Big news from Gross McCleaf Gallerist Mark Brosseau —Celia Reisman, one of the gallery artists, was just awarded a major museum purchase prize at the American Academy of Arts and Letters annual invitational. Reisman won a Hassam, Speicher, Betts, and Symons Purchase Fund prize for her painting “Big D. ” The Academy will donate the work to a major American museum. “She’s ecstatic and we’re ecstatic for her! ” said Brosseau in an email.
And because the world is very interconnected, Brosseau shared with me that Reisman was his first painting teacher …”She used to teach at Dartmouth during the summers and we were required to go to school during the summer in between sophomore and junior year and I’ve been a huge fan ever since. ”
The National Academy show’s up through Sunday, April 5, 2008. Others in the show this year include Philadelphia artist Jeffrey Reed also a Gross-McCLeaf artist, Chris Martin, Hilary Harkness, Diana Al-Hadid, Roxy Paine, Brian Tolle, Gregory Crewdson and others–30 artists in all. Last year, Philly artist Rob Matthews was in the Academy show.
Congratulations to Reisman and to Gross McCleaf which is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year!! The gallery was opened by Estelle Gross in 1969 on Walnut St. and moved to its current location on South 16th St. in 1986. Estelle Gross died in 1992 but the gallery has continued its program of exhibits year in and year out. Brosseau said: “I’ve been here for close to 10 [years] and Sharon, the current owner, has been here almost from the beginning (though she just acquired the gallery about three years ago). Our plans for the immediate future are to stay open. We should be fine – we seem to be a bit insulated from the economic crunch in a way that New York is not.”
Gross-McCleaf’s current show (up til Mar. 14) is a 45-year retrospective of Martha Armstrong. “She’s our longest running artist – she’s been with the gallery since 1974,” said Brosseau. The gallery produced a 48-page catalog for the show.
