PRISM
Waterscapes by Bernard Chaet, Jon imber, Emily Leonard Trenholm & Julia von Metzsch Ramos
Jan 7 – Feb 5, 2022 at Gallery NAGA
JULIA VON METZSCH RAMOS
“I love painting the between seasons because there is much activity. Nature and painting are both patient and sudden. The ocean holds onto summer while the light tells us a different story of what’s to come.”
– Julia von Metzsch Ramos
Julia von Metzsch Ramos (born 1985) received her BA in 2007 and Masters in 2010 in Fine Arts from Boston University, and then returned to Boston University as a MFA Painting Fellow at the School of Visual Arts. Ramos lives and works in Massachusetts and her work is in the collection of Danforth Art as well as many private collections.
EMILY LEONARD TRENHOLM
“Each day, I worked outside, I painted in the same location next to the stream, and each day the landscape would offer new information to me. The work changed dramatically from day to day and so I started to realize these paintings weren’t just my visual response to nature but were also projections of my inner self on the landscape.”
– Emily Leonard Trenholm
Emily Leonard Trenholm (born 1982) is a plein air painter whose subject matter is the landscape surrounding her home. She is the recipient of several awards and residencies, including The SOLO Competition at Bromfield Gallery, a Monhegan Artists’ Residency, and the Great Spruce Head Island Residency. Her work is in the collections of the Zillman Art Museum, Boston University, Drummond Woodsum and Sovereign Bank. Emily is an adjunct Professor at the University of New Hampshire and Southern Maine Community College. She received her MFA from Boston University and a BFA from the University of New Hampshire. Emily lives in Maine with her husband and two young boys.
JON IMBER
“I figure as long as there’s good information out there, like flowers and sky and sea with a couple of rocks, I can figure out something to get me going and then I’ll just rely on my reactions and try to make it an exciting painting.”
– Jon Imber
“Growing up in Maine, Jon Imber was a painter’s name I knew, but it wasn’t until I came upon a catalog of his show, The World as Mirror, at Boston University, that I took notice and studied his work. When revisiting the catalog in preparation for this show, I found this witty quote (by Imber) that resonates with my experience when I paint…”
Painters up in Maine talk about beauty of nature, but generally can’t stand it. I feel as though I’m in battle with nature, trying to find myself within it, figure out what’s going on between me and the landscape; so I seem to be drawn to a tangle of trees or a situation that’s kind of a mess, and I have to sort it out. Nature’s not a very comfortable place.
– Emily Leonard Trenholm on Jon Imber
Jon Imber (1950-2014) divided his time between the Boston area and Stonington, Maine and it is the coastal landscape of Maine where he derived most of his subject matter. Imber received his MFA from Boston University, where he studied under Philip Guston, who became a very strong early influence. Over the years, Imber’s work developed its own painterly, semi-abstract vocabulary that, in a way, followed a reverse arc to that of Guston. Imber exhibited his work throughout the U.S. and Ireland. His collections include the Boston Public Library, the DeCordova Museum, Lincoln, MA, the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and the New Orleans Museum of Art. In his final years, Imber re-invented himself as an artist living with ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease). Training his left hand to paint, and devising ways to overcome physical limitations, Imber continued to create vibrant work right up until his untimely death.
Courtesy of Alpha Gallery, Boston
BERNARD CHAET
“I believe there are certain constructions and combinations of shapes and space that attract each artist and when you see them you know you’re ready to work.”
– Bernard Chaet
“I feel a strong connection to his paintings of sun bursting through clouds and I am moved by the inventiveness of his color palette, and I am also understanding the freedom he found in painting the same view over the years.”
– Julia von Metzsch Ramos on Bernard Chaet
Bernard Chaet (1924-2012) was a renowned artist and educator who was a professor of art at Yale University for nearly four decades. Originally from Boston, where he studied at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Chaet divided his time between New Haven, CT and Rockport, MA, a seaside community north of Boston. Rockport and the surrounding area were a continuing source of inspiration for Chaet’s paintings of interiors, still lifes and seascapes. Often portraying the same location repeatedly, he would discover nuances of light, color and atmosphere that were constantly shifting in nature. A lifelong aficionado of jazz music, Chaet translated that art form’s sense of rhythm and improvisation into his own painting.
In addition to his teaching, Chaet was the author of the seminal book The Art of Drawing. His work has been exhibited widely throughout the U.S. and Japan and is represented in numerous museum collections including the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Brooklyn Museum, the Chicago Art Institute, and the Hirshhorn Museum among many others. Chaet received numerous honors during his lifetime, including grants from the National Academy of Design and the National Foundation of the Arts and Humanities, as well as a “Distinguished Teaching of Art” award from College Art Association.
Courtesy of Alpha Gallery, Boston