A Solo Show for Wendy Shalen

Wendy Shalen: Experiments in Landscape features “realistic landscape pieces in pen and ink, watercolor and pastel, and a new series of abstract handmade paper landscapes, experiments in pulp, wax encaustic and monotype.” This solo exhibition opens at Prince Street Gallery (530 West 25th Street, 4th floor) on Thursday, May 25 and continues through June 17, 2017. In addition to a reception scheduled for May 25, 5 to 8 p.m., Shalen will be at the gallery this Saturday, May 27, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. and on June 3 will be giving a “Walk & Talk.” Anyone wishing a private tour can contact her directly: wshalen@gmail.com. She has also launched a new website: www.wendyshalen.com.

Wendy Shalen, Fall Reflections, 2016. Pigmented paper pulp and vinyl, 25 x 35 in.

Wendy Shalen, Lake View Near and Far, 2015, pigmented cotton pulp, color pencil on shrinkable plastic, 30 x 40 in.

Wendy Shalen, Cloudscape, handmade pigmented cotton pulp, 30 x 40 in.

Wendy Shalen, Bluescape, 2012, pigmented handmade paper pulp, 29 x 39 in.

Sigmund Abeles, N.A. Introduction

WENDY SHALEN INTRODUCTION

Oh my goodness, does Family matter to this empathic draughts-person, life artist, Wendy Shalen.  Working from deep within the heart, her heart, with her sensitive antenna on alert, she skirts sentiment for genuine connected depth.  By life-artist I refer to her chosen subject matter ranging from birth to aging/death and those chosen juicy moments in between; just exactly what it means to experience the scope of life via the brain, eyes and hands of an attuned, passionate artist. 

Shalen has created little miracles by preserving very special images and moments within this particular exhibition, Family Matters, which encompasses her finely drawn visual record of five generations of her own family.  Life stories, memories depicting her ninety year old grandmother, and hanging on, her now speechless mother, a beguiling grandchild in her daughter’s arms, even the family, loyal to your side, canines.  I truly feel I can get to know each and everyone of these people, through Shalen’s sharp incisive lines, delicately smudged tones, sure but tender yet nailed mark-making …. drawing that is indeed touching at a distance.  I sense her holding her breath sensing this is her one chance, possible last chance to capture a fleeting moment, forever.

This is hardly easy work, however considering the degree of compulsion, Shalen operates within, we leave experiencing these honest images, and they remain truly memorable.

TV Interview with GG Kopilak

Cable TV Interview with Wendy Shalen

About this Episode

Title: Wendy Shalen
Air Date: 05/23/2014
Guests: Wendy Shalen
Topics: Artists and their art
Hosts: GG Kopilak
Description: Host, GG Kopilak, talks with Wendy Shalen, a teacher at the Art Students League of New York, about her exhibition, family matters, and her proficiency in a range of art mediums.

About the Series

Title: Pleasantville Connects To VISUAL ARTS
Category: Pleasantville Public Access
Produced By: GG Kopilak
Description: Spending the bulk of her time isolated in her studio while she paints, her dream was to have a place where other artists would come together and talk about art....stimulating discussion being an incentive to creation. In her interview program she connects with other artists, albeit, usually one at a time. Interviewed artists tell the stories of how they create, how they got to where they are in their artwork, their work is shown on screen, and the viewing audience acquires knowledge about art in the surrounding area.

Our Town Downtown Artist Profile by Gabrielle Alfiero

Family Portrait Artist

WRITTEN BY GABRIELLE ALFIERO ON APRIL 23, 2014. POSTED IN ARTS OUR TOWN, ARTS OUR TOWN DOWNTOWN.

Wendy Shalen’s newest show incorporates several generations of her family as its subjects

SOHO About a year ago, artist Wendy Shalen visited her elderly mother at her home in Bridgeport, Conn., and began drawing a portrait of her in silver-point, a type of sterling silver pencil that tarnishes and turns brown on paper over time. Her mother, who will turn 102 in June, is bedridden and can no longer speak. She wears a hospital gown every day so that her full-time nurses can care for her more easily. As she sketched, Shalen wasn’t sure her mother even knew she was there.

“It’s just so difficult to go through this stage,” said Shalen, 63, as she sat in the cafeteria at the Arts Students League of New York at West 57th Street, where she teaches. “You know she would just have a fit if she knew what was going on.”

Around the same time, Shalen discovered an antique photo album tucked away at her mother’s house, along with her father’s college yearbook from New York University. In the album, which is 70 years old, Shalen found photographs of her older brothers and her grandmother, and portraits of her parents on their wedding day. Her mother’s hair was pinned in an elegant bob and her father was dressed in a tuxedo and wore a white tie and a handkerchief tucked in his pocket.

The discovery of the photo album, coupled with her mother’s decline, inspired her latest show, “Family Matters,” a collection of 46 family portraits and images that opened at Prince Street Gallery on April 22. Incorporating a range of mediums, including charcoal, watercolor, dry point etchings and handmade paper, Shalen’s exhibit features graphite portraits of her mother and father, drawn from the photographs she found in the album, alongside “Mom at 101,” the portrait of her mother in bed at her home in Bridgeport.

