SEEN:
SIX DECADES OF RALPH FASANELLA PAINTINGS
JAN 11 - APRIL 6, 2025
RECEPTION APRIL 5, 5-8 PM
The Ruffed Grouse Gallery is thrilled to present “Seen: Six Decades of Ralph Fasanella Paintings.” This marks the first exhibition at The Ruffed Grouse Gallery for one of America’s most highly regarded self-taught artists, and features work spanning six decades that chronicles people and events of post-war America in colorful, inventive, socially-engaged paintings.
I may paint flat, but I don't think flat - Ralph Fasanella
Ralph Fasanella (New York, NY) was born on Labor Day in 1914 and died on December 16, 1997. He worked in machine shops and dress shops, drove trucks, pumped gas and organized workers for higher wages and a better life. One of Fasanella’s most monumental paintings portrays the 1912 Lawrence textile strike where tens of thousands of workers marched for “Bread and Roses” a life with decent wages and time to rest and reflect. Whether depicting laborers at home, at work, in luncheonettes, union halls, or on vacation, Ralph Fasanella painted the beauty and the dignity of their lives.
After dropping out of school to work on his father’s ice truck, Fasanella became a voracious reader and a life-long devotee of public libraries. A political activist and fervent believer that we all have a duty to make the world a better place for future generations, his life of activism lives on through his art.
Though he was self-taught, Fasanella rejected the labels of “primitive,” “naïve,” or even “folk artist.” Painting until the wee hours of the morning to the tunes of John Coltrane, Charles Mingus, Dexter Gordon, and the best of Italian Opera, Fasanella described himself as a people’s artist. He is quoted as saying he painted from his belly and he urged aspiring artists to reject pretention, instead to be authentic, to paint what they knew from life experience, and the legacy of where they came from. Fasanella exhorted us all to remember our history and be proud of our heritage…“Lest We Forget.”
Fasanella’s work has been widely celebrated and is included in numerous private collections as well as the collections of the American Folk Art Museum, Fenimore Art Museum, Smithsonian American Art Museum, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, among others.
~Biography courtesy Museums.Co. The Estate of Ralph Fasanella retains the copyright to images of his artworks. For questions related to copyright or artwork image use, please contact The Ruffed Grouse Gallery or Museums.Co at licensing@museums.co.
~Contact gallery for available works
Love Goddess | 1964 | oil on canvas | 44x80” | Inquire
Subway Rider with Teal Shirt | 1972 |
oil on canvas | 17.5x13.5”
Baseball, Holy Cow | 1996 |
oil on canvas | 26x30” | Inquire
Woman in Blue Scarf | c. 1970-74 |
oil on wood panel | 9.5x9” | Inquire
FIELD NOTES:
TALI BURRY-SCHNEPP, HENRY MURPHY, BETHANN PARKER
SEPT 28 - DEC 29, 2024
The Ruffed Grouse Gallery is thrilled to present “Field Notes: Tali Burry-Schnepp, Henry Murphy, Bethann Parker.” This marks the first exhibition at The Ruffed Grouse Gallery for the three artists, and features new paintings and textiles.
Tali Burry-Schnepp (b. 1999, Oakland, CA) lives and works in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She attended the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and received her BFA in 2023. Burry-Schnepp is a painter, printmaker, and self-taught weaver who explores various other art forms within her practice. Interaction with birds, plants, and characters in the landscape are important subjects to her, as she moves freely between the openness of the landscape and the seclusion of the studio. She works with contemporary paints and pigments as well as natural fibers and dyes. Memory serves as a rich inner landscape for Burry-Schnepp, playing a large role in her practice. She has exhibited at venues in and around Philadelphia, including King Oaks in Newtown, PA.
