(RED BANK, NJ) -- Monmouth Arts' ArtSpace presents "New Botanicals" from April 4 through May 20, 2025.  This exhibition includes work by Jeannine Rothenberg, Pat Butynski, and composite images by Kevin Hinkle and Ellen Martin.

Flowers have long served as a timeless artistic subject, often depicted with meticulous attention to detail, highlighting each blossom with nearly photorealistic precision. The artists featured in this exhibit offer a contemporary take on the subject. They seek to capture essences, not petals.

Pat's works are vibrant abstract expressionist pieces that radiate energetic intensity and color. Kevin and Ellen's composite photographs transform Ellen's representational images into abstract forms. Jeannine's art offers a minimalist perspective on flowers, adding a thought-provoking yet calming element to the exhibit.

There will be an Opening Reception on Friday, April 4th from 5:30pm to 8:00pm.  ArtSpace is located at 99 Monmouth Street in Red Bank, New Jersey.

ArtSpace is the official community space of Monmouth Arts. ArtSpace offers accessible, affordable, high-quality, engaging programming, exhibits, workshops & networking opportunities to the Monmouth County community. It is located at 99 Monmouth Street in Red Bank (located next to the Count Basie Center Administrative Office). ​Gallery visiting hours are Tuesday and Thursday, 12:00pm - 4:00pm; also available by appointment.

Pat Butynski graduated from Middlesex County College with an Associate Degree in Marketing Art and Design. She began her career as a Corporate Design Creative Director in 1976, attended night classes at Milton Glaser's invitation in 1977, and transitioned to Fine Art in 2000. From 2007 to 2016, she taught “Path to Abstraction” at the Montclair Art Museum. Pat’s work is highly expressive to the point of being non-objective. She is interested in deconstructing floral elements and reconstructing them into a colorful new breed.

Jeannine Rothenberg, a native of New Jersey, graduated from NYU and later relocated to San Francisco, where she enhanced her Fine Art and Photography education at the San Francisco Art Institute. In her new series of minimalist paintings, she celebrates the allure of raw and intentionally imperfect art. She invites viewers to engage with the resulting shapes, marks, and textures created through trowel strokes, action techniques, and a limited color palette. Her goal is to redefine the boundaries of art and challenge traditional notions of completion, allowing each piece to find its own “perfect” harmony within its flaws.

Kevin Hinkle is a photo-based digital artist living in Jersey City, New Jersey, whose work ranges from minimalist, highly colorful images to lush, fused images, including a long-term series called “Disrupted Landscapes.” His work has appeared in exhibits in New Jersey including at the Gallery Jupiter (Little Silver, NJ), the Paper Mill Playhouse, Rutherfurd Hall, Raritan Valley Community College, The Oyster Point Hotel, Montclair Art Museum’s Affordable Art Fair, the Center for Visual Arts (Summit, NJ), Torché Galerie (Belmar, NJ) as well as in exhibits in New York, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, and at the Marin Museum of Contemporary Art, California. His photographs have also been featured in literary and art journals such as the Tulane Review, Grey Sparrow, the Baltimore Review, and Tupelo Quarterly.

Ellen Martin holds a B.A. in Art History from Brooklyn College. In 2018, she began photographing abandoned structures with her iPod touch. Kevin was thrilled when Ellen invited him to apply his photo-layering technique to images from her successful ‘Abandoned’ series. About five years into their collaboration, Martin and Hinkle participated in their first group exhibition. After receiving positive feedback and participating in additional successful shows, they continued their creative partnership by delving deeper into the theme of decay—this time presenting images of decaying roses alongside other natural elements like flowers and leaves to explore renewal in nature. One of these pieces, “Roses in Ruins,” won the 14th prize in The 2024 Photo Review 39th Annual International Competition and was shown at The Woodmere Art Museum in The Photo Review: Best of Show 2024 exhibit.

Their latest work primarily showcases Martin’s elegant photographs of sunflowers, enhanced by Hinkle’s photo layering technique and some digital painting. The images convey a dreamy, stylized quality. In contrast to the often-vibrant colors in the decaying roses series, this collection leans toward muted tones, including one black-and-white image.