In this new body of work, Brooklyn-based painter Andrew Lenaghan continues to paint from life, focusing on locales in and around New York City. Titled "Summer in the City," the exhibition charts the artist's explorations of Manhattan's Clinton neighborhood, the Lower East Side, the beaches of Far Rockaway, the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn, as well as his own backyard.
While retaining their keen sense of observed detail, the fifteen paintings included in the exhibition share an emphasis on summer light. For example, Lenaghan takes full advantage of the effects of raking light and contrasting play of shadows among the buildings of Midtown in his West 36th Street from Ron's Back Window, while in Looking North From Canal Street, a rooftop view of Manhattan from the Lower East Side he captures the washed out haze of a humid New York summer day. Several of the paintings also exhibit a looser, more spontaneous approach. For example, there are notably rapid and nearly abstract passages in the reflections in the waters of both Kentile Sign from the 3rd Street Bridge and Gowanus Canal Tree.
Checklist
1. Plum Beach Boat III, 2006
Oil on panel
24 x 32 inches
AnLp 472
2. Slow Surf - Rockaway, 2004
Oil on panel
24 x 32 inches
AnLp 404
3. Plum Beach Graffiti, 2005
Oil on panel
24 x 32 inches
AnLp 405
4. Junkyard, Gowanus Canal, 2006
Oil on panel
32 x 24 inches
AnLp 467
5. Gowanus Cement Towers from 3rd Street Bridge, 2006
Oil on panel
24 x 32 inches
AnLp 462
6. Backyard, 2006
Oil on panel
32 x 48 inches
AnLp 456
7. Spring Backyard, 2006
Oil on panel
24 x 32 inches
AnLp 454
8. Red Building at 3rd Street and 3rd Avenue, 2006
Oil on panel
32 x 24 inches
AnLp 464
9. View From Adam's Roof Up Eldridge Street, 2006
Oil on panel
32 1/4 x 48 inches
AnLp 458
10. West 37th Street Parking Lot, 2006
Oil on panel
32 1/4 x 48 inches
AnLp 459
11. West 36th Street from Ron's Back Window, 2006
Oil on panel
31 1/4 x 48 inches
AnLp 457
12. Adam's Studio, 2006
Oil on panel
32 1/4 x 48 inches
AnLp 460
13. Kentile Sign from the 3rd Street Bridge, 2006
Oil on panel
32 1/4 x 48 inches
AnLp 461
14.Gowanus Canal Tree, 2006
Oil on panel
24 x 32 inches
AnLp 463
Front Window:
View From Ron's Window, 37th Street, 2004
Oil on panel
32 x 49 inches
AnLp 377