The Fine Art of Illustration - Jan. 21 - Feb. 19, 2017
Illustrators give life to our imagination and the world around us. We are excited to feature a fine art exhibition of one of the most versatile art forms in today’s visual culture.
Juror: William Low...Painter, Illustrator, Educator, Author
Congratulations to Chad Wallace and Jeff Menges on the sale of their work!
Exhibiting artists:
Margaret Freed has worked as an illustrator in the editorial and education markets for more than twenty years. She works predominantly in oil, watercolor, and graphite. Margaret earned a MFA in Illustration from the Hartford Art School in Hartford, CT. In addition she holds a MA in Illustration from Syracuse University and a BFA in Illustration from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, PA. “Horses, people, and the landscapes around them, are the subjects that drive me visually and inspire my artwork. My aim is to capture their actions, story, emotions, and unique personalities.”
Jeff A. Menges was one of the original 25 artists who worked on the initial release of Magic; The Gathering. Today his illustration work continues to grace role-playing products, card games, books and magazines. More recent projects include compiling and editing books on legendary illustrators; Arthur Rackham, Edmund Dulac, Howard Pyle, and others. Jeff has now produced more than 20 books on Golden Age illustration and painters of the late nineteenth century, and maintains a blog on the subject called Vintage Illustration Explored Weekly. In addition to his freelance work, Jeff has steady experience as an Art Director and Designer, and works with Dover Publications in New York. He currently lives on Long Island with his wife and two children.
Award-winning painter and illustrator Anthony Freda’s work has been published in Time, The New Yorker, Rolling Stone, The New York Times, Esquire, and Business Week. Freda was trained at Pratt Institute and Tyler Art School in Rome, Italy. His works often include an element of social commentary. He worked for several years in his own corporate advertising agency before quitting to focus on editorial illustration. Freda creates his potent and provocative illustrations with a combination of found objects and surfaces, collage and drawing—all mixed together to great effect. Freda says that he uses art “as a tool of political activism”—he has a whole section on his website labelled “political art”—and his imagery often carries a powerful message of peace and social justice.
For Award-winning illustrator Dan Burr, making a painting is “magical, whether I'm painting a fisherman in his favorite stream or a small child reading about pirates digging for treasure, it’s all about designing and communicating a good narrative. For most of my career I worked in oils on canvas or panels. However, like many artists, I began to explore digital art in 2002, recognizing the value of the new medium as an illustrator, I started to use a digital painting process. These days I have found a way to achieve the same texture, realism, and attention to what appears to be detail that I could achieve with a brush on a traditional surface.” Dan has illustrated numerous children’s books and has had countless published illustrations over his 27 year career
Eric Freeberg- Eric studied painting at the New York Academy of Art, and also at the Pennsylvania Academy of Art, and at the Art Students League. Among the nearly 20 books Eric has illustrated for children are "Grimms Fairy Tales," "Greek Myths," "The Odyssey," "Journey to the Center of the Earth," and "Moby Dick" for Sterling Publishing. For Compass Publishing, titles include "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer," "White Fang," and most recently "The Spelling Bee," among others. In addition to books, Eric has contributed art to children's magazines
Chad Wallace is an award-winning artist from Westchester, NY. Chad’s illustrations often feature animals in their natural environments. Working primarily in a realistic style, Chad creates believability around his characters even when they are anthropomorphized to a degree. Wallace earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts at Syracuse University and received his Master of Fine Arts degree from FIT. He has illustrated eleven books for children including: Earth Feeling The Heat (2010), Seahorses (2012), and The Mouse And The Meadow (2014), which he wrote and illustrated. Chad has worked with publishers Henry Holt, Scholastic, Sterling, Richard C Owens Publications, and Dawn Publications. He has also served as an adjunct professor of illustration at Syracuse University and presently holds a position at the New York City College of Technology
John Nickle is an accomplished illustrator and author of children's picture books. His clients include Random House, Simon & Schuster, Scholastic Books, St. Martins Press, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Nike, Inc., Sports Illustrated, and many others. Several of his books have received starred reviews from Kirkus Reviews, Publishers Weekly and The Horn Book. He wrote and illustrated The Ant Bully, which was later was released as a major motion picture by Warner Bros. and Playtone. He has widely exhibited his illustrations in various New York galleries. John received an MFA in Fine Art from the University of South Florida and lives in Brooklyn, NY.
Stephen Gardner is an award winning illustrator who was born in England and studied art at the Cornwall College of Art graduating in 1983, he worked in Germany and freelanced in London, England up until 1989 when he moved to New York City to further his career as an illustrator and artist. Gardner has painted the covers of over two hundred book covers and painted countless baseball cards for both Topps and Upperdeck. His painting for the movie poster - Unforgiven - is part of the permanent collection at the Society of Illustrators and his portrait of Joe DiMaggio hangs in the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Joel Iskowitz has been involved in every phase of illustration and graphic design in a variety of media from publishing, book illustration and cover art, stamp, coin and medallic design to murals and art in public spaces. "I am a realistic, narrative artist, which plainly stated, means that I tell stories with pictures. I have painted covers for nearly every major publisher. I have paintings in the permanent collections of the USAF Art Collection, NASA and The Museum of American Illustration. My artwork has been exhibited at the White House, the Capitol, the Pentagon, the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, The New York Historical Society Museum , The Historical Foundation of Brévands, France and the Abraham Lincoln Home and Presidential Library in Springfield, Illinois. I have created well over 2000 stamps for some 40 separate nations. I have illustrated more than a dozen children's books, and have painted the portraits of Royals, Political Leaders, and celebrated individuals from Nobel Laureates to film stars. I have had over 50 designs selected for minting by the United States Mint, including sixteen Congressional Gold Medals. I take pride in covering everything from the Pope to Popeye.
