Tuesday, January 22, 2008

MUSIC INSPIRES GALLERY 364 ART SHOW

CONTACT: Georgine Benvenuto Phone: 917-767-3848
Email: georgine@gallery364.com.

MUSIC INSPIRES GALLERY 364 ART SHOW IN BAY RIDGE Gallery 364 Holds Art Show and Competition Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, N.Y., January 16, 2008 – On January 17, Gallery 364, Bay Ridge’s first fine arts studio and gallery, opens its latest art show themed, "Music," with an invitation-only reception. The press is invited from 5:30 – 6:30 p.m. and the general public may attend from 7 – 10 p.m.

The show runs through January 31, 2008. Refreshments for the reception are provided compliments of Circles Restaurant in Bay Ridge, and Eufemia "Effie" Maldari. Musician and singer Lisa Scherma, of Staten Island, will provide the entertainment. Gallery 364 is at 364 72 nd St. in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. After opening night, admission to the show is by appointment only, due to limited space. Visitors can make an appointment by calling Georgine Benvenuto at 917-767-3848.

Gallery 364 prefers to give the artist a theme word, and let the artists express their literal or metaphorical interpretation of that word. For this show, 26 pieces, representing 14 artists, were selected to be in the show out of a total of 75 artists who submitted their work. Various media were used to create the art in the show, including oils, ceramic, acrylics, watercolor, and photography. The art competition will be judged by Gallery 364 owner (and professional photographer), Georgine Benvenuto, watercolorist Doug Opalski, and artist James Belena, whose artwork will also be on display, who will choose the winning piece based on aesthetic appeal, technical skill, meaning, uniqueness, and intent. All artwork will be for sale.

Gallery 364 is housed in an historic 1910 limestone, and is privately owned and operated by Benvenuto, a longtime Bay Ridge resident. Gallery 364 is the first and only fine arts studio/gallery in the Bay Ridge neighborhood. Gallery 364 is Benvenuto’s first gallery. Gallery 364 has been featured on Brooklyn Community Access Television’s (BCAT) "The View from Bay Ridge with Larry Morrish and Chuck Otey" and Channel 12. Gallery 364 will offer affordable classes in digital and film photography, digital printing, painting, watercolor, drawing, and other media, for groups of up to four students.

Artists can rent studio space by the hour. Periodically, Gallery 364 will conduct open competitions and the winners’ artwork will be displayed in a group show. There will also be individual shows featuring special guest artists. Attendance at group and individual shows will be by invitation only. If you’d like more information about this topic, or to schedule an interview with Georgine Benvenuto, please call Georgine Benvenuto at 917-767-3848 or send an email to georgine@gallery364.com.

Friday, January 18, 2008

A Night of Melody

If you were here at the artists opening reception last night at Gallery 364's Monthly Art Competition themed "MUSIC" last night you would have seen & heard the buzz. Art consisted of photographs, oil painting, watercolor, mixed media, ceramic. Singer/Songwriter/Guitarist Lisa Scherma performed original & cover songs throughout the night. Three winners were chosen one for overall Best in Show and two Honorable Mentions.
For all who were invited thanks for attending and a special thanks to our dear friend "Pierre" from Circles Restaurant for providing outrageous wraps, and Effie for providing the refreshments, Lisa Scherma for a music filled night and all the artists for for participating in the show and sharing their passion for art.

Congrats to our winners:


Richard Scott-Artist- Best in Show- Oil Painting "NOCTURNE"


(the following printed by wikipedia.org)

A nocturne (from the French for "nocturnal") is usually a musical composition that is inspired by, or evocative of, the night. Historically, Nocturne is a very old term applied to night Offices and, since the Middle Ages, to divisions in the canonical hour of Matins.
The name nocturne was first applied to pieces in the eighteenth century, when it indicated an ensemble piece in several movements, normally played for an evening party and then laid aside. Sometimes it carried the Italian equivalent, notturno, such as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's quadraphonic Notturno in D, K.286, written for four lightly echoing separated ensembles of paired horns with strings, and his Serenata Notturna, K. 239. At this time, the piece was not necessarily evocative of the night, but might merely be intended for performance at night, much like a serenade.
In its more familiar form as a single-movement character piece usually written for solo piano, the nocturne was cultivated primarily in the nineteenth century. The first nocturnes to be written under the specific title were by the Irish composer John Field, generally viewed as the father of the Romantic nocturne that characteristically features a cantabile melody over an arpeggiated, even guitar-like accompaniment. However, the most famous exponent of the form was Frédéric Chopin, who wrote 21 of them. Later composers to write nocturnes for the piano include Gabriel Fauré, Alexander Scriabin and Erik Satie (1919), as well as Peter Sculthorpe. One of the most famous pieces of nineteenth-century salon music was the "Fifth Nocturne" of Ignace Leybach, who is now otherwise forgotten.
Other examples of nocturnes include the one for orchestra from Felix Mendelssohn's incidental music for A Midsummer Night's Dream (1848), the set of three for orchestra and female choir by Claude Debussy (who also wrote one for solo piano) and the first movement of the Violin Concerto No. 1 (1948) by Dmitri Shostakovich. French composer Erik Satie composed a series of five small nocturnes. These were however, far different from those of Frédéric Chopin and John Field, based on minor chords.
The first movement of Ludwig van Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata has also been considered a nocturne (certainly, Ludwig Rellstab, who gave the piece its nickname, thought it evocative of the night), although Beethoven did not describe it as one.
Nocturnes are generally thought of as being tranquil, often expressive and lyrical, and sometimes rather gloomy, but in practice pieces with the name nocturne have conveyed a variety of moods: the second of Debussy's orchestral Nocturnes, "Fêtes", for example, is very lively.
The word was later used by James McNeill Whistler in the title of a number of his paintings, consistent with his theory that fine art should essentially be concerned with the beautiful arrangement of colors in harmony. Debussy's nocturnes were inspired by Whistler's paintings[citation needed]. Several other artists followed suit.



Tony Denonno-Photographer-Honorable Mention- "Bette Midler, 1972"


Dave Foss- Photographer- Honorable Mention- "Musical Nudes"