CatskillTrout
new paintings by Alberto Rey
2011 May 7 - Jun 19
Opening Reception for the Artist Saturday, May 7, 5 - 7 p.m.
Chace-Randall Gallery proudly presents Catskill Trout, new paintings by Alberto Rey May 7 – June 10, 2011. A reception of the Artist is Saturday, May 7, 5 – 7 p.m.
A world renowned painter, Alberto Rey’s recent body of work embraces the concept of biological regionalism and celebrates trout of the Catskill Mountain Region. All works are in oil on plaster—painterly renderings of our brown trout species in its river and stream environments.
For the past decade, Rey has been traveling the western hemisphere working on his Biological Regionalism Series, as series that has documented the wild fish species found throughout the United States, Cuba, Iceland, England and Wales. “The painting exhibitions presented in these regions aim to make residents more aware of the wildness that is part of their local area,.” says the artist. Catskill Trout is Rey’s second exhibition at Chace Randall Gallery, one that continues to document the wild trout species found in the Beaverkill, Willowemoc and Delaware Rivers.
An avid fly fisherman, Rey has created his paintings in a manner that captures the solitude, beauty and connection with the trout that many fisherman/women feel when they encounter them in the regional waters
“The paintings [in this exhbition] capture the distinctive color and spot patterns that are specific to wild trout living in these Catskill streams. These color and spot patterns are also distinct from other trout found around the world. As I continue to fish, document and paint these trout, I feel intimately connected to them, their lineage, their environment and to the history of American fly fishing established on the banks of these streams. I hope that my paintings may serve as aesthetic vehicles to connect the viewer with the wildness and history of the Catskills,” says Rey.
Alberto Rey’s work is influenced by the fish still life of Gustave Courbet, William Chase and Emil Carlsen, the landscape work of Martin Heade Johnson and Jose Maria Valesco, as well as contemporary paintings of Walton Ford and early work of Alexis Rockman. Consequently, Catskill Trout wonderfully serves as a reintroduction of piscatorial art back into a contemporary aesthetic dialogue.
Alberto Rey's work is in over 20 museum collections throughout the United States and Spain, including the Bronx Museum of Fine Art, El Museo del Barrio, and the Brooklyn Museum, in NYC, as well as the National Museum of Wildfife, Jackson Hole, WY, Catskill Fly Fishing Center and Museum, Livingston Manor, NY, and the Lowe Art Museum, University of Florida, Miami. His work has been in over 130 national and international exhibitions. He holds a M.F.A. in painting and drawing from State University of New York, Buffalo, and continued postgraduate studies at Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, in the late 1980’s.
Chace-Randall Gallery is located at 49 Main Street, Andes, NY. Summer Gallery hours: Friday – Sunday and Holiday Mondays 11 – 5 and by appointment. For more information, please visit www.chacerandallgallery.com or call 845.676.4901.
