AC/OC

New Paintings by Winter Rusiloski, Carmen Menza and Cathy Drennan

Opening Reception February 18, 2012, 6:00 – 8:00 pm

Exhibition dates:  February 18 – March 24, 2012

Cohn Drennan Contemporary is pleased to present AC/OC, new paintings by Winter Rusiloski, Carmen Menza and Cathy Drennan.   Winter, Carmen and Cathy have been busy in their studios preparing for this exhibition - Winter continuing her series of landscape fusion paintings, Carmen’s ongoing jazz influenced compositions and Cathy producing new textural studies based on her earlier series incorporating international symbolism. 

Winter Rusiloski, Twins, 2011, oil on canvas

Winter Rusiloski’s early influences of the Pennsylvania landscape, and her current inspiration with the Texas horizon and big sky, have led her to a fusion of landscape painting and abstraction, creating a dynamic spatial relationship.  She received an MFA in painting from Texas Christian and has taught courses at TCU, El Centro College and Tarrant County College.  She is currently an Associate Professor of Art at Tarrant County College Northwest.  Rusiloski actively shows her work in both solo and group exhibitions and has won awards including the Hunting Art Prize Exhibition finalist twice and the Texas Oklahoma Art Prize in 2010.  Her work is in both private and corporate collections.

With an emphasis on gestural abstraction, Carmen Menza's original works of art capture life’s fleeting moments in bold, rich colors and texture.  Working in oils and encaustic she employs layer after layer of paint to produce abstract art that is a cacophony of texture and color.  Her goal is to strike an emotional chord on canvas like a piece of jazz music, improvising form and an open-ended architecture.  The tension and release of positive and negative space, and the consonance of colors that push and pull against each other reach a visceral level that touches something deeper within us.  Carmen shows her work in group and solo exhibitions and her pieces are held in private collections throughout North America.

                                                                                                          Cathy Drennan, Charisma, 2010, acrylic on canvas, 30 x 60 inches

Cathy Drennan, continuing her long interest in the world of cultural symbology, is focusing her new work on specific symbols and their broader meaning. She appropriates known symbols then deconstructs and simplifies the form to offer her own visual statement through color, pattern, texture and repetition.  Each work is intended to build on the imagery of its predecessor, and to employ the viewer’s interest in a broader, non-representational manner.  Cathy received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Texas at Arlington, her work has been featured in exhibitions in Washington, D.C., and Texas.  In 2010 she and her husband, Cohn Drennan, opened the Cohn Drennan Contemporary art gallery in Dallas.

For more information about AC/OC or for more information about Cohn Drennan Contemporary, please go to   www.cohndrennancontemporary.com or call 214.708.8051 or e-mail cohn@cohndrennancontemporary.com. The gallery is located at 1107 Dragon, Dallas, TX and hours of operation are Tuesday through Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Gallery A

at Cohn Drennan Contemporary

February 9, 2012, 6:00 - 8:00 pm

Marko Kratohvil

Sculpture

Exhibition dates: February 9 - March 3, 2012

Marko Kratohvil, Guardian, 2011, steel, resin and acrylic, 52 x 17 x 12"

Marko Kratohvil will present a small exhibition of his sculpture in Gallery A at Cohn Drennan Contemporary.  Marko is a recent transplant to Oklahoma City from the United Kingdom where he has been living and working since 1991.  Born in Belgrade, former Yugoslavia in 1958, Kratohvil graduated with an MA in Sculpture from the University of Arts.  He has exhibited extensively throughout Europe and his work is held in both corporate and private collections worldwide.  Please join us in welcoming this member of the Royal Society of British Sculptors at the opening reception February 9^th.

Marko Kratohvil’s sculpture aspires to articulate those spheres of our experience that remain after or before verbalization. They invite the viewer to enter into a relationship with them which involves scrutiny of the objects, while also elucidating the physical space in which they exist.

For more information about Marko Kratohvil, Sculpture or for more information about Cohn Drennan Contemporary, please go to  www.cohndrennancontemporary.com or call 214.708.8051 or e-mail cohn@cohndrennancontemporary.com.

The gallery is located at 1107 Dragon, Dallas, TX and hours of operation are Tuesday through Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.