New York City - Three diverse and original talents are featured in the Nabi Gallery's next exhibit, From the Dreaming World, opening on Thursday, March 15. The show introduces two new artists, Elsie Taliaferro Hill and Kevin Kinkead, who join longtime Nabi exhibitor Younghee Choi Martin.  The gallery is at 137 West 25th Street, between 6th  and 7th Avenues.  Hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 11 to 6,  and the show continues through May 5.  

The art of Younghee Choi Martin is a distinctive mix of classical and modern, employing a semi-abstract style to express tragic and heroic themes.  Affirming that “painting is silent poetry,” she draws inspiration from works of classical literature such as the Oresteia of Aeschylus and Virgil's Aeneid.  Educated at the Rhode Island School of Design and in Rome, and the recipient of numerous honors, she has had 18 solo shows and over 50 group exhibitions in New York and throughout the United States, as well as in France, Italy, Japan, and Korea.  A book of her images published in connection with a solo show at the Nabi in 2004, Into Something Rich and Strange, is available at the gallery.

 

Elsie Taliaferro Hill's world is a dreamlike place where colorful boats and insouciant pelicans, each seemingly invested with personality, bob and glide between huge churning waves, serene amid the turmoil.  She last showed in the MFA Thesis Exhibition at the Columbia University School of the Arts, from which she graduated last spring, having previously exhibited at various art spaces in New York and in her home town of Savannah, Georgia, where she had a thriving career as a portrait painter.  Like Ms. Martin, she is also a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design.

 

Kevin Kinkead's subjects, he says, "are daydreams, or night dreams, or something that pops into your head while you're waiting for a bus."  But these dream spaces follow a sparer, flatter geometry reminiscent of Roman wall painting, and their angular rhythms convey a mood that is by turns humorous and dangerously intent.  He shares with Ms. Martin an admiration for the paintings of Balthus.  Educated at the Swain School of Design and at Yale, he has had a number of shows in the New England and New York areas and was a visiting artist at Studio Art Center International in Florence, Italy.

 

More information about the Nabi Gallery and its exhibits is on line at www.nabigallery.com.  The gallery, now in its 12th year, is owned by Min-Myn and Val Schaffner, who may be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or by phone at (212) 929-6063.