Totems of Life and Abstract Perfectionism
Earlville Galleries to Present the Paintings of Maria Rizzo and John Loy
The
Earlville Galleries open two new exhibits of central New York artists
in November. Maria Rizzo’s paintings are an invitation to “escape from
the daily stress of life and to refocus on what is important, to pause,
take a deep breath, and rejoice in the colors of nature.” During long
walks as a child with her mother in a park near their home in Bologna,
Italy, Rizzo began to experience a deep connection between her life and
the lives of trees. The East Syracuse artist recalls a lifelong
difficulty expressing herself in words, a barrier that made a
frustrating and solitary childhood, until her mother introduced her to
drawing and painting.
Rizzo’s
paintings have been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions in
galleries and museums throughout the northeast US and abroad. In
addition to the 2014 Individual Artist Commission from CNY Arts, she is
the former Artist-in-Residence and Curator at The Tech Garden in
Syracuse, and she is a 2012 New York Foundation for the Arts MARK
alumna.
John
Loy pf Clinton, NY has been painting for over 60 years, and says he
“still finds motivation and energy to continue” in his passion. Always
attracted to abstraction for the creative freedom and challenge it
offers, he eventually realized that he is “inherently a perfectionist
with a need for control.” In the 1970s, he began exploring collage and
was “endlessly fascinated by the manipulation and juxtaposition of
fragmented shapes, colors, patterns, and images.” He says his paintings
are essentially about color, shape, pattern, movement, and space, and
his “primary intention is to create a unique visual experience.”
Loy
was born in St. Louis, MO, and studied art at the Colorado Springs Fine
Arts Center and Colorado College, the School of Fine Arts at Washington
University in St. Louis, the Yale-Norfolk Summer Art School in
Connecticut, and the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan, where he
receive his MFA. In 1960, he joined the faculty at the School of Art,
Munson Williams Proctor Arts Institute in Utica, NY, where he taught
until his retirement in 1991. He has exhibited widely in solo and group
exhibitions and has won numerous awards, including a summer residency
at the Cite Internationale des Arts in Paris. His work is represented
in many public and private collections, and he has been listed in Who’s
Who in American Art since 1966.
Both exhibits will open to the public on Saturday, November 8, with a reception for the artists from noon to 3 pm, and will run through December 21.
Gallery hours are 10-5 Tuesday-Friday and 12-3 on Saturdays. Admission
is free, and the EOH is wheelchair-accessible with a ramp and a lift.
For more information, call 315-691-3550 or visit www.earlvilleoperahouse.com. The Opera House is located at 18 East Main Street, in Earlville, NY.
EOH
events are made possible, in part, with public funds from the New York
State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and
the New York State Legislature, and through the generosity of EOH
members.
