QF – Quattlebaum Foretich – Gallery announces their Summer 2013 opening exhibition: A Picnic and Smokes, curated by Kipton Cronkite.

A Picnic and Smokes features work by emerging and established artists from art website @60″ (www.at60inches.com) including: Rachel Barrett, Miriam Cabessa, Marc Dimov, Brad Fisher, Paul Gallegos, Joyce Lee, Joe Nanashe, Rotem Reshef, Matthew Satz and Andrew Werner, whose paintings, photographs and mixed media pieces speak to the joys, pleasures, colors and sensations of summertime. KDHamptons got a sneak preview of some of the featured artists below:

Rachel Barrett [works above & below] is driven by nostalgia and memory, and her photographic work is rooted in the desire to collect the present and preserve the past. Interested in the ideology of collective engagement and a profound relationship to places, much of her work focuses on how individuals shape their understanding of self within the context of coherence among others and among the land. The moments that unfold in Barrett’s images are born out of the process of collaboration with her subjects and dictated by the environments that surround her.  Rachel is from Cambridge, Massachusetts, and lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Andrew Werner is a fashion photographer with a background in photojournalism. Andrew’s eccentric, edgy style of shooting flashes out flaws and lights up beauty.  Covering New York Fashion Week for many seasons, he has shot with and works alongside designers including:  Zang Toi, Naeem Khan, Monique Lhuillier, Betsey Johnson, Tommy Hilfiger, Diane von Furstenburg, Tadashi, Ralph Rucci, Rochambeau, The Blonds, Adrienne Landau, Sally Lapointe, LAMB, Milly, and Duckie Brown.  Andrew’s work has been featured in Harper’s Bazaar, ELLE, The New York Post, NBC, ABC.com, InTouch Weekly, Life&Style, OK! Magazine, US Weekly, and more.  He was named one of the bravest and best photographers by The Village Voice in 2010.  Andrew is from Roslyn and lives in New York City.

Miriam Cabessa is a painter who paints without a brush. She uses her hands and fingers to create abstract, symmetrical form through choreographed movement over the canvas. Her compositions are records of repeating gestures. She is known for her Monochromatic paintings, most recently in form of large abstract works made with gold.  Miriam had a solo show in the Tel Aviv Museum in 1995 and represented Israel in the 1997 Venice Biennale. In addition, she has exhibited in galleries all over the world. Miriam was born in Morocco and grew up in Israel. She lives in New York City.

Marc Dimov’s [work above] interests have led him to photograph subjects related to land use, water, pollution, food, sustainability and animals. In the series One Fish Two Fish, Dimov explores the physical make-up of over-exploited fish both as individuals and as whole species. These images were created by placing the specimens on a light table and backlighting them to render the fish in silhouette. The resulting photographs punctuate their contours while disguising their central details. Fishermen complain that many fish stocks have been depleted by 70-90% in the last twenty years. The obscurity in Dimov’s photographs reflect how we literally cannot see these fish in our oceans any longer. He hopes this obscurity encourages wonderment and evokes a sense of beauty for these creatures, in addition to opening up a dialogue about sustainable fishing practices. Marc is from Great Barrington, Massachusetts, and lives in New York City.

Brad Fisher [work above] is influenced by both where he hails from and the city in which he currently lives. The blues and greens of the ocean and sky on the west coast have seeped into many of his works, most evidently those from his “Surfer Girl” and “Dogs of Summer” series. Now, Brad draws inspiration from the people, architecture, sexuality and comedy of daily life on the east coast. Fisher recently opened BRADFISHERTOWN, a working studio, gallery and think-tank. A collaboration that came out of the project was an installation of his works for the Hugo Boss Art Foundation which was displayed in the windows of the Hugo Boss flagship store in New York City. Brad’s work has been collected by Marc Jacobs, Rene Zellweger, Drew Barrymore and others. Brad is from Southern California and lives in New York City.

Joe Nanashe is influenced by the post-industrial landscape and emphasis on manual labor in his native Akron, Ohio. His work is repetitive, task-driven and often performative, blending video, performance and installation into works that confront the viewer with issues of violence, control, meaning, humor, perception, and the body. He has exhibited in film festivals and exhibition spaces worldwide.  Joe is from Akron, Ohio and lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Rotem Reshef’s works are inspired by color. Color is her first motivation to paint, the incentive for visual expression, the basic manifestation of her inspiration and the catalyst for refining emotions and feelings into a painting.  Most of Reshef’s paintings are abstract, yet contain many hints of figuration. The paintings aim to capture a moment in time both on visual and emotional levels. Thus, they can be explored and experienced both perceptually and intuitively. Rotem is from and resides in Tel Aviv, Israel.

Paul Gallegos [work above] is an experimental fine art photographer who also works in lifestyle and fashion. He enjoys experimenting with all mediums of photography from a plastic lens to large format work. He aims to understand the traditional but also to push the limits of expectations. Paul is from Fairfax, Virginia and lives in Huntington Beach, California.

Matthew Satz creates works driven by concept and content rather than by aesthetics. The diverse approaches to processes through which he creates heavily influence the final outcome of his works.  Systems and theories permeate his artistic methods, which challenge a history of painting.  Matthew’s work is collected internationally both publicly and privately.  Institutional collections include the Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, New York and Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut.  He has recently produced pieces commissioned by Prince Albert of Monaco. Matthew is from Huntington and lives in East Hampton, New York.

Joyce Lee is a fashion and still life photographer. After earning her BFA in photography at the School of Visual Arts in New York, she began to do commercial work for Real Simple, Hermès, Swarovski, and Lucky. An intense love of color and beautiful light are the cornerstones in Joyce’s work. Her vivid sense of color imbues brightness and vitality to everything she photographs, from fashion to meticulous still lifes. Joyce is from Hartford, Connecticut and lives in New York.

QF Gallery summer 2013 exhibition schedule:

A Picnic and Smokes
curated by Kipton Cronkite
May 25 – June 9
Opening reception Saturday, May 25, 6-8 p.m.
98 Newtown Lane | East Hampton
PHONE: 347.324.6619

*QF Gallery summer 2013 hours, beginning Wednesday, May 29: Wednesday – Sunday noon to 5 p.m., and by appointment: Qfgallery@gmail.com

www.qfgallery.com