Exhibit of oils by Andrei Kushnir to open in Washington gallery (09/23/01)

Exhibit of oils by Andrei Kushnir to open in Washington gallery

WASHINGTON - "American Light 2001," an exhibition of recent oil paintings by Andrei Kushnir opens at Taylor & Sons Fine Art, 660 Pennsylvania Ave. SE, on September 29, and continues until November 3. The centerpiece of the exhibit is "Sky Meadows," the cover subject of an illustrated color catalogue accompanying the show.

As noted in the exhibition catalogue, with text by Michele Taylor, Mr. Kushnir's paintings are grounded in the tradition of American landscape painting, reaching back to the late 19th century poetic tradition of landscape and the luminists of the Hudson River School.

Today, as suburbanites and rural inhabitants are increasingly engulfed by insatiable urban growth, the catalogue notes, "more and more people ... (are) trying to find the idealized natural world we dream of, the world that Andrei Kushnir portrays with sincerity and painstaking love. He (has) nourished in us the dream of Eden, but his natural world is the world of the 21st century, without overt drama, sentiment or religious allusion; in short, with none of the trappings of a Victorian perspective. His work is cool yet tender, and he resists the temptations of metaphor and symbolism, letting the strength of his realism and quiet good taste drive us to our perfected natural world."

In his paintings of nature, the artist, in seeking to capture the constantly changing yet timeless aspect of a given landscape, looks for the universal.

His exhibit of last year titled, "My River," was devoted to the Potomac, a river with which he possesses a close kinship and has been painting for many years, successfully evoking subtle reflections on its nature and meaning. Mr. Kushnir stated, "I see the Potomac as a convenient reminder of how tenuous everything is, a little like life itself."

A resident of Bethesda, Md., Mr. Kushnir has exhibited his plein- air oil paintings in over 50 juried shows in galleries and museums throughout the United States. His works have been accepted in shows judged by curators from the National Gallery of Art, the National Museum of American Art, the Hirshhorn Museum and the Corcoran Gallery.

A reception (black tie optional) will be held for the artist on Saturday, September 29, at 6-9 p.m. at Taylor & Sons Fine Art. For additional information call (202) 546-0021; or e-mail talorarts4u@earthlink.net.

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