SMALL-SCALE SELECTIONS

Annual BIG ART small canvas exhibition

As avid collectors fill their walls with works of art, they often seek out smaller scale paintings to fit in the nooks and crannies that are available in their home. The annual BIG ART small canvas exhibition at RJD Gallery in Bridgehampton, New York, presents these scaled-down canvases at $7,500 or less. Gallery owner Richard J. Demato elaborates, “The global art world, and all of our collectors, are thirsty for smaller, quality, unique artworks to add to their space-starved collections, and they’ve really appreciated and very much enjoyed this annual exhibition; and the artists love to meet the creative challenges.”

Included in this year’s exhibition will be artists such as Mihaela Atomei, Aneka Ingold, Alexander Klingspor, Andrea Kowch, Lesley Thiel, Margo Selski, Pamela Wilson, Juan Béjar and Suzy Smith.

Klingspor’s series Eat The Night is a rather personal one for the artist, as it features his friends from New York City. One of his paintings from the grouping, At Pete’s Tavern, has an even closer bond for the artist with the subject being the late painter David Penna, who was not only his friend, but colleague and studio neighbor. “This painting of David is based on a dinner we had at Pete’s Tavern at Irving Place in Gramercy. David was an amazing person with so many great New York stories. He was like a character out of a movie,” Klingspor says. “Unfortunately, he passed away a few years ago, and I ended up taking over his studio. I painted David’s portrait from Pete’s Tavern posthumously, based on photos I had and as how I remembered him.”

Selski’s surrealistic painting My Mother’s Mandolin is a moment of recollection in her otherworldly design. Describing the piece, she says, “I take the mandolin in my hands and I enter a faraway world: vaguely familiar memories come back in me with