“Crossroads” symbolizes the intersections of different cultural ideas. The artists in the exhibit are inspired by different customs in their art practice. Some of the artists have lived and worked in other countries. All the artists are intrepid travelers. They bring traditions and insights from their experiences in different parts of the world. Their cross-cultural perceptions are shown in abstractions and narratives, as paintings, prints, and sculptures. The artists create cross-cultural references using symbols, images, colors, and objects to express their personal journeys.
The exhibition is on view at Hudson Park Library Gallery from April 3 - May 31, 2024.
Abbyssinian Carto was born in Georgetown, Guyana. He has been interested in art since childhood and began his formal art training when he was 15 years old. In 1972, he came to the United States to study art and received a BFA in textile design from the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City. He returned to Guyana in 1979, where he taught at the Burrows School of Art. He has lived in the United States since 1990 and currently resides and works in Brooklyn. He has exhibited his artwork in Guyana, Barbados, Trinidad, New York, and Washington DC. His work is influenced by nature and many different cultures and traditions.
Web: abbyssiniancarto.com
Instagram: @abbyssinian_art
Areta Buk's artwork explores themes of healing and regeneration, which integrate personal mythology and symbols that reference the natural world and ritual art. Areta received a BFA from the Philadelphia College of Art and studied at Robert Blackburn's Printmaking Workshop. Her artwork has been included in exhibitions in New York City and the metropolitan area. She lives and works in Brooklyn.
Web: aretabuk.com
Instagram: @aretabuk
Janice DeMarino is a non-representation painter, who has explored a variety of media including papermaking, printmaking, and encaustic painting. Born in New York City, she received an MFA from Hunter College and went on to teach in the private sector. Her work has been strongly influenced by her cultural and personal experiences. Encaustic painting, where layers of pigmented wax and other elements are fused with heat, is her current focus. DeMarino’s use of mixed media, in the encaustic artworks being shown at Hudson Park Gallery, experiments with embedding and layering the elements while integrating them with a selective color palette. She explains, “imagery and composition appear as I work.” The artist has exhibited her work in the United States, Europe, and Southeast Asia.
Lanie Lee is a Chinese American artist, born and raised in the Bronx. She is influenced by ancient writing systems (calligraphy, pictographs, hieroglyphics). Lee creates a personal iconography that combines calligraphic marks with pictographs to express cross-cultural ideas. She has traveled throughout North America, Asia, Europe, and North Africa. Lee is a recipient of the Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant and has had art residencies at the MacDowell Colony, Alpha Hills papermaking in Japan, and Mass MoCA. She has exhibited in many venues in New York City, including the Basement Workshop, P.S. 1, and Washington Square Windows.
Margaret Maugenest was born in Sumatra, Indonesia. By the time she was 15, Margaret had lived equal time on three continents, in Indonesia, the Netherlands, and the United States. From her mother’s side, Margaret is distantly related to the renowned Indonesian-Dutch artist, Jan Toorop and Dutch-Indonesian batik artist P. A. Toorop. Margaret has been drawing since she was 4 years old, at a time when she fell in love with colors as well, from venturing in her parents’ garden on the Indonesian island of Bangka, using stones to grind colorful petals to a paste and imaging the healing powers they had. In the Netherlands she strengthened her sense of independence necessary when adapting to an entirely different environment and society. The United States has given Margaret the opportunity to free and unrestricted self-invention and being, to explore different mediums, ideas, and visions. Margaret is an avid traveler and has worked in Scotland, the Netherlands, France, Spain, Cyprus, various Indonesian islands, Kashmir, Sri Lanka, Japan, as well as in various areas in the US, including New York and California. A longtime Gowanus, Brooklyn resident, she became involved with environmental issues and co-founded FROGG, Friends and Residents of Greater Gowanus, and was also active on the EPA Community Advisory Group (CAG) regarding the cleaning up of the Gowanus Canal and uplands.
E-mail: MMaugenest@gmail.com
More: https://vimeo.com/919020967
*Photographs by Jeffrey Maugenest
Prawat Laucharoen is from Bangkok, Thailand, and came to study printmaking at New York!s Pratt Institute in the late 60s. He worked in a fairly traditional way for a time, teaching at Pratt Graphics Art Center, The Bob Blackburn Printshop, Columbia University, Hunter College, and the Horace Mann School. Laucharoen soon developed his use of the printmaking medium in a manner that moved away from more conventional methods, creating a form that he calls "print installation.” Just prior to this development, the artist evolved a series of pieces known as "heat stamp,” one work that is featured in this exhibit. Combined with a delicate aquatint, marks are burned into the paper surface in linear patterns. This became for Laucharoen a new vocabulary, which led to the "print Installation” works that he made throughout the 1980s.
