Studio 53 Fine Art Gallery announces its inaugural exhibition for the 2017 summer season featuring the work of Bill Drew and John Gallagher. Both of these artists have a connection to the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD): Drew has been a faculty member for more than 30 years and Gallagher received his BFA there.

Drew’s exhibition, “Pictures from Far Away,” includes works on paper that were created in Italy, St. Jean Cap Ferrat in France, and embellished from memory in his studio in Providence, Rhode Island from 2015-2017. These colorful abstractions invoke the suggestion of landscapes; reference the Luxemburg Garden in Paris and Monet’s Giverny. This exhibition will present paintings from a series entitled, “Bosco Incantato,” i.e. “Enchanted Woods” and another series, “Geppetto’s Wood,” which considers the story of Pinocchio imagining Geppetto as the “Creator.”

Gallagher's exhibition features work that refers to the coast of Maine where he has lived since 1975.

“There is something here in the constant, unrelenting surround of woods and ocean, rocks and trees, that suggests a continuum which seems to imbue various objects and forms with a sense of mystery and meaning,” Gallagher said. “In his abstract paintings, he uses these observations as a basis for inventing and improvising forms and images which reflect this mystery and scheme of things.

Studio 53 was founded in 2009 by Terry Seaman and Heidi Seidelhuber, also RISD graduates, with the intention of providing an exhibition space for artists who have been pursuing art earnestly but lack enough opportunities to show. Both had family roots in Maine, and since the gallery opened, they have been thrilled to show work by like-minded artists from Maine and RISD.

Seaman said, “There are so many of us out there, whom we believed would benefit from having prospects and community.”

“It seemed like the right thing for us and for so many who find themselves in a similar situation, to put our resources into this gallery project,” Seidelhuber added.

Drew is a professor of illustration who has taught at the Rhode Island School of Design for more than 30-years. A former Fulbright Scholar, during which time he painted in Italy for 18 months, he has also received travel grants from the government of Pakistan and other national awards. His work has been exhibited extensively in New York and Palm Beach, Florida, and his work is in many private and corporate collections.

Gallagher has exhibited at museums and galleries in Maine and Rhode Island, most recently at the University of Maine Museum of Art and in the RISD Alumni and Faculty Show. He was the recipient of fellowships from several artists’ residencies, including the MacDowell Colony and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. His work has been characterized as referencing the Abstract Expressionists, specifically Willem de Kooning canvasses and Jackson Pollock's early paintings.

Other artists on display include the late H. Lane Smith, whose work was informed by his early years spent in the Adirondacks surrounded by its natural beauty. A full exhibition will be on view this coming fall. Smith’s paintings were created in the tradition of Arthur Dove and John Marin in the way they reconfigured specific references to nature and resulted in landscapes of the memory with a special emphasis on color. His mix of the exotic and the ordinary, the far-flung with the close-to-home refers both literally and figuratively to distant lands. Smith was Professor Emeritus at RISD until his passing in 1999.

Studio 53 Fine Art is located at 53 Townsend Avenue in Boothbay Harbor. For more information, visit www.studio53fineart.com.