PRESS RELEASE
ZENITH GALLERY PRESENTS
Intimacy & Isolation
Paintings by Bradley Stevens
Show Dates Extended: November 20, 2020 – January 16, 2021
Restrictive Opening Receptions: Friday November 20 4-8 pm & Saturday November 21, 2-6pm
Zenith Gallery, 1429 Iris St. NW Washington DC 20012
view exhibit
“Intimacy and Isolation” by Bradley Stevens, oil on linen, 36 x 48 inches
In Intimacy & Isolation, Bradley Stevens explores the psychological intersection of people and interior spaces. With his mastery of color, composition and gesture, Stevens lures us into quiet, contemplative moments of people lost in thought while in an art gallery, café or on a ferry ride. With his penetrating eye, he invites speculation: Who are these people and what are they thinking?
Unbeknownst to Stevens, a visit to the Edward Hopper exhibit in late February would become the spark of inspiration for this new series of paintings. The overarching feeling of intimacy and isolation present in Hopper’s iconic paintings soon became a metaphor for life as we now know it in quarantine:
“I visited the Edward Hopper exhibit at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts days before the art world––actually the whole world––shut down. As I was ruminating over Hopper’s work, little did I know the art cognoscenti would soon anoint him the quintessential artist of the pandemic and social distancing. Hopper’s paintings of solitary figures in familiar spaces speak to our times. Cooped up in our homes, how do we maintain meaningful human connections? What role does art play in this new world order? Is it even relevant when so many people are truly suffering?”
“I believe art offers healing and hope in periods of turmoil and upheaval. Art helps us to understand the human experience. It is the lens for truth. Falsehood can hold out against much in this world, but not against art.”
Alexander Solzhenitsyn
Now celebrating 42 years in the nation’s capital, Zenith is recognized for its unique mix of contemporary art in a wide variety of media, style, and subject. The gallery provides high-quality acquisition, art consulting, commissioning, appraisal, and framing services, through its gallery/salon/ sculpture garden off 16th Street at 1429 Iris St NW, Washington DC 20012. Zenith also curates rotating exhibits at the Eleven Eleven Sculpture Space at 1111 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20004.