CHARLOTTE'S Jerald Melberg Gallery celebrates its 40th anniversary with an exhibition featuring work from all artists currently in its impressive roster. In a gallery dedicated to an art for art's sake credo, new and returning visitors will delight in work on display and Melberg's effusive enthusiasm for the best of the contemporary art world.
At his name - sake gallery, Melberg staunchly provides the best possible representation
for his artists all while sharing his extensive knowledge with clients and visitors. Says the gallerist, "It's wonderful to watch people deepen their understanding of art no matter what their background, and I've been privileged to help make that possible."
Melberg also takes pride in carefully selecting artists for representation, seeking out those who focus on transcendental, spiritual qualities, whether working in a realist mode or abstraction. A specialist in mid to late twentieth-century painting,visitors are sure to enjoy work from major names, including a stunning latecareer offering from Robert Motherwell in muted earth tones that vary from his more typical slashes of black against a white ground. While not strictly intentional, many of the works on display bear a connection to space, place, and the landscape, whether in the form of Wolf Kahn's striking combinations of color field techniques with American pastoral settings or Romare Bearden's memoryinfused scenes of the gardens of his upbringing in Charlotte.
Paintings by Thomas McNickle depict the rural beauty of his northwest Pennsylvania surroundings. Canvases such as Clear Morning on the Marsh (2015) match technical fidelity with a Zen-inspired form of rapid execution.
Raul Diaz is one of a handful of contemporary South American painters represented by the gallery. His work depicts otherworldly landscapes rich in texture. Amontonados 2 (2019), which roughly translates to "piled up," references both the painting's surface and the stacked slabs that read as monumental forms. Abstract painters with work on display also use nature and the landscape as a jumping off point for their compositions.
Dennis Mitchell "paints" with smoke to consider the ephemeral qualities of existence. His Untitled (2023) not only captures the elemental through the use of colored smoke but also evokes comparisons to floral motifs.
Katherine Boxall 's lush, mixed-media compositions, such as Blue Vapour (2023), respond tolocations encountered in her travels.
Brian Rutenberg's thick impasto and brilliant color combinations, like those seen in Banner of the Coast (Icelight) (2022), capture the unique
light conditions of the South Carolina Lowcountry.
