A Group Show Opens at Keyes Art

Keyes Art in Sag Harbor will present “For the Love Of,” an exhibition opening Saturday, August 17, from 5 to7 p.m. and running through September 13. The show includes work by artists Sybil Yurman, Judith Henriques-Adams, Walter Bobbie and Sheila Rotner.

Sybil Yurman has been a force in the New York and international art world for decades. After graduating art school in New York City, she painted her striking images and abstractions, consistently showing in galleries and other institutions to great fanfare. Her work is literally related to the fundamentals of abstraction.

Judith Henriques-Adams’s undergraduate work was done at both Howard University School of Fine Arts in Washington D.C., and at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. She received an additional graduate degree from the Bank Street School , Parsons School of Design in New York City and Truro College. She moved from New York to Sag Harbor after spending 26 years as an art teacher in the Netherlands and New Jersey teaching numerous disciplines to different grades while raising her son.

“My ideas almost always happen in twilight when I’m sleeping. It may be a certain design or shape ­—­ but then it has to resonate,” she said of her work. “I need to put some distance between myself and my work, to turn away and then go back and look. I used to lug canvases around the house but now I can just take a picture on my phone and look at it at different times.”

On New Year’s Day 2018, Walter Bobbie began drawing in a journal that had been a recent gift. “I drew spontaneously each morning. Whatever was in front of me. On the table. In my mind. Dreams. Imaginings,” he said. “One uninspired morning I drew the lineup of talking heads segmented across the screen on MSNBC. My drawing prompt was Paul Klee’s ‘A line is a dot that went for a walk.’ So pencil to pad, I walked. And walked and walked and enjoyed my company more and more.”

Bobbie found the pencil liberating in terms of creating art, and what bloomed were abstract shapes that felt personal. In time Bobbie turned to canvas and colored pencils and inks, and brushes with acrylics, then oils.

“This recent journey has been an illumination. Now, whenever I get lost, a #2 Paper Mate returns as my best ally.”

Sheila Rotner started her career as an architect, working in her profession until 1983, when she decided to devote most of her time to painting and sculpture. She was born in Pakistan, raised in Argentina and educated in the United Kingdom. She moved to Washington, D.C. in 1972, and became a U.S. citizen in 1984. Her work has been included in group shows in Washington, D.C., New York, Calcutta and Winchester, U.K.

Keyes Art is at 45 Main Street in Sag Harbor. For details, visit juliekeyesart.com.