(MILLBURN, NJ) -- Paper Mill Playhouse has announced the reopening of the reimagined and reinvigorated The Gallery at Paper Mill in the Renee Foosaner Art Gallery. The inaugural exhibition, Color Abstraction, will run from January 26 through April 24 and will feature three local artists: Dorothy Ganek (South Orange), Calina Hiriza (Millburn), and Jesús Núñez (Millburn).
Future exhibitions will run concurrently with each of the theater’s five annual mainstage productions. In addition, the work of Dana Salzone (Madison) can be viewed in the F.M Kirby Carriage House Restaurant.
“Paper Mill is surrounded by a vibrant arts community. We are thrilled to spotlight local visual artists and engage lovers of the arts with their work,” says Mike Stotts. “We hope that our audiences love it and the artists benefit from the exposure we will be able to provide."
“Visual art is part of Paper Mill’s history,” adds Mark Hoebee. “Antoinette Scudder, one of Paper Mill’s original founders and a visual arts lover, insisted that a gallery be included when the original design was created for the theater in 1934, and local artists hung their work when the theater opened in 1938. It’s a part of who we are that is sometimes forgotten. We welcome it back now with a renewed commitment.”
The Gallery at Paper Mill is located on the mezzanine level and can be enjoyed by patrons attending a performance or visited daily from 12:00pm – 6:00pm with no ticket required. Paper Mill Playhouse is located at 22 Brookside Drive in Millburn, New Jersey.
Dorothy Ganek (South Orange) As a young child, Dorothy Ganek drew constantly with precious red pencils on lined notebook paper, since supplies were scarce in the post-World War II years in her native Greece. At the age of 10, she migrated to the United States with her family. Trying to hold on to her roots and fit into new surroundings, she began to balance the two worlds through her art. “In my teens, I spent countless hours drawing fashion figures and designing fabrics that would make up their stylish outfits.” This passion with pattern and design led her to a career in interior design for over 40 years, balancing with the love of being a wife and mother and now a grandmother.
Her strong desire to draw and paint never went away during those years, and she eventually pursued a professional art career, working primarily in traditional watercolor.
Today, her work has evolved into an abstract expression on large canvases directed by her senses and emotions rather than objects. Her compositions are asymmetrical with bold color and line as major components.
She begins painting spontaneously, letting her intuition guide her to the next step, developing and refining until the work is finished. She makes signature marks with a variety of crayons, graphite and charcoal to initialize her surface before adding color. Collage, elements found papers or papers created by the artist are often added.
“It’s the unexpected accidents that occur during the early stages that are the most intense and exciting, not knowing what direction the painting will take. It’s that mystery that keeps me going back into the studio.”
Calina Hiriza (Millburn) Driven by an innate inquisitive nature, Calina’s work has evolved over the years into the abstract. Her most asked question is “Why?” and where the figurative could not answer, raw materials began to speak for themselves, asking for a life lived by a different set of rules. Her work harvests the dialogue between self and matter, creating an output that continues to move the needle in the hunt for the transmundane.
Known for her bold abstract style and experimental techniques on wood, Calina’s international exposure is reflected in her powerful artistic expression. Traditionally trained in the fine arts from a young age in her native Romania, Calina holds a BFA and AA from the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York.
“The shaping and expression of substance that is otherwise inert is most interesting to me. The paint as a medium, in its fluid, paste or dried form, comes alive when we touch and transform it. Without figurative representation, the attention can be focused on the physical aspect, elevating it to its artistic value through intentional or impulse-guided gestures.
“My work begins with a dialogue between self and matter, and leads to the abstract, where the corpus is deciphered through the texture, chromatic intensity and kinesics. The pieces tell intricate stories in a clandestine language for which there is no physical referent. The intention is to elicit new states of being onto myself and the viewer, and to create awareness of the inner self by allowing one to peek into the unknown. I do not want onlookers to simply understand my art, I want them to feel it.”
Jesús Núñez (Millburn) A native of Spain, Jesús Núñez is a multidisciplinary contemporary artist. From a young age, art has always come naturally to him. As a teenager growing up in Madrid, his first step into the public art world was through street art. As he became established in life, he turned his artistic talents to culinary art. For 20+ years Jesús has led renowned restaurants in New York City and Madrid, including three of his own: Gastroarte, Polenta, and Flou. In its review of Jesús’ first New York restaurant, The New York Times called his cuisine edible art and compared Jesús to famed Spanish surrealist Salvador Dali. Throughout his career, Jesús has proven himself a highly creative visionary who pushes boundaries and experiments with new techniques. Fourteen years ago, he moved to New York City and has since been creating new work that is genuine to his process and life experiences thus far.
Throughout the work, the artist's goal is to demonstrate how everything you see coexists together in a delicate balance. In this way, the contrasts of different curves and shapes are united by careful use of color to give this collection a sense of wanting to be heard, to be seen, and to blur the boundaries of what constitutes art.
The artist uses a unique acrylic brushstroke technique in which he creates these balanced curves using one continuous motion. He uses kitchen tools as opposed to paint brushes to create his unique artworks. Throughout this collection, you will see a perfect blend of colors specifically chosen by the artist to complement each piece and bring out its full potential. This technique was born out of his years of creating balanced and beautiful culinary presentations.
Dana Salzone (Madison) grew up just outside Chicago. Her love of art began in grade school with frequent trips to the renowned Art Institute of Chicago. She was always drawn to Gallery 243, where the works of Claude Monet are housed. She was also influenced by her mother, who is a professional artist and has taught Dana a lot about the use of color and the power it has. In each painting, Dana carefully curates a unique palette, making sure every inch of work flows beautifully into its neighboring space, creating the perfect marriage of color. Her work balances light against harmonious color combinations on spatially ambiguous canvases. It is visually engaging and contains many figures and faces, often hidden within initial layers. Dana’s use of color can evoke a wide range of emotion, from calm and soothing to exciting and controversial.
Dana works primarily in oil and highly pigmented acrylic on large-scale canvases and draws inspiration from old photographs her late grandmother Jeanne took in Monet’s gardens in the 1970s. Another source of inspiration for Dana are her two young children, whose wild energy she tries to harness into creating art and expressing themselves. Her goals for the future include opening a gallery one day with her autistic son, and drawing the special needs community of New Jersey more into the world of art.
Her work is shown in Beauregard Fine Art Gallery in Rumson, NJ, as well as Whitespace Gallery in Hackettstown.
IMAGES: (TOP) "After The Party" by Dorothy Ganek, "Bang Bang" by Calina Hiriza, and "Aquarmarine #2" by Jesús Núñez (MIDDLE) art by Dana Salzone
