Nancy Lunsford’s seventh solo exhibition at 440 Gallery, “Slate and Bone,” takes its name from several small drawings on broken slates. These pieces were created over 20 years ago and relate to the American history of slavery and the African diaspora. The exhibit includes other more recent work, some with social commentary and others simply honoring the practice of art. A group of figure drawings on paper are included as a tribute to the founding of 440 Gallery fifteen years ago when Lunsford and Shanee Epstein organized a pop-up exhibit with artists who had been meeting for a weekly sketch group in her studio. The current show is a mix of old and new, with subjects serious and light-hearted. Lunsford says of her work: “Art has always been a way for me to express the inexplicable, to escape the inescapable. Like life, it is both a struggle and a joy, provocative and healing.”

Lunsford has exhibited her work extensively over the last 30 years. Before founding 440 Gallery, Lunsford ran Wisteria Artspace, a gallery in Carroll Gardens. In addition to exhibitions, she also produced shadow theater and other performances at Wisteria, including a collaboration with Jill Reinier and Flying Bridge Community Arts. Lunsford began her career as a portrait artist and illustrator and did courtroom sketching for CBS. During ten years abroad, she studied the indigenous art of shadow theater in Indonesia and exhibited with Urart Gallery in Ankara Turkey. She wrote art criticism for the Turkish Daily News and developed a contemporary shadow theater production, performed at SanArt International Arts Symposium in Ankara. As she steps down from an active role at 440 Gallery after fifteen years, Lunsford looks forward to exploring new creative challenges.

“Slate and Bone” opens March 18, 2020 with an opening reception on Saturday, March 21 from 4 - 7 pm. [Note: The physical reception has been cancelled. A videocast opening is planned. Details to follow.] There will be an artist’s talk on Sunday, March 29 at 4:40pm if possible. The show will run through April 19, 2020.

Project Space: “In Flux”: Blanchard, Pedersen, Weil

Coils, stripes, swipes, twirls... these gestures highlight the dynamic artwork on display in this month’s Project Space. “In Flux” celebrates sweeping movement, rhythmic pattern, spontaneous play of shape, line and image. Whether the creative process involves working photographically, with wax, or paint— these three artists design with gesture and movement, exploring new territory through process, experimentation, and inspiration.

Flower 3.9.1 is the result of Leigh Blanchard’s experimentation in the medium of scanography, or scanner photography. Referencing the history of photograms (one of the first techniques used to create a permanent image) she uses the subject matter of early photograms to create new digital artworks. Part photograph, part collage, these images have a playful quality that are inspired by the sense of discovery that was so much a part of the beginnings of the photography.

Says Amy Weil of her latest encaustics: “My work evokes a playful and childlike quality. Spontaneous gestures simultaneously conceal and reveal a history of mark making. I utilize color, patterns, and composition to create an intuitive geometry. The interplay between geometric forms and organic mark making produces a tension between static and dynamic forces in my work. This interplay of energies creates a state of flux that continues to be the impetus of my work.”

Janet Pedersen’s latest works on paper explore the figure in dance. “I’ve always been drawn to this subject in art, and am particularly interested in movement and gesture with regard to form.” Using isolated frames from you-tube dance videos for reference, she reconstructs a composition, playing with angles, pattern, line and color. Through this process she strives to find a dynamic visual dialogue between the dancing figure and a gestural background.