Henry Murphy (b. 1995, New York, NY) is a painter living and working in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He earned both a BFA and a Painting Certificate from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts where he was awarded a Von Hess Memorial Travel Scholarship. Murphy paints primarily from direct observation but also implements principles from classical landscape traditions, folk art, and pre-photography sources. Observational painting and drawing allow him to contemplate nature, place, and history. Murphy has exhibited at Gross McCleaf Gallery, Philadelphia, PA; Cerulean Arts, Philadelphia, PA; Biz 187, Larchmont, NY; Van der Plas Gallery, New York, NY; Spring Break Art Show, New York, NY; and Stellarhighway, Brooklyn, NY.
Bethann Parker (b. 1984, Philadelphia, PA) resides in the mountains of Northeast Appalachia. She received a BFA and a Certificate of Fine Art from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, as well as a Certificate from the Barnes Foundation. She conducts interdisciplinary research and material experimentation in her Easton, Pennsylvania studio, allowing her to expand notions around spirituality and rural narratives. Through direct observation, intuition, memory, as well as the application of thick oil paint, marble dust, and collage, Parker creates conceptually and physically layered landscapes of consciousness and emotion. She has exhibited at Anna Zorina Gallery, New York, NY in a virtual exhibition; Art at King Oaks, Newtown, PA; and is represented by Gross McCleaf Gallery in Philadelphia, PA. She has received prestigious awards such as the Kittredge Fund, the Freeman’s Exhibition Award, the Louis S. Fine Purchase Prize, and the Richard C. Von Hess Memorial Travel Scholarship. Her work has been featured in the New York Times and Voice of America. Parker’s work is included in the Collection of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the Lee Foundation, the Louise S. Fine Collection, as well as numerous private collections.
~Contact gallery for available works
Tali Burry-Schnepp | Dreamers | 2023 | acid and vegetable dyes, wool with acrylic on cotton warp | 32x48”
Henry Murphy | Ravine | 2024 | oil on canvas | 18x24” | Available
Bethann Parker | Split Rails and Burning Bridges | 2022 | oil on linen | 16x20” | Available
LUKE HANNAM:
HITS AND DELIBERATE MISSES
JULY 5 - SEPTEMBER 2, 2024
The Ruffed Grouse Gallery is thrilled to present “Luke Hannam: Hits and Deliberate Misses,” the British artist’s debut exhibition in the United States. The exhibition features new paintings and drawings made between 2020 and 2024. The title of the exhibition refers to the deterministic condition, where one is as much shaped by success as by failure. To Hannam, the paintings represent the meeting of the trained eye and the untrained instinct, and his desire to unapologetically pursue unforeseen directions. He believes that a chaotic studio system does not necessarily equate to a disordered one, and that it is paramount to resist formula. This is reflected in an exhibition layout that is sometimes thematically tuned and other times perversely randomized. It is fitting that The Ruffed Grouse Gallery is the host of the exhibition, as its mission is to champion the Outsider and the Contemporary artist alike. “Luke Hannam: Hits and Deliberate Misses” continues the ongoing discussion around both self-taught and trained artists’ work, and the virtues and pitfalls within each.
Luke Hannam is an English painter born in 1966 in Oxford. Hannam grew up in Derbyshire on the edge of the rural Peak district. He studied art at Chesterfield College in the early 1980s, where he spent most of his time drawing from life and copying the work of Raphael and Michelangelo. Hannam went on to study at Canterbury College of Art, where he was tutored by Mali Morris RA, Stass Paraskos, and Rob Welch. He then moved to the Northeast of England principally to paint, but also to make music. Hannam found success as a musician in the 1990s with his band ENC, and later with GRAMME, who signed with the influential record label Output Records. Post-punk, hip-hop, and dance culture have had a major impact on Hannam’s creative personality, establishing a deep commitment to mixing languages and styles. His approach to bass playing has been compared to the way he draws and paints – passionate, brutal, and distinctly beautiful.
