January 11 - February 18, 2024

Opening Reception: Saturday, January 13, 4 - 6 pm
Artist Talk on Zoom: Sunday, January 28 at 4:40 pm

440 Gallery is pleased to present Side Streets, a solo exhibition of paintings depicting city scenes by James Acevedo. Acevedo's colorful and bold acrylic paintings straddle the abstract and figurative. Despite the everyday nature of what is seen, be it a group of pigeons or a water tower, Acevedo draws the viewer into a mysterious yet familiar reality, questioning where and who you are. This is Acevedo’s first solo show at 440 Gallery.

Acevedo's paintings delicately blend contradictory elements. The subjects are common, but the discordant mood is otherworldly. The artist's use of garish colors, slashing brushstrokes and a tilted view is unnerving. Is this a picture postcard or a nightmare? Acevedo uses the city as a springboard to explore identity and memory.

Side Streets does not depict familiar areas, such as Wall Street or Broadway, but reveals the roads less taken. Although the title 14th Street Corner and 7th Avenue is specific, the painting’s intersection feels anonymous. The street sign says 7th Avenue, but in this context the number seems more symbolic than literal. Inanimate objects frame the painting: an unmarked subway lamp on the right, an isolated fire hydrant on the left and the street sign atop the composition, almost like a crown. In the foreground, passersby are stopped in midstep and are subtly fading away, as if expiring. Even with these surreal details, this feels like an intimate corner. Acevedo’s sweeping brushwork creates an impression of time passing around this captured moment, all within a side street.

Acevedo states, “The street also reflects a personal view. In my own journey as an artist, my experience has been as an outsider, and I've spent more time on the side street rather than the avenue. It's on the street, wandering, looking, discovering, sometimes even lost, that I've felt most comfortable. I've looked to the street for answers to my questions about where I have come from and where I belong. The city street has served as my major source of inspiration for my artwork, whether in drawings, paintings or other works like collage and assemblage.”

For over forty years, Acevedo has used the city as his subject to explore his identity. Born in Gary, Indiana, he has lived and worked in Chicago, Indianapolis, San Francisco and New York. He received his BFA from the Herron Art Institute (Indiana University) in painting and printmaking and an MFA in painting from Hunter College/CUNY. Acevedo has taught painting, drawing and printing at Hunter College, New York University and The New School and Parsons School of Design. His work has been exhibited throughout the New York City area, including the Bronx Museum, Art in General, Clocktower, Brecht Forum, TAI Gallery, Manhattan Community College/BMCC and Williamsburg Art Center (WAH). James lives and works in Manhattan’s Midtown South where you may see him walking most every day, rain or shine.

In the Project Space: Resonance

The works of Joy Makon, Robin Roi, and David Stock are now on view in the Project Space. Under the rubric of “Resonance” these paintings, collages, and photographs are meant to convey feelings and experiences prompted by a specific environment. The resulting art, an echo of these motives, may reverberate with the attentive viewer.

For watercolorist Joy Makon, light and shadow become as much a subject matter as do structures, foliage, people, and animals. Makon’s paintings of Bryant Park and Prospect Park certainly attest to her love of these spaces. With a defined composition of bright and dark passages, these works tell an urban story that is familiar, but shown through a unique painterly point of view. Makon’s attention to detail becomes yet another aspect to explore in each painting.

Memory occupies an important place in Robin Roi’s work, and the idea of what lingers over time informs her investigations. Roi often works on found paper from her extensive collection that spans generations as well as cultures. Whether it’s vintage wallpaper, maps, Chinese Joss paper or old family letters on the sheerest of onion skin she transforms these papers using collage and drawing. The unfolding pages of the Japanese album she uses in the piece titled “Violet” provides the perfect metaphor for the passage of time.

David Stock uses the vibrant working class environment in and around Jackson Heights as the raw material for his photographic explorations. Stock has turned his lens on the overflowing abundance of colors, textures, and cultural iconography of this unique place. Much of his work has combined these elements into semi-abstract images, but lately his subject matter has expanded to include observations of complex street scenes and people at work. Stock states, “While continuing to employ saturated tones and formal composition these new social landscapes reflect a deeper engagement with my community, and resonate with another layer of emotions and memories.”

For press and sales inquiries, including interviews with our artists, please contact Amanda Michele Brown, Gallery Director, at 718-499-3844; info@440gallery.com. For more information on these shows, the exhibiting artists and the gallery, go to our website at 440gallery.com.