RSS feed icon
NY ARTS Dion Yannatos Paintings | Tom Luciano Photographs

Dion Yannatos Paintings | Tom Luciano Photographs
 
Spillway © Dion Yannatos 2016 oil on board
Spillway © Dion Yannatos 2016 oil on board
Opening Reception Sat. April 30, 2016
Cross Contemporary Art
81 Partition St. Saugerties, New York 12477
on view thru May 22, 2016
Cross Contemporary Art is pleased to present the paintings of Dion YANNATOS in the Main Gallery and photographs by Tom LUCIANO in the Project Corner. The exhibition will run from April 30- May 22 with a reception for the artists on Sat April 30 from 6-8pm.
In this exhibit, Dion Yannatos continues his investigation into the effects of light through the glazes of painterly mark making. Known for his large-scale canvases of woodlands, streams and rocks, Yannatos balances between reality and abstraction. As water receives its shape by the container it is in, Yannatos’ shimmering subject matter is tentatively bound by the reality of its form- but just barely. From a distance, the precise details of moss, rocks, streams and soil are distinct and clear but on close inspection, this illusion dissipates and the marks scatter into shimmering discrete brush strokes held together by the memory of the original narrative.
Art writer Raymond Steiner notes: “That (Yannatos) is sensitive to the mysterious energy of illusion inherent in the impact of light on the retina — that trick of nature to present vibrant atoms to our eyes as “trees,” “leaves,” or “earth” — is evident not only in the almost spasmodic handling of the brush, but also in the odd melding of color that he so successfully weaves into — not just a visual impression — but also a tactile one that is “felt” in one’s viscera.”
Cross Contemporary Art

Dion Yannatos Paintings | Tom Luciano Photographs Cross Contemporary Art on view thru May 22, 2016

Dion Yannatos Paintings | Tom Luciano Photographs
Opening Reception Sat. April 30, 2016
Cross Contemporary Art 
81 Partition St. Saugerties, New York 12477
on view thru May 22, 2016    


Saugerties, New York- Cross Contemporary Art is pleased to present the paintings of Dion YANNATOS in the Main Gallery and photographs by Tom LUCIANO in the Project Corner. The exhibition will run from April 30- May 22 with a reception for the artists on Sat April 30 from 6-8pm. 

 In this exhibit, Dion Yannatos continues his investigation into the effects of light through the glazes of painterly mark making. Known for his large-scale canvases of woodlands, streams and rocks, Yannatos balances between reality and abstraction. As water receives its shape by the container it is in, Yannatos' shimmering subject matter is tentatively bound by the reality of its form- but just barely. From a distance, the precise details of moss, rocks, streams and soil are distinct and clear but on close inspection, this illusion dissipates and the marks scatter into shimmering discrete brush strokes held together by the memory of the original narrative.  

 Art writer Raymond Steiner notes: "That (Yannatos) is sensitive to the mysterious energy of illusion inherent in the impact of light on the retina — that trick of nature to present vibrant atoms to our eyes as "trees," "leaves," or "earth" — is evident not only in the almost spasmodic handling of the brush, but also in the odd melding of color that he so successfully weaves into — not just a visual impression — but also a tactile one that is "felt" in one’s viscera."

About Dion Yannnatos: Dion Yannatos has shown nationally in New York, New England and on the west coast including shows at the Bellevue Art Museum, the Tacoma Art Museum, the Bellingham Museum of Art, and at the Boise State Visual Arts Center as well as many galleries and exhibition venues. A recipient of the Jacob K. Javitts Fellowship as well as a W.W. Stout Fellowship and Gonzales Scholarship, Yannatos recieved his MFA from the University of Washington ('94) after a year at the Ecole Marchutz in Aix-en-Provence in France.


About Cross Contemporary Art: Cross Contemporary Art is a gallery dedicated to showing mid-career and established artists who have a connection to New York City, Hudson Valley and Catskills region. Open Thurs through Mon 12-6, Tues and Wed by appointment or chance. 81 Partition st Saugerties, NY 12477 Phone Gallery Director Jen Dragon 845.399.9751 for more information
 
Spillway © Dion Yannatos 2016 oil on board 
untitled © Tom Luciano 2015 digital photograph on paper

Dion Yannatos at the Woodstock Artists Association

Dion Yannatos at the Woodstock Artists Association
By RAYMOND J. STEINER
ART TIMES Mar, 2004 

"Heart of the Forest" 64 x 48" (Oil on Panel)

