David Shaugnessy & Maureen O'Leary

"It has become that time of evening

when people sit on their porches,

rocking gently and talking gently

and watching the street

and the standing up into their sphere

of possession of the trees,

of birds' hung havens, hangars.

People go by; things go by.

A horse, drawing a buggy,

breaking his hollow iron music on the asphalt:

a loud auto; a quiet auto;

people in pairs, not in a hurry,

scuffling, switching their weight of aestival body,

talking casually,

the taste hovering over them of vanilla,

strawberry, pasteboard and starched milk,

the image upon them of lovers and horsement,

squared with clowns in hueless amber."

-excerpt from Knoxville: Summer of 1915, Samuel Barber

These paintings contain a cascade of beautiful impressions - of lawns, of the presence of people, at first mostly men, working on them, watering them and a sense of pleasure and safety that provides a foundation for deeper mystery. They recall Barber's song, which is through the eyes and voice of a child, and after a few minutes, as the music gets louder and more abstract, the lyrics describe moving towards the city center and seeing traffic, metal and stone, banging against each other - horses. It's all very threatening and exciting, the noise and hordes of people who leave their marks in the subway. The materials mentioned anchor the singer's memory just as there is a constant play in the paintings here between feeling oneself isolated and whole - defined against one's surroundings versus connected and immersed.

Curated by James Brittingham

David Shaughnessy received his BFA from the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University and has recently shown work at Bruce High Quality Foundation University and Green Point galleries Brooklyn, New York, and City Without Walls, Newark, New Jersey.

Maureen O'Leary received her BS from Yale University and is a prior recipient of the Harriet Hale Woolley fellowship in painting. She has recently shown work at New York Arbor gallery, Rockaway Beach, Queens, New York, the Lewis Art Gallery at Millsaps College, Jackson, Mississippi, and City Without Walls, Newark, New Jersey.

James Brittingham received his MFA from Rutgers University and his BFA from Cooper Union. He has recently shown work at I-20, La Mama and Soloway galleries in New York and is a prior recipient of a Rema Hort Mann Foundation grant. He is on the faculty of Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University and the Bruce High Quality Foundation University.