Hannam returned to painting as a central focus in the early 2000s, although he has continued to write, record, and tour with his band GRAMME. After showing his work in many provincial galleries in the UK, he secured major representation from the Anima Mundi gallery in Cornwall, where he has had two major solo exhibitions in the past three years. With a rising international profile, Hannam is highly prolific, and continues to evolve his work and multiple creative pathways, which includes frequent writing on painting.
~Contact gallery for available works
Psycho Killer | 2023 | acrylic and oil stick on board |24x15.5” (61x39 cm) | Available
The Convalescence | 2024 | acrylic on board | 14x18.5” (35x47 cm) | Available
Tongue Tied | 2023 | oil on canvas and frame | 29x21.5” (74x55 cm) | Available
JULIA POLICASTRO | MARCELLE REINECKE
MARCH 16 - JUNE 23, 2024
The Ruffed Grouse Gallery is thrilled to present new works by Julia Policastro and Marcelle Reinecke.
Julia Policastro (b. 1992) is a contemporary painter who lives and works in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She received her BFA from Tyler School of Art. Among various influences, her work draws from late Medieval and early Renaissance Sienese artists, Ken Price, and David Hockney. With her recent three-dimensional paintings utilizing plaster and joint compound, Policastro explores modes of viewing and spatial play by combining windows, architectures, colors, and organic forms into scenarios that activate ambiguities of perspective, point-of-view, and experience. Policastro has exhibited her work at venues including Commonweal Gallery, Fleisher/Ollman Gallery, and Deep Space Gallery. Her work is included in numerous private collections.
Marcelle Reinecke (b. 1989) is a contemporary figurative painter who was born in New Orleans, Louisiana and lives and works in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She received a BFA from Marywood University, an MFA from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and has studied at Studio Arts College International in Florence, Italy. Reinecke’s work blends historical homage and personal narrative, often depicting women in everyday scenarios with a queer, voyeuristic lens. Her work utilizes nostalgic elements like vintage patterns, logos, and automobiles. Reinecke draws influence from a diverse range of figurative painters, including George De La Tour, Rudy Nappi (Illustrator of Nancy Drew), Nicole Eisenman, George Tooker, and David Park, among others. A fascination with the overworked and the anonymous has led Reinecke to form a collection of paintings from thrift stores and other venues. Reinecke will have upcoming exhibitions at Steven Harvey Fine Art Projects, Monya Rowe Gallery, and will be featured at NADA Foreland with Margot Samel Gallery. Her first solo exhibition in New York City will take place at Monya Rowe Gallery in January 2025. Reinecke’s work is included in many private collections, including the prestigious Dumfries House Trust Collection in Scotland.
~Contact gallery for available works
Julia Policastro | Windowsill Sunset | 2024 |
oil on wood, acrylic, foam board, plaster, and joint compound | 14x22x4"
Marcelle Reinecke | Detour | 2024
acrylic and flashe on panel | 16x20"
SENECA WEINTRAUT:
DECOY
DEC 9, 2023 - FEB 25, 2024
“DECOY” is a series of works exploring the parallels of paintings and decoys, not only in superficial resemblance (being as both are often made of a combination of canvas, paint, and wood), but also conceptually, as aesthetic lures and representations of nature. Much like the history of painting, the aesthetics and provenance of waterfowl decoys have superseded any intrinsic value based on functionality. It is the works of prominent carvers and subjectively beautiful birds that take precedence in the mind's eye of the collector. One can't help but admire the inventive forms of abstraction in paint and wood as important artifacts in the history of art. "Fresh Air Dick" Janson's string of bluebill hollows conjures visions of an arrangement of Forrest Bess paintings while the full- flowing "fat footballs" of Ira Hudson's brants can't help but bring to mind the smooth, oblong sculptures of Brancusi. These parallel worlds swim beside each other or perhaps, at times, pause momentarily to create a perfect reflection of symmetry.
