Reception/Open House

Gallery 1581 Featuring Paintings by Three Brookline Artists

This Friday, December 2, Gallery 1581 is hosting an Open House/Artists' Reception in connection with its current exhibit, "(Largely) Small Works." As its title suggests, the exhibition emphasizes small-scale works with correspondingly value-conscious pricing. "(Largely) Small Works" includes 46 original paintings by 13 arists, including three from Brookline and Chestnut Hill: Ellen Granter, Karen S. Jacobs, and Nora Rosenbaum.

Other artists with paintings in the show work from studios as nearby as East Boston and as distant as Paris. In addition to carrying prices that will appeal to both casual and serious collectors -- starting as low as $225 -- by subject and style, too, the show's 46 paintings have been selected to appeal to a broad range of tastes. One can see Richard Britell's magically absorbing 5 x 10-in. painting (acrylic on steel!) depicting the gardens of Rome's Villa Borghese alongside a dynamic 50 x 26-in. metaphorically rich and allusive oil-on-panel abstraction by Rose Umerlik.

For those who love whimsy, abundant detail, and exuberant color, Framingham's Nan Hass Feldman has three of her small gems on display, while Vermont artist C.A. Santa Maria's dazzling and cut-and-folded-paper assemblages find their source material and esthetic in the eight years she lived in West Africa and the 20-plus years she lived in Mexico.

Friday's reception will run from 5 - 8 p.m. Light refreshments will be served. Gallery 1581 is owned by and housed in The Boston Graduate School of Psychoanalysis, 1581 Beacon Street, Brookline. You'll find it between Washington Square and Coolidge Corner, on the inbound side of Beacon. Look for the blue awning. The gallery, open Monday - Saturday, is always free, open to the public, and handicap accessible. For more information, contact Gallery Director Peter Alpers, (978) 760-1829, or at alpers2@verizon.net. To view the exhibit online, go to www.gallery1581.com.