LAWRENCE KELSEY: New York: Redux

LAWRENCE KELSEY: NEW YORK: REDUX

March 8 – April 20, 2013

Madelyn Jordon Fine Art is pleased to present a sixth solo exhibition of new works by New York painter Lawrence Kelsey entitled New York Redux from March 8 – April 20, 2013. An opening reception will be held Fri., March 8, 2013 from 6-8PM. The artist will be present and the public is invited. Previews and private showings are by appointment only.

This exhibition of recent paintings demonstrates Kelsey’s continuing focus on the sights and scenes around New York City. Familiar views of iconic landmarks such as The Chrysler Building, Central Park, Gramercy Park and the East River continue to dominate as favorite subject matter for the artist. For the first time, Kelsey has ventured downtown to Wall Street with a dynamic painting of the Woolworth building. This work, Woolworth Building, depicts the mid-afternoon sun reflecting off the cement and marble historical buildings of the financial district. Kelsey’s vantage point, looking down Broadway, past Trinity Church, beckons us to travel the length of the avenue, to the historic building.

Another midday painting, Central Park Afternoon depicts inhabitants of New York City enjoying the luscious landscape which is a rarity for Kelsey. The lush green foliage in this painting generates a feeling of tranquility and peace in the big city while giving a sense of leisure and community amongst the fast pace of Manhattan.

Some of Kelsey’s most admired works are the beautiful orange hued sunsets that glisten behind the steel urban landscapes of Manhattan as seen in Downtown Skyline and Tug. Here, the sunset projects an orange glow across the cold grey city in March creating anticipation of springtime with longer and warmer days to come. Rays from the sunset pass between the buildings and if you close your eyes the warmth of the sun can be felt on your face. The tugboat in the foreground creates anticipation of balmy day boating activities that occur around Manhattan in the warmer months.

The exhibition features several impressionist, nighttime city skyline scenes of Midtown and the East River that Kelsey is best known for stylistically. In Midtown Rooftops, Night, we are reminded of the damp nighttime fog blanketing the lights of inhabited buildings in the city. The hazy, impressionist scene is heightened by the heat escaping through the grates of the occupied buildings adding to the murky and dramatic atmosphere.

Kelsey’s long-term love affair with New York City, especially the island of Manhattan, has been the subject of his artistic oeuvre for over thirty years. Kelsey’s signature style, a meeting of the abstract with the representational, the spiritual with the mundane reveals the poetry, and rhythm of life in the big city, reflected in its rivers, parks, rooftops and streets.

Born in Ohio, Kelsey moved to New York with his family at the age of three, and was raised in New Rochelle. He attended The Art Students League in Manhattan, studying with Vaclav Vytlacil and Beverly Hale. His work is included in numerous private and public collections, including The New York Historical Society, Merrill Lynch, Pfizer, Black Rock and Structure Tone.