Bruce Ackerson, Les Seifer & Blair Thornley opens this Friday!
The Rice Polak Gallery is excited to announce our third feature exhibition of the 2023 season. We will be exhibiting the work of Bruce Ackerson, Les Seifer & Blair Thornley.
The show previews on Thursday August 3rd and runs through Wednesday August 16th. The Opening Reception is on Friday August 4th beginning at 7pm. Please join us!
As a friend of the gallery, we’d like to offer you an exclusive online preview of their work by visiting the gallery’s website.
BRUCE ACKERSON
“POOL PARTY – NEW PAINTINGS”
Bruce Ackerson quickly established a following for his rich, painterly technique and quirky subject matter. The artist uses a consistent format of medium-to-large-sized, square works painted in oils on panel. These paintings are distinguished by their high vantage points and richly textured surfaces. From a birds-eye view, Ackerson presents scenes which are an imaginative take on popular culture, modern life and the hidden world of the human psyche. His beautiful, agitated brushwork adds to the tension inherent in his unusual depictions, making his works both compelling and highly appealing.
Les Seifer’s work is well thought out and deliberate. His mediums include oil paint, acrylic paint, charcoal, lacquer-based inks and cut paper collage on paper, canvas or Masonite all of which adds to the three dimensionality of his work. With this mix of mediums he creates vibrant paintings that engage the viewer and tell a story. He spends a great deal of time internalizing images he wishes to produce and frees himself to express each piece individually. This process can take a long period of time, usually months, before completion. He speaks openly about the process and says, “It isn’t so much that I labor over [these paintings] continuously: rather I tend to see new things and my instincts tell me different paths to follow from week to week. I’m letting time contribute to them.”
Blair Thornley has transformed the magic of her illustrations into paintings that showcase her quirky view of the world. Raised on the East Coast, Thornley studied art in Florence Italy and later attended New York’s Parsons School of Design. Her whimsical drawings have appeared in The New York Times, Vanity Fair, Vogue, Atlantic Monthly, Forbes, Ray Gun and other national publications. “My approach to drawing and painting is largely intuitive, rarely planned — although it is based on many years of careful observation. I like to see what I can imply rather than spell out, avoiding literal rendering as much as possible and focusing on emotion, movement, gesture, and attitude.”
Please mark you calendars for two very special events. Beginning on Thursday August 10th at the Mary Heaton Vorse House, the Rice Polak Gallery will be collaborating with the Provincetown Arts Society and will be presenting a month long exhibition of the work of Susan Mikula. The opening reception for this incredible exhibition is on Thursday August 10th from 5-7pm. Please click on this link to rsvp to the reception.
And on Friday August 17th beginning at 6pm Willie Little will be reading from his new book “In the Sticks:”.“In The Sticks” is a coming of age story of his family dynamics; folks from a time gone by, told with candid humor and a keen eye for human foibles. Stay tuned for more info about both of these events.
The gallery is now open daily from 11-5 and on Thursday, Friday & Saturday evenings and of course by appointment. Please visit our website where you now buy artwork directly. And if you are in town this Friday please stop by the gallery and experience this wonderful show in person.
