Audrey Anastasi
Memorial, yahrzeit candle, gold leaf, trees
2020

Name: Memorial, yahrzeit candle, gold leaf, trees
Brand: Audrey Anastasi
Rating: 5 (9 reviews)

$950

£715.03

€836.54

CA$1,343.57

A$1,364.65

CHF 786.41

MX$16,476.15

NOK 9,134.89

SEK 9,211.11

DKK 6,253.39

About the Item

This small-scale, slightly textured, intimate painting could be a Hanukkah or Christmas gift. The 12”x 12” canvas has “gallery wrapped” edges. The edges are also “loosely” painted with a touch of surface paint appearing. The work is pre-wired. It can be hung as is, or it could be framed for a more polished presentation. The gold has a reflective quality changing with the light and angle of viewing, which adds to the spiritual character of the subject. ______________________ Audrey Frank Anastasi is a prolific a visual artist, curator, gallerist, educator, philanthropist, and arts advocate. She works primarily in 2-dimensional mediums: painting, drawing, collage, mixed media, focusing on the human subject. Most of Ms. Anastasi's figurative works are painted with her non-dominant left hand. She has created large bodies of works of birds, animals and birch trees. She has exhibited in over 20 solo & 200 group shows. Her original “ref-u-gee” series of forced-migration–themed artwork was shown in a solo exhibition from October, 2022 through January, 2023 at the Brooklyn College library gallery in collaboration with the Valentine Museum of Art (VMoA.) Accompanying the show, a limited-edition monograph with over 180 images of passport sized paintings, four 8 foot tall works on panels, and a foreword by Phyllis Braff. The book was printed in 2023 by SIZ Industria Grafica, Verona, Italy. Additional book and catalog publications include "Stations of the Cross", SPQR press, with an essay by Amir Bey, BREUCKELEN magazine, “Audrey Frank Anastasi” catalog with an essay by renowned feminist art critic Cindy Nemser, and "Collage" with an essay by Giancarlo T. Roma. Born in a predominantly Jewish suburb of Baltimore, Maryland, Audrey was always drawn to art. Her parents had an innate sense of style. Her father's side of the family were immigrant merchants. They owned what was called, in those days, a junior department store. Audrey’s father would arrange creative window displays. And he was a snappy dresser, looking surprisingly elegant in his patterned or pastel sports jackets. Audrey’s mother, on the other hand, came from a more rural upbringing. Although her maternal grandmother was from Eastern Europe, her maternal grandfather was born in the USA. “Mr. Jew Arthur,” as he was referred to by locals, owned a tavern in a predominantly African-American community, Fairfield, Maryland. Not only did he sell spirits, he definitely partook of them, as well. While still a teenager, Audrey’s mother, Rose Gussie, changed her name to Joyce and headed to Atlanta, Georgia, and later to New York City to be a cosmetician and hosiery model. She also had an impeccable sense of style. And in her picture albums, beside the photographs, were pages upon pages of charming ink drawings of stylish ladies. Of her own formative years, Audrey expresses, “I'm forever grateful that when I was a child, my mother indulged me with regular outings to the library where I emerged with armloads of books, and weekly visits to the Baltimore Museum of Art. There I would pass the gorgeous bust of Queen Nefertiti and the scary mummies on the way to my art lessons. There isn't a single moment of my conscious life when I didn't think of myself as an artist.” Audrey also studied with a local artist, “Miss Mary,” who soon asked Audrey to become a teaching assistant, instructing other students how to observe shapes and tonalities, while faithfully drawing charcoal drawings of classical plaster casts. Despite being an honors student, there were no plans for Audrey to attend college. Her art teacher at Southwest High School in Miami Florida, Miss Violet, intervened to help Audrey apply for a full scholarship, which she was awarded. Attending the University of Miami, and seeing graduate students at work in their very own painting studios, opened up the next chapter. Audrey continued academic pursuits, earning her Master of Fine Arts degree at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York, which has remained her home ever since. At that time, as a photography minor, Audrey composed her large figurative paintings with a camera, and incorporated aspects of photorealism. In 1990, while teaching anatomy for artists at Parsons School of Design, Audrey challenged herself by adopting an exercise that she had given to her students, into her own practice. She started painting with her non-dominant left hand. She feels that the shift in her approach facilitated some of her most creative breakthroughs. “By relinquishing tight control, making the mark became an act of surrender, and it liberated me.” The paintings of that period were seen by renowned feminist art critic, Cindy Nemser, who wrote an essay about the series. They became life-long friends and colleagues. In 2007, Ms. Nemser partnered with Anastasi to curate a revival exhibition entitled “Women’s Work,” which featured many groundbreaking second wave feminist artists*. As a feminist artist herself, Anastasi’s first commitment is to painting other women, the human face, and figure. Whether working with descriptive images or with the abstract use of materials, she approaches all her subjects directly and with abandon. Her series of collages were created first in the presence of a model, working quickly, in charcoal and pastel, and again, later, alone, furiously tearing and pasting images from magazines, various language newspapers, print publications, and previous drawings. “In this way, both in theme and technique, I am working at the intersection of disciplined control and randomized instinct. Observational drawing coexists with selected patterns, colors, and images from media, assembled and pasted down like broad swaths of paint.” The title of the series, EnSamblage, is an invented word referring to both a musical ensemble of parts, and a visual assemblage of elements. Ms. Anastasi's collage series was first exhibited at Welancora Gallery, Brooklyn, in May, 2019. In 2018, ten paintings were exhibited in "Painting to Survive," curated by Yale critic Jonathan Weinberg. In regard to her practice, Ms. Anastasi says, “Most of the techniques I have developed derive from my desire to reach a truth, to bypass left-brain, self-conscious inhibitions, in the process of expression. In 1990, I felt artistically ‘reborn’ when I started painting with my non-dominant left hand and discovered renewed creative freedom. Additionally, I started working at breakneck speed, employing oversize brushes, to cover twenty square feet of canvas, often in less than 4 hours with images from life, of fully representational, and somewhat detailed subjects. With the more recent utilization of collage materials, I am again, re-energized to incorporate the physical materials that represent constant over-stimulation and media bombardment of contemporary times, contrasted with the directly observed presentation of a human subject.” Audrey’s artwork is in numerous private and public collections. In 2005, with her husband, Joseph Anastasi, she founded Tabla Rasa Gallery in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. Ms. Anastasi continues to serve on the Board of Directors of the Brooklyn Arts Council and Hook Arts Media, formerly Dance Theatre Etcetera. Audrey Anastasi is also President Emeritus of Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition, and continues to support their work providing opportunity and a stellar venue for the artists of Brooklyn to exhibit their artwork.

Creator:
Audrey Anastasi (American)
Creation Year:
2020
Dimensions:
Height: 12 in (30.48 cm)Width: 12 in (30.48 cm)
Medium:
Canvas,Gold Leaf,Mixed Media,Acrylic
Movement & Style:
Contemporary
Period:
2010-
Condition:
Gallery Location:
Brooklyn, NY
Reference Number:
1stDibs: LU1339113547422