Announcement: Boston Art Book Fair

Abigail Ogilvy Gallery is pleased to announce our first year of participation in the Boston Art Book Fair. The event is located in the historic Cyclorama of Boston’s South End neighborhood. The fair will showcase local Boston artists, creators, and businesses to connect Boston with the national art community, and facilitate connections between Boston creatives and prospective publishing partners.

Dates: November 4-6, 2022
Friday Eve Ticketed* Preview Party (preview offerings, dance party, film screening, food & drinks): 6pm-9pm
*Tickets are $30 and can be purchased here.
Saturday: 12pm-7pm: Free and open to the public
Sunday: 12pm-5pm: Free and open to the public
More details: https://bostonartbookfair.com/

Pelle Cass, “Thalia Beach Friday No. 2,” 2019, Ink print on heavy matte, 13 x 19 in. (Ed. of 15) 24 x 36 in. (Ed. of 10) 40 x 60 in. (Ed. of 3)

Abigail Ogilvy Gallery is pleased to present three of our represented artists at the Boston Art Book Fair: Pelle Cass (Brookline, MA), Cassandra Jones (Ojai, CA), and Kristina McComb (Gill, MA). We look forward to sharing an array of books, prints, and art objects by each artists. These artists share a special interest in the message produced by the relationships in their images. Along with this common curiosity, Cass, McComb and Jones each bring new life to their medium by combining traditional photography with a contemporary lens.

Pelle Cass constructs his compositions using a large collection of photographs taken from the same angle. He does not manipulate the original photography other than deciding which objects to omit and keep, and each component of the photograph remains in its same location in the overall composition. These choices produce an image conveying a sense of chaos and the passing of time. At the Boston Book Art Fair, Abigail Ogilvy Gallery will be presenting his new book “Pelle Cass” alongside prints from his series, Crowded Fields.

Cassandra Jones, “Lemon Ball,” 2019, Archival Ink Jet on 100% Cellulose, 24 x 20 in

Kristina McComb, “Boston Atheneum 2040,” 2021, Photograph - framed, 9 x 6 in, 36 x 24 in, 42 x 28 in

Cassandra Jones takes a different approach to the idea of repetition by collecting and collaging mostly found photographs into a work that comments directly on contemporary society. Their digital photography tells stories of a prismatic reflection of our self-involved, technology-based, snap-happy contemporary lifestyle. Their work will be available as prints at the Boston Art Book Fair.

Kristina McComb’s work explores the passing of time, similar to Pelle Cass’s images, as well as the relationships created from light, line, and texture. Differing from the work of Jones and Cass, McComb does not alter the objects in her images, simply capturing the existing in a striking composition. Her practice focuses on the intersection of photography and sculpture. At the show, we will be exhibiting her photographs from her ongoing series featuring the Boston Athenæum in addition to her most recent publication “An Archive of Time: A Life Lived in the Boston Athenæum” .

For more information about the Boston Art Book Fair, please click here.

Announcement: Art On Paper NYC 2022

Abigail Ogilvy Gallery is proud to announce our inclusion in Art On Paper New York 2022. Located at Pier 36 in Downtown Manhattan, the fair will feature 100 galleries focused on top modern and contemporary paper-based art. We look forward to featuring artworks by gallery artists Wilhelm Neusser, Nathaniel Price, and Coral Woodbury.

Occurring during Armory Week NYC 2022, the dates of the fair are September 8 - 11.

We will announce further details soon. For more information about Art On Paper and to purchase tickets, click here.

Press Release: I'll See You Again, Soon

June 1 - July 17, 2022
Mishael Coggeshall-Burr | Susan Murie | Wilhelm Neusser | Natalia Wróbel

Wilhelm Neusser, Fence/Marsh (2125). Oil on paper, framed. 33.5 x 26 in. 2021

Abigail Ogilvy Gallery presents I’ll See You Again, Soon, featuring gallery artists Mishael Coggeshall-Burr, Susan Murie, Wilhelm Neusser, and Natalia Wróbel. The exhibition pulls together four unique styles that individually explore themes of nostalgia through personal experience.

