Nava Grunfeld was born in Sweden and spent her childhood in Israel. At age 12 Grunfeld came to New York City where she was enrolled at the High School of Art and Design followed by the Fashion Institute of Technology where she was initially focused on graphic design. After working for a while as a graphic designer and illustrator, she moved to Philadelphia to attend the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts where she devoted her time to drawing and painting. Grunfeld received many awards for her art and in 1981 she relocated to Northampton, MA where she received her MFA degree in art education from Smith College.
Since then, Grunfeld has gained an international reputation for her bold, luminous, color saturated watercolor paintings of mostly still life objects and fruits and flowers. Nava Grunfeld’s paintings have been exhibited in various galleries around the country and in Mexico where she conducts workshops. Her paintings have appeared on the covers of many art publications including American Artist and Watercolor Artist and Hasbro has selected her paintings to be a part of their Artist Signature Series of new jigsaw puzzles.
Richard Harrington grew up in the Northern Berkshires and attended the Massachusetts College of Art in Boston where he received his MFA in 1984. While there he also participated in various projects at the Center for Advanced Visual Studies at MIT. He also participated on various international panels in the 1990s on the topic of light in art. In 1994 Harrington collaborated with Matt Beldge on “Light Forest” - a sculpture and lights project at the De Cordova Museum in Lincoln, MA and in 1998 he collaborated with Sasaki Associates on the “Light Fall” Project. In 2000 Harrington co-founded Spectaire, Inc. which produced the Common Light Projects for the City of Cambridge, MA ’s Millennium celebrations. During this period Harrington also opened the Lugh Fine Art Gallery in Harvard Square. In recent years he has displayed his prints and sculptures at various galleries in the Berkshires including Hudson’s at MASS MoCA, Greylock Arts in Adams, Lichtenstein Center in Pittsfield, and the Eclipse Mill Gallery in North Adams. In 2010 Richard Harrington and Ralph Brill formed the Industrial Lights and Metal Studio to design and fabricate the Aster Bench Series of landscape furniture based on Harrington’s Icosahedron Forms. The first production units are expected to be placed on Eagle Street in North Adams. Harrington’s prints and sculptures are in the permanent collection of the Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University and they are in several private collections.
Ken Morgan is based in Connecticut and he came to his present art in a very round about way. Morgan was born into a family of circus acrobats and at age 9 he traveled North America performing acrobatics with his father and three brothers. At some point he began to make delicate doodle-like sketches of his circus life. In 1970 Morgan attended the Vesper George School of Art in Boston where he received his MA degree. In the 1980s he received several prestigious prizes and grants including a National Endowment on the Arts Grant, a Connecticut Academy of Fine Arts Award, Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant and Visiting Artist Grants at San Diego State University and Ohio State University. In 2006 the New York Times gave a positive review of Morgan’s sketches that were displayed at the Real Art Gallery in Hartford, CT.
Ken Morgan is a prolific artist and he has participated in many one man and group exhibitions at various galleries and colleges around the country. These have included Gallery 355, Boston; OK Harris, New York City; Berkshire Museum, Pittsfield, MA; Maine Center for Contemporary Art, Rockport, ME; Green Mountain College, Poultney, VT; The Armory Show, New York City; Dublin Art Center, Dublin, OH; 2d marfa, Marfa, TX; etc. Morgan’s drawings are in more than 50 private and corporate collections including British Airways, Owens Corning, American Republic Insurance, Aetna Insurance, Ivan & Marilyn Karp Collection, Minnesota Museum of Art Collection among many others. In 2007 Morgan suffered a severe stroke and is unable to do his hand sketches any more. He has had to relearn new tools as his new art is of the same dynamic spirit but the prints are now computer generated.
Abby Rieser attended The Putney School in Vermont where she trained in metalwork and sculpture. She then went on to the Penland School of Crafts where she refined her metal working and jewelry design skills. From 1978 to 1982 she attended the Rhode Island School of Design where she studied metalworking and textile design. As a result she has become comfortable mixing hard and soft materials in her art. Her attraction to Assemblages were influenced by Joseph Cornell and her friend and mentor Varujan Boghosian.
Rieser is based in Northampton, MA where besides making her sculptures and assemblages she is also the gatekeeper at the local landfill. As such, she has access to lots of great discarded objects which often find their way as part of her beautiful Assemblages. It is not only the objects but the patinas and worn surfaces that interest Rieser and that helps to attract collectors to her art.
Recent exhibitions of her Assemblages have taken place at the Stephen Score Gallery in Boston; Big Town Gallery in Rochester, VT; The Cell Theater in NYC; Pinch Gallery in Northampton, MA and The Silo Gallery in New Milford, CT.
Roy Volkmann began his photographic career in the 1970s in Europe working for beauty and fashion editorial clients. In the 1980s Volkmann was working in Paris, Milan, London and New York primarily for such European magazines such as Italian Conde Naste, Anna, Italian Bazaar, Stern and Grazia. Volkmann was also trained as a dancer and his knowledge of movement and how the human body works are evident in his photographs. He has for several years collaborated with The Alvin Ailey Company, Dance Theater of Harlem, David Parsons, Feld Ballet, Philobolus, and The Monte/Brown Dance Company taking photographs of their performances and of individual dancers. The Monte/Brown Dance Company was so inspired by his photographs that they named a dance “The Volkmann Suite” to honor him. Volkmann has shot many celebrity portraits including those of Michael Douglas, Melanie Griffith, Judith Jamisen, Arthur Mitchell, Jennifer Capriati and Kristy Yamaguchi. His photographs of dancers and Nudes are in collections around the world. Volkmann teaches seminars to other photographers in “Body in Motion” and “The Nude” at the International Center of Photography in New York City.
Arthur Yanoff was born in 1939 in Boston, MA. He studied painting at the Museum School of Fine Arts. In 1983 his watercolors were exhibited at the Museum of Fine Arts where the curator Kenworth Moffett wrote, “These paintings are very fresh. Subjects are pushed to the brink of abstraction. There is a dynamic sense of color, reminiscent of Matisse and the Fauves.” In recent years Yanoff has moved from oils to abstract acrylics on canvas with Jewish themes that are full with bold expanses of color. Yanoff’s great-grandfather was Shlaime Malinsky who was a very influential Chassidic Jew. Yanoff sees a connection to his ancestors and sees himself as a possible messenger to the next generations through his art. Many of Yanoff’s paintings are painted from nature in a style that combines Post-Impression influences with abstraction.
In June 2010 Arthur Yanoff received the Israel Ambassador’s Ball Award in Washington, DC. Past recipients have included such artists as Annie Liebovitz and Peter Max. Over the past 30 years Yanoff has appeared in numerous one man and group exhibitions including the Boston Center for the Arts, 1974; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1983; Babson College, Wellesley, MA, 1988; Yeshiva University Museum, NYC, 1996; Bobbie Lefenfeld Gallery, Great Barrington, MA, 2003; Deborah Davis Fine Art, Hudson, NY, 2004; Berkshire Museum, Pittsfield, MA, 2009; etc. Yanoff’s watercolors and paintings are in the collections of several museums and international corporate collections including the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Museum of Fine Arts, Sante Fe; Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, MA; Rose Art Museum, Waltham, MA; Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit; Lee Bank, Lee, MA; Congregation Ahavath Sholom, Great Barrington, MA; etc.