Outside the Lines
curated by Carol Ward
Outside the Lines is a multimedia collection of works curated by Carol Ward that examines the intersection of a person’s heritage, their current physical location, and their personality in creating their artwork. The interplay between the past and the present will be explored as artists think about where they came from and where they are now in the fabric of New York City.
Artists Nelson Alvarez, Franck De Las Mercedes, Andrea Arroyo, Felipe Galindo, Brionna Martinez, and Skip Brea present a wide variety of subject matter and media to speak their narratives to the viewer.
About the Artists:
Artist and professor Nelson Alvarez has yet again enchanted us with his detailed drawings of Newark’s industrial buildings. The Cuban born artist has been exercising his passion in drawing through a series of drawings part of the exhibition entitled, “Newark’s Papers” at the James Howe Gallery and the Students Gallery both located in the Vaughn-Eames building at Kean University. Fascinated by the industrial heritage of the city of Newark, Nelson’s artworks express his connection with architecture landscape while still capturing the romantic and qualitative aspects of each site, its patterns, atmosphere, and essence. Nelson Álvarez combines fantasy with detailed accuracy in his compositions of factory building facades, rooftops, factory chimneys and sections along with elements distinct to the area depicted. The process of creating these drawings is cyclical in that they continue to inform Nelson of the spirit of the city as he draws each artwork.
Franck De Las Mercedes is an internationally acclaimed contemporary artist from New York City. Born in Nicaragua, Franck has pioneered a style through a multifaceted body of work influenced by abstract expressionism, rock carvings, neo-expressionism, and Nicaraguan primitivism. Through bright colors, jagged line work, and hieroglyph inspired text and abstract patterns, Franck creates emotionally charged work that explores childhood memory, current events, family dynamics, and sociopolitical topics.
Andrea Arroyo is an award-winning artist working in a range of media including public art, painting, drawing, illustration, and site-specific installation. Her work is exhibited widely and is in private, corporate, and public collections around the world. Public art projects include permanent indoor and outdoor artwork for private, institutional, and corporate spaces, including the NYC subway. Honors include New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowships, Global Citizen Award Artist, Clinton Global Initiative, United Nations Ranan Lurie Award, 21 Leader for the 21st Century, and Outstanding Woman of New York. She has received multiple grants from the Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance, the Puffin Foundation, the Harlem Arts Alliance, and the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. Her artwork has been published extensively including on the cover of The New Yorker, The New York Times, The International Herald Tribune, and The Nation, and has been the subject of over two hundred features in the international media. Ms. Arroyo is also a curator, a cultural advocate, and a sought-after speaker and lecturer.
Felipe Galindo (aka Feggo) creates humorous art in a variety of media, including cartoons, illustrations, animations, fine art, and public art. Born in Cuernavaca, Mexico, Feggo resides in New York City since 1983. BFA Visual Arts, National Autonomous University of Mexico. His humorous drawings have appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Readers Digest, Mad, Narrative, International Herald Tribune, NACLA, INXART and numerous European publications. Galindo has held numerous individual exhibitions in the United States and abroad. Has received grants from the LMCC, NALAC, NYSCA, NoMAA, Puffin Foundation, Rockefeller US/Mexico Fund for Culture, Latino Public Broadcasting.
Bronx based artist, Brionna Martinez (aka BAM), was born and raised in Yonkers, NY. She graduated with a BFA from the Fashion Institute of Technology with a minor in Art History and Psychology. She is currently in the process of getting her Masters in Art Therapy. Martinez aspires to have a career in both art education and art therapy to help her community. Her work can be described as having thought-provoking meaning and imagery. Along with creating smaller-scaled works that have been exhibited in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Westchester County, Martinez also has created murals in Staten Island and New Jersey.
Skip Brea (b. Bronx, New York) is a New Media Artist based in New York City, who holds a BA in Studio Art and Literature from DePauw University and received his MFA at Florida State University. His paintings, animations, and installations examine the history of representation by transforming narratives and mediums with contemporary innovations. Brea is a distinguished recipient of numerous prizes and awards, his engagement with art history has led to several solo exhibitions across the United States while also gaining international recognition. In 2018 Brea won The Dean Collection St.Art Up Grant funded by Swizz Beatz & Alicia Keys, he was one of twenty chosen from around the world, one out of seven in America. His work was commissioned by REVOLT, a corporation owned by Sean Diddy Combs, to be shown at the Black Summit in Atlanta, GA in 2019.
About the Curator:
Carol S. Ward has over 15 years of collaborative leadership in for-profit and non-profit management, financial oversight, fundraising, strategic planning, Board relationships, and grant-winning cultural program development. Ms. Ward is an art historian with her BA from Mary Washington College, and two Masters Degrees, her first in Museum Education from the College of New Rochelle, and her second in Art History from Hunter College. She has presented the keynote address at CLHO (Connecticut League of Historic Organizations) on connecting a historic site to the community, the annual NYCMER (New York City Museum Educators Roundtable) conferences on bringing contemporary art into a historic house museum, at Mary Washington College about the future of careers in art history and the museum field, and at the New-York Historical Society on Alexander Hamilton (the man and the musical).
Articles she has written have been published in The Magazine Antiques, The Historic House Trust journal, the American Alliance of Museums Magazine, Antiques Weekly, and catalogs for the Bruce Museum, Morris-Jumel Mansion, and Keno Auctions. Her book “Visions of America: The Morris-Jumel Mansion” was published in 2015 and she has recently appeared in the documentary on the making of the hit musical “Hamilton.”
For more information on Carol and Outside the Lines follow their Instagram.
