Gallery Artists V

Gallery Artists V				Main Gallery, Gallery II, Small Works Gallery			June 21 - August 13, 2008

		Images	I	Catalogue Essay	I	Purchase Painting or Catalogue
	Art has always been a part of my life. As the son of artist parents, I felt the aesthetics of music and painting were constants and always a source of beauty, solace, and inspiration. My father was the American artist, Ralph Wickiser, whose contemporaries included Woodstock and Pratt Institute artists such as Yasuo Kuniyoshi, Franz Kline, Jacob Lawrence and Barnet Newman. With the artistic vision of my father and his associates, who were at the forefront of modern art, I developed a strong sense of painting, especially of abstraction. In the late 1980s, this artistic constant became my vocational pursuit. I formally became an art dealer. The early days were illuminating in many ways. For one, I worked with Chinese dealers from mainland China for the first time, and I soon became fascinated with Asian art. When I started my own gallery in 1992, I found my own direction. My own vision was now much influenced by Asian art and the western sensibilities of my father and his contemporaries. I wanted to intermingle America and Asian painters to create a dialectic of art between these cultures - an exploration to understand and appreciate the intersections and incredible dualities. Throughout history, artists have influenced each other. Asian influences can be seen in many of the great masters’ works. Similarly, contemporary Asian art is much influenced by Western ideas, composition, color, and form. As globalization synthesizes art, communication, business, and people, we will be privileged to see a confluence of creativity -- a burgeoning and joining of eastern and western styles as each culture inspires, influences, and imparts its own voice and passions. The artists in this catalog, “Gallery Artists Part V”, represent those voices and those passions, distinctively blending Asian and Western influences through extraordinary use of color, form and brushstroke. Each artist, I feel, technically and creatively, illustrates a cultural duality and sublime sophistication in line with my focus. This year marks the sixteenth year since the gallery’s founding in 1992. I hope you will enjoy this selection of my artists. Altogether their works express a confluence, a flowing both Western and Asian, while their indigenous passions mirror steadfastly in their works. Walter Wickiser New York, Spring 2008