A Contemporary
Co-operative Gallery
in Boston's SoWa
Art & Design District

Youngsheen A. Jhe

Flowing: The Flow of Love

Marian Dioguardi

Still Refections

NAWA Massachusetts

Playing With Fire

GALLERY HOURS: Mar-Oct, Thu-Sun, 12-5pm, Nov-Feb, Thu-Sun 12-4pm and by appointment

Jillian Vaccaro

Jillian Vaccaro

Jillian Vaccaro

Artist Statement:
My art is an exploration of my long-term memory with a focus on familial relationships. Each work functions as an emotional response to my past, fabricated to depict the fragility and loss that permeates the act of recollecting. Before I begin a new work, I situate my mind in a previous time. I bring myself to this place through writing, reminiscing with loved ones, navigating through souvenirs and familial archives, and revisiting significant environments from childhood and my adult life. When I arrive in the past mentally, I respond with my materials intuitively. The use of personal souvenirs are woven into my practice as they function as objects of remembrance and assist my recollections. I share intimate parts of my personal history so that others may feel connected through a similar sense of vulnerability, appreciation, loss, and reflection in their own life.

 

Artist Bio:
Jillian Vaccaro is an interdisciplinary artist and teacher, and currently works out of her studio in Somerville, MA. She received her BFA in studio art from Emmanuel College in 2014 and graduated from the low-residency MFA program at Massachusetts College of Art and Design in 2021. Jillian works across media describing memories from her past experiences. She is also a dedicated art educator, teaching visual arts in Boston.

460B Harrison Ave. #B-6 | Boston, MA 02118

617-542-1500 | director@galateafineart.com

GALLERY HOURS: Thu-Sun, Mar-Oct, 12-5pm; Nov-Feb, 12-4pm, and by appointment

James Varnum

James Varnum

James Varnum

Artist Statement:
I am an experimental painter. My paintings are combinations of layered colors, movements and various textures on traditional watercolor papers and on substrates such as Yupo and Terra-Skin. Watercolor pigments, liquid graphite and alcohol inks are my paints. I use a variety of materials to create texture: plastic wrap, waxed paper, masking fluid, salt, and spray bottles with water or alcohol.  I move the pigments with various tools including brushes, combs, squeegees, and palette knives. Finally, I add lines and marks with ink or graphite. Occasionally I cut up my work and weave two paintings together to produce a new creation.
 
By adding wax paper or plastic wrap to the pigments as they dry, various textures evolve. When I start my drawings, I follow these contours to produce interesting lines, shapes and maps upon the dried image.
The method creates a “give-and-take relationship” that emerges and guides my work during the process.  I start with ideas about color, texture, line, and composition with a limited palette. I realize that when I create lines and marks on my work, I engage in a deliberate process of emphasizing the topography of the painting while using inks or graphite. Often this revelation in structure becomes a meta-cognitive and unifying experience. It is an absorbing and meditative process.
 
In my work I have always been conscious of creating a dichotomy: soft edge/hard edge; light touch/pressured touch; straight mark/curved mark; warm tones/cool tones while using color and line.
The artwork is the result of my interpretation of the communication that happens during the process of painting. For me, there is a story that is woven into the creation of my paintings. In the end these patterns, symbols and maps will be discovered by the viewer.  My intent is for viewers to create an association, or an interpretation of the painting that triggers their own narrative.

Artist Bio:
I was a creative child who liked to sit at the dining room table and draw. I took art classes at the local library during the summer in the small, rural village where I grew up, in Southern New Hampshire.  After high school I studied art in Boston and San Francisco, where I earned a B.F.A. from the San Francisco Art Institute.
 
I soon learned that I could not support myself and a new family as a fine artist, so I went into education, earned a M.Ed. and became a classroom teacher. After nine years, I wanted to specialize my work with children. I earned a M.S. in communication disorders and worked as a Speech Language Pathologist before retiring in 2011. During those thirty-plus years, I kept in touch with my creative side by taking art classes through various continuing education organizations.
 
Upon retiring, I promised myself that I would pursue art once again.  I kept that promise and am an active artist in the Boston area. I belong to several other art associations and actively exhibit my paintings.  I classify myself as an experimental watercolor painter.

460B Harrison Ave. #B-6 | Boston, MA 02118

617-542-1500 | director@galateafineart.com

GALLERY HOURS: Thu-Sun, Mar-Oct, 12-5pm; Nov-Feb, 12-4pm, and by appointment

Don Warner

Don Warner

Don Warner

Artist Statement:
After a hiatus of over 40 years, I started painting again in 2020.  I primarily do portraits, and figurative drawings and paintings.  My work is not intended to record life like a photograph, but to express a sitter’s thoughts as I see them.  
I paint in an expressionistic style, that gives me the freedom to not copy nature, but instead to use it as a starting point to convey my vision, that can sometimes be at odds with natural appearances. My tendency is to work fast that can lead to "mistakes", but also to new discoveries. 