In his latest works, Wilhelm Neusser plays with perspective, using a combination of brushstrokes and etching to create a space that appears just out of reach. A chain link fence acts as a barrier between the viewer and a romantic landscape, suggesting a voyeuristic longing for an indeterminate place or time. Neusser paints his pieces in one sitting, etching the fence before the paint dries. This technique invites speculation on whether it rests in the foreground or background, creating a feeling of contextual limbo for the viewer that contrasts the idea that one is looking at a very particular physical place. Initially visualized during the pandemic, Neusser’s fence series builds on the idea of an untouchable landscape and the way humans interact with the natural world.

Natalia Wróbel, First Breath. Oil on canvas, 60 x 60 in. 2021

Natalia Wróbel presents two of her newest artworks in the exhibition: First Breath, and I’ll See You Again, Soon. The former is a musing on the idea of the conditions present as something is forming, right before coming into being. While creating this piece, Wróbel was contemplating the miracle of life and all the elements working in tandem to create the whole, which was particularly inspired by the recent birth of her son and the awe and mystery she has felt from his powerful spirit. Wróbel created these two paintings together, and in I’ll See You Again, Soon, she further explores the magnetism of spirit through her strong relationship with her beloved grandparents, Zofia and Jerzy Zientra, who have since passed. Wróbel’s sweeping, vivid colors illustrate the warm visual memories of summers spent at their garden home in Warsaw.

Mishael Coggeshall-Burr further explores the concept of nostalgic reflection through the integration of photography and oil painting. Coggeshall-Burr references images from his travels, selecting peripheral scenes with cinematic color and tone. His newest body of work further iterates these feelings of nostalgia: in La Parisienne (Blue Hour), we see a scene from the Latin Quarter of Paris at the end of a workday, as Parisians make their way across the busy Blvd St Germain, climbing out of the Odeon Metro, meeting friends for an aperitif at Le Relais Odeon, carrying themselves for all the world like actors on a set: handsome, ineluctable, intent on their purpose. This scene is common in Coggeshall-Burr’s works, which pull from memories. He integrates his personal experiences into the paintings while also leaving room for the viewer to feel nostalgia for the place.

Mishael Coggeshall-Burr, La Parisienne (Blue Hour). Oil on canvas, 36 x 36 in. 2022

Susan Murie’s artwork is based in photography, capturing images with a camera to create the negatives assembled in floral compositions actualized through intricate cyanotypes. She explains, “As I gather imagery, I am drawn often to flowers, some animals, windows and doors, clouds, and found objects that have appeared out of nowhere and seem to bring me a message or meaning. These then become part of my thinking about the ethereal nature of things, fragile bonds and the materiality of cyanotype.” The deep Prussian blues offer the duality of allowing the viewer a total immersion, while also creating a vast visual distance between viewer and image. Murie’s practice serves as a visual record of her own thoughts and emotions at the time of creation, drawing from an archive of images that range from florals to household objects reminiscent of her life and her family. Each resulting cyanotype is a unique object in itself, and a record of time.

Susan Murie, Lucky. Cyanotype on paper, 45 x 30 in. 2022

When combined, the four artists’ work inspires a sense of introspection and examination of the transience of the past. They employ their own respective styles to capture a sense of nostalgia, using color, collage, and photography to transport the viewer to a place that will only exist in memory: places they wish to share.

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Mishael Coggeshall-Burr studied painting at Middlebury College, The Glasgow School of Art, and the Art Student's League in New York.  His artistic adventures have led him to many countries and continents, with many images from his travels featured in his art exhibitions. He lives, works and paints in Montague, MA with his wife and four children.

