February 12 - March 15, 2020

440 Gallery is proud to present “15,” a group show featuring the 15 current members of the artist-run collective on the occasion of their 15th anniversary as a gallery. The Gallery began in January 2005 as a month-long pop up exhibition by artists who had sketched in co-founder Nancy Lunsford’s weekly figure drawing sessions. Along with co-founder Shanee Epstein, the two women decided to keep the gallery up and running for as long as possible.

Fifteen years later 440 Gallery is still thriving on the same can-do spirit of determination, passion and the desire to connect with a viewing public. The artists in this show reflect the diversity of style and media that has been a hallmark of the space from the beginning. Photography, painting, collage, encaustic, printmaking and sculpture are all represented in a range of styles from abstract to realism.

Jo-Ann Acey works in a variety of media and will be showing her vibrant hand colored monotypes. Richard Barnet is a sculptor working primarily in bronze; in this show he will exhibit energetic abstract watercolors. Fred Bendheim’s “shaped paintings” are wall reliefs that balance geometry, color and a sensuous line. Leigh Blanchard works in a photographic digital environment to make surprisingly painterly images. Ellen Chuse, a long time gallery member, paints simplified organic forms enriched by layers of reverberating color. Shanee Epstein’s collages include paper, fabric, and sewn or painted elements, often with dramatic, undefined borders that defy the standard framed rectangle. Gail Flanery is a printmaker, influenced by natural forms, whose work has advanced beyond the traditional press to include collage, chine-collé and drawing. Karen Gibbons creates transcendent imagery from collage and bold gestural drawings on primarily found or repurposed surfaces. Susan Greenstein’s watercolors and richly colored oil pastels are created on-site and breathe with the life of the plein-air experience. Nancy Lunsford’s collages have elements drawn from contemporary life and culture and are often based on folk patterns and traditions. Joy Makon is a watercolorist inspired by the dramatic play of light in nature. Janet Pedersen’s fluid brushwork invigorates her figurative paintings of people and cityscapes. Doris Rodriguez incorporates her personal and cultural identity into evocative tableaus of figures within abstract, conceptual spaces. David Stock’s pristinely printed photographs capture the chaos of city life in one candid, iconic, moment. Amy Weil’s works in lush tones of layered wax encaustic. Amy Williams, the Gallery’s director, will show work from her extensive series of altered book pages, incorporating erasure poetry, painting and collage in both profound and playful vignettes.