New York, NY-  Space 776 Gallery is pleased to present a group exhibition featuring women artists who graduated from LIU Post MFA program. The show, Up Close from a Distance, will run from April 30th through  May 12th, 2021. There will be a virtual reception on May 6th from 6:00 pm –  8:00 pm via Zoom. 

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Ten diverse artists will be featured in the show: Grace Anello, Caroline  Bert, Lauren Bourguet, Stephanie Hart, Mahnoor Nasir Khan, Hannah Kerin,  Sharon Papp, Emily Schmitz, Kandi Spindler, and Shengqi Wan.  

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Quiet moments, uncertainty, and inevitable change. The artists’ works reflect expansively on daily life, isolation, tender moments, elapsed pain, and forthcoming fear—but also the radiance that hides in each phase, waiting to be discovered. In times of distress, dark truths surface to unveil dormant beauty.  

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At a slowed-down pace, these rising artists are able to transform the mundane into an exciting exploration and celebration of the interconnectedness of nature, beauty, self, and wisdom. Collectively, the artistic pieces evoke a  range of powerful emotions associated with the struggles of new and challenging experiences, while elevating a desire to emerge anew with healing positivity.  

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Virtual Opening Reception

Thursday, May 6, 2021  

6:00 pm  

 

Zoom link: https://liu.zoom.us/j/6732742527  

Meeting ID: 673 274 2527

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A R T I S T S 
 

Emily Schmitz's artwork started from inspiration sprouted from working at an Optometry office for eight years. Using her surroundings and art education she embarked on her career as an artist. Emily’s work includes abstract paintings using atypical materials with curiosity as to how the materials will cooperate. She has had training and experience in graphic design, figure drawing, photography, ceramics, and color theory.

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Hannah Kerin is a fine artist and digital artist who focuses on printmaking, specifically screen print, oil painting, and digital art. Hannah’s development in the MFA program allowed her to create a body of work titled, Ending. Ending, advocates for animals on the Endangered Species List. In the past, Hannah has created political-based artwork as well as dog portraits and flower series. Hannah hopes her artwork shows who she is as a person as well as advocates for those who do not have a voice.

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Shengqi Wan is doing cross-cultural connection series of dogs. In her philosophy, dogs bring aesthetic awareness to her life. She depicts dogs as human beings, doing human activities just like us. She earned her MFA in painting from Long Island University in 2020.

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Stephanie Hart's oil paintings document intimate moments with loved ones and symbols of time spent together. Her acrylic paints represent more fleeting moments in the way of wispy abstracted seascapes. By drawing from personal experience and longing for more time spent with loved ones, Stephanie is able to make discoveries and connections to her Greek identity.

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Sharon Papp, explores feminine introspection and subconscious stirrings, in an attempt to connect the dots from matriculating practices to sentimental attachments regarding objects and structures. Heavily influenced by the spectral chroma of the Fauve movement and the Hippie Counter-Culture movement, she channels a bold, kinetic palette into
her free-spirited work. 

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Grace Anello is an educator and mixed media artist who combines photography and printmaking to create weathered and worn imagery. Through her photographs of abandoned buildings, Grace transforms these images of structure and form into self-portraits. Art has been her escape and voice throughout her whole life and strives to inlay the same vision with her students.

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Mahnoor Khan originally from Karachi, Pakistan. She believes in capturing the essence of the moment and her photographs act as a medium of communication for those unheard, metaphors of reality and expression to emotions that are well kept hidden. She looks to create artwork that resonates with people to embody the soul and message. Mahnoor Khan holds a BS in Advertising and an MFA in Photography. She has exhibited her work in solo and group exhibitions internationally including in New York, Spain, and Turkey. The artist is currently living and working in New York.

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Kandi Spindler received her MFA from LIU Post in December 2020. She works full time as a public defender in Long Island and spends all her remaining time painting. Or with her cat, Paco. Or pulling garbage out of sidewalk bins because she'll "use it for something." Spindler explores the relationship between urban residents and the natural world.

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Lauren Bourguet is a conceptual artist, and educator from Port Washington, NY. In her studio practice, she works in photography, sculpture, installation, printmaking, and performance. Bourguet encourages viewers to consider "art" as a way of conducting one's life, in every realm of daily activity. "Dreamstone" stemmed from a series titled Quotidian Radiance that aims to persuade people to think deeply about the little moments; to see the subtle beauty in the humdrum, which makes up most of our lives.

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Caroline Bert challenges the medium of photography through a variety of alternative processes. These processes include but are not limited to cameraless techniques such as Chemigrams, Cyanotypes, and Lumen printing, but also incorporates the camera and will collage, sew and paint on her photographs. Caroline’s nontraditional techniques investigate light and all the ways it could be used to create images that represent strong movement and lyrical gestures, often tip-toeing the line between abstraction and representational.

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