Susan Murie is a New England-based artist. She currently has work on exhibit in the National Prize Show, Cambridge Art Association and recently at the Rhode Island Center for Photographic Art 8th International Call. Her work was exhibited in the 22nd Annual Frances N. Roddy Exhibition 2021 at the Concord Art Center where her work, The Crossing, received a prize awarded from juror Sam Adams. In 2021 and 2020 Murie was awarded Artist of the Year in the Members Prize Show at the Cambridge Art Association. Her artwork was published in the London-based INKQ, Inky Leaves Publishing, Issue 9, Spring 2020 as well as featured in The Hand Magazine, Issue #26 in the Fall of 2019. Her work has been juried into and sold at the MassArt Auction in 2021, 2020 and 2019. Murie’s work has been featured on The Curated Fridge, Somerville, MA. In addition to private collections, Murie’s work is in the permanent collection of Fidelity and the City of Somerville.

Wilhelm Neusser’s artwork has been widely exhibited and he has received numerous awards and fellowships. His recent museum exhibitions include the Rijksmuseum (Amsterdam, 2019), the Fruitlands Museum (Harvard, MA, 2019), and MASS MoCa (North Adams, MA, 2018). In 2020 he was honored with a finalist grant in Painting from the Mass Cultural Council. Additional awards and recognition include the MASS MoCA Studio Program (2017), Vermont Studio Center (2013), Finalist, Wilhelm-Morgner-Prize, Soest (2010), International Artist in Residence, Boots Contemporary Art Space (St. Louis, MO, 2009), ZVAB Phönix Art Prize (2007). Neusser’s work has been included in notable publications, including The Boston Globe, Boston Magazine, Artscope Magazine, Boston.com, and Big Red & Shiny. Wilhelm Neusser was born in Cologne, Germany. He relocated to the United States in 2011, and currently lives and works in Somerville, MA.

Natalia Wróbel (b. 1989) is an artist based in Southern California. Wrobel studied Studio Art and Art History at Dartmouth College. She furthered her study at the Lorenzo de'Medici Institute in Florence and then the New York Studio School (NYSS). She received the NYSS Mercedes Matter Fellowship in 2012, and the Murray Art Prize in 2015. In 2017, Wrobel completed a painting residency at the Berlin Art Institute. Her work has been featured at international art fairs including Art Basel: Miami, Texas Contemporary, and Art SouthHampton and has been an official selection at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, and MassArt Auction. Her paintings have been featured in publications in the US and Europe, in coursework at The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and are included in public and private collections around the United States, Europe, South America, Asia, and Australia. Wróbel's work is represented by Abigail Ogilvy Gallery in Boston, MA.

Press Release: Layered Truths

Abigail Ogilvy Gallery is proud to present Layered Truths, a group show featuring James Parker Foley, Josh Jefferson, and Lavaughan Jenkins. The show brings together three unique painting styles that explore figurative storytelling.

Installation view: Layered Truths (on view March 2 - April 17, 2022)

Lavaughan Jenkins, Message from a Black Man, 2022. Acrylic and spray paint. 42 x 13 x 12 in.

Lavaughan Jenkins paints with a three-dimensional, sculptural technique that incorporates layers of paint to form rich, freestanding figures. Jenkins reflects that, “with three-dimensional paintings…everywhere you look, you can see a different painting because it changes with every angle.” His most recent painting, Message from a Black Man, was created during his residency at the Fine Arts Works Center. The work stands powerfully at 3.5 feet tall, depicting the quiet countenance of the single Black individual.

Josh Jefferson continues this theme of layered painting as he reveals, “I don't paint a painting, I build one.” In his Big Brush series, Jefferson uses two brushes at the same time to create balanced yet free flowing work. He describes this fresh method as a way to get into the painting from the inside out. A recent studio visit brought us to a vibrant room filled with collage components that lived and worked alongside Jefferson until he decided where they would belong in his compositions.