While the show contemplates the process of aging, it also nods at generational continuum. Portraits of Shalen’s twin children, Samantha and Luke, now 33, are also central to the show. A watercolor of Luke as a young boy is paired with a graphite drawing of him as an adult, dressed in a jacket and tie, and smiling.

“He’s so handsome now,” said Shalen.

Samantha recently gave birth to a little girl, Mia, whom Shalen draws while she’s sleeping, just as she did with her own children. Watercolors and etchings of Samantha cradling Mia suggest a deliberate symmetry with a silverpoint drawing of Mia as an infant, sleeping on her father’s chest.

Though she’s always done figurative work, some of Shalen’s recent shows had a more political bent. In 2010 she exhibited portraits of homeless people, and her 2012 mixed media show “Washed Ashore” in Pound Ridge, New York, incorporated trash she found on beaches into watercolor and pastel seascapes. A few pieces directly responded to the BP oil spill.

Shalen has also taught art since she graduated from Brandeis University in 1973. While a teacher at Birch Wathen Lenox School on the Upper East Side in the 1970s, she took courses at the Art Students League, where she now teaches.

“In the summer I teach in the same room where I took classes,” Shalen said. “Which is really kind of crazy cool. I want to pinch myself.”

The oldest piece in “Family Matters” was done in 1980, the year her grandmother died, at the age of 90, and the year Shalen’s twins were born. Her strongest memories of her grandmother Sophie are of her knotted, arthritic hands constantly in motion as she knitted, crocheted and sewed cloth napkins, lace and beaded collars. Shortly before Sophie’s death, Shalen drew a charcoal portrait of her grandmother wearing a shawl she’d knitted herself.

“Much of the show is dedicated to her creative spirit,” Shalen said. “My mother was never happy about me remembering [Sophie] that way, unfortunately. It’s difficult to look at.”

In a nod to her grandmother’s own artistic expression, Shalen, who also makes paper from her own recycled watercolor paintings, created a series of thick, stark white paper for the show, imprinted with pieces of her grandmother’s lace and crocheted linen.

“You know, you’re getting older and you really do have a certain perspective on what is important here,” said Shalen. “And really, your family is important. Especially as an obsessed artist. Most of us, we do this, we think about it all the time, and I think it’s important to have the perspective that your family is really important and maybe figure out a way to do the work that you do but also show your love for your family.”

Family matters—Prince Street Gallery: Press Release

For Immediate Release 

Wendy Shalen
Family Matters: Drawings, Paintings, Prints and Handmade Paper
April 22 to May 17, 2014

New York, NY – Prince Street Gallery announces a solo exhibition of new works by Wendy Shalen, opening on April 22.  The gallery is located at 530 West 25th Street, between 10th and 11th Avenues.  The artist will be present for an opening reception on April 26, from 3 to 7 p.m., a closing reception on May 17, from 3 to 6 p.m., and each Saturday during the show’s run.  

The exhibition will feature some of the range of Ms. Shalen’s works – self-portraits, figurative charcoal and silverpoint drawings and watercolors, alongside handmade paper vintage lace embossments, drypoint etchings and monotypes. 

“In this exhibition, I put aside my recent environmental art and draw inspiration from my 101-year-old mother, my baby granddaughter, other relatives and our family dog.  The show focuses on contrasts -- between generations, sensibilities, materials and techniques. I hope to capture and communicate emotions that we share -- watching my late grandmother struggle with dementia and the fear of death at 90, watching my own mother in bed unable to walk or speak, yet free of pain and with a strong heart.  At the same time, I celebrate my daughter’s excitement and exhaustion in caring for a newborn, the formal joy of my parents’ wedding day, and the amazing gift of having twins.  The work, comprising watercolor, charcoal, graphite and silverpoint drawings, and monoprints done with drypoint, is in part from life and in part inspired by a recently discovered, 70-year old album of family photographs.”

Alongside sensitive paintings, drawings and prints, Shalen displays a series of contemporary handmade paper embossments that incorporate and give new purpose to her grandmother’s antique lacework.  “My strongest memories of Sophie were the conversations we had while she was knitting or crocheting or sewing -- shawls, afghans, linens and beaded collars. I have used her vintage lace in embossed impressions in wet pulp.  The pulp was macerated from my unsuccessful watercolors and I recycled the lace and the pulp, hoping to bring new life to both.  This has helped me remember and honor both the effort of painting and my grandmother’s creative spirit.”

*         *         *

Wendy Shalen teaches drawing, painting and portfolio development at The Art Students League of New York.  Her work is represented in many private collections and has been featured in London at Abbot & Holder, in New York at Allan Stone Gallery, Prince Street Gallery, The Salmagundi Club, The National Academy of Design and The National Arts Club, in Martha’s Vineyard at Carol Craven Gallery, Gardner-Colby Gallery and Fielder & Fielder, and at The Katonah Museum of Art, The Housatonic Museum of Art, and Silvermine Guild Galleries.  Ms. Shalen has taught figure and landscape drawing and painting to adults and teens for more than 35 years.  A graduate of Brandeis University, she studied at the Art Students League in the late 1970s with Daniel Greene, Harvey Dinnerstein and Robert Beverly Hale, and privately with Burton Silverman. 

Ms. Shalen’s studio is located in Waccabuc, New York. Additional information and images can be found on: www.wendyshalen.com.