Ramiro & Sanchez Open at Grenning Gallery in Sag Harbor

[caption id="attachment_54804" align="alignnone" width="800"] : Allegory to Chopin (Nocturn) by Ramiro. Oil on canvas, 5 x 41, 2016.[/caption]

Ramiro and Melissa Franklin Sanchez will open an exhibition of their work at Sag Harbor’s Grenning Gallery on Washington Street, with a reception from 6 to 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, August 27. The show will remain on view through September 25.

[caption id="attachment_54801" align="alignleft" width="265"] Allegory of painting by Ramiro. Oil on canvas, 3x37, 2016.[/caption]

Ramiro (b. 1974), originally a classically trained musician, brings us a lyrical series of spiritual figurative paintings this year. “Hymn” pays homage to the way one expresses their spiritual elations through song. The young woman’s face belies ecstasy as she levitates above the Earth into the abstract realm of spirituality, says gallery owner Laura Grenning in a release about the show. Red and yellow hues streak the atmosphere below, depicting her passion and complete envelopment in the musical manifestation of a higher power. This breakthrough work by Ramiro merges his highly refined classical figurative narrative with an abstract background, creating a 21st century religious painting. It also recalls the sculpture “Ecstasy of Saint Theresa” by Bernini in Rome, which describes the intense joy of spiritual elation, attainable only when one relinquishes the worldly plane. Also technically, “Hymn” is a virtuosic work with the foreshortened legs and face. In “Allegory of Painting” Ramiro has painted a girl who is in the middle of making a painting– in keep with tradition of similarly titled historical works, the subject is symbolic of the art of painting. “Allegory of Chopin (Nocturne)” is as simple and pure as it sounds. Ramiro has used the subject of a rapturous beautiful young women to convey the emotions he feels when listening to the Chopin nocturnes, which are classically inspired but very experimental and unresolved.

Ramiro has also had an amazing year working on a commission to decorate the Saint Bede Catholic Church in Williamsburg, Virginia. He is also working on a private chapel commission, as he finds himself drawn towards more spiritual subjects.

[caption id="attachment_54807" align="alignleft" width="223"] "Collecting Memories" by Melissa Franklin Sanchez. Oil on aluminum, 30 x 40, 2016.[/caption]

Melissa Franklin Sanchez (b. 1984) exhibits her latest work, created in her new hometown, Fiesole. Her sought after gem-like interiors are inspired by the likes of Hammershoi, with their dramatic lighting and deep sense of intimacy. “Summer Light,” the gallery’s favorite, sold before it even got a label put on it. Also, Ms. Franklin Sanchez made an important shift to painting on aluminum panels for technical reasons. While the copper is a warm toned base, it is also heavy and difficult to find large panels. There are also the final two candle paintings on copper, which literally glow. Franklin Sanchez’s “Collecting Memories” harkens back to the finest Dutch still lives. We see a bolder more confident landscape painter, with two especially strong works “Forget-me-not” and “Fiesole Sunset.”