James Parker Foley paints as a reclamation of power. They state: “painting is becoming for me a place where I get to make all the rules, and I can build my own feminist universe where women are awesome and terrifying and in total control.” Parker Foley’s works embody this sense of feminist assertion, often conveying worship and deification through their vivid hues and rich textures.

Through their own distinctive styles, all three artists take on themes of storytelling, both in the personal contemporary as well as the mythic and ancient. Each painting relays the artists’ truths, layered in paint as figures in a bigger story. Painting is a central part of both life and identity for each artist.

James Parker Foley, Raising the Dory, 2022. Oil on linen. 46 x 42 in.

Parker Foley explores the spiritual and ritualistic through works like Raising the Dory and The Departure. Often, their work incorporates mythic journeys and quests, centering on one or more heroic figures. They incorporate yonic symbols, portrayed as divine in Raising the Dory, where two gossamer figures raise a boat over their heads in exaltation. Parker Foley leans into the epic, and describes the figures’ task as Sisyphean “in the sense that they’re stuck doing this task as long as the painting survives.”

Jenkins also explores this mythic exaltation of women in his work as nearly all of his subjects take on a female form. John Greiner-Ferris writes in his article, Why Lavaughan Jenkins is Not a Sculptor, that this subject choice pays “homage to the women in [Jenkins’] life. The list begins with his mother, who raised him as a single parent, and his grandmother. It also includes two teachers in Florida who kept him in school when he wanted to drop out, and the gallerists who gave him his first breaks, of whom he says, ‘They didn’t have to take a chance on my work, but they did.’” Jenkins’ storytelling is personal, but also harkens back through history to return Black female figures to a place of worship.

Josh Jefferson, Bird on a Wire. Acrylic, flashe, and cut canvas on canvas. 48 x 60 in.

Jefferson’s work also draws lines from the personal to the ubiquitous as his work expresses “universal, mystical and ancient truths about family relationships, pets and self-identity.” Pulling from Aztec iconography, he spins a contemporary twist on the ancient to relay a new narrative that appears simultaneously original and familiar. Storytelling and technique are central to each of these artists’ works as their pieces tell stories that pay homage to the classics through new and innovative artmaking techniques. 

James Parker Foley’s spooky landscape paintings are populated with a cast of faceless characters. Their works are derived from studies and sketches of coastal Maine, which becomes their setting for fantasy. Their oil paintings are characterized by saturated, optical color work, an expansive vocabulary of mark-making, and lanky, ambling figures. By blending the historied Maine traditions of horror and landscape, they create scenes in which the body is a force within nature. The scenes range from moments of peril—passive subjects being touched, grabbed, and stepped on to moments of force; subjects striking, lifting, and strangling. The faceless bodies contribute to the open narrative structure of the work—the lack of expression allows the figures to coolly disassociate from the proceeding activities. Self-possessed and self-aware, the paintings themselves gaze back toward the viewer.

Josh Jefferson was born in St. Petersburg, FL in 1977. He attended The School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. He has shown work both nationally in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and internationally in Amsterdam, Milan, and Quezon City. He currently lives and works in Boston with his wife and son.

Lavaughan Jenkins is a painter, printmaker, and sculptor. He was raised in Pensacola, Florida and currently creates his work in Boston, MA. He received a BFA from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design in 2005. Since that time, Jenkins has become a recipient of the 2019 James and Audrey Foster Prize awarded biennially by the Institute of Contemporary Art / Boston. In 2016, he was named Emerging Artist of the year at Kingston Gallery in Boston, MA, Jenkins is a recipient of the 2015 Blanche E. Colman Award and in 2002 received the Rob Moore Grant in Painting. He has exhibited his work most recently at venues such as Abigail Ogilvy Gallery (Boston), The Painting Center (NY), Suffolk University Gallery (Boston), and Oasis Gallery (Beijing). Jenkins donates annually to the Massachusetts College of Art and Design Auction which supports student scholarships.