Choichun Leung

 Growing up in Wales, Choichun Leung left when she was seventeen to pursue her degree in metal-smithing in the UK and the world has been her oyster since.  Leung has studied and gained artistic influence from her travels in Beijing, China’s Shanxi Provence, London, Hong Kong, Germany, and New York.  In 1995, after her arrival in the Big Apple, Leung knew she wanted to further her art and her concept.

With attention to such a conceptual process, Leung started in New York by picking up pieces of wood from the scrap yards and making small pieces from her findings.  People started buying these wooden works and Leung became really interested in touching base with her painting background.  At about this time, Choichun recalls having a big series of flashbacks and resurgence of memories from her past that caused her to rekindle her love with the brush.

Incidentally Leung contemplates, “Why do we retain certain memories in our lives and others we forget?” The correlation seems to be what pushes Leung to make the work that she makes.  She explores what makes us human, what gives us life.  Leung “wants the emotion of it all” and to “try to tell people what to see; to possibly help them learn something more about themselves through art.”  Combining writing, music, painting, and process, her new work certainly pushes us to think.

Outside of her seasoned travel and life experiences, Leung did not put much of her work into gallery exhibitions until moving to New York.  She met the crew at Salon Ciel and had a show at the Orchard Street location.  Leung is currently showing a new series of work at various locations throughout the states.  Her new projects include new paintings, triptychs, minerals, and video installation.  Updates about Leung’s shows and her newer work can be viewed on her website at http://www.choichun.com and on the Salon Ciel website athttp://www.saloncielny.org.

Conquering the Natural World

With a Master of Fine Arts Degree from Rutgers and a Bachelor of Arts from Oberlin, Katy Higgins seems adequately equipped to conquer her ponderings of the natural world.  With a vast portfolio ranging from photographs to videos and installations, Higgins asks open-ended questions with her artwork and leaves the viewer standing, forced to make their own answers.  Higgins looks to “reduce the complexity of the world to representations […] to diagram life.”  Moreover, Higgins looks at the human interaction with such complexities and how people want to control these aspects that lack ability to be controlled.

Simultaneously, for Higgins, the process is all about learning and exploring.  Namely she says that, “Art in general will always be a big part of my overall learning; it helps to balance everything.”  There’s no right or wrong way to go about answering questions about the natural world, but surely exploring these answers artistically

Along her path of exploration, Higgins met up with Lyndsey Beutin, a Curator for Salon Ciel and started doing shows with the group.  This meeting was beneficial because ultimately, Higgins work was noticed by a Curator from Florida after being featured on the Salon Ciel website.  This in turn, helped Higgins get another show.  Before working with Salon, Higgins did not have a ton of experience working with galleries in New York and explains that the Salon Ciel crew was “friendly and helpful.”  Moreover, it was “good to talk openly about art in a relaxed setting.”  Showing work at one of the Salon Ciel locations allows artists to open dialogue about the thoughts and feelings they are trying to convey.

To see more of Higgins’s works or to find out about upcoming shows, visit her website at http://www.katyhiggins.com or on the Salon Ciel website at http://www.saloncielny.org.

Higgins, “Seal (Red Ball)” 2010 Archival Pigment Print

            After obtaining his undergraduate degree from Cornell University, Ray Wang explains that his art “is a product of constant influence.”  With a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Multimedia, Wang has always had a love for the arts and has taken influence from numerous sources to produce his creations. Wang continues to explain that “there was this poster I used to have when I was younger and I just couldn’t help but to draw it; I was so attached to the unique angles and presentation of it, I just found that I had an eye for things like that.” Consecutively, entering college and studying abroad in Rome for a year continued to give Wang experience to fuel his artistic fire.

Furthering, after graduation, Wang felt the frustration and worry that a lot of artists feel right after college reinforcing that, “I needed to do something for money and wasn’t sure how making art would cover that part of my financial requirements.  I got a job at a Nuclear Power Plant in Westchester, New York.”  Wang worked making software for the Plant and always felt like he wanted to have more of a connection to making art again.

More so, Wang wanted better inspiration.  He moved to New York City and started working with aspects of design for Bloomberg and got back some of his influence.  “I just needed to get my foot back in the door with the art world” explains Wang. “I needed to let myself understand that there really is a future and a financial future in art.”  It seemed shortly after making this connection, the pieces just seemed to begin to fall into place.

Soon, Wang started sending his work in to galleries around the city and came across Salon Ciel. After submitting his work online, Wang got a call back and was excited to be given the opportunity for a show at one of the Salon locations and has been hanging around with the crew since.  Wang speaks about the Salon curators and asserts, “They are genuine people who care about the artists.  That’s what makes Salon so appealing.”  Having the ability to show his work with Salon Ciel, Wang felt more at ease with his artistic process and enjoyed the ability to meet back up with the art community.

Presently, Wang is continuing to further his artistic endeavors via painting and drawing.  His works can be viewed by visiting one of his websites at  http://www.fatboneproduction.com, http://rwang3774.wordpress.com, and also on the Salon Ciel Website at http://www.saloncielny.org.

