April 24 – May 20, 2025

Reinventing Rules: Susan Lisbin, Joan Mellon, and Gail Winbury

10 @ 70: Stewart Siskind

On The Wall: Kame San no Shukufuku, Blessing of the Turtle: Sue Koch

Opening Reception: Thursday, April 24, 6 - 8pm

Sue Koch

In her installation for On the Wall, artist Sue Koch reflects on life beneath the surface in the work Kame San no Shukufuku, Blessing of the Turtle that spans over twelve feet. In this expansive mixed media piece, which incorporates acrylic, jute, mono print, and mock silkscreen on linen, Koch depicts the sea with cephalopods, coral, jellyfish, sea anemone, urchin, and turtles through her own lexicon of abstraction. Her work is influenced by Japanese Rinpa painting particularly, Shibata Zeshin’s Autumn Grasses in Moonlight. “The Rinpa aesthetic embraces bold, exaggerated, or purely graphic renderings of natural motifs... Underlying Rinpa design sensibilities is a tendency toward simplification and abbreviation, often achieved through a process of formal exaggeration.” (John Carpenter, Designing Nature, The Rinpa Aesthetic in Japanese Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2012.) Koch began working on Kame San no Shukufuku, Blessing of the Turtle in 2019 and resumed working on the piece in 2024, stating, “I didn’t feel it was finished, and perhaps, it’s still in progress, but here is where I am now.”

Kame San no Shukufuku, Blessing of the Turtle is on view until July 30, 2025. 

Susan Lisbin

In Reinventing Rules, Susan Lisbin presents recent paintings using oil and cold wax on canvas, as well as biomorphic ceramic sculptures. Profoundly hard of hearing since age two, Lisbin spent a lot of time silently observing others. That experience informed the organic forms in her work and symbolize people in space, investigating how personal space is about connecting and relating to each other. Lisbin states, “The relationships that fill us with infinite joy, that make us feel whole or make us feel incomplete - are all part of life. Each piece is a unique platform from which juxtapositions and identities can be discovered.” By building diverse forms with clay or paint and exploring our eccentric uniqueness, Lisbin offers the viewer an opportunity to see themselves in relation to others.

Joan Mellon

Joan Mellon presents small sculptural wall works in the exhibition Reinventing Rules. The physical act of making and the exploration of material are central to Mellon’s work. Her work can be recognized by its focus on the use of strong color, simple composition, and the use of various materials—some purchased, and others found. Her interest in how choice and chance are at the core of the creative process is always at play.  Mellon explains the origins and process of the work, “A couple of years ago an artist I know saw a group of the small 3-dimensional wood pieces I created from wood gleaned from the scrap bins of my neighborhood lumber yard. Commenting on these enthusiastically my friend said: ‘These pieces, individually and, as a whole, are remarkable in both their complexity and spareness.’ In response I said, ‘The complexity arose from whatever sparked the piece in the first place and the spareness seemed to insist.’ Explaining further, I said, ‘Simplicity is something I get to, not something I begin with.’”

Gail Winbury

Gail Winbury’s abstract oil paintings delve into the emotional, physical, and psychological states that shape human experience in Reinventing Rules. Drawing from her background as a psychologist, Winbury gives form to feelings that often elude language, creating works that embody the deep, preverbal roots of the self. Her paintings navigate themes such as gender, mortality, childhood memory, and, most recently, the evolving relationship between age and creativity. Balancing a love of oil paint’s materiality with contemporary and psychological concerns, her work visualizes what is felt but not easily said.

Stewart Siskind

In his first solo exhibition with Carter Burden Gallery Stewart Siskind presents a decade of collage work in 10 @ 70, reflecting the evolution of where his practice began to present day as he approaches the significant milestone of his 70th year. Siskind has been intrigued by printed matter after a career as an art director and graphic designer in New York City. That love of the medium has inspired him to breathe new life and meaning into often discarded material. Siskind has always viewed the world in graphic composition, framing what he sees, and creating "composition out of chaos.” The collages combine fragments of images that interact to tell a story. Often the narrative is simply about how shape, color, texture, and pattern are juxtaposed. In the last five years Siskind began to incorporate his own photography as a key element to his practice. Drawn to weathered billboards and advertisements, finding beauty in the imperfect and a fascination with texture and worn surfaces, he began creating digital collage. These prints are rich in tone, with complex arrangements producing depth and movement.