(HUDSON, N.Y.) – “Radical Inventions,” a group show featuring the work of five artists, opens at Carrie Haddad Gallery this weekend, with a reception for the artists on Sunday, November 22, from 2 to 4pm, open to the public. Painters David Konigsberg, of Hudson, and Ralph Stout will show recent work alongside gallery favorites of fellow artist Shawn Snow. Multi-media constructions by Stephen King will also be featured with large abstract works by architect turned visual artist Juan Garcia Nunez.

For this show, David Konigsberg extends his depiction of a life imagined between heaven and earth, using storied vistas of the Hudson Valley as his enduring backdrop. In work completed this past spring and summer, he captures the vastness of our natural surroundings while weaving a host of clever idiosyncrasies into the clouded skies and rolling meadows. Open-cockpit flying machines hover and jet across the plain as billowing cumuli loom in paintings like Return, Before the Weather and Coast Patrol. Angels, simultaneously human and divine, populate the world at ground level, whether silently exploring the valleys in paintings like Overland #3 and Walkabout (Past the Pond), or landing by the house to confront the viewer in pieces like Alight and Angels in the Backyard. Beyond subject matter, the magic of the work can be found in Konigsberg’s handling of paint, in both the gestural brushwork that propels his characters and the use of layers to create illusions—for example, of haze or morning mist in an environment filled with atmospheric drama.  David Konigsberg has exhibited with Carrie Haddad Gallery for more than a decade. A former resident of Brooklyn, he lives full time with his wife Peg Patterson in Hudson.

Stephen King began making mixed media constructions at the age of 16.  Born to parents who were both illustrators, cartoonists and painters, it is no wonder that King turned to creative outlets to communicate with his own inner voices.  The selections from the Labyrinth Mind series featured in this exhibit will offer a window into that conversation.  Inspired by the old Victorian house he lived in as a child, King applies a fascination with secret corridors, dark corners and looming shadows as a way to explore his own psyche.  In the case of the Labyrinthine series, King inserts personal symbols in box-like constructions in an attempt to navigate the labyrinth of his being. Recurring images within the work communicate his path to self-enlightenment. Red lines, stairs, and ladders denoting a path from the subconscious are followed by planes or spheres in the search for freedom into elements of gold, representing enlightenment.  While a highly personal exploration, King’s work also touches on a universal sentiment shared by everyone seeking individual expression and discovery.   King has shown in multiple New York City exhibits and has been with Carrie Haddad Gallery for more than twenty years.

Since devoting himself full time to visual art after a long career in computer technology and mathematics, Ralph Stout experiments daily with various media including charcoal or graphite on paper, acrylic on canvas, and photography.  New selections from his studio for this exhibit include an array of vividly colored painted compositions with definitive lines, contrasting hues and blocked shapes. Puzzle-like masses that curve and bend interlock to form alluring abstractions on a plane of unexpected color combinations.  Stout’s singular style follows him as he traverses mediums; the manipulations of stark contrast is as evident in his pigmented palettes as in the play on light and shadow in his black and white photographs.  These commonalities all contribute to an aesthetic that is uniquely Stout’s, allowing us to trace his evolution as an artist and mastery of whichever medium he chooses to employ. The artist currently lives and works in East Hampton, N.Y.

In this exhibit the gallery revisits three paintings by Shawn Snow made in 2010. Inspired by stones, stains from nature, erosion and artists such as Rothko and Sam Francis, Snow produces meditative fields of color by layering oil paints with a fast drying alkyd medium. The network of layers is bound to a complex under-painting with broad bands of pigment while the rapid drying alkyd allows Snow to continue the succession quite quickly, revealing beautiful boundaries of color. With his painting Snow strives for purity, seeking “depth without illusion”, using horizons of colors as a harmonious language to create chords, scales and tones. The artist has exhibited extensively in the New England region and has shown with Carrie Haddad Gallery for more than ten years.

Juan Garcia-Nunez continues to create highly textured works on paper, but has expanded on the series to encompass compositions of acrylic and ink on styrene reaching up to six feet tall. Void of color, the three large works in the exhibit feature towering white abstractions fragmented with a palette knife and brush against a deep black canvas of ink. Nunez’s textured towers are likely informed by the artist’s architectural background which has entered his work in painting, video, film, and philosophy. Nunez has exhibited in New York, Connecticut, and Latin America. In addition to painting, Juan remains passionate about architecture and was awarded at the NARA/TOTO World Architecture Triennial in Japan.  Garcia-Nunez is currently professor of Visual Arts at Dutchess Community College,

Carrie Haddad Gallery is open daily from 11-5pm and is located at 622 Warren Street in Hudson, N.Y.