2 0 0 6  J U R O R  P A N E L
D. Dominick Lombardi, Independent artist, writer, curator, and educator.
D. Dominick Lombardi was the Westchester arts and entertainment critic for The New York Times from 1998 to 2005, and is currently a reviewer and feature writer for Sculpture Magazine (since 1999), d'ART (Toronto), Sculpture Review, Artlies and NYARTS magazine. He has written about art for many national publications and exhibition catalogue essays. In 2001 and 2004, he received a writing residency sponsored by The Reykjavik Art Museum, Iceland. Lombardi is the curatorial advisor to the lab gallery, an alternative exhibition space at The Roger Smith Hotel in New York City and has exhibited his own work widely in solo and group exhibitions around the country and abroad, including Germany, Japan, Iceland, Thailand, and China. His last solo exhibition in New York was reviewed in ARTnews (Oct. 2005).

Mary Murray, Curator of Modern & Contemporary Art,
Munson Williams Proctor Arts Institute, Utica, N.Y.
Mary Murray has been the Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute since 1991. Ms. Murray has a Master of Arts degree in art history from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. She has organized numerous exhibitions and writes extensively about art created after 1900, including the American 20th Century Watercolors at the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute and Sculpture Space: Celebrating 20 Years. She is a member of the College Art Association and ArtTable, and is also the co-chair of the exhibition committee for the Kirkland Art Center in Clinton, N.Y.

Kathleen Gilrain, Executive Director & Chief Curator,
Smack Mellon, Brooklyn, N.Y.
Kathleen Gilrain is the Executive Director at Smack Mellon, a gallery and artist studio program in Brooklyn, N.Y. From 1995 to 2000 she worked as the Director of Socrates Sculpture Park. Ms. Gilrain has also curated independently, most
recently an exhibition entitled Presence of Light for the Berkshire Museum in Massachusetts. She has taught at Brooklyn College and has been a visiting lecturer at The Cooper Union in NYC, The Metropolitan State College in Denver, CO, and The University of Massachusetts in Amherst.  Ms. Gilrain is an artist and has exhibited her work internationally.  Kathleen Gilrain grew up in Somers, Westchester County. She received a BFA from The Cooper Union, NYC, and an MFA from The University of Massachusetts.

A R T I S T  B I O S
Ryan Bartley (Bronxville)
Ryan Bartley “creates a modern mythos populated by animal surrogates and animated composite beings.  Part logical syllogism and part meditative device, these paintings lie at the nexus of those forces that influence and guide our experiences.”  Bartley’s work has been exhibited in New York and Vermont, and has been published in The New Yorker.  He received first place honors for the Strathmore Works on Paper competition in 1999 and was a Joan Mitchell Award Nominee in 2003.

Audrey Bernstein (Dobbs Ferry)
A 10 year Westchester resident, Audrey Bernstein’s work explores portraiture through a combination of photography and painting to create “complex visual histories for the viewer to decipher and interpret.”  Within her pieces she addresses issues of “memory, of compelling realities and erasure.”  Bernstein has exhibited throughout New York and Connecticut.  She was the 1987 and 1991 recipient of the New York State Foundation for the Arts Fellowship.

Liz Surbeck Biddle (Croton-on-Hudson)
A 30 year Westchester resident, Liz Surbeck Biddle’s sculpture “is primal and organic.”  These works directly respond to her interest in “botanical shapes in nature, such as spores, sea plant life, tubers and budding growth forms.”  Surbeck Biddle has exhibited throughout N.Y. and has been in publications such as Ceramics: Art and Perception and Clay Times.

Michael Biddle (Croton-on-Hudson)
A 30 year Westchester resident, Michael Biddle attempts to “return to a state of artistic innocence or clarity” when painting. He believes the product of his creative process “can in some instances reflect an inner state of mind” or “suggest the tumult that is present in modern thought, progress and creativity.”  Biddle has exhibited throughout the East Coast and has received several awards, such as the New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship in printmaking/computer graphics in 1989 and the Silvermine Guild of Artists’ Revington Authur Award in 2001.

