John Hrehov: A Survey 1999 – 2008 ; Linda Lippa: China in Transformation

Denise Bibro Fine Art is pleased to announce John Hrehov: A Survey, 1999-2009, and
Linda Lippa: China in Transformation, two concurrent solo exhibitions on view from February 5th through 28th, 2009.

John Hrehov: A Survey, 1999-2009

Hrehov’s fifth solo exhibition spans ten years of output in oils and charcoal, exploring the development of his signature allegorical realist mode, a meditation on the natural and spiritual world, infused with surrealism and mystery.

When working with oils, Hrehov takes great liberties with color, lending depth and richness, whereas his charcoals are rendered in a labor-intensive pointillist technique, drawing attention to the surface. Architectural structures, statuary, trees and animals populate the work, and become the characters acting out the artist’s multi-layered, metaphorical messages. Hrehov’s compositions eschew perspective, embrace symmetry, and assign equal visual and symbolic weight to their components. The work achieves not only visual balance, but energetic and spiritual balance, providing a transcendent refuge.

Hrehov has had numerous solo and group exhibitions throughout the country. Recent solo exhibitions include Indiana-Purdue University, Fort Wayne, IN; Wood Street Gallery, Chicago, IL; Fort Wayne Museum of Art, Fort Wayne, IN; Yvonne Rapp Gallery, Louisville, KY; Wheaton College, Wheaton, IL; and Denise Bibro Fine Art, NYC. Hrehov’s awards include the Gladys Emerson Cook Prize in the Area of Prints, Drawings and Pastel, 167th Annual Exhibition National Academy of Design, NYC and the Eastman-Bolton Memorial Award, Cleveland Institute of Art. His work has been reviewed in Art in America, American Artist Magazine, Louisville Courier-Journal, and The Journal Gazette of Fort Wayne, IN. Hrehov holds an MFA from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is a Professor in the Department of Fine Arts at Indiana-Purdue University, Fort Wayne, IN.

Linda Lippa: China in Transformation

The 21st century has fueled exponential growth in China, resulting not only in a dramatically changed urban landscape, but in a radically changed economic and social landscape. Lippa spent 2008 traveling throughout China, seeking out these transformations and their effects on the Chinese people. The artist enlists narrative, metaphorical, and visual strategies to capture the spirit of contemporary Chinese life, in which new technology and ways of thinking co-exist with age-old tradition.

Lippa positions her subjects within the context of their own unique environments in order to mine the complexities of today’s China. In works such as Mao, the transitional elements from the previous century are obvious, while in Beijing, Bus Ride, and Students, the dominant influences of the 21st century, particularly environmental, take center stage. Lippa infuses humor into her work as well. Beauty Salon depicts a man standing on the street, his Western business attire partially covered by a smock printed with Chinese characters, his head wrapped in a red towel prominently displaying the Wella product logo. By drawing attention to the world of unrestricted commerce, Lippa successfully conveys the transitory, ever-evolving conditions of today’s China, as well as man’s inherent desire to experience the unexperienced.

Lippa’s recent group exhibitions include Zimmerli Museum, New Brunswick, NJ, which acquired a painting for their collection; UBS Group Show, NYC; Dana Gallery, Newark, NJ; Longview Museum, Longview, TX; Belskie Museum, Closter, NJ; Traveling the Carolinas, National Association of Women Artists, NYC; Cambridge Art Association, MA; Cornell Museum, Del Ray, FL. Recent solo exhibitions include the Museo de Arte Acariqua-Araure in Venezuela; Gallery Galou, NYC; Gallery on the Vineyard, Martha’s Vineyard, MA; Gallery Magritte, Tucson, AZ; Edward Williams Gallery, Fairleigh Dickinson University, and John Harms Center for the Arts, all in NJ. Lippa’s notices include Art News, The New York Times, Gallery and Studio, Forbes Magazine, and The Bergen Record of NJ. Her work is in private and corporate collections throughout the United States and internationally.

For more information, or to request high resolution images of the artists’ works, please contact the gallery at
212.647.7030, or [email protected]