Emotion, Time and Eros in the work of Damon Lehrer and Rick Berry

Review by Grace Dan Mazur in today’s The Arts Fuse : Culture of New England

Comparing Rick Berry’s expressionist paintings with Damon Lehrer’s exquisitely rendered, classical, and contemplative work made me wonder about the expressionist style in general. By this I mean that artistic terrain where the passions, vehemence, or ferocity of the artist so colors the work as to form a powerful but distorting more…

This show brilliantly contrasts two artists, Damon Lehrer and Rick Berry, and the wildly different ways they approach figurative painting.

(For the questions that the artists have for each other see Damon Lehrer’s interview of Rick Berry.)

It Figures. At the William Scott Gallery, 450 Harrison Avenue, #65, Boston, MA. Until September 30

IT FIGURES: Damon Lehrer and Rick Berry opened this weekend and was a great success. A lovely cool September evening in Boston – hundreds of people walking about SoWa Art District touring the open galleries during this festive monthly event. The Willam Scott Gallery was packed for 3 hours. Didn’t have a camera but some pictures by friends (Robert Wiener, Scott Bakal) near closing when crowd had thinned enough to see some more art. Thanks to everyone who came by Friday – you made it such an enjoyable evening.

If you’re in the Boston area, we hope you’ll have a chance to stop by. Open through Sept 3oth.

William Scott Gallery, 450 Harrison Ave hours: Wed – Sat 12-5 and Sun 12-4. (617)542-4040 Parking accessed by Albany St./ Silver line along Washington St. or longer walk from Broadway Station, Red Line or Back Bay Commuter Rail

Rick is finishing up packaging paintings for delivery today  - open truck, pouring rain, busy making custom vault-like packaging…

IT FIGURES: Damon Lehrer and Rick Berry opens tomorrow, Sept. 9, 6-9pm   William Scott Gallery, Boston.

Check gallery hours if you’ll be in Boston anytime between now and Halloween because immediately following IT FIGURES, Damon and Rick have work in (as well as curated) October’s group exhibition to open at William Scott Gallery on Oct 7th.

Rick’s previewing some work from his newest series at IT FIGURES, along with other great paintings. Amanda Palmer fans will be interested to see Rick’s 7ft portrait of her as gender bending MC in last summer’s A.R.T. production of Cabaret – On loan from collector. Hope you can stop by!

“No Metal Men” oil on prepared cotton ragboard, 20x32in

“Gregor” oil on prepared cotton ragboard, 20x32in.

Dorothy by Damon Lehrer, 38" x 40".

From ArtScope Magazine Sept 1, 2011

Attention New England: figurative artwork is not a “has been.” In fact, figurative art is on the rise and if you as an artist can convey figures, there isn’t much you aren’t able to do. We say this because as humans, we are wired to think and see figuratively. It is from this frontier of figures that we can move on to apply the imagination and other elements that evolve figurative artwork into other things. Bottom line: you can’t abandon figurative art. Two artists that will agree with us on this topic are Boston based figurative painters Damon Lehrer and Rick Berry. In an interview together, Rick Berry says, “We will never not want to see figures. We will never lose the ability to spot things in figurative light.” He likens this to cloud-gazing children and the figures they are able to point out. Almost all art starts with the human figure because our minds are designed to see things in the human form. From this concrete state, abstractions and imaginations can be applied to the things we manifest in human form to develop them beyond the figure. In their show, It Figures, Berry and Lehrer remind us of the possibilities of figurative painting. Lehrer‘s precise and perverted baroque style contrasts with Berry‘s refined brutalism and generation of bodies under strain in the most compelling way.

Rick Berry, a painter who rarely works with external references, started his career at the age of seventeen in underground comics. He worked his way into popular culture with art for Marvel and DC comics and has even been commissioned by authors like Stephen King and Neil Gaiman for his illustrations. Damon Lehrer received his MFA from Boston University and has his work in numerous prestigious collections. Lehrer has also founded the collective known as the Boston Figurative Art Center with the mission to promote figure painting in its many incarnations as a primary focus for contemporary art in Boston and beyond. It Figures will be showing at the William Scott Gallery in Boston from Friday, September 9th through Friday, September 30th. An opening reception will be held on September 9th from 6-9pm.

