Press Release #34 March 2008 NEW HOPE SIDETRACKS ART GALLERY 2A STOCKTON AVENUE NEW HOPE, PA 18938 215 862 4586 newhopesidetrackscomcast.net nhsidetracks.com New Hope Sidetracks Art Gallery Presents: DAYS OF VINES & POSIES: New and Selected Works by Leah K. Tomaino With a Memorial Tribute to Inge Klimpt. March 15 to May 11, 2008 Artist Reception Saturday, March 5, 2008, 6-9 PM New Hope Sidetracks Art Gallery will celebrate Spring and the Month of Women in the Arts with the March 15 opening of Days of Vines & Posies, featuring new and selected work from Gallery Artist Leah K. Tomaino of Randolph, New Jersey (bio). Sidetracks first introduced Leah K. Tomaino's art to the New Hope area in last year's Ménage à Tree winter show. Her popularity with visitors to the Gallery over the past year led to the Gallery to extend an invitation for an expanded one-woman show. Shortly after the close of the Ménage show, Leah received word that her aunt, artist Inge Klimpt (bio), had died in Seattle. Leah shared a selection of her aunt's work with Sidetracks, and as a result she has unselfishly agreed to allow the Gallery to feature a small selection of Inge's oil paintings and works on paper as part of Days of Vines & Posies. New acrylic and paper collages by Leah K. Tomaino will include the large (Blooming Cherry) and the small (For Inge, a bonsai partially made with paper from her aunt's studio). Dear Artist and Sincerely the Curator exorcise every artist's demons of gallery and museum rejection slips by turning them into witty collages representing new growth and vigorous life. Still another collage, the award-winning Laurel's Wisteria, is fresh from the 21st Annual International Juried Show of the Visual Arts Center of New Jersey. Selected works from prior years will include mixed media artworks done while her children were younger and at home-her Stuck in the House series, one notable work starring Daisy the Cow in Bitter Milk The original of If His Mother Could Eat Him She Would, complete with flying pterodactyls, will be on loan from the artist's own collection. A print of this work was widely featured in publicity for New Hope Arts' 2007 Birdhouse Auction, and found a buyer at the auction itself. (This year, once again, Leah has generously donated a different print to the New Hope Arts Bird Bath & Beyond auction taking place on March 30.) The pulse and the soul of Days of Vines & Posies, however, spring from Leah's mastery of many mediums-pencil, gouache, acrylic, oil and collage. They are unified both by her main subject matter of the mystery and majesty of trees, as well as by her fine hand and strong sense of fluid composition. Inge Klimpt was born in Germany and immigrated to Chicago with her mother in 1939. After Art Institute Junior classes there, she won a scholarship to the Art Students League in New York where she studied with George Grotz, Morris Kantor, Sidney Laufman, and at the American Art School with Raphael Soyer. She served as a sometime model for Soyer, particularly in his Girl in the Yellow Apron. Inge exhibited widely in New York in the 50's and early 60's, before moving with her husband to Jerusalem where she remained an active artist. The couple later moved in the 70's to Seattle where she was part of the local art scene prior to retirement. Sidetracks Gallery is pleased to present a memorial tribute to Inge Klimpt in this Spring of 2008. Leah K. Tomaino herself is a graduate of The Cooper Union in New York City, with further study at The Studio School of the Aegean in Greece and at William Paterson University in Wayne, New Jersey. She is presently an adjunct professor at County College of Morris and an art instructor at Artworks Studio, both in her hometown of Randolph. Her works are widely featured in area galleries and shows. New Hope Sidetracks Art Gallery, the home of Naked in New Hope, also represents and shows artwork by Jane Henry, Rachel Friedberg, Norma Holt, Jack Rosen (estate), Selina Trieff, Yvonne Love, Marc Deasy, Betty Jacobsen, Elizabeth Miller McCue, Charles Devigne, Jefferson Hayman, Janet Bishop, McWillie Chambers. Diane Koss and Ben Mittleman New Hope Sidetracks Art Gallery is located in the New Hope Arts Center, 2A Stockton Avenue, where Bridge Street and the New Hope-Ivyland Railroad intersect, neighboring El Taco Loco Restaurant. Gallery Hours: Sunday, Monday & Thursday 11AM - 6PM, Friday 11AM - 7PM. Saturday 11AM - 9PM Celebrating Second Saturdays in New Hope 5PM - 9PM. Closed Tuesday & Wednesday. 215 862 4586 www.nhsidetracks.com newhopesidetrackscomcast.net