The artists that have influenced me the most are Van Gogh for his revolutionary use of color, and ability to reflect mood and emotion; Modigliani for his simplification of shapes, removal of extraneous details, and uneven application of paint; and Schiele for his boldness, and expressive lines and marks. 

460B Harrison Ave. #B-6 | Boston, MA 02118

617-542-1500 | director@galateafineart.com

GALLERY HOURS: Thu-Sun, Mar-Oct, 12-5pm; Nov-Feb, 12-4pm, and by appointment

Carol Wontkowski

Carol Wontkowski

Carol Wontkowski

Artist Statement: 
There is design and order in the universe, in spite of and apart from human influence. Gravitational pull, the seasonal changes, cellular replication, animal behavior, biological homeostasis, oceanic tides, the miracle of human gestation, mathematical equations and constructs all reflect and point to a Designer. Amidst the complexity of it all, as we peel away the outer layers, there often emerges a simplicity to what we see, think or feel. And the result can be surprisingly beautiful.

Though we live in a world marred by man’s pain, sorrow, violence, injustice, greed, prejudice and hate, there is still much beauty; beauty in the common things, everyday things around us. My desire is to create the most evocative image possible; to portray common things, often, in an uncommon way, in order to capture some of the essence of the Designer and to transport the viewer, no matter how briefly, to a more tranquil and serene view of this world.

I am drawn to both natural beauty and patterns that are naturally created, the everyday things we too often take for granted. It is a challenge the render this common beauty in an uncommon way or to simply woo its essence from what is seen.

“The camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera.”                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            -Dorothea Lange

Artist Bio: 
​Carol began her career in commercial photography, moved into freelance and in the last ten years has exhibited throughout New England, in New York, on the East Coast and California. She is represented locally in Boston and the Boston area and the Canterbury Shaker Village Museum Gift Shop. A member of the Cambridge Art Association, Wickford Art Association and the Attleboro Arts Museum, Carol’s work has won awards and is in private collections.  She is a published finalist in Photographer’s Forum magazine’s “Best of Photography", 2011 through 2014 and 2016, and is a published artist in the Winter 2016-2017 issue of Studio Visit magazine. She offers photography lessons privately as well as to groups through galleries in Southeast Massachusetts.

460B Harrison Ave. #B-6 | Boston, MA 02118

617-542-1500 | director@galateafineart.com

GALLERY HOURS: Thu-Sun, Mar-Oct, 12-5pm; Nov-Feb, 12-4pm, and by appointment

Jay Wu

Jay Wu

Jay Wu

Artist Statement:
I never have much to say about my work. They are not really about anything other than maybe an attempt to offer homage to the ordinary objects and places that are special to me. I feel that I have already projected myself into the work during the process of making and therefore find it difficult or unnecessary to supplement the work with words afterward. Thus, instead of having a statement about the work, it is more about the need and the want behind the work.
 
When I sit in front of you, I could not help but look at you with awe, thus I look at you timidly as if I am on a mission to get it right. No longer am I painting with a theme in mind or a statement to make, but with the hope and yearning to offer the proper love and respect.

Diana Zipeto

Diana Zipeto

Diana Zipeto

Artist Statement:
My Liberty Series paintings investigate issues of freedom and equality. The paintings express these ideals as both formidable and fragmented, and seek to engage with them in a new way.

Starting with paper photographs, I fold the images to give them a new 3rd dimension, communicating both disruption and resilience. The ability to fold and reconfigure uncovers new meanings in familiar images. I make large paintings of the fragile paper constructions to fix transitional moments in a solid form.

As an American female raised in the 1980s, I grew up in a time when liberty and equality seemed inevitable and always advancing. My Liberty paintings question that inevitability, and look at the uncertainty and possibility in our new era.
The Statue of Liberty is a shared American icon that means something to almost everyone, but can mean something different to each person. The Liberty series examines those meanings and the nature of shared ideals in a time of change.

Artist Bio:
Diana Zipeto studied painting and illustration at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design. She has exhibited in group and solo exhibitions, including the Ceres Gallery in New York, the Jonathan Ferrara Gallery in New Orleans, and numerous Massachusetts galleries. Her paintings are in private collections and public spaces in the United States. In 2017, she received an artist grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Council to produce the exhibit, Women Looking at Women. Diana lives in Lowell, MA, and works in Lowell's energizing artist community at Western Avenue Studios.

dianazipeto.com

460B Harrison Ave. #B-6 | Boston, MA 02118

617-542-1500 | director@galateafineart.com

GALLERY HOURS: Thu-Sun, Mar-Oct, 12-5pm; Nov-Feb, 12-4pm, and by appointment