Ephraim Rubenstein : News

Temples and Cathedrals at George Billis Gallery

2010-08-04T21:27:00.002-04:00

Ephraim will be exhibiting his temple and cathedral wax-resist drawings at George Billis Gallery’s new location in Chelsea, from August 31st through October 2nd. There will be a reception for the artist on Thursday, September 2nd, from 6 to 8 p.m.

New York Moments Exhibition
August 31 - October 2, 2010
Reception: Thursday, September 2nd
George Billis Gallery
521 West 26th Street, B1
New York NY 10001
phone: 212 645 2621
e-mail: Gallery@GeorgeBillis.com
www.GeorgeBillis.com

from the press release:

Temples and Cathedrals is a series of new large-scale mixed-media drawings by Ephraim Rubenstein. Executed on paper, these black and white works utilize wax as a resist for subsequent ink washes, which are then further developed in charcoal, conte and nu-pastel.

The works attempt to capture the magisterial quality of these sacred spaces. Whether walking through the ruins of the Doric temples at Paestum or Selinunte, or entering one of the great European Gothic cathedrals, we sense immediately the importance of these structures through their heroic scale, commanding spaces and attention to light.

The drawings of Greek temples not only capture the mesmerizing play of light on the rows of columns, but speak to our fascination with ruins; the evocative quality of things that survive only as fragments and that struggle for their survival right before our eyes.

In the drawings of Gothic cathedrals, the artist wished to realize the richness of both the interiors and exteriors of these massive structures; the rich ornamentation of the facades, with their stained-glass windows and gargoyles, and the breath-taking quality of the soaring interiors, as one first walks in and looks up.

These two subjects are united because not only were the religious beliefs of the Pagans gradually transformed into Christian terms, but the marbles themselves were taken from the temples and recycled for use in the cathedrals.

The human needs and striving remain the same; the stones remain the same.

Retrospective in Richond, VA

2010-08-04T20:46:00.002-04:00

Ephraim will be having a retrospective exhibition and sale of nearly 20 works spanning a 15 year period at the Steward School in Richmond, VA. Ephraim Rubenstein: Selected Works will feature landscape and still life paintings and drawings in oil, pastel, graphite and silverpoint.

The exhibition runs from August 23 to October 1, 2010. The gallery is open Monday - Friday 8 am - 4pm and weekends by appointment. Visitors are asked to check in at the school office upon arrival. There will be a reception for the artist on Friday, September 17 from 3 to 7 pm.

Ephraim Rubenstein: Selected Works
August 23 - October 1, 2010
Reception: September 17, 3 p.m. - 7 p.m.
The Steward School
11600 Gayton Road, Richmond, Virginia
phone: (804) 740-3394
www.stewardschool.org

Exhibition and Reception at George Billis Gallery

2010-06-12T16:57:00.005-04:00

This summer, Ephraim will be exhibiting four cityscapes from his new series, "Silvercup" in the show New York Moments at George Billis Gallery in Chelsea. The exhibition will run from July 6 - August 14. There will be an opening reception on Thursday evening, July 8. Please note the gallery's new address.

New York Moments Exhibition
July 6 - August 14, 2010
Reception: Thursday, July 8th
George Billis Gallery
555 West 25th Street, 2nd Floor
New York NY 10001
phone: 212 645 2621
e-mail: Gallery@GeorgeBillis.com
www.GeorgeBillis.com

Contemporary National Realism Exhibition

2010-04-12T18:01:00.004-04:00

Ephraim will be exhibiting "Books:Pile XXXIV" in the Contemporary National Realism Show at M. A. Doran Gallery in Tulsa, Oklahoma this Summer. M. A Doran is one of the best galleries in the region, and Mary Ann has placed Ephraim's work in collections in the past. The exhibition will open in mid-May. Please contact the gallery for details:

M. A. Doran Gallery
918- 748-8700
www.madorangallery.com

Studio Art Workshops 2010

2010-02-11T23:26:00.006-05:00

The following is a list of specialized studio art workshops that Ephraim will be offering this year through The Art Students League of New York. Class sizes will be limited.

