“Chapter Two” Exhibit at Gold Coast Arts Center to Feature Works of Artists in their 70’s, 80’s and 90’s

On September 24, 2017, the Gold Coast Arts Center will unveil a new exhibit called “Chapter Two,” featuring the creative works of nine older adult artists, all of whom are either septuagenarians, octogenarians, or nonagenarians.

The artists featured are master print-maker, painter, educator, and author Dan Welden; painter, sculptor and photographer George Adler, potter and metalsmith Marty Fagin; painters Violet Baxter; Max Ginsburg, and Elinore Schnurr; photographer Herbert Rustler; ceramic artist Stuart Rabeck; and Edith Seltzer, who creates collages.

All of the artists will be attending a gallery opening reception, which is free and open to the public, on Sunday, September 24, 2017 from 4:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. The “Chapter Two” exhibit runs until October 29, 2017. The Gold Coast Arts Center is located at 113 Middle Neck Road, Great Neck, NY.

“Artists don’t lose their creativity as they get older,” notes Jude Amsel, Gold Coast Arts Center’s gallery curator. “The wisdom and maturity that comes with experience often result in the best work of their lives.”

Amsel adds that the works in the exhibition “are a testament to the creative freedom, self-expression, and artistic courage that comes with age; serving as an inspiration for visitors to the exhibition as a reminder that there is much to be learned and produced at any age.”

The artists have a wide range of backgrounds and influences.

Dan Welden is a master print-maker, painter, educator, and author, has been making prints and works on paper for more than 50 years. As the Director of Hampton Editions, Ltd. in Sag Harbor, he has collaborated with such noted artists Robert Dash, Willem and Elaine de Kooning, Jimmy Ernst, James Brooks, Dan Flavin, Esteban Vicente, William King, Ibram Lassaw, Kurt Vonnegut, Alfonso Ossorio, Jane Freilicher, David Salle, Eric Fischl, Linda Benglis, Jack Youngerman and others. His work has been shown in over 80 international solo exhibitions in museums and galleries and more than 700 group exhibitions in the U.S., Europe, China, Japan, Switzerland, Australia, New Zealand and Peru.

George Adler, who is a painter, sculptor, and photographer, began to create art in 1956 in New York City after living through Fascism, the Holocaust, war, Communism and the Hungarian Revolution. He recalls: “I was free for the first time in my life.”

Eight years ago Marty Fagin restarted his artistic pursuits after a 42 year hiatus and hasn’t stopped creating since. Fagin, who considers himself a potter and metalsmith not confined by the materials he uses says, “To me, a piece of pottery is a canvas I formed with my hands that is waiting to be transformed into a piece of art. Likewise, a flat piece of copper is waiting for me to transform it into a canvas full of texture and color.”

Drawing from direct observation has always been important to the work of Violet Baxter, a painter, who tries to describe the elusive light of night and day through color. “As the paintings evolve slowly, sometimes over many years, resolution will rely upon memory,” she says. “The memory drives the painting. Memory becomes the subject.”

Painter Max Ginsburg paints realistically because he believes “realism is truth and truth is beauty.” He continues: “I derive an aesthetic pleasure in skillfully done realistic drawings and paintings. I believe that realism can communicate ideas strongly and it is this communication that is extremely important to me.”

Elinore Schnurr, also a painter, focuses on paintings of people in urban spaces, especially in New York. “I have been painting New York City since I arrived from Ohio 50 years ago,” she says. “I never run out of inspiration.”

Herbert Rustler is a photographer who fled war-torn Europe with his spouse, and documented their arduous journey to America, from the Liberty Ship passage to New York to a new life in the Midwest. Today, with a camera still in hand, he continues to vividly record life’s experiences through photography.

Stuart Rabeck began working with clay in the late 1970s but did not get serious about his work as a ceramic artist until after retiring from the plastics industry in the early 2000s. His work has been evolving in various directions and all of his pieces are truly one of a kind.

Collage creator Edith Seltzer describes herself as “drawn and challenged by society’s discards, recycling disposable materials into works of art,” noting that corrugated cardboard and colored paper has replaced large construction of found industrial materials in her work.

For more information about the artists or the exhibit, please visit www.goldcoastarts.org, or call 516-829-2570.

About the Gold Coast Arts Center
The Gold Coast Arts Center is a 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to promoting the arts through education, exhibition, performance and outreach. Located on the North Shore of Long Island, it has brought the arts to tens of thousands of people throughout the region for more than 20 years. Among the Center’s offerings are its School for the Arts, which holds year-round classes in visual and performing arts for students of all ages and abilities; a free public art gallery; a concert and lecture series; film screenings and discussions; the annual Gold Coast International Film Festival; and initiatives that focus on senior citizens and underserved communities. These initiatives include artist residencies, after-school programs, school assemblies, teacher-training workshops and parent-child workshops. The Gold Coast Arts Center is an affiliate of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Partners in Education program, and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. More information can be found at www.goldcoastarts.org.