Spanierman Gallery, LLC is pleased to announce the opening on May 3, 2012 of Peter Poskas: New Paintings, an exhibition and sale of works by this eminent contemporary landscape painter.  They consist of the images of old homes and farms in western Connecticut, a subject to which the artist has been devoted for over thirty years, as well as views of Monhegan Island and Stonington, Maine.  Filled with glowing light that softens and silhouettes buildings, the images call to mind the long-established link between light and spiritual essence.  At the same time, expressing the need for historic preservation, they record the features and artistic qualities of places still in use, that bear the history that shaped them. 

This exhibition includes works mostly in a small and intimate format, featuring locales that have drawn the artist’s attention in the last few years.  In five paintings of the Hipp Farm in New Milford, Connecticut, Peter Poskas portrays this old-time subsistence farm, which has been in one family for generations.  His images capture a place in which the owners have endeavored to maintain the agrarian life.  While portraying the quintessential red barn (which houses over twenty cows) and white farmhouse, Poskas brings to it a precisely observed sense of light that overlays the works with respect and sanctity.  In two images of Hillman Farm in South Ashfield, Massachusetts, Poskas similarly expresses regard for a homestead that incorporated an earlier round brick schoolhouse into its structure, resulting in a building whose quirky personality he expresses.  Another subject for the artist is Lorch Farm in Cornwall, Connecticut, a farm revived by tenants whose efforts in raising Jersey cows and chickens and growing organic vegetables are geared to the health food market. 

In painting Monhegan Island, Peter Poskas’s preferred time of year is the late summer, when the sparse vegetation affords open vistas and reflective light effects.  Among the Monhegan works in the show are two images of a house built by the artist Rockwell Kent for his mother (now owned by Jamie Wyeth) at the easternmost point of the island.  In views of this lone dwelling, overlooking sea and sky, Poskas elicits contemplation in the viewer on the nature of human experience in the face of eternity.  In his views of Stonington, on Deer Isle, he conveys the unpretentious atmosphere of this authentic seaport town, where fishing remains the primary industry.  Among his images are two paintings of a small house with a large mansard roof, which call to mind the scenes of similar houses by Edward Hopper.  As in Hopper’s paintings, the light that surrounds and isolates architectural forms expresses the emotional feeling summoned by places that recall a lost time in the past. 

As in the art of Andrew Wyeth, Peter Poskas combines precise observation with an eye for abstract form, underscoring the evocative qualities of his scenes.  His images depict places we pass often, but tapping into into our unconscious through his sensitive interpretations of light and form, he brings out why these are locales to be venerated.

Spanierman Gallery, LLC
Peter Poskas: New Paintings
May 3-June 2, 2012
Gallery Hours: Monday-Friday, 9:30a-5:30p

Contact David Major (davidmajor@spanierman.com)
All works can be viewed at the gallery or online at www.spanierman.com.