PRESS RELEASE
NEW YEAR’S DAY CELEBRATION OF THE ARTS
AT JRB ART AT THE ELMS
OKLAHOMA CITY, Oklahoma---JRB Art at The Elms will welcome 2013 with its tenth annual New Year’s Day exhibit and celebration from 11:30 am until 3:00 p.m., January 1, 2013. The exhibit will also be featured during the Paseo First Friday Gallery Walk from 6:00 until 10:00 pm, Friday, January 4, 2013. The exhibit will run through January 27, 2013.
On New Year’s Day, as is the Gallery’s custom, guests will be encouraged to enjoy complimentary champagne, black eyed peas, ham, collard greens, assorted salads, dips and pastries while feasting their eyes on the spectacular “Pop Target” paintings of Ford Beckman.
Beckham first rose to prominence amid the wave of post-Neo-Expressionist artists who came to define “New Art in New York” in the late 1980’s. A re-investigation of the works of Beckman and many of his contemporaries is currently underway, confirming their reputations as artists of relevance. The series of “Pop Targets” paintings are part of Beckman’s ongoing investigation of the hybridization of minimal and pop aesthetics.
Noted art critic, Donald Kuspit, states:” Beckman’s painting is a response to the spiritual crisis of modernity. With Beckman, painting renews its spiritual intention, becomes a spiritual sanctuary, and achieves, once again, a spiritual aura, if in a very different, indeed worsening spiritual climate.” Kuspit continues, “a spiritual art necessarily begins in an introspective act, for it means to engage us on the most intimate level of our being, but it must use true and tried symbols to make its point.” The need to re-think and rework the iconic is a constant pursuit of this painter.
Beckman’s work has been exhibited internationally and is included in such notable public collections as Panza Collection, London; The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Israeli Museum, Jerusalem; Essl Collection, Vienna, the Denver Art Museum, the Armand Hammer Foundation and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.
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JRB Art at The Elms presents a diverse roster of emerging, established, and internationally exhibited artists who create in a wide range of media including: paintings, drawings, sculpture, ceramics, glass, fine crafts, functional objects, fiber art and photographs. This 8,000 square foot award-winning gallery in Oklahoma City’s Paseo Arts District changes its exhibits monthly in a gracious environment that fosters a dialogue between the arts and the larger community while providing quality art for first time buyers as well as individual, corporate and museum collections.
JRB Art at The Elms, the former home of Nan Sheets which was built in 1920, is located at 2810 North Walker and is open Monday through Saturday, 10-6, and Sunday 1-5.
Phone: (405) 528-6336 Website: www.jrbartgallery.com
Email: info@jrbartgallery.com