November 25 - January 7, 2024

Opening Reception: Saturday, november 25, 5:30 - 8pm
CLOSING NIGHT ARTIST TALK: SUNDAY, JANUARY 7, 4-5PM

Three Artists

Deborah Everett - Nina Meledandri - Susan Newmark

FiveMyles is pleased to present a group exhibition of work by Deborah Everett, Nina Meledandri and Susan Newmark.

Deborah Everett is a painter of vibrant, psychologically charged zones, where surfaces (within landscape or interiors) can often seem corporeal. Her animate images revolve around a keen sense of place. Some of these locales are inhabited only by themselves, so that they also function as protagonists. Others enclose intimate, choreographed dramas where abstract or object-like characters interact with the space as well as each other. People are absent, because they tend to be overly individualized, although occasionally ‘abstracted’ animals may come into play. Colors are rich and underscore the emotional weight of the images, while surface textures intensify the energy of the atmosphere. Simultaneously, the placement of the characters prominently affects the visual situation, as they create tension or other heightened ambient conditions. Overall, these characteristics tend to engender a reality where everything not only inhabits the same world, but tends to interlock in a continuous presence, as if they are essentially one being. 

Nina Meledandri’s process is, to her, perhaps the most important aspect of her work. Since her youth, she has maintained a daily commitment to exploring the possibilities of working with the subjects that most interest her, especially elements of nature. She draws and uses watercolor paint and collaged items (even twigs and dried flowers themselves) along with a variety of other means to encapsulate her experience of these subjects. The results can be linear, swirling, loosely geometric color blocks or diverse alternative forms, but they share an organic sensibility.  She displays them linearly, often on tables, so that each piece communicates with the surrounding ones. In recent years, she has incorporated papermaking with natural materials into her practice. In that case, the natural, handmade surfaces of the papers expand the significance of each piece.
The Alchemy of Paper: June is comprised of 30 handmade papers made in June 2022 as part of a daily papermaking practice. They will be displayed in two rows, nestled in sand, inside a 16 ft vitrine around which the viewer can walk evoking the experience of Meledandri's own daily process of gathering the materials used to create a visual response to the sea's offerings each day. A catalogue of the papers will be available.

Susan Newmark’s work takes the form of paper collages assembled in an additive process, which then create interwoven webs of vision. Her range of materials, (often natural) patterns and textures may combine to evoke built environments. At times they have a sense of compression that echoes the small spaces she grew up in -- the cramped New York City apartments of her childhood. Additionally, the imagery appearing in the components of her collages reflects her social concerns, such as the constant destruction of our natural environments along with the traditional cultures that sprang from them. For Newmark, a critical element of older (often indigenous) societies is the creation of textiles, a female labor of love resulting in everyday essentials, ranging from clothing, to bedding, to portable shelters, to tools for carrying materials, to exquisite objects of décor. Accordingly, weaving is a very apt system for embodying her vision. 

SUNDAY, JANUARY 7, 4-5PM:

Deborah Everett, Nina Meledandri and Susan Newmark will be in conversation with Charlotta Kotik, Curator Emerita at The Brooklyn Museum.

GALLERY HOURS:

Thursday - Sunday, 1 - 6pm, or by appointment. Please email hanne@fivemyles.org, or call 718-783-4438.

DIRECTIONS:

Take 2, 3, or 4 trains to Franklin Avenue. Walk two blocks against the traffic on Franklin. Walk ¾ block to 558 St. Johns Place. FiveMyles is within easy walking distance from the Brooklyn Museum.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:

FiveMyles is in part supported by the New York State Council for the Arts, Public Funds from the New York City Dept. of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, Council Member Crystal Hudson, The Jacques and Natasha Gelman Foundation, the Joseph Robert Foundation, and the William Talbott Hillman Foundation.