Gail V. Biederman (Croton-on-Hudson)
Gail V. Biederman’s work, autobiographical in location, converts “the complicated imagery of a map into the barest of lines that emphasize the simple elegance of a street.”   These maps convey not only Biederman’s past, but help her to determine her future, as well as “distill the individual and intimate nature of a neighborhood or city.”  Biederman has exhibited throughout the United States and has appeared in The Journal News, among other publications.

Benoît Jean Bussière (Croton-on-Hudson)
Benoît Jean Bussière believes that “change is the essence of creativity and the vehicle bringing it to life.  Simple becomes complex before becoming simple again, in a cycle where simplicity remains the same while complexity assumes different forms.”  His work, colorful and abstract in his own unique style, compels the viewer to search out recognizable forms with considerable concentration. Bussière has exhibited in New York, Canada and England.

Pamela Connolly (Pleasantville)
A 14 year Westchester resident, Pamela Connolly’s photographic subjects are local children. Connolly documents their “range of emotions” as they attempt to grasp an understanding of their environment, capturing “expressions and gestures of these children as… they stare back at the camera with wisdom they cannot explain.”  Connolly has exhibited throughout the East Coast and was the 2005 recipient of the Golden Light Awards’ Honorable Mention.

Margaret Fox (Sleepy Hollow)
A 16 year Westchester resident, Margaret Fox’s humorous photographs “have reference to language, art history and American culture.”  She has exhibited throughout the United States and Canada and was featured in the Westchester Biennial of 2002.  During 2002 she was also awarded the New York Foundation for the Arts Artist Fellowship for photography.

Grace Powers Fraioli (Port Chester)
A 22 year Westchester resident, Grace Powers Fraioli’s totem work symbolically tells the story of her own family while touching on a universal notion of meaningful relationships.  Able to be separated or stacked, “[t]he spiral movement in the piece continues upward in the direction of our universe and the relationship of time.”  A visual arts teacher for New Rochelle High School and adjunct instructor for The College of New Rochelle, Powers Fraioli has exhibited throughout New York, Arizona. and Norway.

Katie Gohdé-Haase (Chappaqua)
A lifetime resident of Westchester, Katie Gohdé-Haase’s series “After the Reception” features middle aged or older women wearing bridal dresses in “non-wedding” situations.  The work was informed by interviews with the subjects conducted by Gohdé-Haase; she inquired about their expectations when they were young in contrast to the current. A graduate of The College of New Rochelle, Gohdé-Haase has exhibited locally since 1983 and has received over 30 awards for her writing, producing and directing.

Tim Grajek (Sleepy Hollow)
A 16 year Westchester resident, Tim Grajek is interested in “giving old symbols new meaning and life by applying them to contemporary subjects” through his collages and prints.  One of the founding members of the Tarrytown/Sleepy Hollow Arts Council, Grajek has exhibited throughout New York and has received awards from several arts organizations, such as the Art Director’s Club and the Print Regional Design and Illustration Annual.

Linda Kourkoulis (Larchmont)
A 29 year Westchester resident, Linda Kourkoulis’ recent series of land and seascapes “are created in layers about the residual memory of a particular location.”  Her work employs “[a]tmospheric perspective, gestural lines, biomorphic and protozoan-like forms…to create pieces that possess a certain narrative quality.” Kourkoulis has shown in New York; she has also exhibited extensively in both Greece and New Mexico 

Michael Levin (Bedford)
A 40 year Westchester resident, Michael Levin’s sculptural process attempts to “reveal what is already in the wood” by working with decaying black locust and cherry woods, removing the rotted areas to expose shapes “determined by its grain and decay.”  Once finished Levin is often “surprised by their beauty, sexuality and suggestions of creatures from an evolutionary past.”  Levin began sculpting approximately 15 years ago utilizing the found wood around his home.