Immediately following It Figures, William Scott Gallery will host a group exhibition for the month of October in which Berry and Lehrer invite selected nationally and internationally known figure painters, many with Boston connections, into the image-driven conversation. Artists include Phil Hale, Anne Harris, Ken Beck, Bill Carman, Ed Stitt, Paul Goodnight, Jim Burke, George Pratt, Scott Bakal and others.

There’s going to be a new solo exhibition at Gallery 360 opening on January 11th for two months. We’d love to see you there! Here’s the postcard and info.

Seeing in the Dark

Drawings and Paintings of Expressionist Anatomy

January 11th – March 1st, 2011
Gallery 360, Ell Hall, Northeastern University
360 Huntington Ave. Boston, MA

Please join us next week for the opening!

Thursday, January 13th, 5 – 7pm

We stopped by this week for 13FOREST’s opening reception of PLENTY. It’s a wonderful show. On view through Jan 28th, New England artists were invited to submit small works for the holiday season. Rick’s painting “Ancestral Memories” is lovely little  8 x 10″ oil.

If you are in the Boston area, you are invited to a

HOLIDAY RECEPTION, Thursday, DEC 16th 7-9pm

13FOREST Gallery, 167 Mass Ave. Arlington 781-641-3333

"Ancestral Memory" 13FOREST Gallery, Arlington, MA 781.641.3333

Our favorite home town theater – The Capital – is across the street playing Harry Potter and another great movies in original art deco building.

The exhibition is up! Some words from the curator, translated loosely from Italian…

“Lucca Center for Contemporary Art in partnership with Lucca Comics and Games Festival present the art of Rick Berry and Phil Hale with several oil canvas and three site-specific pieces. The exhibition is intended as a small homage to a creative collaboration …

Parallel Evolutions is a little show with a big ambition. It aims to portray the work of two artists who are emblematic of the fluid, shifting nature of contemporary art. Moving from illustration to fine arts, mixing references to pop culture and renaissance painting, employing digital techniques at the same time as classical oils, experimenting in collaborative works as well as following personal paths, Rick Berry and Phil Hale were chosen as duo to represent the spirit of evolution and growth.”

Sharon Arts Exhibition Gallery, Peterborough, NH

Aug 7 – 30  Opening Reception, Aug 7th, 5-7pm

Artist Talk, August 22nd, 4:30-6pm

Sharon Arts announces an exhibition of large oil paintings and charcoals of Rick Berry—fine artist; pop culture illustrator for comics, gaming, books: and pioneer in new media (first digital cover painting for a novel worldwide, Neuromancer by William Gibson). His diverse experience ranges from provocative solo exhibits for Tuft’s international symposia on global issues; acting as Keanu Reeves’ cyber-stunt double for Berry’s award-winning CGI climax in Columbia TriStar’s Johnny Mnemonic; paintings for collector editions of Stephen King novels; to his current residency with OperaBoston. Sparrow and Double Memory, two books of his art, are available on Amazon.com.

“A stunning painter whose brush strokes simultaneously invoke movement and emotion…compelling” writes Linda Laban in Metro Boston. There is a uniquely ethereal quality to the work with room for viewer collaboration. Berry states, “My goal isn’t to create a finite image. I value the viewer’s sophisticated response to create a shared wavelength, giving the work added meaning and opening up dialog.”

Without models, photos, indeed any external references, Berry manages to draw and see things with such convincing clarity that it approaches clairvoyance. It’s as if he can see in the dark. Come see why.

Gallery Hours: Open Tues-Thurs 10-5, Fri-Sat 10-6, Sun 11-4, closed Mondays

Ozspirations: New Art Inspired by The Wizard of Oz

Rick Berry’s, Scarecrow, was in the juried exhibition honoring the 100th anniversary of L. Frank Baum’s classic book series at New England School of Art & Design at Suffolk University, Boston.  This thought provoking exhibit asks how we interpret characters and story in light of modern day realities and includes the work of 30 artists selected from world wide submissions. Berry’s work “uses the scarecrow as icon on several levels to explore social and psychological issues surrounding eating disorders in this land of plenty where body image is dictated by the media.” Sadly, those who try to meet that fantasy may live a dangerous reality.