In the winter of 2010, an entire bee yard on a local farm and apart of my wife's apiary was killed by someone who poured gasoline into the hives and closed off their world. The following spring, I began four canvases, one for each hive lost. The idea for the series was straightforward and difficult - imagine their demise. After working on three of the four paintings sparingly over 13 years, they are finished, individually and as a group.
They are admittedly difficult and dark paintings to view except for the fourth, which is light and hopeful. Though these works have never been exhibited together, the website provides a semblance of doing so. The opportunity to exhibit the series is planned.
A new section for the website, Writings, will include an expanded account of the series development.
This week marks the passing of artist and friend Connie Fox at the age of 98. There will be many fitting testimonies to her, but here is a short remembrance.
I met Connie and her husband, artist Bill King, in 2006 soon after I moved to the East End of Long Island. Then in her early eighties, she had recently embarked on the Sammys Beach series, an ambitious group of large paintings that are, from my perspective, significant and summary works derived in part from her deep connection to that famous, remote beach, a short bike ride from her home and place she frequented year-round. I remember one such trip there for a joint swim, as exercise, not to sunbathe.
Most of our initial time together was spent looking at artwork. She was as generous with her criticism as she was on-point precise, as economical as she was thorough. We shared numerous studio visits over the years. Initially she would visit mine in Sag Harbor. After Bill died and I had the good fortune to work in his adjacent studio, she would walk over, sometimes unannounced, if I wasn't keeping up with our informal schedule. When I reciprocated, it was all business. We trusted each other and had a relationship built on understanding what each other was trying to accomplish, what aspect of a canvas was not working, and why.
With Bill's death in 2015, our weekly lunches became similar events with Connie. What had been a mostly professional relationship became a close personal one too.
Earlier this year, with her health declining, I started a 80 x 70 inch canvas in honor of Connie and Bill. It had a bittersweet title from the outset, AD BC. What started with two figures and later a smaller third, remained largely intact until this week. The world that once contained two dear friends had changed and so, too, the painting, with the wistful belief that each of my memories can be packed into this canvas knapsack.
I will deeply miss the ambitious, courageous, highly accomplished artist and friend.
June 2023
The nation-wide call for the 14th annual show announced its selections. Among the forty works chosen by Lisa Tubach included "Disguise", a wood, paint, and oil on canvas assemblage. The show runs from 4 November to 2 December 2022 in Lynchburg, VA. For information: riverviews@riverviews.net or 434.847.7277.
The Annual Box Art Auction 2022 to benefit East End Hospice takes place on Saturday, 27 August at St. Luke's Episcopal Church, Hoie Hall, in East Hampton. Silent auction and reception begin at 4:30 pm and the live auction follows at 6 pm. The previews are on 24 and 25 August from 10 am to 4 pm. See eh.org for more information.
This year's contribution is entitled The Introverted Sibling and is made of figured sycamore and paint on vinyl. There is a companion piece, separate from the auction, entitled The Extroverted Sibling.
This spring filmmakers Walter Sanchez and Eva Iacono conducted an extensive interview with the artist in his East Hampton studio. In responding to the film, writer Bruce Buschel said of Calvert, "You're as eloquent and thoughtful as ever. If anyone wants to know the how's and why's of your work--show them this." The 30 minute interview is available on YouTube via the attached link.
The Glen Hansen Studio hosts an exhibition with the color yellow as the theme. Twenty-three artists were selected for the show which opens 2 April from 4 - 7p, and runs through 15 May 2022. The studio is located at 1560 Youngs Ave, Southold, NY. Weekend hours are 11:00a - 3p and by appointment.
Reverie, a 43 x 62 in. oil on canvas painting, is a straight forward composition executed in the fall 2021 after a dream brought forth a fully formed image and thus set out an atypical painting in response.
Spring Training 2022 exhibition opens at the Kathryn Markel Fine Arts Gallery in Bridgehampton, NY. This year's event benefits four local charities - East End Hospice, The Retreat, Phoenix House, and The Eleanor Whitmore Day Care Center in East Hampton. The show is open Saturdays & Sundays, 11:00a -5:00p, through March 27th. It is in association with the Artists and Writers Benefit Baseball Game in August. I am pleased to include Movable Objects in the event.
Over forty artists gathered at The Church for this year's Printaganza led by Dan Welden. The two-day event saw over 150 monotypes produced on three presses with the help of six crew. Dan selected one piece from each artist for auction to benefit the institution founded by April Gornik and Eric Fischl. The event took place on November 13 and 14. The auction is scheduled for December 4 and 5. Details at thechurchsagharbor.org.
