Post Sandy: New Art Exhibit Features Childhood Delights And Aids Local Charitable Efforts

Online, November 13, 2012 (Newswire.com) - New York Gallery Elisa Contemporary Art presents A Toy Story and Other Delights, our group Holiday exhibit. The exhibit opens November 16th, 2012. It will run through January 13th, 2013. It will also include a special Toy Drive from November 16-December 15 and donation effort to help the victims of Superstorm Sandy.

A Toy Story and Other Delights captures the toys, pleasures and amusements that filled many of our childhood days. While some take a wistful look back, others are an indulgent glimpse into the treats of today. Our artists seamlessly transition between childhood and adulthood - days filled with desire, struggle, heroism and hope - memories of childhood bliss, and the adult aching to revisit that time. Our exhibit is a welcomed reprieve to delight the senses, tickle the emotions and bring out the carefree child in all of us. Our three featured artists include Mississippi artist, Allan Innman; Virginia artist, Megan Marlatt; and Hawaii Hyper-realists, Peter and Madeline Powell.

Each artist captures this in a realistic-style, yet renders the vision in uniquely different ways. According to Mississippi artist, Allan Innman, "As I grow older, I see it fit to immortalize these forgotten objects from my childhood into paintings. The paintings serve as a retrospective of my lost youth. They are the embodiment of a sacred time in my life and many other people's lives when there are no responsibilities or pressures." His work captures toys, legos, toy cars, action figures and army men, dolls, and play-doh.

Virginia artist Megan Marlatt uses the portrayal of toys and action figures as a metaphor for the uncertainty in our world. She began the series post 9-11 as a way to illustrate the destruction of a safe and secure space.

According to Megan, "...The armies of cartoon characters and salvage store superheroes that make up my piles of plastic toys have become a personal metaphor for the varying factions of external forces rallying to destroy or save us. In addition, abstractionism and realism struggle to co-exist on the picture plane and the antithetical applications of loose expressionism and focused control scuffle to find resolution. I paint the toys from observation and I fight to find visual clarity as I fall into vertigo over the extreme colors and mass consumer objects."

The hyper-realistic canvases of Hawaii artists, Peter and Madeline Powell capture life's treats and play things from both the past and today. According to the couple: "We enjoy taking the little things out of everyday life and giving them the prominence and importance they had when we were children. Our paintings invoke the childhood spirit that everyday life has buried deep within us." Their over-sized images and photorealism bring the viewer into a bursting world of form and color.

Special Donation Efforts to Help Victims of Sandy
A special Toy Drive to help the victims of Sandy will take place from November 16th through December 15th. Please bring your unwrapped toys to the gallery for boys and girls - all ages. We are partnering with the Girl Scouts to help collect and distribute. In addition, a portion of all gallery sales will be donated help those affected by Sandy (donations will be made to American Red Cross and Save the Children)

What:A Toy Story and Other Delights! at Elisa Contemporary Art

Featured Artists: Allan Innman, Megan Marlatt and Peter & Madeline Powell

When: November 16, 2012 through January 13, 2012

Special Events:

* Join us on November 24 Small Business Saturday - Chance to win a book on Art Collecting

* Sunday, December 2 from 12-4pm - Special reading/booksigning by children's author, Maryrose Wood (2-3 pm)

* Toy Drive from November 16 through December 15, partnering with a local Girl Scout Troop to collect and distribute to victims of Sandy in Staten Island

* A portion of every gallery sale to be donated to American Red Cross or Save the Children to help those impacted by Superstorm Sandy

Where: Elisa Contemporary Art, 5622 Mosholu Avenue (near 256th Street), Riverdale NY 10471.

Hours: Friday/Saturday 10 am - 6 pm, Sunday, Dec. 2 from 12-4pm and by Appointment

Meet the Artists:

Allan Innman

Allan Innman is a painter from Oxford, MS. He graduated with a BFA from the University of Mississippi. From 2007-2012 he was a staff member in the Art Department at Ole Miss. Currently, Allan is currently attending University of Georgia at Athens for a Masters of Fine Art in Drawing and Painting.

Allan has exhibited his artwork throughout the US since 2005. His work is in public and private collections including Tumblr (NY), The Mississippi Museum of Art (MS) and Blair E. Batson Hospital for Children (MS.

Megan Marlatt

Megan Marlatt received her B.F.A. from the Memphis College of Art (TN), studied at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture (ME), and received her M.F.A. at Rutgers University (NJ). She has been a professor at the University of Virginia since 1988.

She has received an Individual Artist Fellowship in Painting from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, the Virginia Commission on the Arts, and The New Jersey State Council on the Arts.

Marlatt has had solo and group exhibits throughout the world including "Art Nurnberg 8," Festival of the Arts (Germany), the District of Columbia Arts Center (Washington), Snug Harbor Cultural Center and Parson's School of Design (NY ). Marlatt's public art works have encompassed a fresco mural completed for Emmanuel Episcopal Church, Rapidan, VA, and site-specific works for Hillwood Museum (NY) and Atlanta Arts Festival, Georgia. Her work is in public and private collections including The Peabody Museum (Harvard University, Cambridge MA), Evansville Museum of Art (IL) and Dee & Pug Winokur (Greenwich, CT).

Peter and Madeline Powell

It's not often that two individual artists are able to combine and express their talents to produce a single body of work. Hawaii artists, Peter and Madeline Powell have this rare creative alliance. Essentially, painting is a solo endeavor, yet the Powell's have accomplished a seamless blend of unity in their work.

Having met on Maui in 1976, they soon started working on each others artwork and before too long, it developed into a natural way of approaching and completing a painting for them.

Peter and Madeline Powell are artists who have wed exacting technical photorealism to the sensual memories of one of childhood's most pleasurable activities: Eating candy. Not only getting it, but holding it, looking at it, and unwrapping it. The smell, touch, shape, feel, and taste of it all come strikingly through the dramatically over-sized images of Hershey Kisses, Bazooka Bubble Gum, M&M's, and lollipops, to name a few. Of course, the Powell's have covered other subjects, most
notably Crayons, toys, cars, even florals and an occasional scenic! But no matter the subject, the viewer is pulled into a bursting world of form and color.

The Powells have exhibited their paintings throughout the US. They are in public and private collections including A&M Records (CA), BMW North America (GA) and The Slinky Corporation (PA).

About Elisa Contemporary Art

Elisa Contemporary Art represents a portfolio of both emerging and established contemporary artists, many of whom have work in the permanent collections of major museums and corporations.

Founded in 2007 by Lisa Cooper, Elisa Contemporary Art is dedicated to promoting the appreciation and collection of art as a way to enrich and heal our lives, our communities, and the world. The Riverdale gallery opened in September 2008. Elisa Contemporary Art has participated in high end art fairs in New York, Miami and the Hamptons, and curated over 12 public art exhibits in the Tri-State area and online for 2011 CurateNYC. Owner Lisa Cooper also provides art consulting services.

A portion of every sale is normally donated to philanthropic organizations that help children and families within underserved communities heal and grow through their experience with art. Free Arts NYC, Arts to Grow and Creative Arts Workshops for Kids are supported. However, during this show, all donations will go to the American Red Cross and Save the Children to help victims of Sandy.

For more information, visit the website at www.ElisaContemporaryArt.com or contact Lisa Cooper at Lisa@ElisaArt.com or 212.729.4974. The Riverdale Gallery is located at 5622 Mosholu Avenue, Riverdale NY 10471.

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