Sugar n' Spice
February 6 - April 12, 2015
Closing Reception: Saturday, April 11 from 4-6pm


Sugar n_ Spice

Sugar n' Spice a little sweetness and fire.

Elisa Contemporary Art presents Sugar n' Spice. Our new exhibit stirs the emotions and engages the senses.  We explore favorite objects and moments. 

Our  Sugar is filled with: Shiny gems and jewels, plastic
toys and figurines, sweet candy. 

The Spice is packed with explosive scenes.  Animated characters and scenes in pen and ink burst off the
page, while giving a nod to their Japanese influences.  Others are
passionate scenes filled with loss, chaos, frustration and the
unknown.

Sugar n' Spice features artwork of Syracuse artist Michael Barletta, limited edition photography by Tampa artist, Paula Brett and Hawaii Hyper-realists Peter and Madeline Powell

Our new exhibit opens February 7.  

Join us for our Closing Reception, Saturday, April 11 from 4-6pm

 

About the Artists:

Syracuse Artist, Michael Barletta

Michael Barletta's range of artwork includes animated drawings of pen and ink on mylar.  They explode with movement and action. He is an artist at the vortex of a thriving underground art community in Syracuse, New York. Though self-taught, with no formal art education, Michael has been an avid student of the arts since childhood -- absorbing and transforming the energy, chaos and emotion of the streets, the media and of his immediate environment into large scale drawings and paintings that pulse and throb with raw emotion and life force.  His influences include the work of Japanese artist Takashi Murakami, British artist Matthew Ritchie and US artist Inka Essenhigh.

Michael avoids representational or familiar elements.  He finds the compositions to be an expression of emotion, a record of the moment the piece began and how it evolved.   According to Michael, “Ultimately, my work acts like journal entries, reminding me of why I was painting, who was near, what was happening around me.”

Michael’s artwork has been exhibited in a public art exhibits in New York at the Atrium (formerly Citicorp center), the Everson Museum of Art Biennial, Syracuse, NY, the Warehouse Projects Gallery, Syracuse, NY and the NYU Kimmel Windows Gallery in New York, NY, as well as international art fairs in New York and Miami.

 

Tampa artist, Paula Brett

Tampa artist, Paula Brett has brought together the sumptuous with the sacred in her series of limited edition photographs. She has created series of Mandalas each one carefully envisioned using candy, toys, flowers, and sparkling gems and jewels.  Once completed, they are photographed, before being disassembled... like the sand mandalas of the buddhist monks.  According to Paula, “The mandala symbolizes the law of the universe and since man is also a microcosm of the universe, many cultures believe that the mandala also symbolizes the human soul. Mandalas serve as collection point for universal forces…My intention with these candalas is to arrange everyday sweets into a pattern which becomes scared, where delicious turns divine, the enticing now exquisite.”

She has exhibited work in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Budapest, Hungary; and Timiosoara, Romania.

 

Hawaii hyperrealists Peter and Madeline Powell

Hawaii hyperrealists Peter and Madeline Powell are a husband and wife team, who have melded the precision of photorealistic painting with the joys of candy and other delights.  As their paintings are viewed, one can almost smell, touch, and taste each delicious piece.  . 

Their medium is acrylic on canvas.  Each painting starts with selecting the perfect photograph - selected from over 70 choices. Then, the canvas is stretched and Peter and Madeline are both involved in the process of laying out every element down to the smallest detail -- from the graphite drawings inclusive of every shadow, fold crinkle and letter to the actual painting process, using techniques from airbrushing to fine sable brush painting.

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), OPI,  and The Slinky Corporation (PA).