Exhibition Opening Reception: May 6 – 7pm-9:30pm
Exhibition Duration: April 27th – June 25th 2016
Exhibiting Artists:
Alfa Art Gallery is pleased to present “Pushing Boundaries: An Exploration of Form and Color.” Artists, Vesselin Kourtev, Peter Arakawa, Rita Herzfeld, and John Hawaka, have been long-time partners and affiliates of Alfa Art Gallery and are well-established artists in the New Brunswick area. This exhibition features a selection of their paintings, each ofthem distinct in style and inspiration, but unified in their themes of synthesizing order and chaos, and inspiriting form and color.
Vesselin Kourtev was born and raised in Bulgaria, where he received his MFA from the Faculty of Fine Art at the University of Veliko Turnovo. Kourtev’s paintings have won acclaim for their skilled and bold rendering of vivid colors and dreamlike figures.
Peter Arakawa comes from a family of artists and creators. He has studied at the Cate School, CA, Hampshire College, MA, and Mason Gross School of the Arts, NJ, where he received his BFA and MFA. Arakawa records his explorations of the new and abstract in his varied syntheses of geometry, verticality, and spontaneity.
Entranced by her mother’s seemingly magical ability to create animals and children with mere pencil and paper, Rita Herzfeld decided at a young age to become an artist. Herzfeld aspires to paint with the freedom of her unrestricted three-year-old self in whimsical streaks and rippling lines.
John Hawaka lives and works in North Brunswick, NJ, and is one of the few artists in America who uses a rare lacquer painting technique. Hawaka describes his medium as having “a mind of its own.” The vibrant colors and pulsating forms found in Hawaka’s creations are meant to provoke and stimulate
