March 20 – April 15, 2025
Landscapes: Heidi Nitze
Women’s Work: Adrianne Lobel
On The Wall: Herd Mentality: Vija Doks
Opening Reception: Thursday, March 20, 6 - 8pm
Carter Burden Gallery presents three exhibitions: Landscapes an exhibition of paintings and drawings by Heidi Nitze; Woman’s Work recent needlepoints by Adrianne Lobel; and On the Wall featuring the installation Herd Mentality by Vija Doks. The reception will be on Thursday, March 20 from 6pm to 8pm. The exhibition runs from March 20 – April 15, 2025, at 548 West 28th Street in New York City. The gallery hours are Tuesday - Friday, 11 a.m. - 5 p.m., Saturday 11 a.m. - 6 p.m.
Landscapes: Heidi Nitze
Carter Burden Gallery presents Landscapes by Heidi Nitze, an exhibition of paintings and drawings with decisive and painterly marks depicting intimate provincial scenes. Nitze is entranced by the colors and forms of the farms and forests where she lived as a child. What became her adult creative process is rooted in those early experiences. Her practice for landscapes begins with finding a view that is inherently dynamic, with a far horizon, an active sky, and landforms with an interesting composition of their own. Houses, machinery, and animals are like decorations in a huge tapestry. Her goal is to convey the amazing beauty and variety of the natural world and the complexity of human relationships to it. Nitze says, “The intensity of life and its fragility are what I care about, the vitality of the moment before it disappears. This is why I make art: maybe it will outlast the vanishing moment.”
Heidi Nitze, born in 1934, earned a BA in Art History from Wellesley College, received diplomas from Harvard Divinity School, Center for the Study of World Religion, as well as the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, with a concentration in Painting and Drawing. She also studied extensively at American University in Washington, D.C. with a focus in Studio Art, Art History, and Botany; Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine; and the National Academy of Design in New York with a focus on watercolor studies. Nitze is committed to the arts community with memberships and associations with Pratt Institute as a trustee, Boston Museum of Fine Arts as a benefactor and a Textile and Fashion Arts visiting committee member, as well as the American Society of Botanical Artists.
Her work is in private and public collections in the United States and England, including the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, New Bingham Area Health Center in Maine, Charles Pratt and Co., LLC, and American Friends of Blérancourt. She has exhibited her pieces in solo and group exhibitions including at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Hot Springs, AR; Blue Mountain Gallery in New York; ArtExpo New York; Red Dot Art Fair Miami; Gallery 668 in New York; Wingspread Gallery in Maine; Nexus Gallery in Boston; among others.
Women’s Work: Adrianne Lobel
In Woman’s Work, artist Adrianne Lobel elevates a traditionally domestic craft into an artistic statement with her solo exhibition of intricate needlepoint tapestries. Rooted in personal history, the artist’s practice draws inspiration from the creative culture of the 1960s and 70s, when handcrafts were very popular. Introduced to needlepoint by her father, Lobel developed an early appreciation for the meditative nature of stitching. Decades later, after returning to painting, she discovered a way to merge the two disciplines—transforming original paintings into needlepoints. Each piece is a labor-intensive process, taking six weeks to two months to complete. Created in the evenings while watching television—much like in childhood—the works embody both patience and precision. In previous exhibitions, Lobel has displayed paintings alongside her needlepoints; however, Woman’s Work marks the first time the tapestries stand alone. The exhibition’s title is a playful yet pointed commentary on the historical undervaluing of textile arts. By presenting these works in a gallery setting, Adrianne Lobel challenges perceptions of “women’s work” and asserts needlepoint’s rightful place in contemporary art discourse.
Artist Adrianne Lobel, raised in Brooklyn, studied at the Brooklyn Museum’s art school, later earning an MFA from the Yale Drama School, as well as earning a certificate from the New York Studio School. She was a member of the Bowery Gallery in Chelsea for almost two decades and has shown work in numerous solo and group shows in New York City and Upstate New York. Notably she had a solo show at The Fenimore Museum Cooperstown in 2023. Lobel was a scenic designer (1979 - 2013), and producer for theater, opera, and dance. She has designed sets for many Broadway, off-Broadway, and regional theater productions, including On the Town, The Diary of Anne Frank, and Nixon in China at the Metropolitan Opera. Lobel was nominated for the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Set Design for Sondheim’s Passion as well as a Tony Award for Best Musical for A Year with Frog and Toad, for which she was the scenic designer and producer. Lobel also received an Obie Award or Scenic Design for her contributions to All Night Long and The Vampires and a Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Scenic Design for On the Town.
Herd Mentality
Herd Mentality is an evolving installation project in Carter Burden Gallery’s On the Wall space by Vija Doks. In this project, which lasts for three months, Doks will depict a different group of animals in her unique style. In her first month she explored reindeer, then in her second she depicted penguins in Going to the Zoo. Now in the third month, she renders a pod of spinner dolphins. Doks' paintings, usually on a field of black emerging in ghostly and luminous white, create a striking contrast between subject and background. Her works showcase the diversity and beauty of animal life and emphasize their fragile position in our present man-made environment. Doks states, “Through these works, I hope to stir in the viewer a sense of joy and wonder and awaken them to the magic of animals. I am an environmentalist and animal lover, and I hope to raise awareness of our interconnectivity through my art.”
New York-based artist Vija Doks was born in a displaced persons camp in Germany of Latvian parents. She grew up in Kalamazoo Michigan and received a BA from Western Michigan University. Relocating to New York City in 1976, she received a MS in Library Science from Columbia University and worked as a law librarian until her retirement in 2016. Vija pursued her art career starting in the 90s. Exhibits include a solo show at the Brooklyn Parsonage Latvian Center, and many group shows. In 2023, she had solo exhibits in both Dzelzavas kultūras nams, in Dzelzava, Latvia and Guild Gallery II in NYC. In addition, she has had multiple two or three-person shows at the Carter Burden Gallery (CBG) and she was the featured artist at CBG's On the Wall space in 2018 and again in 2021. In 2024, she was the featured speaker at The American Latvian Associations annual meeting in the Catskills. Her cookbook, Letts Eat, has been added to the Latvieši Pasaulē Museum’s permanent collection.
Herd Mentality is on view from January 9 – April 15, 2024.
Installation Views
