Happiness of Color
The Byrne Gallery is proud to announce THE HAPPINESS of COLOR, its new exhibition for the month of March 2024. Five artists will present their interpretation of color and the hope that Spring brings each year. These abstracts explore the energy and vibrancy of the season of renewal when joyful color bursts forth once again.
The artists participating in this show are Richard Binder, Joe LaMattina, Anne Marchand, Sharon Pierce McCullough, and Carolyn Marshall Wright. Their paintings and sculpture illustrate the powerful impact color has on our emotions and its ability to transform our mood and outlook. Without the context of a fixed composition, it is color and form that drive the work, creating a positive feeling in the viewer and hopefully a smile as well. This exhibition celebrates the ability of color to uplift and give joy.
And, in designing our homes, our most intimate environment, we want to surround ourselves with joy, colors and patterns that make us happy. Color provides positivity to a space, it makes us feel uplifted, happy, energized, and invited. Choose happiness, choose color! The exhibit will be on display from March 1st – March 31st and is open to the public. Everyone is cordially invited to attend. A reception will be held on Saturday, March 16th, from 4 to 7 p.m.
Meet the Artists
Richard Binder is a sculpture artist and retired oncologist. “Color, particularly red, lets the devil in me express myself and use different forms and shapes that enhance the drama of my creations.” Dr. Binder creates sculpture using steel as the medium, in part because its permanence and resistance to decay: “Life is transient, and steel has permanence!” Please join us in celebrating the happiness of color and life.
Joe LaMattina loves to experiment and play in developing the “sense of lightness and fluidity” in his colorful abstract works. Much of his current work is mixed media, with paint, collage, and unusual non-traditional materials. He views art as a journey and, regardless of subject matter, he loves to “present works with open-ended narratives” and leave the affect and feeling to the viewer.
“Space, color and mystery are calling cards to begin the work of layering the materials on canvas.” Anne Marchand works with spontaneous action to combine themes of spirit and matter and in conveying a depth of meaning through transparent layers. The painting process is metaphor for the natural and invisible forces that shape human perception and experience. “I am drawn to images that open the viewer to questions about personal experience, consciousness and transformation.”
Sharon Pierce McCullough is a visual artist engaged in a multidisciplinary practice that includes painting, drawing and sculpture. An “ecologically conscious” artist, her work is constantly evolving. Her art career attests to her experimental spirit in exploring colors, shapes and textures in many of her ongoing series of paintings and sculptures. Taking a cue from early Minimalism and Color Field painters, McCullough hones her multicolored palette through a long process where color defines “whether a work is good or great."
Carolyn Marshall Wright is a favorite of the Byrne Gallery. She is a signature member of the Virginia Watercolor Society, a member and past president of Potomac Valley Watercolorists and a frequent exhibitor in juried exhibitions in the Mid-Atlantic region. Her work has hung in the Museum of the Shenandoah Valley, in the World Bank, and is in numerous private collections around the world. She seeks to “Paint from the inside out” – to quote painter George De Groat (1917-1995) founder of Chromatic Expressionism. Carolyn’s paintings are an emotional response to the world and, in its turn, evoke an positive and enduring emotional response in the viewer.