Leslie Lew (Mohegan Lake)
A 14 year Westchester resident, Leslie Lew’s work “bespeaks the legacy of Pop Art… Her embrace of throwaway imagery…revisits the most radical of Pop’s earlier subject matter.”  Lew has exhibited in several solo shows in New York, California, and Florida, and has been published in The New York Times and Wired Magazine. Lew was also the recipient of the 2005 Westchester Arts Council’s Arts Alive project grant.

Steven Millar (Croton-on-Hudson)
Steven Millar is interested in “how social, economical, racial, and political forces reflect themselves in urban and suburban planning.”  His recent series plays with how recurring street patterns expose “the collapsing ideal of a suburban utopia.”  Millar has exhibited throughout the United States and has appeared in The Journal News, among other publications.

Berenice Pliskin (White Plains)
A 24 year Westchester resident, Berenice Pliskin pulls from her own “life experiences and memories” which she paints on silk; “my love of color and light and the spontaneity that silk painting medium provides, gives me the unique opportunity to fully express myself.”   Pliskin has shown throughout New York  She was the 2002 recipient of the Westchester Arts Council Arts Award and her work has been in several publications, such as The New York Times and Hudson Valley Magazine.

Monica Rathke (Larchmont)
A 15 year Westchester resident, Monica Rathke’s series of pencil drawings “capture the unique character and personality” of shelter dogs who resided in New Rochelle’s Humane Society.  With these highly detailed photo-realistic drawings she hopes that the viewer will “realize that these are not just dogs but living creatures each with their own beauty and individuality.”  Rathke has worked as an artist for several corporations and has previously exhibited in Larchmont.

Gary Sapolin (Katonah)
A 25 year Westchester resident, Gary Sapolin has searched out “natural and created landscapes of Westchester County” for his recent series of photographs. With the aid of his camera he attempts to create “images that are inspired by my feeling of connectedness with the divine presence on nature and the physical world.”  Sapolin has worked as a freelance photographer for the past 26 years; his work has been published in magazines such as Metropolitan Home, Country Home and N.Y. Woman.

Debra Schaffer (Armonk)
A 41 year resident of Westchester, Debra Schaffer creates multiple layered collages which she assembles to create “the essence of the place or event.”  Exploring multiple locations, her collages range from beautiful flower markets to soon-to-be demolished autos in a junkyard.  Through her collages she attempts to incorporate the viewer into her experiences and “share the events and places I have seen.” Schaffer has exhibited throughout the East Coast.

Juliet Seignious (Cortlandt Manor)
Juliet Seignious’ recent series of paintings depict “the problematic but essential aspects of remembering and forgetting.” Although the subjects of her paintings are specifically African-American, her interests and process are “universal in nature.”  Seignious has exhibited throughout the United States and in Germany.

Andrew Senior (Hawthorne)
An 11 year studio occupant of Westchester, Andrew Senior’s interactive video installation Shibboleth “explores the way our cultural background is encoded in our speech patterns.” Through this work viewers are encouraged to “record their own histories, pronunciations and shibboleth stories.” Senior’s work has been shown throughout New York, Connecticut and the United Kingdom. He has exhibited, co-curated, co-chaired and presented for the AMC Multimedia Interactive Art Program.  

Beth Sutherland (Dobbs Ferry)
A 16 year Westchester resident, Beth Sutherland looks for “places to paint that speak of those who occupy them- places that evoke the transformation of a habitat or building over time to its present state.”  She is interested in how a place reacts to changes in its surroundings, such as “light, weather, an unexpected paint job or even demolition”, which can convey the human presence. Sutherland has exhibited throughout the East Coast and received the 1999 fellowship in painting from the New York Foundation for the Arts.

The first Catholic college for women in New York State, The College of New Rochelle was founded in 1904 by the Ursuline Order. Today, it comprises the all-women School of Arts & Sciences, and three schools which admit women and men: the School of New Resources (for adult learners), the School of Nursing and the Graduate School.  The main campus of the College is located in lower Westchester County, 16 miles north of New York City.  The College maintains five other campus locations in New York City. Visit the College’s website at www.cnr.edu.