It’s not as easy as you’d think to arrange for an artist to speak to our group when we visit their show on one of our gallery tours.  Many of them live out of state or out of the country, or they loathe the idea of public speaking, or are maybe just not interested in addressing a gallery tour.  How fortunate, then, that our Sat. April 2 Skyscrapers gallery tour in Midtown will feature not just one but TWO artists – Mariana Vera and Gregg Louis – who will speak to our group when we visit their respective exhibits.  They are both artists I’ve never encountered before, and who will add their insightful professional and personal perspectives to the work we see.

Born in Barranquilla, Colombia, self-taught artist Mariana Vera now lives and works in an island in Colombia called San Andrés, a land abundant in nature, and from which she literally gathers much of her material for her current exhibit of “flora-montages.”  Indeed, the pieces are collages that consist of nothing but pressed leaves, pines and petals in various configurations on paper or canvas.  When I came upon her works last week, I found them to be delicately enchanting.  In her artist’s statement Vera writes, “I gather that which nature allows to fall to give it a magical touch: by means of the creative imagination it is translated to paper and in turn I convert it into visual poetry. When I go around paths without a destination on my bicycle harvesting loose leaves and flowers, randomly scattered, I reorder the world that I perceive around me.”  If Vera in person is even half as articulate and charming as her quote indicates, we are in for a treat.

While the large majority of visual art is deadly serious, Brooklyn-based artist Gregg Louis’s art is at first glance quirky and (dare I say it) “fun.”  In his first-ever exhibit in New York, Louis uses photography to construct uncanny images of UFOs out of found household objects such as light bulbs, TV antennas, dishes, plungers, etc.  His process of arranging, stacking, and transposing these mundane objects against a black backdrop creates surreal images that humorously and sometimes eerily re-imagine everyday reality.  His work blurs the line between belief, imagination and reality, arousing questions around blind faith.  OK, so maybe there is some seriousness to his work.  But mostly it’s refreshingly playful and full of child-like wonder.  Perhaps Gregg will be as amiable in person as the art that speaks for him.

The above are just two of 7 exhibits we’ll visit that day.  Other highlights will include: (1) a stunning (and wet!) exhibit of water-spewing rivers and waterfalls by an artist from Spain, and (2) gorgeous drawings by a Dutch artist made entirely of droplets of white ink superimposed on photographs of classic female nudes.  The April 2 event will be the FINAL Skyscrapers gallery tour of the season, which ends in June, so if you’ve been meaning to attend one of our Skyscrapers gallery tours, now is the time to do so (the next one won’t be until late Fall).  Be ready to take at least 12 elevator rides in two hours, spanning 6 tall buildings, though the total walking distance will just be a couple of blocks.  This is our one quite literally “vertical” tour.

Rafael Risemberg, Ph.D.
Founder and Director
New York Gallery Tours