LIVING WITH ART BLOG

For Immediate Release
February 28, 2014
Contact: Joy Reed Belt
405.528.6336
jreedbelt@joyreedbelt.com

PASEO FIRST FRIDAY GALLERY WALK:

Friday, March 7, 2014

6:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m. 

THE GARDEN PROJECT

In March, the official month of the advent of Spring, JRB Art at The Elms gallery will feature a multi-room installation entitled, “The Garden Project.” Oklahoma artists Adrienne Wright and Lisa McIlroy will present constructed landscapes in four rooms of the gallery. “These gardens will give the public an opportunity to simultaneously experience the beauty of nature and the creativity of man,” stated the artists. Also exhibiting in March is Bernadette Esperanza Torres, a ceramic artist from Kansas City, who uses flowers as symbols of humanity in most of her sculptures. “The Garden Project” will open on March 7, 2014 from 6:00 until 10:00 pm during the Paseo’s First Friday Gallery Walk and run through March 29, 2014. JRB Art at The Elms is located at 2810 North Walker in the historic Paseo Arts District.

For centuries gardens have been places of refuge and contemplation. “The Garden Project” will be a sculptural interpretation of a several dynamic landscapes. Using paper, canvas, and other natural and inert objects (i.e. paper, plastic, wire and paper mache) this constructed garden will feature walking paths, seating and other amenities. It is the artists’ objective to use the modular gardens as an instrument to awaken the public consciousness to the potential of combining art into everyday landscapes.  Lisa Mcllroy and Adrienne Wright’s work is eclectic and embodies the constant study and use of multiple mediums to expand the boundaries of the creativity.

Mcllroy received her BFA from Oklahoma Christian University. While primarily focused on painting, she also explores printmaking, photography, illustration and graphic design.  Adrienne Wright received her BLA in Landscape Architecture from Oklahoma State University.  While practicing art and design in a professional capacity, Wright also enjoys painting and drawing.

Bernadette Torres earned her BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute and her MFA from the University of Miami.  Since 2001 she has taught ceramics at MCC-Penn Valley in Kansas City.  A selection of her sculptures has been published in “Lark Ceramics, 500 Figures in Clay, Volume 2.” “As a story teller I translate stories into clay.  My sculptures serve as spirit guides that manifest intentions, relieve anxieties, and whisper secrets,” states Torres.

In speaking about the upcoming exhibits, JRB Art at The Elms gallery owner, Joy Reed Belt, commented that “’The Garden Project’ will be the largest interactive installation that the gallery has ever staged.  To combine four rooms into abundant and ever changing gardens and to exhibit Bernadette’s compelling and fanciful sculptures will certainly propel all who visit the Gallery into Spring.”

JRB Art at The Elms presents a diverse roster of emerging, established, and internationally exhibited artists who create in a wide range of media including: paintings, drawings, sculpture, ceramics, glass, fine crafts, functional objects, fiber art and photographs. This 8,000 square foot award-winning gallery in Oklahoma City’s Paseo Arts District changes its exhibits monthly in a gracious environment that fosters a dialogue between the arts and the larger community while providing quality art for first time buyers as well as individual, corporate and museum collections.

JRB Art at The Elms, the former home of Nan Sheets which was built in 1920, is located at 2810 North Walker and is open Monday through Saturday, 10-6, and Sunday 1-5.
Phone: (405) 528-6336                   Website: www.jrbartgallery.com            Email: info@jrbartgallery.com