Arcadia Contemporary | 1/1-2/25 | New York, NY

Modern Montage

Arcadia Contemporary welcomes the new year with a comprehensive group show

By Meg Daly

Arcadia Contemporary welcomes the new year with a comprehensive group show. No one is left behind in the two-month Winter Group Exhibition featuring the gallery’s entire artist roster.

“This show allows Arcadia to present what is, in a sense, its mission statement—which is to feature skilled, contemporary realist artists who are striving to create works in their own signature style,” gallery director Steve Diamant says.Michele Amatrula, Cola Wars, oil on canvas, 9 x 12"With such diversity, no singular theme or subject is on display. However, look close enough and a thread of nostalgia can be seen in many of the works. The show raises questions about how contemporary artists address classic styles as well as bygone days. With an abundance of portraiture and still life, many of Arcadia’s artists seem to be investigating what a modern lens can offer the past.

One example is Michele Amatrula’s Cola Wars. Three rusty bottle caps rest on a rough brick surface in this painting. The colas in question—Royal Crown, Pepsi and Coke—have been in fierce competition since their inventions circa 1900. The bottle caps’ designs suggest they could be from the 1940s.Laurie Lee Brom, Summertime Blues, oil on canvas, 36 x 24"

Amatrula says she has always been drawn to vintage wares for the stories they tell. She sees bottle caps in particular as “graphic treasures.” “They are evocative on so many levels,” Amatrula says. “They take the viewer back to a different place and time. When dramatically lit, they reveal beautiful imperfections and signs of use.”

Lighting is important to the work of Jeffrey Ripple, who’s painting Tea captures a moment of respite that could occur at a kitchen table today just as much as it could have a century ago. Where Ripple employs realism to create a scene and mood, Jeffrey Chong Wang leans toward a Renaissance feel in his painting Stroll. Wang’s couple out for a walk feel dapper and proper in a mid-century way. Their slightly surreal surroundings imply timelessness.Jeffrey Chong Wang, Stroll, oil on canvas, 24 x 18"

Perhaps some contemporary artists look toward the past wistfully. Others see the past through a lens of potency. Laurie Lee Brom has been working on a series of paintings of women in the 1960s and 1970s. “I hope to convey not only a strong sense of nostalgia, but the knowledge that these women suddenly had much more agency regarding life choices than their mothers did. The boldness of the new world was reflected in their clothing choices,” she says, referring to Summertime Blues.

Brom says her work speaks to the current moment. “Women are still fighting to maintain our reproductive rights and to strike the tenuous balance of life.”Jeffrey Ripple, Tea, oil on linen, 9 x 12"The feminine is another theme several Arcadia artists are working with. Rae Perry’s Nightingale shows a tomboy out catching insects at dusk. Alexander Timofeev’s Opium portrays a darkly erotic moment between two women. Jose Lopez Vergara’s thick brushstrokes and stark black and white upend expectations in his portrait, Reverence.