Tide Lines: an Exhibition of Staten Island Waterfront Prints

Written by Administrator Monday, 15 May 2006 08:21

STATEN ISLAND, NY - The Noble Maritime Collection, a maritime museum on the grounds of the famous old sailors’ retirement home, Sailors’ Snug Harbor, is currently exhibiting Tide Lines, contemporary views of the Staten Island waterfront which will be open until October 1, 2006.  An array of New York artists created new prints specifically for this exhibition.  Their collective works include etchings, mezzotints, linocuts, lithographs, and woodcuts.

Works by artists Christopher Clarke, Fran D’Atria Romano, Michael DiCerbo, Su-Li Hung, Carol McCarthy, Bill Murphy, Richard Pantell, Alan Petrulis, Richard Sloat, Steven Walker, Karen Whitman, and Herman Zaage are featured. 

Christopher Clarke currently resides in Vinyl Haven, Maine.  He was trained by master printers Orlando Condeso and John Christian Erickson while working at the famous Vinyl Haven Press.  In the summer of 2005 he worked as master printer for the Noble Maritime Collection’s Young Printmaker’s Camp.

Michael DiCerbo lives in Manhattan and studied at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn.  He draws his inspiration from the concrete, steel, and glass of the modern American city.  Since 1975 his work has been showcased in many solo exhibitions.  He is listed in numerous artists’ directories, including Who’s Who in American Art.

DiCerbo has exhibited his prints extensively in the United States and abroad.  He has received many awards, including Presentation Print, Print Club of Albany, 2001; the Beveled Edge Award, SAGA, 1998; the Silver Medal Award, Audubon Artists, 1994; and the Profile Award, Manhattan Arts magazine, 1992. 

Fran D’Atria Romano is a native Staten Islander whose art is based on New York themes, such as Staten Island’s ferry and railway and the New York skyline.  She has been working in education and printmaking for 36 years.  Her numerous awards include a National Library of Congress listing of her etching Before the Forest, two awards from the Staten Island Institute of Arts and Sciences.

Su-Li Hung is a painter, printmaker, and a poet currently living in New York. A native of China, she studied at the National Taiwan University, the New York Art Students League, and the National Academy of Design.  She is the author of twenty-three books of essays and poetry published in Taiwan and Hong Kong, and she has exhibited extensively throughout the United States and China.  Hung has received many awards including the Gold Medal Prize of Honor in Graphics from Audubon Artists.

Carol McCarthy is a Staten Island artist whose mezzotints have been selected for regional and international competitions.  She holds the Master’s degree in Secondary Education and Fine Art, and was employed by the New York City Board of Education for 34 years.  Her work is included in many private collections and in the permanent collection of the New York Public Library.

Bill Murphy is a native Staten Island artist. He graduated from the School of Visual Arts and received the Master of Fine Arts degree from Vermont College in 1996.  Murphy’s prints are in the permanent collection of the British Museum; the New York Historical Society; New York Transit Museum; Rutgers, Hofstra, and Seton Hall Universities; and the Staten Island Museum. 

Richard Pantell resides in the Bronx.  During his formative years he became acquainted with the masterworks in New York City’s museums and galleries, and the imagery of city life found its way into his earliest drawings and paintings.  He studied at the University of Bridgeport, Connecticut and the Art Students League of New York.  He is listed in Fieldings’ Guide to Painters; Sculptors and Engravers; Who’s Who in American Art; and Who’s Who in the East. 

Alan Petrulis lives in Queens and studied at Queens College, CUNY; the Maryland Institute of Art; and Columbia University. He is a member of the Society of American Graphic Artists (SAGA), and his work has been included in numerous exhibitions in the United States and Asia.  Petrulis has mounted several solo exhibitions in New York City as well.

Richard Sloat lives in Manhattan.  He studied at the University of Pennsylvania with Rackstaw Downes and the Art Students League with Roberto Delamonica.  His work has appeared in many exhibitions throughout the United States and Asia.  His many awards include the Joseph M. Kaveney Memorial Award at the Janet Turner National Print Competition, 1999; the American Artist Award at Audubon Artists, 1996; and two Leo Meisner Prizes from the National Academy of Design.

Steven Walker is a resident of Long Island City.  Walker studied at Hunter College, where he took classes in drawing, painting, lithography, sculpture, photography and art history.  Mr. Walker’s work has appeared in numerous exhibitions throughout the United States and abroad and is included in the permanent collections of the Housatonic Museum of Art; the New York Public Library; the New York Historical Society; the Museum of the City of New York; and many private collections.

Karen Whitman resides in Woodstock, New York.  She is a printmaker specializing in linoleum block prints, which she prints herself on both antique and modern presses.  Ms. Whitman received the Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in printmaking from SUNY Buffalo Whitman’s work has been exhibited throughout the country and is in the collection of the New York Historical Society; the British Museum; the New York Public Library; the Zimmerli Art Museum; the Museum of the City of New York; the New York Transit Museum; the Portland Art Museum; and the Taiwan University Institute of Fine Arts.

Among her selected awards are the Medal of Honor for Graphics and the Elizabeth Morse Genius Foundation Award from the National Association of Women Artists; the Medal of Honor for Graphics from the Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Art Club.

Herman Zaage studied printmaking in WPA workshops and for many years worked as a master finisher and etcher for engraving companies. He was one of the founders of the Art Lab, the art school at Snug Harbor, where he still teaches printmaking.

Zaage has received many awards for his prints, and his work has been exhibited at the National Academy of Design; the Albany Print Club; the Florida Printmakers Society; Bradley University, Peoria, Illinois; Hunterdon Art Center, Clinton, New Jersey; the Silvermaine Guild, New Caanan, Connecticut; the University of Eastern New Mexico at Portales; the South Nassau Unitarian Church, Freeport, Long Island; and in several exhibitions of the SAGA and Audubon Artists.

The Noble Maritime Collection owns a complete collection of his prints and published a catalogue raisonne of his work, Bon à tirer : The Prints of Herman Zaage, in 2005.

The museum’s permanent exhibitions include Noble’s Houseboat Studio, where he created paintings, drawings and lithographs for over 40 years.  A Dormitory Room is the recreation of a bedroom that shows what life was like for the mariners who lived there, and the Writing Room in the Sailors’ Snug Harbor Gallery is a recreation of the original room where Sailors’ Snug Harbor residents gathered.  Ship model enthusiasts will enjoy the extensive collection of hand-made ship models which are display throughout the museum.

Visit The Noble Maritime Collection at : http://www.noblemaritime.org/