September 5 - October 6, 2024

Opening Reception: Thursday, September 5, 5:00 - 7:00 PM

Online Artist Talk: Sunday, September 22, 4:40 PM REGISTER

For the first exhibition of our 2024 fall season, 440 Gallery is proud to present Near and Far, an exhibition of landscape and still-life paintings by watercolorist Joy Makon. Joy is a painter of observed life, creating works based on locations and moments she sees through everyday activities and while traveling for pleasure. This collection, her third solo show at the gallery, is a series of studio paintings created in the past two years, based mainly on New York City scenes.

As 440 Gallery founder Nancy Lunsford observed in 2020, “Joy Makon seeks with the eyes of that child on a family trip, thrilled by the unexpected. Her watercolors are the result of visiting spectacular places...the surprise of sunlight and shadows, breathtaking reflections on water, the interesting person who casually walks in front of her.”

In the watercolors exhibited in Near and Far, Makon paints in a classic, representational manner to explore landscapes that capture elements close by and far away; she presents views of the familiar that become surprising and unique through her use of color and composition. Her strong emotional attachment to each subject becomes apparent through her meticulous handling of the watercolor medium, a process that often requires Joy to spend several weeks in her studio completing a painting.

People walk their dogs on sunlit paths in Prospect Park, Brooklyn. In a view from a tall building, a vivid sky frames Lower Manhattan and New York Harbor. Ornate Brooklyn brownstone stoops provide a backdrop of sun-dappled light sparkling in urban gardens. Leaves and petals, boldly frontal and aggressive in shape, take on a sculptural presence against light-filled, textured surfaces.

“I seek out vibrant, astonishingly beautiful scenes to paint to mitigate the daily assault of bad news on a personal and community level,” says Makon. “Immersing myself in a complex, multi-faceted subject is my antidote to all the exposure to violence in our world. I want these paintings to bring a bit of respite from the bombardment of negative events we all try to endure. For the joy of looking at something familiar that highlights the uniqueness of the everyday, or helps us even feel ‘Wow...how cool is that,’ I try to capture the spirit of a place and even allow myself to romanticize that moment in time.”

Joy Makon has a BFA in graphic design and photography from Tyler School of Art, Philadelphia. Her work is in private collections and has been shown in juried and gallery shows, including the American Watercolor Society, Salmagundi Club, Pennsylvania Watercolor Society, The American Artists Professional League, and the Adirondacks National Exhibit of American Watercolors. Joy is a signature member of the American Watercolor Society and a Resident Artist at the Salmagundi Club in NYC. She has been recognized by the Art Directors Club, the Society of Publication Designers, and the Society of Illustrators for her work as a magazine art director. A native of Philadelphia, Joy has lived in NYC since 1976. Her studio is in an old Brooklyn home that she shares with her husband Solomon, her feline studio manager Lily, and two gardens.

Project Space: Echoes of Berlin

Leigh Blanchard, Ellen Chuse, Susan Greenstein

Leigh Blanchard, Ellen Chuse, and Susan Greenstein recently showed together in a group exhibition in Berlin, Germany, and the work they showed is now on view in the Project Space. These artists have very different practices ranging from delicate watercolors to dramatic digital textiles to bold paintings, but they all share an intense exploration of their respective materials and imagery. This show demonstrates the ways in which disparate work can excite the viewer through contrast and connection. The Project Space displays the artists’ range of creative exploration and offers new and surprising relationships as a result.

Leigh Blanchard’s practice draws inspiration from nineteenth-century photograms. This work is from her Impressions series where she uses scanography to maximum effect. Part photograph, part collage, this work has a playful quality that recalls the discovery and awe that early users of the photographic process must have felt. Blanchard’s interest in alternative image making fuses modern technology with those early photograms - her work looks back and forward simultaneously.

Ellen Chuse continues her exploration of the inherent mysteries of scale and contrast. Her new acrylic paintings on paper pair archetypal forms with intensely layered vibrant color, exhibiting a lush surface while alluding to the stratified process. In these works Chuse is experimenting with some new color palettes and images, and she looks forward to where they will lead.

Susan Greenstein views her watercolors as a visual diary of the cityscapes, vistas, and intimate interiors that she encounters while traveling or staying on her home turf. Working directly from life without any preliminary sketching her loose and fluid brushstrokes reflect the immediacy of her keenly observed experience. As Greenstein describes it, “I become immersed in the life of the location itself. Honking cars, the sun and wind on my face, snippets of conversation - all become woven into my work.”