Jan Dickey, 2023 Old Dusty Sea 32 x 30 inches Traditional gesso, egg tempera, casein, oil, wax on linen

(HACKENSACK, NJ) -- Riverside Gallery presents a group exhibition, titled "Impasta," concerning the use of impasto, or thick paint, in painting. The exhibition runs from June 15-30, 2023, with an opening reception on Saturday, June 17th from 6:00pm to 8:00pm. The participating artists are Susan Carr, Jan Dickey, and MInseok Kang.

Paint can be a highly voluminous, tactile, and savory treat for the eye because of its lush and vibrant colors and material nature of the paint application. Known as impasto, the use and handling of thick paint can be a very seductive means of conveying information on the subject and providing visual sensations and pleasure for the viewer. 

As people consume images and ideas visually through cinema, the web, fashion, and the arts, it can be argued that the activity of human consumption can extend to the visual activity of enjoying and viewing paintings. Through impasto, the artist breaks the surface of the painting and its illusionary nature, allowing the viewer to consume the painting and become the painting, or have the painting become a part of the viewer, metaphorically speaking.

The history of impasto extends back to Rembrandt and Vermeer, who used thicker paints for the highlights to create a sense of depth in terms of information where the light was the strongest. Vincent van Gogh is also famous for his use of very heavy paint applications for his sunflower vase paintings, landscapes, and portraits. It has continued into the contemporary era with Lucian Freud and Frank Auerbach, both belonging to the School of London art movement.

In this exhibition, the artists continue the tradition of impasto and push it towards its limits of contemporary expression and dialogue. 

About the Artists:

Susan Carr: In 1994, Carr earned her BFA from the dual degree program at The School of The Museum of Fine arts at Tufts university Boston Massachusetts, and she also earned her MFA in video and photography there afterwards. Susan Carr’s work has been exhibited throughout the United States and abroad including Phillips Art Auctions NYC, La Luz De Jesus Los Angeles, Next to nothing gallery NYC, Borghi gallery solo in Sag Harbor and a group show in NYC, Andrew Edlin NYC, Cedar Crest College Pennsylvania, Elaine Jacobs Gallery Wayne State University, Tinimini room Amsterdam, La Grange gallery France and a yearly solo at Labspace in upper state New York. Susan Carr is featured in private and public collections around the world. She has been awarded grants from The Massachusetts cultural council and other local groups. Carr lives and works in Cape Cod Massachusetts where she paints in her basement and does ceramics at her kitchen table. She creates paintings, sculptures, ceramics, soft sculptures from fabric and everything in between, all characterized by her love of color, quirky style and thick chunky paint. Carr works on several series at once as she sees her art as stories she is writing, in whatever medium speaks to her at the time. Carr’s art comes from a deep and highly intuitive place always guided by her vibrant curiosity.

Susan Carr, 2021 Chiron Oil on wood

Jan Dickey sees paint as a living substance, likening its elements to organisms within a complex ecosystem. By working with earth-based binders like milk paint, egg tempera, walnut oil, rabbit skin glue and casein, the artist allows organic and complex systems of relationships to form within his works. The texturally intricate surfaces born out of Dickey’s intuitive actions while painting are meant to remain open to gradual change, even after they leave the artist’s studio.

Currently, the five-pointed star is the primary subject of the artist’s work. Used in repetition, and appearing in different sizes and shifting angles, the star is used as a bounded geometric form, one that both contains and excludes compositional space. Mirroring the world around us, the artist’s use of the five-pointed star imposes boundaries to make sense of the painting, just as the boundaries we create around ourselves and around others are what allow us to coherently understand ourselves and our world. As in life, however, the boundaries within the artist’s work can be evanescent, potentially breaking open into boundlessness and inseparability. 

Jan graduated with a BFA in Studio Art from the University of Delaware in Newark, DE in 2009. He later graduated with an MFA in Studio Art from the University of Hawai’i at Mãnoa in Honolulu, HI in 2017, where he was the recipient of a number of awards including the Graduate Achievement Scholarship, the Geraldine P. Clark Memorial Fellowship and the John Heide Fellowship. He has been selected for numerous artist residencies, most recently at ARTnSHELTER in Tokyo, Japan in 2019, the Kimmel Harding Nelson Art Center in Nebraska City, NE in 2018, and the Vermont Studio Center in Johnson, VT in 2017. In 2023, Dickey will be an Artist Resident at The Sam and Adele Golden FoundationSM for the Arts, Inc..

Jan Dickey, 2023 Old Dusty Sea 32 x 30 inches Traditional gesso, egg tempera, casein, oil, wax on linen

Minseok Kang is a South Korean artist who recently received his BFA in Fine Arts from the School of Visual Arts in NYC. Kang originates from Busan and paints heavy impasto imagery, drawing symbolisms and iconography from the contemporary pop culture that includes animation and online video games, as well as East Asian heritage. Kang’s application of painterly distortion of the figure, as well as the use of large anime eyes for the characters and creatures, create a novel juxtaposition of styles and influences that contribute to the dialogue of contemporary figuration in painting. Kang’s paintings are in essence Pop Art with a hint of Neo-Expressionism, recycling and repackaging the pop cultural elements, visuals, and products through a uniquely contemporary Northeast Asian lens. Kang’s use of impasto with lush colors and brilliant texture allows the traditionally flat figurative imagery of animation and the East Asian painting to penetrate the picture surface, replacing the idealization in the image making process with the experimentation involving grotesque beauty.

Minseok Kang Goku Mixed Media on Canvas 36”x48”

Riverside Gallery is located in The Shops at Riverside (Riverside Square) at One Riverside Square, Suite 201 in Hackensack, New Jersey. Riverside Gallery is a 21st century pioneer in bringing talented international artists and exhibiting diverse mediums of art. The Gallery is dedicated to opening a channel for both established and new up-and-coming artists to express their visions, and for clients to experience and appreciate art. Its prestige and reputation stems from special art collections and successful past exhibitions of works by well renowned artists. The Gallery is located at the heart of the art community, only a few minutes from New York City. Artists that have exhibited their work at Riverside Gallery take pride in the fact that their work have been exhibited in a forum that highly values uniqueness, creativity, and talent.