October 13 - November 21, 2021. Reception Thursday, October 14, 5-7 PM

For the second exhibition of our Fall 2021 season, 440 Gallery is proud to present Brooklyn Local, the sixth solo show by watercolorist Susan Greenstein. As a love letter to her home town, Greenstein’s exhibition is made up of plein air paintings of Brooklyn neighborhoods that she knows so well.

Greenstein says, “A common thread that runs through my art—past works and present ones—is my love for Brooklyn. As such, this collection of watercolors becomes a retrospective of favorite neighborhoods that include Red Hook, Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn Heights, Gowanus, Park Slope and Windsor Terrace. While many of the views are easily recognizable, several places no longer exist or have changed greatly over the years. My paintings become a record of time and place in a very personal way.”

An accomplished watercolor painter, Greenstein enjoys living and working in an area that is rich with architectural styles from the late 19th century and early 20th century. She takes advantage of the opportunity to study and express how light falls upon these buildings. The contrast of ornate, decorative houses such as found in Park Slope, with simpler, industrial structures, as in the Gowanus area, becomes an interesting exploration of how styles and details are handled in each painting. Lush vegetation from gardens, window boxes and nearby parks becomes a focal point in many paintings, along with the powerful skylines that Susan observes with each Brooklyn landscape.

Greenstein can frequently be found painting on a Brooklyn street corner with her portable, nomadic studio setup. Plein air watercolor is the perfect medium to catch the light, gesture and immediacy of what Susan decides to paint; her painting technique is to forgo any preliminary drawing or sketching and delve right away into paint and brushes. She explains, “Once I figured out that I could go directly to paint on paper first, I never looked back. The thrill of working this way really fueled my passion for painting on site.” As Susan ponders the history of the neighborhood, or the story behind each building, she intimately becomes part of capturing a moment in time from the ever-evolving, always-surprising Brooklyn that she knows and loves so much.

Susan Greenstein is a graduate of Pratt Institute. She has exhibited extensively in Brooklyn and the greater New York area as well as the Delaware Fine Arts Museum.

Brooklyn Local will run from October 13 – November 21. The opening reception will be held on Thursday, October 14 from 5-7 and an artist talk featuring Susan will be held on Sunday, October 24 at 4:40 pm.

Project Space: “Close to Nature”

Close to Nature is a three-person exhibition of paintings, works on paper and mixed-media. This show draws inspiration from nature and the personal commentary on our relationship to nature from gallery artists Jo-Ann Acey, Gail Flanery and Karen Gibbons.

Jo-Ann Acey speaks about her new series of paintings as a relationship with nature. “In this new collection, the earth, water and sky are abundant resources that influence my art. Nature is the visual diary that is filled with line, color, shape and form. My process begins with seeing my environment through an intimate lens. Constant rhythms and movements are conveyed through my fascination with the cycle and patterns I observe in nature.”

Gail Flanery is showing works on paper. “I spent a lot of time in nature this past summer. Much of my palette and spatial design is the result of looking at trees and drawing them. I observed their beautiful lines, and the mood that was derived from the shadow and texture of growth. For me, trees hold time within their rings.”

Collage and mixed media make up the works from Karen Gibbons. “My obvious subject is nature. Humanity is a part of nature, yet somehow, we find ourselves in opposition—even as the world awakens to dire impacts of climate change. The urgency of this affects me deeply. Exploring my own love of the natural world is how I choose to mitigate becoming overwhelmed by the severity of things. My impulse is to get close to nature by observing, being curious, recognizing interdependence, and appreciating Earth’s ancient spirit. As such, I have created pieces that are diptychs to suggest that these can be looked at in many possible arrangements. Each viewer has a unique opportunity to think outside the box.”