As a member of the volunteer crew, I had a chance to make three images, including this two-drop, 15 x 11 embossed print.
This year's auction to benefit East End Hospice is scheduled for 28 August at St. Luke's Church Hoie Hall in East Hampton beginning at 4:30 p.m. Preview is 25 and 26 August 10 - 4. The black, brown and white assemblage is entitled "Jenga," the name of the wooden block game from the 80's.
Most material for the assemblages is decommissioned honeybee hives. The wood was first shaped by human processes on behalf of the honeybee and the subsequent transformations are by her and the flow of time. My use of these architectonic components responds to the range of inside and outside conditions and variations in original purpose.
Assemblages utilize whole components or parts or fragments of parts. Three such pieces presented here are - Work Not Documentation, Intimacy's Mirror and Anyone and Everyone.
Some are hybrid works in that they include paintings. Guymon marks a return to a particular environmental theme. Disguise superimposes an assemblage on top of a painting. The latter's combination may relate to experience of 2020 and the effect of mask wearing.
This year brought about the completion of several canvases that I have long pursued. Of those, some are posted . Interpretations of the Future resolves several ideas that were attempted in earlier works. In response to the piece, my" landlord" Connie Fox said, "It doesn't ask you what it is; it tells you what it is." Incapable are Capable takes its name from its parallactic qualities and from my desire to see the same in others. BothAnd 1 and 2 started out as a diptych were completed as individual paintings.
Out West and Hot Tundra are among the small new canvases and respond to ever-present environmental challenges.
0 May 21 feels to be an anomalous work due to its open space and unfamiliar palette.
The solarplate print "Crepuscule" was selected for the interntional exhibition at Southampton Art Center. Juror Eric Fischl awarded the entry. The exhibition opens 16 November and runs through 29 December in Southampton, NY.
ROB CALVERT - FOLD, the artist's explores of the both-and world of folded space. The exhibition includes paintings, sculpture and three-dimensional Solarplate etching. Opening reception is Saturday, 13 July 2019 from 4 - 6pm. For appointments, call Andrea Baatz, Studio Manager at Dan Welden Studio/Gallery - 631.725.3990 or Rob Calvert - 631.702.3849.
Recently completed "Rabbit Hole" for the Box Art Auction to benefit East End Hospice is posted on EEH's website. The event takes place 24 August 2019 at Hoie Hall, St Luke's Episcopal Church in East Hampton.
The outline remains of the original wine bottle box while it is transformed as an open form.
In association with Holocaust Remember Observance, Rob Calvert will exhibit his six-piece topical series at Temple Adas Israel Gallery Space in Sag Harbor. Ann Chwatsky’s selection for this year’s exhibition marks the first opportunity to see these works.
Calvert made the assemblages in response to his 2016 visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland to bear witness to the Holocaust. Overwhelmed by the visit, he writes, “My need was not to erase, correct or undo things but to respond with measure equal to the experience.”
Opening Night Exhibition and reception is 28 April from 5 to 7pm. and runs through May. Public is invited. The synagogue and gallery are located at the corner of Atlantic Ave. and Elizabeth St., Sag Harbor. The gallery is open by arrangement. Call the Temple at (631) 725-0904. For more information, email Ann Chwatsky at annphoto@aol.com.
The show at the John Jermain Memorial Library opens 21 November and runs through 6 January 2019. This submission, "The Un-scene", continues the development of collage and assemblage format with digital transformation of the original paper collages (made from local style magazines). The two figures/images are in conversation with their assembled frame, both formally and thematically. Portrait of portraits. The opening reception is 24 November from 2:30 - 4:30 pm in Sag Harbor, NY.
Opening Reception for the exhibition is 21 September and the show runs through 31 October 2018. The entry is a mixed media assemblage using a collage from 2017, wood, paint, acrylic and metal in a one-off, small format piece.
The Children's Museum of the East End opens the second installment of an exhibition curated by Kimberly Goff of the Elaine Benson Gallery on 18 August 2018, 6 - 8pm. The show runs through 23 October in Bridgehampton, NY. Museum hours are 9am to 5pm, Mon - Sun.
One of the newest assemblages, Reset, is chosen by the show's curator, Scott Bluedorn, for this year's exhibition. It uses retired honeybee hive boxes, material that features prominently in this year's work. Opening reception is 5 - 8 pm on 3 August 18.
The annual exhibition and benefit auction runs July 6 through November 10, 2018.
The event supports the Peconic Land Trust and is held at Bridge Gardens in Bridgehampton, NY. I have made two nesting boxes constructed from two styles of honeybee "supers" or hive boxes.