Studio 6 Workshop in Color Spot Oil Painting
Week 1: Monday–Friday, March 1–5, 8:45 a.m.–12:30 p.m.
Week 2: Monday–Friday, March 8–12, 8:45 a.m.–12:30 p.m.
(Instructor present each day)

Color spot oil painting is a method of direct painting developed in the early decades of the twentieth century by Charles Hawthorne and later by his student and assistant, Edwin Dickinson. Although aspects of color spot painting go all the way back to Baroque painting, Hawthorne and Dickinson were the first to organize entire canvases and elaborate compositions by means of the color spot.

A color spot is a piece of color, large or small, that has been observed and abstracted from the appearance of nature and applied directly to the white canvas in discrete notes. Color spot painting is as direct a method as exists––you aim to hit the mark right at first, and not go back (or go back as little as possible) so as not to destroy the integrity of the network of spots.

This workshop will provide an intensive introduction to color spot painting, emphasizing the role of the viewfinder, the plumb line, the relationship between the object and its environment, and how to set up the initial key of the painting.

Florence Workshop
April 23rd - May 8th, 2010

For the fourth year in a row, the Art Students League is sponsoring two-week workshops in Florence, Italy. This year’s trip runs April 23 to May 8, and Ephraim Rubenstein will be leading a workshop.

Students on the trip share comfortable, fully-furnished apartments with kitchens, provided by the League’s partner: Studio Art Centers International (SACI) in Florence. Days mix classes in SACI’s well-equipped studios, outdoor work, trips to museums, independent excursions, and the freedom to experience the beautiful birthplace of the Italian Renaissance and the home of a vibrant contemporary art scene.

In Florence, art is not only in the museums - it is out in the streets. Considered by many to be one of the most beautiful cities in the world, Florence was made famous by the buildings, paintings and sculptures by artists such as Brunelleschi, Michelangelo, Donatello, and Giotto.

Come study and work in the birthplace of the Italian Renaissance. We will paint in the streets, the gardens and along the Arno, and visit the churches, museums, and collections that house some of the greatest artworks in the West.

Plein Air Landscape Painting
Section 1: Monday–Friday, June 14–18, 8:45 a.m.–12:30 p.m.
Section 2: Monday–Friday, August 2–6, 8:45 a.m.–12:30 p.m.
Fee per section: $400 (5 sessions). Fee for both sections: $750 (10 session)

This workshop will provide training in direct plein-air landscape painting utilizing various areas in Central Park as a location. The workshop will be open to both beginning students who have never worked outside before, and also to more advanced students who wish to refine their plein-air handling. The course will address such issues as the difference between direct and indirect approaches to oil painting in the landscape, topographical versus atmospheric emphasis, and the notion of space composition. The class will offer practice in handling changing light and weather conditions as well. Students must have a folding French easel, or something similar.

Exhibition and Reception at Studio 7

2010-02-03T07:27:00.004-05:00

Ephraim's work will be included in a new exhibition exploring the human form in contemporary painting this month at the Studio 7 Gallery in Bernardsville, NJ. Please join us for an opening reception on Friday, February 5th, from 6-9 p.m.

Contemporary Masters of the Human Form
Featuring the work of Charlie Churchill, Gary Godbee, Anthony Panzera, Ephraim Rubenstein, Ted Schmidt, Costa Vavagiakis, and Cheryl Wheat
February 3 - 27, 2010
Studio 7 Fine Art Gallery
5 Morristown Road
Bernardsville, NJ 07924
phone: 908-630-9770
www.studio7artgallery.com

Studio Art Workshops 2009

2009-08-26T12:03:00.000-04:00

The following is a list of specialized studio art workshops that Ephraim will be offering this year through The Art Students League of New York. Class sizes will be limited.