Starting out with a background in Anthropology and Sociology, Robert Gerhardt took a photography class in his junior year of undergrad school and fell in love. While at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts, Gerhardt was influenced by his then instructor and noted photographer Harold Feinstein. He felt such a connection with the art that he continued on to obtain his MFA in Photography from the Art Institute of Boston and has worked hard to build quite an intriguing portfolio.

Commenting on his own work, Gerhardt explains how “It is not a matter of visiting a
place, making photographs and leaving.  It is about getting to know the people and places I
photograph, which can only be accomplished over extended periods of time.  It is about trying to step out of my world and into theirs.  To sometimes stop being a photographer, put down the camera, and listen and talk instead.” Working with a focus in Black and White film, Gerhardt’s portfolio ranges from thought-provoking images of the Karen People of Burma and then works its way toward images exploring life for Muslim Americans in New York; conceptually leading the viewer to ask questions and urging them to feel something unexpected. There are a number of ongoing photography projects that Gerhardt has been working on and one can further review his work on his website listed below.

Naturally, the urge for an artist to show their work is innate, and Gerhardt stumbled
across Salon Ciel while attending a friends opening. After meeting and speaking with Dave
Rheingold and Andy Stromberg, Gerhardt was asked to have his own show with Salon Ciel and has been working with the Gallery ever since. He explains, “I was really happy to have a show with Salon Ciel. Showing there was great because one really gets the chance to talk about their work and get an immediate dialogue about process.” Essentially Gerhardt continues that “shows at Salon Ciel are a wonderful way to meet other artists and network within the New York art community.”

Since, Robert Gerhardt’s work has been in multiple solo and group exhibitions in both
the United States and Europe, and his process continues. For those interested in viewing
Gerhardt’s portfolio and artist statement, his work is available on his website at
www.robertgerhardt.com along with other information about his work located on the Salon Ciel website.

DEEPLY ROOTED

Arboreal Portraits by Allison Green

Opening Reception: Wednesday, March 2, 6-8 p.m.

Susan Eley Fine Art

46 West 90th Street, Floor 2,  New York, NY

Gallery Hours: Tuesday – Thursday,

11 a.m. – 5 p.m. and by appointment

March 2 – April 14, 2011

www.susaneleyfineart.com

http://blog.myronchristianmacauley.com/

Plus other links to his work are here:

www.modernmaninsearchofsoul.com
www.myronchristianmacauley.com
blog.myronchristianmacauley.com
http://www.amazon.com/Modern-Search-Soul-MyronChristian-Macauley/dp/0578053004/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1279759798&sr=1-1

At the Salon, we are so glad to see his continued success!

Trying to make one’s way into the New York art scene can be a tough gig. Few students and emerging artists are prepared for the expectations that can be required of them when trying to make a name via visual expressive media. David Rheingold knows first hand how difficult it can be for an artist to gain recognition in the Big Apple and that may be one of the reasons he and Co-producer Andy Stromberg decided to create Salon Ciel Gallery. Rheingold and Stromberg have been actively involved in the art world for over 15 years, both bonding through photography and a love for discussion of art. Working personally with digital media, the duo has explored everything from conceptual photography to landscapes and New York street photography.

After pursuing places in the city to show artwork, Rheingold realized what he liked and what he disliked about galleries, and in October of 2007, the idea for Salon Ciel began to flourish. Rheingold explains that “there’s a big difference between creating art and promoting art. Young artists may not understand the various levels of self-promotion and may become discouraged too quickly; Salon makes amazing efforts in introducing these artists to the specifics of self-promotion as well as creating an introduction to galleries and to other artists.” Essentially, Salon Ciel is not focused or motivated by money which in turn gives the crew more time and desire to explore the actual relationships with artists and their art.

In a like manner, the dynamic that Rheingold and Stromberg have created is more organic. Rheingold uses any means possible to meet with new gallery owners and to look for places to branch out. Currently, Salon Ciel works with four locations throughout Manhattan and Brooklyn and they are consistently building relationships within the art community to help artists find places to showcase their work. Rheingold furthers, “A lot of our developments happen with a sort of spontaneous good luck. We’re open-minded to any new ideas, we’ve tried some that have failed and some that have worked well, but it’s all about trying new things. When a project works, we go back to it and try to elaborate on it.” For example, Salon Ciel is working on a Juried show in the spring and Rheingold is excited for that new idea and experience to come to fruition. “We are happy to get a lot of our help from Amy Pivak and Lyndsey Beutin who were added to the Salon Ciel operation shortly after the launch. Later, we added Alison Pierz, and yearly we bring on a rotating set of interns who are looking to become actively involved in the New York art scene” says Rheingold. Salon Ciel seems to be constantly working to find new ways to elaborate and make changes to the way artists interact with contemporary art galleries. Known for making personal visits to artists’ studios to see the individuality of how such work is created, Rheingold and Stromberg want to get to know their artists better so that they can help them get involved with other shows and provide some networking.

For those interested in learning more about the operations of Salon Ciel, David Rheingold and Andy Stromberg keep their doors and options open for new and emerging artists and for established artists alike. They have been giving back to the community and setting trends that break the standard norm for the gallery scene. To check out an exhibition at one of the Salon Ciel locations, or for artists interested in exhibiting, check out the Salon website at www.saloncielny.org. David Rheingold also welcomes visitors to see his photography at www.davidrheingold.com and at www.flickr.com/photos/gotham22/sets/.