NEW YORK—Continuing its efforts to expand representational art, the Art Renewal Center (ARC) has started to help artists connect with galleries. It teamed up first with Rehs Contemporary Galleries Inc., which has made all of its wall space available for a group show, “ARC Select 2016,” opening on Oct 22.
ARC has become an online hub for contemporary realism. It organizes skill-based art training programs, scholarship competitions, and salons, and has been building an online museum of over 7,000 artists since 1999.
Howard Rehs, of Rehs Galleries, selected six artists from ARC’s annual Salon finalists. The show comprises an eclectic mix of contemporary realist styles of landscapes, figure, and still life paintings. The artists, all highly skilled, painted new works specifically for the inaugural show.
Here is a sneak preview of the artists’ works, along with their comments on their own works.
‘Twilight, Hudson River’ by Joseph McGurl
Initially, the inspiration for “Twilight, Hudson River” was the dramatic topography of the Palisade cliffs. I have made several plein air studies of the Palisades over the past few years and have come to know that area of the Hudson River well.