Hoosier Seneca Weintraut is an artist living and working in Philadelphia. Weintraut received his MFA in painting from Tyler School of Art, Temple University in 2015 and was a member of the artist-run gallery Fjord. In years past, Weintraut counted money on a riverboat casino, cut grass for an oil refinery, and built mausoleums in several prominent cemeteries. Nowadays, Weintraut runs The Wooden Jacket and maintains a studio at The Loom in Philadelphia where his paintings and simple woodcarvings explore the nonlinear timeline of Wood Grain Theory and searches for other mysteries of the unknown. Weintraut attended Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in the summer of 2013. He has shown his work in New York, Philadelphia, and Chicago and was featured in New American Paintings #113.
~ Contact gallery for available works
NEW HIGHLIGHTS OF OUTSIDER ART:
1-YEAR ANNIVERSARY EXHIBITION
SEPT 2 - NOV 12, 2023
In conjunction with the 1-year anniversary of The Ruffed Grouse Gallery, this exhibition features: Pearl Blauvelt, The Attic Carver, Floyd Clark, David Olson, Mose Tolliver, John Henry Toney, Mary Flythe Turner, James Wong, and others.
The Attic Carver
Little is known about the mysterious wood carvings found in a church attic in Liberty, New York in the 1990s. Most likely made in the 1970s, it appears as though the artist referenced individuals from life for some works, and for others, may have sourced imagery from print publications. The relief carving, impasto paint application, and integrated framing represent the determined expression of what was meaningful to this artist, and result in a highly unique sensibility within the self-taught genre. These works are being exhibited here for the first time.
Painted and Drawn Relief Carvings with Artist-made Frames c. 1970s
Floyd Clark
This work epitomizes American folk art with its light-hearted subject matter of animals and figures in landscapes, as well as its creative use of found material like cardboard, garden hose, and rubber tires. These expressive works become a snapshot of a self-taught artist’s life in rural Texas.
Paint on Cardboard, Garden Hose, and Rubber Tire c. 1970s/ 80s
David Olson
The details of Olson’s life are unclear, yet we do know that within his double-sided colored pencil and crayon drawings, he often depicts himself as a character wearing a “dunce cap” sitting alone or interacting with others in domestic settings or landscapes. In the self-taught genre, Olson’s work is set apart for its wit, humor, charm, sincerity, and formal qualities.
Double-sided Colored Pencil/ Crayon on Paper Works c. 1980s
~ Contact gallery for available works
PULL:
WORKS BY DAVID KENER, LUCY SANTE,
AND DAVE WALSH
JUNE 10 - AUG 13, 2023
The Ruffed Grouse Gallery is proud to present “PULL: Works by David Kener, Lucy Sante, and Dave Walsh,” an exhibition featuring sculpture, collage, and painting. These three artists are engaged in a process of extraction. With an acute attention to forgotten things, they transform the old, the overlooked, and the everyday into compelling new stories.
This exhibition coincides with Narrowsburg’s Deep Water Literary Festival, June 16th-18th, which this year features an array of creative and provocative works by artists, performers, poets, and musicians centered around the theme of George Orwell.
David Kener is a creative entrepreneur based in Shohola, Pennsylvania and New York City. His professional career has encompassed film and theatre production, television acting, nonprofit development, community-building, arts education and more. As a self-taught artist, he believes that every found object has a story and works to create sculpture that brings those stories to life.
Lucy Sante, an acclaimed writer, resumed making collages in 2017 after a lapse of nearly forty years. She had never stopped accumulating materials, though, and now benefits from a large archive of printed matter. Sante is drawn to the first half of the twentieth century for its colors and its graphic simplicity. The majority of her collages involve words and employ as few elements as possible. The works tend to be small, but are conceptualized as poster-size, which creates a louder, outsized effect. Sante sees the collages as poetry, involving a delicate balance of structure and ambiguity, always resting just on the verge of meaning.
