Poetic Landscapes, an artistic journey, at NY Gallery Elisa Contemporary Art

Elisa Contemporary Art presents a new gallery exhibit Poetic Landscapes, featuring the artwork of Canadian Artist, Marie Danielle Leblanc and Syracuse Artist, Sharon Gordon. The exhibit will run through November 11, 2012.

In its’ purest form, a Poetic Landscape takes the viewer into an imaginary place. A land created by the artist’s subjective perspective where geography and architecture are morphed and transformed through myth, fantasy, desire, sensation, thought and color.

For Marie Danielle Leblanc, her landscapes are based on worldwide journeys and treks. From Vietnam to Sweden, California to the South of France, all her senses absorb the details of her surroundings. She’ll jot down a note, a fleeting thought or a word, take a picture, and collect images and sensations. Whether she is driving on the highway or in the open country, walking on a never-ending beach or rocks stroked by the sea, it is through her travels that she captures moments of each landscape that will later stretch into the vista. The matter recesses or retracts, becomes distorted or fragmented, hazy textures hide perspectives and shapes slowly disappear in the whiteness of the sand or the indigo of the sea.

Marie Danielle transforms these landscapes into poetic worlds through acrylic, oil, ink, resin, tar and other natural materials. A field of flowers, an evening mist, a stormy ocean, a breathtaking sunset. All these moments fill the horizon, and then the canvas, transporting viewers into her timeless and imaginary poetic landscapes.

Sharon Gordon’s landscapes draw each viewer into an imaginary world where personal and unique interpretations are evoked. It is a place that may be seemingly ambiguous, yet familiar, and provide an opportunity to wander through passages, recalling moments of time and space.

Her paintings form a kind of tone poem. Sharon explores the relationships of color and form or of color and value as they provoke different emotional responses and suggest different referents to the natural world. These landscapes are infused with an emotional power and sense of harmonious tension that is uniquely Sharon’s own vision. What is a threatening sky to one, becomes a turbulent sea to another; what strikes one viewer as serene, instills anxiety in another.

We’ll be hosting a special Closing Reception Brunch with Marie Danielle Leblanc on Sunday, November 11th from 2-4pm.

What: Poetic Landscapes. Featuring Marie Danielle Leblanc and Sharon Gordon
When: September 28 - November 11, 2012
Special Events:
Join us for a Closing Brunch with Marie Danielle Leblanc on November 11th from 2-4pm
Where: Elisa Contemporary Art, 5622 Mosholu Avenue, Riverdale NY
Hours: Friday/Saturday 10-6pm, Sunday Nov. 11 12-5pm and by Appointment

Meet our artists:

Sharon Gordon
In Sharon Gordon's landscapes, you can feel her deep connection and passion for the ever-changing nature of large bodies of water, and the mystery and promise of the horizon. The view imposes a presence, a meter, balancing human scale and condition as a piece of a larger perspective.

According to Sharon, "I believe that the ability to look beyond the surface and examine components of a larger view is a key factor in my paintings as well as a vital part of understanding our place in a larger landscape. Experiencing a vista, particularly involving bodies of water, enhances the idea that an atmosphere can be an ever-changing, never-ending range of rhythm and volatility while remaining consistently whole. The view imposes a presence, a meter, balancing human scale and condition as a piece of a larger perspective.

The smaller scale of many of the works allows the viewer an intimate and introspective setting to experience each piece, encouraging one’s own relationship with the space and the work before them. I want each individual to become as captivated by the paint as I am with the painting process."

Sharon Gordon was born and raised in Upstate New York. She attended Sage Albany and Skidmore College, where she earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Fine Art.

Sharon has been featured in group and solo shows throughout the US since 1998 including participation in the Everson Museum of Art Biennial in Syracuse. Her paintings have been seen in many recent TV and movies including 30 Rock and Game Change. She maintains a studio with her husband, James in Syracuse, New York.

Marie Danielle Leblanc
Canadian artist, Marie Danielle Leblanc, was born in Trois-Rivières (Quebec) and has lived and worked in Montreal (Quebec) since 1990. Her paintings transform landscapes into lyrical worlds. Her deeply saturated palettes bring new life to the sea, land and sky. And she transports her viewers to timeless and imaginary landscapes.

According to Marie Danielle, “Painting carries me to places where strength and delicacy, certainty and uncertainty, known and unknown, usual and strange, even life and death, coast along. Notions of duality are manifesting themselves by interactions between the body and the mind, the matter and the thought. In a state of abandonment and receptiveness, I try to let myself be carried by the act of painting without suppressing anything.”

She has participated in thirty solo exhibitions and more than fifty group exhibitions. Her work has been shown in several galleries in Montreal, Toronto, Calgary, Vancouver, as well as, New York, Paris, Barcelona, Sydney, Hong Kong and Tokyo. She received the first prize at the Salon 2010 in Paris for the Société Nationale des Beaux Arts as well as at the Montreal Art Festival.

About Elisa Contemporary Art
Elisa Contemporary Art represents a portfolio of both emerging and established contemporary artists, many of whom have work in the permanent collections of major museums and corporations.

Founded in 2007 by Lisa Cooper, Elisa Contemporary Art is dedicated to promoting the appreciation and collection of art as a way to enrich and heal our lives, our communities, and the world. The Riverdale gallery opened in September 2008. Elisa Contemporary Art has participated in high end art fairs in New York, Miami and the Hamptons, and curated public art exhibits in Manhattan, as well as an online exhibit for 2011 CurateNYC

The gallery has been featured in American Art Collector, Hamptons Cottages & Gardens, New York Spaces, Ocean Home Magazine, the New York Times and selected as top pick exhibits by NYC Arts & WCBS.

A portion of every sale is donated to philanthropic organizations that help children and families within underserved communities heal and grow through their experience with art. Free Arts NYC, Arts to Grow and Creative Arts Workshops for Kids are supported.

For more information, visit the website at www.ElisaContemporaryArt.com or contact Lisa Cooper at Lisa@elisaart.com or 212.729.4974. Poetic Landscapes is at our Riverdale Gallery, Elisa Contemporary Art located at 5622 Mosholu Avenue, Riverdale NY 10471.