Drawing for Beginners
September 24-25, 2009
Thursday & Friday, 8:45AM -12:30PM (Instructor present each day)
$175

This concentrated, two-day workshop offers the absolute basics for getting started in drawing. It will cover topics such as; basic materials, proportion, lighting, and space. It is geared for people who have little or no experience with drawing and want to get started in a relaxed, non-pressured setting.

Oil Painting Fundamentals
September 10-11, 2009
Thursday & Friday, 8:45AM-12:30 PM (Instructor present each day)
$175

This focused two day workshop offers an in depth review of the absolute basics necessary for getting started in oil painting. It will cover such topics as materials, setting-up the palette, basic color theory and color mixing and the various approaches to starting a painting (direct vs. indirect painting). This workshop should give students all the practical information they need inorder to feel comfortable in a regular studio painting class.

Seminar in the Literature of Art
Section 1: September 17th - December 17th, 2009
Section 2: January 14th - May 20th, 2010
4:45- 6:30
$265

This seminar will examine selected landmarks in the history of writing about art. It will include works of theory, criticism, connoisseurship and the writings of artists themselves. Readings will come from Plato, Aristotle, Heinrich Wolfflin, Bernard Berenson, Virginia Woolf, Van Gogh and Rilke, among others. The seminar will meet for ten sessions on Thursday afternoons beginning January 8, 2009.

“Books Pile XXVII” featured on the cover of American Arts Quarterly.

2009-06-14T12:25:00.008-04:00

Ephraim’s recent exhibit at the George Billis Gallery is reviewed in the Spring 2009 edition of American Arts Quarterly, and the painting “Books Pile XXVII” is featured on the issue's cover.

The review, excerpted below, can be read in its entirety here.

We of a certain generation are haunted by old books, lumbered with them, dependent upon them, fed up with them, in love with them. They furnish a room. Decorators buy them by the yard to fill a wall of shelves, libraries de-accession them, hardly anybody can destroy them. (Once in a while they have been burnt, but only because of what the words inside said.) That old problem remains of what to do with the old books? Pass them on, sell, donate, but don’t destroy. Ephraim Rubenstein paints them; in fact, he buys them in order to paint them. His long-thought-out arrangements of the books to one another, like Cézanne’s apples and pears, achieve a dialogue—formally, rhythmically. These books are not in fine bindings but bound in buckram or paper, some water-damaged, with broken spines or flapping labels, or are disbound completely, their contents most likely obsolete.

All paintings in the exhibition were oil on linen, with the exception of one pastel on paper. Their subject, colorful but faded old books, is set, in most cases, against a velvety black background. Skillful chiaroscuro indicates the influence on this contemporary realist of old masters such as Caravaggio and Manet. The paintings (all 2008) range in dimension from 10-by-8 inches to 48-by-72 inches, so that even the largest of the group achieves an intimacy that invites closer scrutiny. In Books: Pile XXVII (cover), for example, the way the glossy thick brushstrokes create the illusion of fore-edge and top-edge, reflecting ambient light, is seductive; we could almost reach into the painting and open this book. All these paintings play with the viewer’s expectations. The books, so skillfully painted as to draw us closer, only to discover blurred titles and text that cannot be read, are stacked so that we must view certain “piles” from various perspectives (from below or above or head-on). And the relation of a book pile to its picture plane—to its two-dimensional surface, as well as to the confines of its dimensions—is witty. None of Rubenstein’s paintings is to be viewed without a closer look, a suspicious look.

Read more.

Silverpoint Drawings at the Evansville Museum

2009-05-27T18:00:00.003-04:00

Ephraim will have two silverpoint drawings in a museum exhibition of contemporary metalpoint drawings at the Evansville Museum in Evansville, Indiana. Favored by Renaissance artists such as Fillipo Lippi, Perugino and Leonardo, metalpoint drawings continue to captivate many contemporary drawers with its delicate linearity. Ephraim will exhibit a life-size drawing of a Narcissus flower, as well as four portrait studies of his friend, David Dodge Lewis.

