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Blue Review Project Space is pleased to present Manic Botanic, an exhibition curated by Garvey|Simon and Dina Brodsky. Featuring works by over twenty artists, the show celebrates flora in all its diversity and sublimity. It will be exhibited virtually online, and also by appointment to examine works in person.

Co-curated by Garvey|Simon and Brodsky, this collaboration brings together a dealer’s proclivity for theme and an artist’s eye for craft. Featuring drawing, watercolor, metalpoint, painting, photography and ceramics, each mode seeks to capture the fragility and singularity of its subject. The works are united by their sense of dexterity and detail. There will be an online private preview of Manic Botanic on Wednesday, June 17th, and a virtual opening reception will take place on Thursday, June 18th.

Meticulous, nuanced petals and sensuous stems belie the ubiquity of their subjects, and gesture towards the deft hand of their makers. Whether miniature or grandiose in scale, these floral icons are utterly ecstatic. Margot Glass’s delicate graphite and goldpoint dandelions and Dina Brodsky’s diaristic trees are byzantine meditations on impermanence and memory. Miriam Escofet (recent recipient of the BP Portrait Award) and Grace Devito each bring their background in portraiture to their floral still lifes, capturing the subtle nuances and individuality of each bloom. Eric Wert, Amy Laskin, and Marina Kiselyova celebrate the opulence of their blooms with lavish and decorative detail; conversely, Jordan Wolfson, Tyler Swain, and Melanie Parke each bow to the humble simplicity of their botanicals. Christopher Adams explores adaptive radiation with ceramics, and Sarah Phillips arranges her specimens into kaleidoscopic patterns, rendering their quotidian subjects surreal and exotic. Jose Escofet’s oil paintings are similarly punched up and surreal. A bouquet of fragile monoliths, Frederick Brosen’s watercolor blossoms are feats of gentle precision, L.C. Armstrong’s bomb fuse paintings are laced with an element of danger, Tim Nighswander’s amaryllis photographs are modern memento moris, and Brandy Kraft’s oil paintings are portrait-like in their hybrid specificity. David Morrison and Mary Reilly’s hyperrealist colored pencil and graphite drawings are charged with a sense of intimacy and rigor, while Jimmy Fike achieves the same effect through his objective, almost scientific lens.

ABOUT THE CURATORS

Elizabeth K. Garvey is the Co-founder and Director of Garvey|Simon (est. in 2010). Previously she was President and Owner of EKG Art Advisory, (1999-2009), and Co-Director of Schmidt-Bingham Gallery (1989-1998). Liz is a member of ArtTable, a distinguished national network of leading women in the visual arts professions, and a founding member of the New York chapter of the Association of Women Art Dealers. With over 30 years of experience in the fine art industry, Liz leverages her professional relationships with other galleries, auction houses, private dealers, and artists to offer boutique art advisory services and an exhibition program championing mid-career and emerging artists.

Dina Brodsky is a contemporary realist, miniaturist painter and curator. She was educated at University of Massachusetts, Amherst and the New York Academy of Art, where she received her MFA.  She has taught  privately, and in several institutions including the New York Academy of Art, the Art Students League and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The Blue Review was established in 2017 by curator and art consultant Trek Lexington. Its mission is to discover and draw attention to contemporary art that is both highly skilled and conceptually rigorous. Their online project space connects artists and collectors through a series of group and solo exhibitions. Committed to exhibiting beautiful, thought-provoking art without compromise, The Blue Review aims to bring art back to art criticism, and art criticism back to art.

For more information, high resolution images, or sales inquiries, please contact Elizabeth Garvey at liz@garveysimon.com, or 917-796-2146.