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Art bits: Wes Sherman, Adel Gorgy, sculpture at Noyes

Published: Thursday, January 05, 2012, 8:00 AM

Bischoff

By Dan Bischoff/For The Star-Ledger

Wes Sherman revisits landscape paintings
The Center for Contemporary Art in Bedminster is showing “Revisiting Landscape: Paintings by Wes Sherman” beginning tomorrow and through Feb. 25. Sherman, who studied under Thomas Nozkowski at the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers, often starts with a painting by a familiar landscapist — Constable, say, or Courbet — and abstracts that work until he learns something new about color, paint or space. “Revisiting Landscape” was curated by Zimmerli museum curator Donna Gustafson.

Showing at the center at the same time is “humus redux: landscape painting across a spectrum of abstraction,” featuring the work of Gary Stephan, Judy Simonian and Tiffany Calvert.

The Center for Contemporary Art is at 2020 Burnt Mills Road, Bedminster. An opening reception is set for 6 p.m. tomorrow. Free. Open Mondays to Wednesdays, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Thursdays, 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.; Fridays and Saturdays, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.; and whenever classes or workshops meet.

Adel Gorgy’s pictures of pictures at the Atrium
While we’re on the subject of pictures based on other pictures, the Morris Arts Council is presenting “Seeing Art Anew and Other Photographic Works” by Adel Gorgy at the Atrium Gallery beginning Jan. 23, and the show fits snugly in the “art about art” category. Gorgy has taken photos of familiar artworks — by Picasso, Van Gogh, Matisse and others — and blown up small details into finished compositions that confirm the artists’ overall styles. It’s not so unlike Lee Krasner cutting up her life study drawings to make new abstractions, but with references to art reproduction and the documentary functions of photography. And it can be a challenge to identify who made which detail. Gorgy will also show selections from his nature photography, images of shadows and colors, and black-and-white work.

The Gorgy show will remain on the fourth floor of the Atrium through March 12. The gallery is at 10 Court St. in Morristown. Open Mondays to fridays, 8 a.m . to 5 p.m., with an artist’s reception on Feb. 2 from 6 to 8:30 p.m. For more information, visit adelgorgy.com or check the website at morrisarts.org.

Representational sculpture at the Noyes
Two sculptors working with difficult materials open a joint show at the Noyes Museum in Oceanville on Jan. 13. “Of Myths, Metal and Mortar” includes statues by Katherine Stanek and Julia Levitina, both of whom are widely traveled artists. Levitina sculpts her work in clay and then casts them in terra cotta and bronze, usually taking animals, though occasionally humans, as her subjects. Stanek uses cement, often employing different aggregates or pigments in her work, and has worked as an instructor in casting cement art since graduating from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts.

“Of Myths, Metal and Mortar” will continue through April 22. The Noyes Museum is at 733 Lily Lake Road in Oceanville. Admission is $5 adults, $4 students and seniors. Open Mondays to Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.; and Sundays, noon to 5 p.m.

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