Images that amuse and inspire reflection next up at Imago Gallery

The public is invited to a free, public artist reception on Saturday, June 10 from 5 – 8 p.m. at the gallery.

Inspired by Man Ray, who was reported to have said that he wanted “to make images that could amuse, inspire reflection not arouse admiration for any technical excellence,” Keitner set about to make images for this exhibit with Lili, his 14-year-old step granddaughter, at Jack’s Salvage, an auto graveyard on Metacom Avenue in Bristol. Keitner found inspiration in the juxtaposition of the red-headed Lili clad in a spotless white dress amidst the greasy and rusting cars.

Born in Budapest, Hungary, a few months after the end of World War II, Keitner and his family escaped to Montreal as a young boy during the 1956 uprising against the Soviet occupation. After graduating from the Ecole des Beaux Arts with a fine arts degree, Keitner worked as an art director for several national magazines and ad agencies and eventually opened and operated his own graphic design business. He emigrated to the United States in 1990 and set up a photography studio in Providence specializing in black-and-white portraiture. He closed the studio in 2008 and began a more personal exploration of the visual arts.

He says, “I have no specific media preferences, no interest in repeating any style. I like to discover and immerse myself in what my strange mind comes up with, so I still take photographs, but also create sculptures, mixed media paintings and manipulate my photos on two dimensional surfaces. Right now I’m making walking canes called Able Canes from felled branches, made from native Barrington boughs.”

Keitner taught photography at the Learning Connection for years and has traveled to Cuba many times and exhibited photographs from there and is now an exhibiting artist at Imago where he says, “Whatever I come up with next will be on exhibit.”

Seip’s series of oil paintings titled “Nocturnes” was inspired by her love of light and its play through the darkness she observed during twilight and nighttime walks in Uncasville, Connecticut. She says, “This series is painted from my own observation, memory, feeling, imagination and photographic reference. I have always admired and gravitated towards a fusion of new and old painting techniques that I find stimulating — such as evocative composition, quality of light, color theory, varying format sizes, sense of atmosphere and sophisticated use of paint textures, thick and thin.

A Connecticut resident since 1996, Seip graduated from the Lyme Academy of Fine Arts in 2000 with a BFA in painting. Her work is currently represented by Stonington Gallery, Susan Powell Fine Art, Sylvan Gallery and Trade Winds Gallery in Connecticut.  Seip is also a recipient of the Stacey Scholarship Fund and the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation.

Udvardy’s creative inspiration comes from the elegance of simplicity and the endless potential hidden within it. In the body of ceramic work she presents in this exhibit, she continues an ongoing exploration of form, line and edge. The work juxtaposes rough interior textures against smooth glossy exteriors. These surfaces are transformed by the introduction of tool markings, metallic glaze, and the edge. The results are an unexpectedly rugged and industrial expression of entirely organic forms.

A Rhode Island native, she earned a BFA in sculpture from Rhode Island School of Design, where she studied ceramics, glass and industrial design. She holds an MLA from UC Berkeley’s College of Environmental Design in Landscape Architecture, and has studied at Pilchuck Glass School, California College of the Arts, and Rhode Island College.

Udvardy is a resident of Bristol with her ceramic studio located in Warren, where she uses slip casting and hand building techniques, offering classes and private instruction. She is a founding member of Hotpoint Emporium Artist Collaborative in Bristol.

Other IFA exhibiting artists who will be participating in this group exhibit include Eileen Siobhan Collins, Mary Dondero, Stephen Fisher, Philip Gruppuso, Gary Heise, Carl Keitner, Eileen Mayhew, Linda Megathlin, Mercedes Nuñez, Anne Marie Rossi, Howard Rotblat-Walker, Lenny Rumpler, Howard Windham and Meredith Wolf.

Regular gallery hours are Thursdays, 12 – 3 p.m., Fridays and Saturdays from noon to 6 p.m. and Sundays from noon to 4 p.m.