Island City for the past four years and said she is
proud to be a part of the LIC Arts Open.
“The LIC Arts Open brings together
fellow artists and the community which otherwise wouldn’t happen,” said
Pemberton. “Arts should be an integral part of any healthy community.”
Meanwhile, Zepeda said that he
considers his style of work to have roots in Modernism. He works in oil paint —
often incorporating gold or silver leaf — and also dabs in watercoloring and an
oxidation process that he says creates rust and patina on canvas.
“I am inspired by the beauty of the
world around me which may be found in everything from the human form to
flowers, seascapes and architecture,” he said.
One of his pieces that he said he is
particularly happy with is the rust patterns created in “Rusty Subway Car.”
Zepeda has an “NYC Subway Token Series,” which he says has proven to be a
popular one.
“Curating for and being a part of
the LIC Arts Open for the last few years has given me exposure to the wonderful
community of people in Long Island City as well as giving me the opportunity to
meet and share the work of my fellow artists in the area,” said Zepeda. “The
exhibitions I help put on at Crescent have grown to be a staple of the LIC
events calendar with monthly receptions on every third Thursday.” Posted 12:00
am, May 30, 2018 ©2018 Community News
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