Gallery & Studio Magazine

September-October 2006

Manhattan Arts International:
Setting the Standard for Online Galleries
By Ed McCormack

As I wrote recently in another context, I first discovered art in reproduction, flipping through the art books in my local public library as a kid on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. But I don¹t think I was less privileged in this regard than if I had grown up in an apartment on Park Avenue with Cezannes and Renoirs on the walls. In fact, it only made art more magical to me, as anything slightly remote is bound to be.

Later, when I became an adolescent and started haunting the Modern, the Whitney, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, becoming familiar with how great paintings look in the flesh, so to speak, did not ruin looking at art books for me. If anything, it enhanced the experience, because I was now able to visualize the artworks reproduced more vividly. And I suspect it has worked that way for other people as well especially art world people who did not have the good fortune to grow up in a cultural center like New York City and had to depend even more on reproductions during their formative years.

Probably this is why most gallerists are comfortable enough making their first judgments about an artist's work from slides and why so many of us are increasingly finding the Internet handy as a vehicle for discovering new talent. Virtual galleries will never replace actual ones, nor would anyone want them to. However, they do give us an opportunity to see in a flash what artists are up to in any part of the country or the world. Even more important, they give artists a chance to reach untold thousands of people who may purchase their work or in some other way advance their careers.

One of the more exemplary virtual galleries is that of Manhattan Arts International (www.manhattanarts.com) presided over by Renée Phillips, who has long been a force to reckon with in the art world as a career counselor, university lecturer, and author of books such as The Complete Guide to New York Art Galleries, Presentation Power Tools for Fine Artists, and Success Now! For Artists.

Savvy pro that she is, Phillips has selected the artists on her site in much the same way that any discerning gallery director would, choosing talents that, for all their stylistic diversity, complement each other and contribute to a consistent aesthetic agenda. And because she is always willing to consider the works of new artists, the site is constantly evolving.

Various modes of realism are represented, ranging from the sleek sensuality of Sue Kutosh's iconic images of leather-hipster fetish goddesses and Robert Mapplethorpe sprouting angel wings; to the subtle, sometimes slightly surreal visions of Beth Kurtz; to Valerie Patterson's startlingly precise and psychologically revealing large watercolors; to the romantically moody narrative paintings of painter/illustrator Judith Gwynn Brown; to Patti Mollica's vigorously brushed evocations of the urban scene.

As in any gallery, actual or virtual, it is interesting here to draw parallels between how different artists treat similar subjects; for example, by comparing Mollica's paintings to how the photographer Michael Massaia achieves painterly effects in his impressionistic cityscapes by manipulating Polaroid emulsions.

One can also discover a different kind of kinship in the work of two graphic artists on the site: the atmospheric scenes of the Parisian printmaker and watercolorist Christian Le Gars and Mary Felton's highly finished charcoal drawings of human and equine figures. For both Le Gars and Felton are masters of chiaroscuro, making the dramatic play of light and shadow a primary element of their compositions.

A broad range of abstract painting is also on view, including the oils of Bronx-born John Ferdico, which combine Ab-Ex gestural energy with European-influenced finesse and chromatic refinement; Joey Archuleta's elegantly witty and wickedly titled conceptual abstractions in encaustic and mixed media; Peg McCreary's juicy postmodern take on Action Painting; Diane Leon's lyrical Mediterranean abstractions, calling to mind the musical mood of Miles Davis' landmark recording "Sketches of Spain"; Patti Brown's exuberant and versatile compositions in various media, which are equally jazzy in more aggressive manner; Jami Taback's darkly mysterious, affecting, yet formally controlled compositions; and the exhilarating immediacy of Sharon Bartel Clements' shamanic oils, composed with her bare, paint-saturated hands. Then there is Richard Straley, whose masterfully simplified portraits and figures in oil pastels have an impact akin to the sophisticated Art Brut of Dubuffet.

A growing trend to incorporate New Age notions and attitudes into the context of fine art is indicated in the oils of North Carolina painter Lisa Bartell, who employs expressively distorted plant forms in symbolic compositions that are all about healing and the life cycle. And while their work is very different, surely she has a kindred spirit in self-defined "spiritual energy healer" Janet Cristenfeld, who channels boldly intuitive, emotionally compelling imaginary portraits through a process of meditation.

Then there are Judith Ellen Sanders whose Master of Science degree feeds into the unique synthesis of art and science animating her sinuous abstractions, which suggest meticulous psychedelic mandalas; Victoria Martin, creator of emblematic large canvases, wherein a host of colorful symbols related to magical spells, astronomy and other esoteric endeavors are held in check by a strong formal armature.

Gene Kaniecki, on the other hand, is an autodidact who aligns himself with so-called "outsider" art, yet is actually a highly sophisticated artist/provocateur, employing "a heterogeneous assemblage of assorted artistic ideologies and discordant processes," whose attitude and intricate imagery reveal that his heart belongs to Dada. Another "maximalist" with an outsiderish intrepidness, Ione Citrin employs mixed media to create jam-packed compositions with a dramatic impact that may reflect her theatrical background.

Several other artists exemplify the diversity of postmodern abstraction: Like colorful Rorschach tests, Joyce Pommer's graceful floating shapes hover at the edge of recognition, provoking a haunting visual de ja vu. Joanne Turney translates the exotic impressions of her travels in the Middle East, Pakistan, Indian and Bangkok into compositions notable for their rich colors and flowing forms. Armenian-born painter Jenik moves effortlessly between lyrical abstraction and freeform figuration akin to the Cobra group.