SOME THIRTY-FIVE works — paintings, gouaches, drawings, and lithographs — comprise this show,* enough to make the judgment that, for this viewer, Dion Yannatos is well on his way to carving a strong name for himself as an accomplished landscape painter. Ranging from six small oils that feature seascapes to large-scale oils — including one diptych and one triptych —, which depict the "heart of the forest," the exhibit includes a smattering of drawings that have obviously served the artist as studies for the larger paintings. From study to finished canvas, it is obvious that this is the work of a serious painter, one who takes his subject from initial impression through an inner process of creative assimilation. This is especially true of those works that, strictly speaking, fall under the defining limits of the exhibit’s title — viz., those that share with us images from the forests of the Pacific northwest. (The seascapes seem of a piece and not obviously a part of the stated theme — but more of that, shortly). More than simple replications of specific forest scenes, Yannatos’s paintings (as well as his studies) indeed aim at the "heart" of his motifs. As mentioned above, what lies before him is not the "whole story," and it is only after it passes through his aesthetic sensibilities that we begin to see what he is driving at. It matters little, in the final analysis, that these are depictions of a forest in a particular geographic location of the United States since it is not this group of trees that Yannatos is attempting to show us as much as it is all trees, all forests. Likewise, individual titles of the paintings become irrelevant since it is not specificity that the painter seems to be after, but rather what underlies all such manifestations of nature — whether it image forth to our senses as trees or not. Standing in the middle of the gallery, one gets a sense of not looking at pictures of a forest landscape, but of actually standing within such a forest. Such is Yannatos’s sensibility to nature and his skill in taming her through the brush, that we are brought into that same inner vision that seems to inform him — or as near as we can get to the private mind-workings of an artist. That he is sensitive to the mysterious energy of illusion inherent in the impact of light on the retina — that trick of nature to present vibrant atoms to our eyes as "trees," "leaves," or "earth" — is evident not only in the almost spasmodic handling of the brush, but also in the odd melding of color that he so successfully weaves into — not just a visual impression — but also a tactile one that is "felt" in one’s viscera. Though always on the verge of collapsing into mere formal expressions of color and form, his paintings of forests never quite lose themselves in frivolous "mind" pictures — they always manage to remain "forests." This is fine painting, indeed, and shows the power of controlling that subtle balance between "reality" and an artist’s subjective impression — too far either way and the result can be one of hackneyed academicism or of egoistic indulgence, neither one ever very satisfying as fine art since lasting art has always proven to lie somewhere in between. To turn now to the seascapes, both in scale and in treatment these six small oil paintings might well have been done by a different sensibility — if not a different hand. Less "transformed" by Yannatos’s visual aesthetics, these lean more toward the "actual" scene that ostensibly attracted the artist’s eye in the first place. Straightforward renditions, these are more in the classical tradition, more representations of what the eye "sees" rather than what it "feels." As such, they are little gems and, depending upon the viewer’s private taste may well be judged the "better" of the paintings. They are certainly well done and, as painterly productions, stand among the very best of the landscape genre. Though "different" — both, I suspect, in intent as well as in technique — these six paintings, though perhaps less imbued by the artist’s inner imprint, rather nicely hold their own next to their large-scale neighbors — and merely point up the versatility of the painter. This is a painter to watch and, the next time you come across his name, I suspect you would not be disappointed if you went out of your way to take a look.
*("Heart of the Forest: Paintings from the Pacific Northwest by Dion Yannatos" (thru Mar 7): Woodstock Artists Association, 28 Tinker St., Woodstock, NY (845) 679-2940).
Return to Art Index
Art Times Homepage

Dion Yannatos at Jeffrey Moose Gallery

Dion Yannatos and Martha Dunham
Dion Yannatos paints expertly rendered landscapes with references to the grand American tradition of landscape painting. Under local circumstances, they have a decidedly poignant political message.
Mr. Yannatos, an MFA from the University of Washington, paints "portraits" of trees, forests (the Washington State rain forest in this series) and watersheds in a realistic but partly mystical manner. In some images the trees are depicted in the full, unaltered splendor of their natural surroundings: multiple layers of thin oil glazes of the medium lend an eerie realism to the feeling of the bark and moss on the trees while the atmosphere suggests the ever-present overcast skies, half way between night and day and magic. In other paintings, some of which are multiple images in the style of traditional European alterpieces, the artist depicts the toll which logging has taken on our magnificent forests.
 
 
       
Dion Yannatos
Oil on Canvas
3" x 112" across five panels
"Rise and Fall," a tremendous five panel "polyptych" measuring almost five by twelve feet, is both a celebration of the grandeur and essential life force of the trees and a requiem acknowledging the devastation of clear cutting. The center panel depicts a pair of stumps amidst the debris of the harvest. A mysterious swirling of clouds hovers overhead, a parallel to the so-called "Pregnant Void" symbolic of God in liturgical art. The blue and white of the sky pays tribute to colors which traditionally signify the Virgin. Healthy trees in the side panels suggest the Saints in an arrangement recalling the Conversation Sacre. Clearly un-holy subject matter is cleverly juxtaposed with the formal devices of Medieval and Renaissance art.
 
 
       
Dion Yannatos
Oil on canvas
53" x 38"

Dion Yannatos
Oil on canvas
52" x 16"
 
 
        The paintings will be complimented by sculptures in wood by carver Martha Dunham. Dunham, with a PhD in Biology from Bown University, creates exquisite, stylized renderings in unusual woods: morphed forms of animals are crossed with emotional states. "Otter," 1996, a work in Walnut, 10"x20"x4", has a firm grip on its own custom pedestal and extends its head and neck, tentatively, in a moment of curiousity. The blackness of the Walnut and the serpentine form of the moment of curiosity. The blacknee of the Walnut and the serpentine form of the animal contrast wonderfully with the white, geometric capital of the pedestal top, juxtaposing the world of smaller critters to that which is man-made.

Martha Dunham
"Sit"
Walnut Carving
5.5" x 4.5" x 3"

Martha Dunham
"Spiral"
Spalted Birch Carving 
36" x 10" x 10"