“The Luster of Silver: Contemporary Metalpoint Drawings”
The Evansville Museum
Evansville , Indiana
June 26- September 13, 2009.

Books Paintings at Hidell Brooks Gallery

2009-05-26T18:16:00.001-04:00

Ephraim will participate in Hidell Brooks Gallery’s annual summer Introductions exhibition, a show highlighting artists new to the gallery. Ephraim will exhibit five of his ‘Books’ still life paintings.

“Introductions: Annual Group Summer Exhibition”
Hidell Brooks Gallery
Charlotte , North Carolina
July 10- August 29, 2009.

Scott Noel article in American Artist

2009-04-09T15:59:00.005-04:00

Ephraim has written a feature article on Philadelphia painter Scott Noel. The article explores Scott’s tremendous accomplishments in figure painting, still life, interiors and cityscape. For those of you living near Philadelphia and looking for a painting or drawing class, Scott is also a renowned teacher at the Pennsylvania Academy School .

“Studio as Setting; The Paintings of Scott Noel”
May, 2009 American Artist Magazine

Exhibition and Reception at George Billis Gallery

2008-12-28T18:36:00.000-05:00

Please join us for a reception to open Ephraim's latest show on Thursday, February 5th, from 6 - 8 p.m. at the George Billis Gallery in New York. The exhibition, which features a series of still-life paintings incorporating used and discarded books, will be up through the month of February.

Ephraim Rubenstein
February 3 - 28, 2009
George Billis Gallery
511 West 25th Street, Ground Floor
New York NY 10001
phone: 212 645 2621
e-mail: Gallery@GeorgeBillis.com
www.GeorgeBillis.com

gallery hours:
tuesday -saturday, 11 a.m. - 6 p.m.

Translation, Subjectivity, and Culture

2008-12-17T16:24:00.000-05:00

Ephraim's painting "Still Life with Books, Mirrors and Lenses II (Day)" has been used on the cover of a new book by scholar Julie Candler Hayes.

Translation, Subjectivity, and Culture in France and England, 1600-1800 examines the evolution of neoclassical translation theory from its origins among the first generation of French Academicians to its subsequent importation to England by royalist exiles, its development under the influence of such translator-critics as John Dryden and Anne Dacier, and its evolution in response to the philosophical and political ideas of the Enlightenment. For further details or to order, visit the Stanford University Press or Amazon.

Self-Portraiture Article in American Artist Magazine

2008-05-10T00:55:00.000-04:00

Ephraim has written an article on contemporary self-portraiture to be published in American Artist magazine:

“The Self in Contemporary Self-Portraits”
August 30, 2008
American Artist Magazine (October, 2008 issue)
Includes work by Ephraim Rubenstein, Mary Beth McKenzie, Sigmund Abeles, Costa Vavagiakis, Burton Silverman, Harvey Dinnerstein, Joeseph Peller, David Kassan, Anthony Panzera, Ellen Eagle, and Mark Karnes.

Silverpoint Article in American Artist Drawing Magazine

2008-03-20T00:32:00.000-04:00

Upcoming, Spring 2008:

“The Fine Line- A Close Look at Five Contemporary Silverpoint Drawers”
American Artist Drawing Magazine, Spring 2008 issue.
Includes work by Ephraim Rubenstein, Costa Vavagiakis, Mark Gonzales, Michael Burke, and August Mosca.

Color-Spot Workshop

2008-03-18T15:27:00.000-04:00

June 23- 27th, 2008

Color Spot Oil Painting Workshop
The Art Students League of New York
215 West 57th Street
New York, NY.

www.theartstudentsleague.org

N. A. D. Exhibition

2008-03-17T11:32:00.000-04:00

May 29- September 7, 2008

183rd Annual Invitational Exhibition of Contemporary Art
National Academy of Design
1083 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY.

www.nationalacademy.org