Taking Flight

Rehs Contemporary Galleries’ newest collaborative exhibition with Art Renewal Center spotlights birds in art.

By John O’Hern

This year’s collaboration between Rehs Contemporary Galleries in New York and Art Renewal Center will be on view October 15 through November 20. Taking Flight: ARC Select 2020 is a “socially distanced” exhibition available for viewing by appointment.

Gallery director Lance Rehs explains, “Due to the prevalence of birds in art, it was plainly obvious that our role is not simply to present and preserve art, but to help preserve the inspiration behind the art as well. With that, we decided to team up with the American Bird Conservancy to help raise awareness regarding threats to bird populations and the effects their dwindling
numbers have on our ecosystems. While the presence of birds in artwork is prominent, it is superfluous…the presence of birds in the real world is a necessity.”Adam Matano, Black Wings, bronze, 8 x 11 x 4"

The artists—Jasmine Becket-Griffith, Jon Burns, Natalie Featherston, Lucia Heffernan, Adam Matano, Rob Rey and Josh Tiessen—are Rehs Contemporary Galleries’ award winners from the 14th ARC Salon Competition.

Featherston specializes in Trompe l’Oeil, French for “fool the eye.” She paints directly from life, constructing detailed collage models for her paintings using found objects, vintage photos, paper cutouts, embroidery and beads. Her technical prowess draws the viewer into an invented realm of humor and whimsy, where storytelling and narrative feature prominently. Of her painting The Night Owls, Featherston says, “I wanted to create that magical time in the middle of the night, with its darkness and stillness, when you’re immersed in a fantasy world of fiction. The heroine wears a feathered mask, communing with the owls. The lichen covered branches evoke the woods and recall a 19th-century Adirondack frame.”Josh Tiessen, Refracting Infinity, oil on panel, 36 x 24 x 2"

Trompe l’Oeil paintings are representations of still life setups—most often serious depictions of the objects. Featherston’s often humorous paintings also depict the not always subtle craft of her assembling the setup. Countess Alexander Nikolaevitch Lamsdorff has been snipped out of her original forest setting in a painting by Franz Xaver Winterhalter and pasted on another. Her simple book of poetry is augmented by insurmountable tomes topped by “wise” owls and the rough edges of their having been cut from their original source.Natalie Featherson, Night Owls, oil on panel, 20 x 16"

Rob Rey, Bioluminescence – Question, Hypothesis, Experiment, oil on panel, 30 x 20"

For millennia, humans have sought to light the darkness. There are stories, mythologies and superstitions “we’ve told ourselves through time,” Rey says, “to make sense of the world before we knew how to do it. We were trying to light the way.” In Bioluminescence – Question, Hypothesis, Experiment, lanterns from various cultures have gone out while the light of living things brings illumination. “The stories that we have told bring us together,” Rey explains. “But the world has evolved. We would be better to embrace a more unifying story of the world that science can provide. Science can unify.”Jon Burns, American Goldfinch, oil on panel, 12 x 9"

Rey’s cosmic awareness complements his material awareness of the joy of painting. “The fragility of the lanterns made of paper with all of those little folds and undulations provide interesting detail,” he comments. “They allow me good opportunities for technical applications.” Painting “wet into wet,” his application of paint simplifies the subject and creates a rich textural surface. —

Taking Flight: ARC Select 2020
When: October 15-November 20, 2020; October 15-18, opening event, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., by appointment only
Where: Rehs Contemporary Galleries, 5 E. 57th Street, 8th Floor, New York, NY 10022
Information: (212) 355-5710, www.rehs.com