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For Immediate Release:
OCEANVILLE – The paintings of Alyssa Monks and Tom Birkner are of a representational narrative genre, luring the viewer to a specific time, place and action. Both artists present meticulously painted oils that tell a story, not quite explicit. Here figures are caught in the moment, engaging the viewer to ask, “What happens next?” Never still, figures provide engaging narratives in a full range of human emotion.
Tom Birkner takes a closer look at the social landscapes that surround us
with an honest and straightforward eye. Scenes of blue-collar New Jersey
towns, abandoned warehouses, people hanging out in the neighborhood or at
the local race track are both beautiful and haunting. The environment is
gritty, familiar, and surprisingly closes to home. Birkner is interested
in the stories of the people he paints and the characters have a familiar
quality. He sometimes focuses on one hue in a painting, adding to the cinematic
quality of his work. In Heavy Metal, a girl lights a cigarette, as Soprano-style
thugs in the background make a plan in the parking lot behind her.
Birkner
grew up in Rahway, New Jersey, and currently lives and works in Lambertville,
New Jersey. He received his BA from Rutgers and his MFA from Penn
State. He has twice received the NJ State Council on the Arts Fellowship.
Birkner has exhibited extensively, including numerous solo exhibitions
at DFN Gallery, as well as in Chicago, San Francisco, Milan, Bologna, and
Beijing.
At first glance, Alyssa Monks’ images appear to
be hyper-realist renderings. Viewed at a closer distance, however, they
are something all together different and even more interesting. She uses
the paint in a loose painterly manner, so that when you move close to
her paintings they become very abstract, breaking down into strokes and
dabs of color. Striving for anatomical accuracy Monks captures the figure
in a specific time and place. Her technically accurate representation
is remarkable as she presents water surfaces, glass and flesh with alarming
realism. Monks explains, “I want to see how far I can
push the image out of clear focus and still have it be convincing and
realistic.”
Raised in New Jersey, Monks earned her MFA in
painting from the New York Academy of Art, Graduate School of Figurative
Art. Monks is part of the Continuing Education Faculty at the New York
Academy of Art, where she teaches Flesh Painting. She currently is also
an instructor at the Montclair State University. Alyssa has had numerous
solo shows in New York and Anaheim, California and has exhibited internationally
in Germany and Italy.
The Noyes Museum of Art of Richard Stockton College
733 Lily Lake Road, Oceanville, NJ
(609) 652-8848
www.noyesmuseum.org
Flashpoint: Tom Birkner and Alyssa Monks
Exhibition Dates: June 11 - September 15, 2010
Summer Opening Reception: Friday, June 18, 2010
The Noyes Museum of Art - The Noyes Museum of Art was founded in 1983
to collect, preserve and exhibit American fine art, crafts and folk art.
An emphasis is on New Jersey artists and folk art forms, reflecting the
area's long history, traditions, landscape and culture. General funding
is provided by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts / Department
of State, a state partner of the National Endowment for the Arts; the
Mr. and Mrs. Fred Winslow Noyes Foundation; The Richard Stockton College
of New Jersey; the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation; the Odessa F. and Henry
D. Kahrs Charitable Trust. Please call 609-652-8848 or visit our website
for more information.
Click HERE
to view the entire exhibition.
Click HERE
for Noyes Museum information.
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