FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 25, 2012
Bridgette Mayer Gallery
t: 215-413-8893 f: 215-413-2283
e: bmayer@bridgettemayergallery.com
Bridgette Mayer Gallery announces its fourth exhibition of 2012:
A solo show by artist Allen Bentley
Allen Bentley: The Water Series will be on view June 1 – 30, 2012,
with an opening reception Friday June 1, 6:00 – 8:30 PM.
PHILADELPHIA (Apr. 25, 2012) – Bridgette Mayer Gallery is pleased to present its fifth solo exhibition of contemporary painter Allen Bentley. “The Water Series” will be on view from May 30 – June 30, 2012. The exhibition will feature a selection of his most prominent recent works.
Combining fluidity of brushstroke and subject in the The Water Series, Bentley attempts to capture powerful moments of intimacy by painting scenes of couples in motion under water. In all of his pieces, he seeks to strike a delicate balance between clarity and abstraction of the figures in motion, using brushstrokes that appear precise yet effortlessly glide across the painting surface. Through this pictorial struggle, gesture becomes spectacle. While Bentley’s works typically explore the dynamics of human closeness and movement through the depiction of dancers, this most recent series explores water as a powerful field of abstraction, enveloping the figures in its own harmonious dance of waves and currents. On his use of water as a means for conveying the raw emotions of two people in love, the artist writes, “This is the relationship of a couple stripped of the social constructs of dance. There is no audience, only these two, raw and unpolished, losing their footing, tumbling, falling, reaching for each other, pulled apart or pushed together by the water.”
Allen Bentley received his B.F.A. with a concentration in painting, drawing, and printmaking from Western Carolina University in 1996 and received his M.F.A. from the University of Pennsylvania in 2000. He has held solo exhibitions of his works at a number of spaces including Melanee Cooper Gallery (Chicago, IL), Exhibit A Contemporary Art (Corning, NY), Philadelphia Museum of Art (Philadelphia, PA), Phoenix Gallery (New York, NY), and City Lights Gallery (Cullowhee, NC), among many others. His pieces have also been featured in prominent publications such as Art Matters Magazine, Lifestyle Magazine, Philadelphia Inquirer, and Where Chicago.
Gallery hours are Tuesday - Saturday 10:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m. & by appointment. For additional information please contact t: 215 413 8893 e: bmayer@bridgettemayergallery.com
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