Stephen Hannock Solo Show at the Grenning Gallery

[caption id="attachment_64784" align="alignnone" width="800"] “Flooded River with Red Maple” (Mass MoCA #241) by Stephen Hannock, 44 1/8 x 72 inches, polish oil on canvas, 2016[/caption]

The Grenning Gallery will hold an opening reception for its solo show featuring Stephen Hannock on June 10 from 6:30 to 8 p.m. This show will remain on view until July 3.

Hannock, an American painter, is respected as one of the most revolutionary landscape painters in his generation. His work can be found at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Whitney Museum, Smithsonian Museum, the National Gallery, the Museum of Fine Art in Boston and the MFA in Houston, as well as the collections of Yale, Princeton and Harvard Universities and Bowdoin College. He has had solo shows in New York and across the country since 1985, and is currently represented by Marlborough Gallery.

“Flooded River with Red Maple” at 44 x 72 inches is the big scale star of this solo show. Warm sunrise tones peek through mist and rise into the teal blue morning sky. In this work, Hannock explains that he is commenting on “seasonal sweeping away of debris gathered over the winter, which is an annual event.”

There is a sequence of smaller paintings from the rocket series, inspired by Whistler’s rocket paintings. Hannock says he is fascinated by and working to capture the quickly moving light before the starburst, painting the anticipation of the crescendo.

A selection from Hannock’s ongoing “Ophelia” series will also be featured. Hannock’s more contemporary reference to Ophelia in the painting “Flood Oxbow for Ophelia” 5 ½ x 6 5/8 inches,” features moody images lifted from Gregory Crowdson’s Ophelia, which portrays a woman floating in the living room of a flooded suburban home.

According to a release issued by the Grenning Gallery, it was Hannock’s deep pain from seeing his wife lying in the hospital bed, in total confinement after her stroke that connected him to Ophelia. This experience created a profound understanding of the vulnerability of women and their need for protection and support from men and other women. The feminist theme underlying this inspiration has become a far more universal topic over the last six months.

The Grenning Gallery is located at 17 Washington Street in Sag Harbor. For more information, please call (631) 725-8469.

[caption id="attachment_64785" align="alignnone" width="607"] “Incendiary Nocturne with Stormy Sea” (Mass MoCA #253) by Stephen Hannock, 48 x 40 inches, polished oil on canvas, 2016[/caption]