Summer Salon II

Olga Antonova has enchanted art collectors with her finely-rendered yet whimsically romantic still lifes and self portraits for years. Like the great European painters of the early 18th century, Antonova has the gift of taking ordinary subjects from everyday life and elevating them to the level of high art. Using simple compositions and monumental scale, she presents her subjects with loving care and romantic vision.

Antonova divides her time between Strasbourg, France and Boston, MA, and has built an international reputation with major exhibitions in Europe as well as New York. “When I'm in the kitchen I'm fascinated by the piles of cups, plates and ladles, looking so much like this fragile life of ours --- one wrong move and everything is in pieces. However painting isn’t really about that ---it's about finding the harmony through the elements of painting: color, form and composition.”

Deb Goldstein uses antique ephemera and found objects to explore the many aspects of correspondence. An avid letter writer herself, Deb is fascinated by situations where two people create an intimate in-depth history and memory of their lives and relationship. Deb’s sophisticated pieces reflect on our emotional pull to connect through correspondence. True to the concept of the show, she asked several accomplished artists to create a piece of mail art that is directed to a person or object that was significant in their life. She then integrated it into a larger piece to extend the narrative. The visual landscape in collage and assemblage shows continual decisions between the conscious and subconscious - Deb Goldstein’s works are fine examples of this process. This exhibition continues to show Deb’s expertise in the integration of materials to tell a story. Deb was awarded an Artist in Residence in Farnese, Italy in May of 2013. Working as collage and assemblage artist for more than 20 years, her work is in many private collections.

Willie Little draws upon his background of growing up black in the rural South as inspiration for his art. He sees a correlation between how the work he creates reflects the decay of rural America and perhaps the decay of contemporary American society as a whole. While abstract, these gorgeous paintings evoke the life of the southern tenant farmer living in shanties with their peeling, faded paint and rusted tin roofs. This unique body of work is an exploration of color, line, form & seduction. It examines the weathering effects of time on basic materials. Each piece is an exploration of the unknown as Little is never sure of the outcome. He employs iron dust and acid oxidation as well as paints in this latest series of works. “These are paintings inspired by my 14 years living in Northern California. Being surrounded by mountains, the Bay and the Pacific, I was impressed by the stark contrasts in the landscape as well as the water in all its forms. They are considered totems to a past, yet capture the eye of the present with an understated beauty.”

Photographer, Susan Mikula shoots exclusively with instant films in a variety of cameras, many of them vintage Polaroids using past-expiration Polaroid films. Working only with available light, and without cropping or image manipulation, her technique strips away detail and softens edges to better reveal the underlying and essential form and feeling of her subject. Her work has been presented in solo and group exhibitions throughout the United States, including in New York, San Francisco, Miami and Los Angeles. In 2017 she will be delivering site-specific works for the U.S. Consulate in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, commissioned by and for the Art in Embassies program.

Nicolas V. Sanchez works in oils, charcoals and in ink. His work is meticulously crafted and it seems that everything he creates is infused with meaning and spirit. Nicolas V. Sanchez received his BFA from Kendall College of Art and Design in Grand Rapids, MI and his MFA from the New York Academy of Art. While at the Academy, Sanchez was awarded the 2014 New York Academy of Art Post-Graduate Fellowship. He has been selected for artist residencies in China, Dominican Republic, and Venice. Sanchez has been in solo and group exhibitions in New York, China, and Italy including an exhibition in Venice during the 2015 Venice Biennale. “I think there is definitely a sense of struggle in my work. I focus on identity and the way its constructed and at the same time lost through the preservation of family history. Extracting from my bi-cultural experiences growing up, my family’s rural Mexican history and the American Midwest, I use layered narratives to activate a personal sense of uncertainty yet a familiarity of space.”