Dave Walsh is a painter who lives and works in Philadelphia. He received his BFA from Tyler School of Art, his MFA from Yale School of Art, and was a 2015-16 fellow at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Massachusetts. Walsh’s work critiques how landscape and nature in the contemporary moment have been shaped by problematic yet culturally coveted traditions of depiction in 19th-century American landscape paintings, photographs, and the creation of the National Parks. Through travel and research, Walsh analyzes a preoccupation with viewing the landscape preserved in a language of rustic frontier aesthetics and landscape mythologies. His paintings depict what is outside of the frame of the postcard, photograph, or painting.
~ Contact gallery for available works
Lucy Sante | Friendship 7 | paper on book cover | 2020 | 15X11” framed | Available
David Kener | My Kingston | metal | 2017 |
11x22” | Available
Dave Walsh | Tent at Dusk | oil on panel | 2023 |
10x8” framed | Available
AMANDA MIEHLE:
FASHION PASSION MAGIC
MARCH 25 - MAY 29, 2023
The Ruffed Grouse Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of “Amanda Miehle: Fashion Passion Magic,” the artist’s first gallery exhibition. Over 250 of Miehle’s color drawings showcasing her exuberant take on fashion, color, and abstraction will be presented. Miehle’s work was first seen publicly after being recreated as a mural on The Great Wall of Honesdale in Northeastern Pennsylvania. Her work won the People’s Choice award and was featured in several publications. Since then, it has appeared in BrutJournal, and is currently receiving wider attention in the Outsider art world.
Amanda Miehle is a 16-year-old untrained artist who has created an extensive amount of artwork for her young age. Miehle began creating at age 4 with her first drawings of figures in what has become her signature “A” style. As her figures evolved stylistically through the years, she retained the simplicity of the “A” form, and began to refer to these as her “fashion.” In 2017, along with her “A” fashion girls, Miehle expanded her work to include abstractions. To date, Miehle has created well over 1,000 works of art, consisting mainly of her fashion girls and abstractions. Miehle says she creates her artwork to express her fashion and make everybody happy. Her unique work clearly reflects this joy.
~all works Sharpie marker on paper | 8.5x11” | 2013-2023
Contact gallery for available works
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TERRY EKASALA:
NEW WORKS
NOV 12, 2022 – FEB 5, 2023
The Ruffed Grouse Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of the gallery’s first one-person exhibition of paintings by Terry Ekasala. From large to intimately-scaled, Ekasala’s new portraits and dreamy abstractions twist, fold, bend, evaporate, and resurface as brilliantly orchestrated experiences of discovery.
“Terry Ekasala’s paintings collapse and rebuild upon themselves in a melding of abstraction and figuration that’s generative and ebullient. Her daily practice, which she shares online, is deeply human and relatable. Her work is serious and intentional, but breathtakingly unburdened with the limitations on what can or can’t work. She takes a lot of chances. Most artists don’t.”
-Alex Weinstein, The Surfer’s Journal
Terry Ekasala was born in Weymouth, MA in 1962. She received her undergraduate degree from the Art Institute in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. Ekasala first lived in Miami Beach in the early to mid 1980s where she was a part of the Artifacts Artist Group which staged multimedia art happenings in unconventional settings throughout Miami. In 1987, she moved to Paris where she also became involved with the local artist community for the next fourteen years, before moving to Vermont in 2001. Her work has been exhibited widely in Paris, Berlin and New York. Recently, solo presentations of her work have been held at the Hall Art Foundation, Catamount Arts, and Burlington City Arts in Vermont, with Metalstone Gallery in New York City, at Matter & Light in Boston, and at the Piermarq Gallery in Sydney, Australia. Her work can be found in numerous private collections. Ekasala now resides in Burke, Vermont with her family, continuing to work on large and small abstractions and figures in what she calls her dream studio on a mountainside.
“Liar” acrylic on paper | 2022 |
11x13” framed | Available
“The Movie Goer” acrylic on paper | 2022 |
18x14” framed
“Three Points of View” acrylic on paper | 2020 |
14x18” framed | Available
~ Contact gallery for available works