City Gallery presents WAX, an Exhibition of New Work by Roberta Friedman

[Jen Payne]

In September, City Gallery presents WAX, new work by Roberta Friedman featuring encaustic work that finds its heart in the unexpected. The show runs September 8 - October 1, with an opening reception on Saturday, September 9, 4-6pm. Friedman will be in the Gallery on September 8, 9, 10 and October 1 to meet and talk with visitors.

All proceeds from sales during the show will go to KidneyCan (KidneyCan.org) in memory of the artist’s sister, Margo Wiener.

Consider WAX a visual workshop on making art with wax media — hot wax, cold wax, waxed oil pigments. Encaustic’s techniques are complex and demanding, requiring a host of special tools and materials. It includes layering, fusing with heat, mark making, gouging out, filling in, the emergence of design and color. The use of stencils creates images and surfaces, which are often obliterated to fashion something new and unexpected.

“The art of encaustic, hot wax painting, is ancient and exquisite,” says Friedman. “I am drawn to its nuances. It is messy but forgiving, technical but liberating. Painting with intense, vibrant hot wax blocks of color and with juicy oil pigment sticks allows my affinity for vivid color to run rampant. The continued effort is in containing and controlling that exuberance.”

As a young person Roberta studied art history and painting at the studios of Sebastiano Mineo in New York City. At Douglass College, Rutgers University , she continued her art studies in the studio art department that had been chaired and influenced by Roy Lichtenstein, and has continued to study at several studios and workshops in Philadelphia, Boston, New Mexico, Maine and Denver. More recently, she has explored the world of encaustics at the Denver Art Students League and the studio of Victoria Eubanks. After practicing law in New Haven for 30 years, Roberta continued with vigor and purpose to follow her passion for art and creating. She has been a member of City Gallery since 2011, and has exhibited her work in the greater New Haven area for the past 40 years. She has taught workshops and served on the board of Creative Arts Workshop, and has provided mentoring and instruction to children and adults in a wide range of artistic creations. Most recently, she has assisted area 4th - 7th graders in creating original artwork for greeting cards to be used to raise funds to help with Refugee Resettlement efforts in the greater New Haven area.

WAX is free and open to the public, and will be on view September 8 - October 1, with an opening reception on Saturday, September 9, 4-6pm. The artist will be in the Gallery on September 8, 9, 10 and October 1 to meet and talk with visitors. City Gallery is located at 994 State Street, New Haven, CT 06511. Gallery hours are Friday - Sunday, 12pm - 4 pm, or by appointment. For further information please contact City Gallery, [e-mail], www.city-gallery.org.