JAN DILENSCHNEIDER
February 2016 Press Release
DARIEN ARTIST SELECTED TO EXHIBIT
AT THE PRESTIGIOUS ART PARIS ART FAIR
AT THE GRAND PALAIS
(Darien, Conn – February 24) Darien artist Jan Dilenschneider will have her work shown at the popular Art Paris Art Fair, held from March 31 through April 3 at the Grand Palais.
Dilenschneider’s paintings will be part of the artwork exhibited by the well-known Galerie Pierre-Alain Challier. The gallery’s theme for this year’s exhibition is nature. She has had successful solo exhibitions at this Paris gallery for the past three years.
In addition to her participation in the Art Paris Art Fair, Dilenschneider will also be among the artists participating in a trip to Toledo, Spain, this fall under the auspices of the Springfield Museums in Springfield, Mass. The trip will include a visit to the El Greco Museum as well as an opportunity for plein air painting of the landscapes depicted in the works of El Greco and Goya.
On October 7, the Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts, part of the University of New Haven, will open an exhibition of her work at its Sill House Gallery. The show will run to November 12. Lyme is the birthplace of the American Impressionist movement. She will give a gallery talk during the run of her exhibition.
Art Paris Art Fair is the leading event in the spring art calendar of the French capital. It brings together more than 143 modern and contemporary art galleries from 20 countries and features art from the post-war period to the present day, with 145 exhibitions representing 2,200 artists.
Dilenschneider is the only American being exhibited by Galerie Pierre-Alain Challier.
Opened in 1900 on the Champs Élysées, The Grand Palais was built in the style of Beaux-Arts architecture and has the largest glass roof in Europe. It serves as an historic site, exhibition hall and museum complex. Its original purpose was to house the great artistic events of the city of Paris, and is called “a monument dedicated by the Republic to the glory of French art.”
Reviewing Dilenschneider’s work, the critic for the French magazine Luxe wrote:
Paris was the first to see in Jan Dilenschneider a divine inspiration worthy of Gauguin or Monet.
Her work is in the collections of prominent families in New York, Paris, London and Berlin.
This year for the first time the Fair will feature art from Azerbaijan, Colombia and Iran. In addition, South Korea will be the guest of honor, offering an exceptional insight into contemporary artistic expression from this Asian country. Last year, 55,735 visitors attended the Art Paris Art Fair.
Dilenschneider’s paintings that will be exhibited at the Grand Palais show are vertical triptychs. The recent works include:
Flora Against Blue Sky (Oil on Canvas: 3 canvases, each 36 by 36 inches). The work features cobalt blue skies juxtaposed with flora in gamboge yellow. The artist painted the rich gamboge yellow over the entire canvas and then covered it with dark pigment. With the canvas still wet, she used a squeegee and pulled it back and forth across the canvas revealing the vegetation beneath. The flow of the squeegee across the canvas is almost musical. A sky of cobalt blue peeks out in just enough places to evoke the feeling of light streaming through the leaves.
Super Storm Sandy (Acrylic on Canvas: 3 canvases, each 36 by 36 inches) incorporates analogous colors of ultramarine and cerulean blue, violet, pink, off-white and green. The triptych captures the violent waters of Super Storm Sandy, which engulfed the East Coast in 2013. The painting is a rush of colors moving upward and swirling at the top to emulate the swirling white water crashing against the shore.
Both paintings are examples of how global warming is affecting us all. Dilenschneider believes that nature is slowly changing around us in response to extreme temperatures and climate change and that artists should have the platform to draw attention to these potential problems.
She often paints a pair of paintings at the same time, which she believes keeps the canvas fresh and spontaneous. She paints the same subject three, four or five times, changing the design, the technique, the perspective and especially the color combinations until it becomes much more developed.
Dilenschneider is known for her use of chopsticks, squeegees, rubber and metal spatulas and her fingertips to create swirling patterns that evoke both movement and harmony. Her use of clear color combinations is also a hallmark of her art. She sees colors as evoking joy and happiness. One color complements the other and two colors close together establish an emotional connection.
Susan Rand Brown wrote in Art New England:
Watching Jan Dilenschneider paint in a secluded studio on the top floor of her home facing Long Island Sound, not far from the birthplace of Connecticut Impressionism, a visitor easily imagines Monet at Argenteuil with his easel open to the elements on the River Seine.
Journalist Mário de Castro wrote in Villegiature Mag:
In the landscapes painted by Jan Dilenschneider she injects a distinctly modern vision into her imagery…she goes beyond nature and Impressionism, she recreates a universe where you feel tempted to go. After all, don’t we all need color as a happy spa therapy to make our daily life more comfortable?
Often compared to the Impressionists, Dilenschneider prefers to claim being an Expressionist who loves the palette of the Impressionists. The artist’s recent solo show, “Dualities,” at the Bellarmine Museum at Fairfield University, highlighted her expressive landscapes, still lifes, and portraits along with bold gestural abstract paintings. It was one of the most popular shows in the Museum’s history.
In addition to her career as an artist, Dilenschneider was appointed to serve on the Connecticut Arts Council. She also started The Janet Hennessy Dilenschneider Rescue Fund Award in the Arts, which recently rescued a Syrian artist and her family, relocating them to New Jersey, where she is on the faculty of Montclair State University. Dilenschneider continues to be involved in Catholic Charities and The Family Center, Inc. in Connecticut.
PRESS CONTACT
Jim Zebora/Mary Frances Duffy
The Dilenschneider Group
212-922-0900