Award winning sports artist/Illustrator Tony Capparelli, teaches at Fashion Institute of Technology and Seton Hall University. His clients included: the National Football League, Keyspan Energy, the National Review, Reckitt and Coleman, Medical Economics, American Management Association, New York Islanders, NJ Devils, Financial World, Deskey Associates, Columbia Savings Bank, Bank of the Commonwealth, Wingate Memorial Fund, Warner Brothers. He has been featured on local Good Morning America, “NHL Cool Shots”, News 12 NJ, ESPN, Fox Sports NY, “Leafs TV” Toronto Canada, MSG Network, Robb Report, Sports Collectors Digest, NYCPSAL Hall of Fame Awards Dinner, Mickey Mantles Restaurant. His media include oils, watercolors, charcoals, artwork on textiles, and digital and acrylic airbrushing and his paintings have been the covers of the National Review, Financial World, and award-winning NHL yearbooks.
Anita Rundles is a Brooklyn based fine artist and illustrator originally from New England. She graduated in 2013 with a BFA in illustration from the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City. She works in a variety of media including printmaking, pen and ink, digital, and mixed media, with a focus on portraits, fashion illustration inspired figure drawing, and outdoor documentary drawing. Her clients include Bloomberg, A24 Films, Hue Magazine, and Motherboard. She also does large scale murals.
Born on Long Island NY, Heidi Younger began her illustration career in 1988 after receiving a BFA in Graphic Design from School of Visual Arts in NYC. She spent nearly two decades working as a freelance illustrator with clients such as Unilever, Colgate, Nestlé and many newspapers and magazines such as The New York Times, Wall St Journal, Boston Globe, to name a few. Heidi’s Graphic Design background gave her the ability to compose and deconstruct an idea or concept. In 2005 she joined the Illustration Department faculty at Fashion Institute of Technology where she also received her MA degree in 2007. After a decade at FIT she joined the faculty at MICA (Maryland Institute College of Art) in 2015
Charles George Esperanza - Born the second of six kids. The South Bronx is where he first opened his eyelids. A land shrouded in bright colored decay, the birthplace of graffiti and the hip-hop DJ! He paints fantasy worlds of elephants, and castles too! Accompanying this wonder is some whimsical truth. Charles has a voice that is seldom heard. A fusion of jazz, distorted guitars, and chirping birds. He is the author and illustrator of "Red, Yellow,Blue and a dash of White too!" Out March 3rd (Sky Pony Press, 2015)
Sara Kahn is an artist and illustrator currently living in San Francisco with her husband and three cats. Her fascination by visual delights started from an early age. She is mesmerized by the color of light going through a prism or the way colors run together when one puts them on the paper; a beautiful brocade pattern; a marvelous dream; the gestures of a kitten. She paints in an attempt to take visual notes of what she finds intriguing. Her illustrations using a combination of techniques have appeared in Cricket and Cicada Magazines. She has won many prizes and honors for her artworks, including the SCBWI Magazine Merit award for illustration.
John Bellotti Jr. was born and raised in Staten Island NY, currently living in Brooklyn. He studied at FIT, majoring in Illustration, interned at the Juilliard School as a Scenic Artist and I am currently a member of United Scenic Artists Local 829 in New York where I work on Movie, TV and film sets. His passion is creating illustrations based on his love of old Godzilla/sci-fi movies and comic books.
Painter and collage artist Robert Felker seeks magic in the mundane. “Whether it's the tranquil lake at sunset, or the run-down, abandoned country store, the task before me is to honor and capture the ever-unfolding beauty I find in ordinary life.” Robert earned a BFA from School of Visual Arts. He has 8 years experience designing, directing and producing interactives, information graphics and special report web sites for CNN.com. Commercial clients include: Lenscrafters, Sun Microsystems, Alfred Knopf, Turkey Hill Dairy, The United Way of Los Angeles, & School of Visual Arts.
Margaret Minardi “I begin with a drawing or painting of any subject, and the rest is instinct and stream of consciousness. I don’t have a preconceived vision of what the work will become. I add elements as I go. The unraveling story of the work gets me up in the morning. I am always curious and excited to find out what will happen in a painting." Margaret I has been refining a digital monotype process that she had stumbled upon years ago in her classroom. The technique I use creates an ink grain texture that looks very much like a lithograph. Steven Tabbutt was born in Maine and spent the majority of his childhood on military bases in North & South Carolina. He graduated with a BFA in Illustration (minor in Painting) from the Savannah College of Art & Design, Savannah, Georgia and received his MFA in Illustration as Visual Essay from the School of Visual Arts, New York. Steven has exhibited work with galleries nationally and internationally, in such cities as New York, Paris, London, and Tokyo including regular exhibitions with the Yukiko Kawase Gallery; his piece “Landlocked Blues” was chosen for Yukiko Kawase’s London Art Fair Year 07 catalog cover and featured in Miser&Now. His first solo show opened in Paris at the Yukiko Kawase Gallery in June 2009 and was featured in Artension magazine’s 47th issue. Steven has an extensive client list which includes The New York Times, Scholastic, The Wall Street Journal, Smithsonian Art Museum, Playboy among many others.
