Three Queens Artists Are 80 Plus and Going Strong at Rainforest Art Foundation

Long Island City locale’s Rainforest Art Foundation held their opening reception on September 28 with a focus on seasoned and accomplished artists over the age of 80 who are still producing work in relation to the foundations mission.  This exhibit presents a wide range of media, offering a broad perspective of both styles and concerns and three of the artists reside in Queens. 

 

88-year-old June Chao, who lives in Flushing, loves nature of which most of her paintings are sceneries that are of specific locations.  Her piece, “Waterfall” is set in Taiwan and the “Sea of Clouds With Pine Trees” depicts a very famous mountain in China where the trees grow out from the rocks in the mountains.   Both pieces have been done on paper completed this year.  

Min-Tsu Tseng, was born in Taiwan in 1938, moving to Flushing in 1969.  She became what she called a “housewife artist with an intense love of nature.”  Tseng didn’t have to go far for inspiration as much of her focus is the plants and flowers in her backyard.  “I grow all of my vegetables. In order to appreciate their shapes and colors, I preserve them and assemble them into paintings.  The early works were given away as gifts to friends and family.”  As time passed people took notice of her art work and invited her to display them in art shows. 

  

Two of the pieces displayed are: “Midnight Forest Leaves” 2015, dry leaves and acrylic on paper; and “Mapa Morning”, 2011, maple leaves and acrylic on paper.  “I wish people would pay more attention to our environment and make an effort to preserve it, so that later generations can appreciate them as well.”  

Marlene T Yu is both a world-known artist and the founder of the Rainforest Art Foundation. Her husband, James is the curator.  “Global warming continues to be our greatest environmental hazard, causing destruction everywhere.  I shall depict the energies display by nature in all of its forms and colors.  Melting glaciers, rising sea levels, and forces of wind and fire are all too visible to ignore. My efforts in the Environmental Green Movement in art only provide a glimpse and appreciation for the awesomeness of the forces of nature.”  

Yu, who recently turned 81 had taken 6 months to complete the 54 foot long, 20 foot high, canvas acrylic this year. With a multitude of paintings to choose from in her upstairs studio, she opted for two pieces based on their outstanding colors. “In putting together the exhibit I took note of what color might be lacking,” said Yu.  “Purple Crystal” and Purple Swamp ” are on the pieces on display, each of them completed in 2017. 

Born in Taiwan, Jen-Jen Liu has a first love for science and took painting lessons during her working years at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.  “In our daily lives, art plays and important role. We all need the arts.  Art influences us and can have a huge impact on our moods and emotions.  It can even inspire us to do something in a positive way.”  Liu paints abstract geometric compositions as well as landscape paintings.  Two of her pieces are: “Fun City” more open to one’s own interpretation than “Yehliu Waiwan,” as landscape oil on canvas.  

Elizabeth Molnar Rajec, born in Bratislava, Slovakia, showcases artwork that captures her extensive travel all over the world including her life in New York City.   Her unique collection of photographic artwork features original kaleidoscopic images that are a one-of-a-kind composition.  “The message from viewing my pictures is to inspire that time goes by very fast and only the clicking of the camera at a given second captures a particular moment in our lives.” Two of her pieces on display are: “Baobab Tree” and “Tree Trunks.” 

Gaby Chien, born in 1938, has a particular painting on display that relates to global warming, “Baby Penguin: Mom, I am hungry” portrays a Mother Penguin . “I have to warn about the urgency of global climate change,” said Chien. “The painting represents a call to action against the heavy toll that humankind’s activities have taken on Mother Earth.  After Al Gore’s book, An Inconvenient Truth: The Planetary Emergency of Global Warming and What We Can Do About It, was published in 2016, I was inspired to visit Antarctica. I witnessed calving glaciers where penguins swam searching for food such as krill and squids.  As the temperature of oceans increases, they will suffer in hunger and die.”  

Bill Creston, born in 1932, was a founding member of the Brata Gallery in the late 1950s who display of “Thirty Landscape Paintings in Fifteen Frames” lined a part of one wall.  His inspiration lies in what he sees looking out of a window.   Here, they are small oil paintings on cardboard.  Said of the cardboards itself, Creston pointed out that he got them free from a liquor store formerly used to pack between bottles of wine.  “I like their irregular rectangular shapes, like bricks on my studio wall”, said Creston who was also the first video artist in the 1960s working in Super 8 film in the 1970s. 

Guo-Dong Li, is a leading contemporary Chinese calligrapher who has exhibited 83 times at the United Nation Headquarters and a permanent honorary chairmen of the Global Artist League Council.  On display are his pieces “Long Life” and “Good Fortune”, ink on paper both completed this year. 

Chuang Teng, born in China in 1934, also does calligraphy, but in a different style from Li.  He has used a variety of tools and technics to accomplish his artwork including brush, ink, and paper.  This particular exhibit features Teng’s new choice of media using adding acrylic and canvas as tools.  Three of his piece are: “After Napping on a Rock Pillow; ” “Sail Boat;” and “Overly Intricate Technics Yield No Meaning.” 

80 Plus and Going Strong will be exhibited until November 27, 2018. Rainforest Art Foundation is located at 36-58 37th Street. (917-682-3630. Hours: Tuesday – Friday, 1pm to 5pm.  Phone 917-682-3630.