Successful Grand Opening: RoCA Members’ Exhibition Now Open

STORY AND PHOTOS BY JANIE ROSMAN

Superman texting, a dancer poised and a tiger’s intense stare are among the works at Rockland Center for the Arts’ 2015 Members’ Exhibition that opened last Sunday.

More than 175 pieces of mixed media, paintings, drawings, graphics, ceramics, photography and video art are at the gallery through February 15.

Jamie Baldwin Gaviola’s “Paradise” is an acrylic on canvas in deep blues, greens, and alizarin encompassing golden-green hues. Its “light of one single flame burns bright enough to illuminate the deepest darkness,” she said.

Four noted figures take on a whimsical appearance Ruth Geneslaw’s “Heads of State: Feet of State.” The wood, embroidered fabric and photo transfer images of Vladmir Putin, Her Majesty the Queen, Benjamin Netanyahu and Barack Obama exaggerate their heads and minimize their feet, which are stitched with fabric.

“The queen was most fun to create with her matching hats, her pocketbook and her arm wave,” Geneslaw noted. “Although we often refer to our leaders as heads of state, they occasionally seem to be leading with their feet, so I wanted to give their feet equal importance.”

Eleanor Grace Miller has used pink for the past one to two years in Confronting Pink because of her longstanding distaste for the color. “Within the series are five dog paintings, all black and white dogs,” she explained.

“I have seen the color (pink) used well without any meaning or subtext attached to it” by artists, including Francis Bacon, she said, often with a salmon orange. “Francis Bacon’s Dog” is named for the artist, who “flattens his planes, using simplified lines to delineate the space, and his figures can have a strong black outline.”

Photographer Eadweard Muybridge pioneered human locomotion in the late 1800’s, also known for his motion-picture work, influenced Cassie Strasser’s acrylic (Plexiglas®) and wood piece “Blue Man Walking.”

“I have always been interested in the human form and especially the way in which we move, the transparent quality of the blue acrylic plastic, and the way that light and shadow become a part of the piece,” Strasser said.

RoCA is located at 27 Greenbush Rd., West Nyack. Gallery hours are Monday to Friday, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday, from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Closed holidays. Call 845-358-0877.