Two shows open during Creative Cocktail Hour Thursday at Real Art Ways

Real Art Ways
56 Arbor St., Hartford, (860) 232-1006
Andrew Buck: Rockface
Zbigniew Grzyb: New Works: Branch/Sky Series
Apr. 21—June 12, 2011.
Opening reception during Creative Cocktail Hour: Thurs., Apr. 21, 6—8 p.m., $10/$5 Real Art Ways members.

Press release

Real Art Ways presents an exhibition of Andrew Buck's black and white photographs of rock faces that capture the abstract patterns that emerge as humans shape the landscape. Rockface, opening Thurs., Apr. 21 at Real Art Ways, is the result of the artist's three-year examination of the exposed and blasted rock created by mining and road development.

An opening reception on Thurs., Apr. 21 from 6—8 p.m. will be held as part of Creative Cocktail Hour, Real Art Ways' monthly third Thursday gathering. Creative Cocktail Hour is from 6—10 p.m.; admission is $10/$5 Real Art Ways members.

Several of the photographs in Rockface were taken at a trap rock quarry in Meriden, Connecticut. There are also images from road cuts in Farmington, Connecticut and Bucksport, Maine.

Andrew Buck's interest in the patterns created by the play of light and shadow on craggy rock face is characteristic of his longtime artistic focus. About his work as a whole, Buck says, "My point of departure is always the landscape, but almost always a landscape we have created, intentionally or inadvertently. It is always with an eye for the abstract."

Andrew Buck has been involved with photography since he was a teenager. First exhibiting in Western Massachusetts and Syracuse, New York, he has continued to exhibit in the Northeast since the early 1970s. He was a member of the founding Board of Directors of Light Work in Syracuse.

To support the Rockface series, Buck was awarded a highly competitive Artist's Resource Trust grant in 2010 from the Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation.

Since the late 1970s, when he returned to Connecticut, Buck's work has focused primarily on the man-made and man-altered landscape of Connecticut. A recent body of work focused on similar aspects of the landscape of northwestern Ohio.

Also opening on Thursday is Branch/Sky Series, new works by painter Zbigniew Grzyb. This exhibit was curated by Michael Shortell.

Artist statement:

I have not worked toward any preconceived literal content. Every painting creates a new challenge for me; each one is a new mystery I have to solve. Inspiration comes from many places; it is contantly part of my creative process.

The meditative time I spend in nature influences my unconscious. I notice images and let them be absorbed for further interpretation, and they re-emerge when I am in the studio.

Before I begin a painting I do not have a specific goal or idea for the finished work. The ideas flow during the painting process and the image emerges as its own reality. No one part of the painting is important for itself; it is only important as a part of the whole.

Zbigniew Grzyb studied at the Academy of Fine Art in Cracow, Poland, graduating with a master's degree. He left Poland for further study, and traveled through Italy, France and Turkey exhibiting his work. He came to the United States in 1973, and since that time he is focusing on further development of his art.

In 1983 he had his first one-person museum show, at the New Britain Museum of Art. He was included in the Mattatuck Museum's Biennial and most recently had a show at the National Museum in Przemy?l, Poland. In addition to showing his work through New England and New York, he is a recipient Pollock-Krasner Foundation grant, and in 2008 received a grant from the Greater Hartford Arts Council.