Urban oil paintings - FineArtConnoisseur.com
Robert Cottingham, “ME,” 1972, oil on canvas, 77 1/2 x 77 3/4 in.

Featuring the works of Davis Cone, Robert Cottingham, and Bruce Cohen, on view at Heather James Fine Art.

Contemporary oil paintings - FineArtConnoisseur.com
Bruce Cohen, “Untitled, Interior with Daffodils and Blue Chair,” 2018, oil on canvas, 54 x 36 in.

From the gallery:

Bruce Cohen is known for engaging his viewers with intriguing interiors in his distinctive, crisp, realist style. Influenced by Dutch still-life painting and Surrealism, he orchestrates compositions that include fruit, books, vases, and always flowers from his garden. These items are placed in geometric interiors devoid of human beings but haunted by a human presence.

Cohen graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is represented in public and private collections such as Phillip Morris, New York; Pacific Bell, Los Angeles; the San Diego Museum of Art; and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York.

Cohen’s paintings show the technical precision for which the artist is best known. As a native Californian, Cohen embraces the light of Southern California. It is often an extension of the subject in his paintings.

Contemporary acrylic paintings - FineArtConnoisseur.com
Davis Cone, “Freemont with Two Girls,” 2006, acrylic on canvas, 46 1/2 x 45 in.

Davis Cone, whose only subject is art deco movie theaters, is one of the most successful of the second generation of photorealists. As is usually the case with art that does well, it’s the combination of talent and subject that makes his work so appealing. The paintings are very romantic, but never nostalgic, as he only paints operating, vital theaters. It’s a beautiful painting of a California desert subject.

Cone’s “Fremont with Two Girls” depicts the historic Fremont Theater in San Luis Obispo, California, which opened in 1942 — just before the U.S. entered World War II. Cone presents a romanticized view, but not a nostalgic one, as the Fremont Theater remains in operation, a vital part of its community.

Robert Cottingham’s “ME” (1972, shown at top) and Davis Cone’s “Fremont with Two Girls” (2006) are wonderful examples of Realism that capture the urban American landscape, each depicting a California theater.

Cottingham created “ME” in 1972, a few years before Tom Wolfe’s famous essay, “The ‘Me’ Decade,” was published as the cover story in New York magazine on August 23, 1976. The painting is in excellent condition.

Fine art news
Tom Venditti, Heather James Fine Art

Related: Tom Venditti Joins Heather James Fine Art as Director for New Montecito Gallery

Heather James Fine Art is pleased to announce the appointment of Tom Venditti as director for its new gallery location in Montecito, California, opening March 21, 2019. He will oversee operations, exhibitions, and programming for Heather James Fine Art’s 2,000-square-foot gallery located in a new Spanish-Colonial Revival building at 1298 Coast Village Road, designed by Lenvik & Minor Architects.

The new gallery will feature works of art by pre-eminent artists such as Pablo Picasso, Mark Rothko, Salvador Dalí, Joan Mitchell, Richard Diebenkorn, and David Hockney, among others.

Known for its selections of blue-chip masterworks spanning a wide range of genres, movements, and periods, Heather James Fine Art’s exhibitions program focuses on presenting works by influential visionary artists and on re-examining seminal art movements. Based in Palm Desert over the last 23 years, with galleries in Jackson Hole, New York, and San Francisco, Heather James Fine Art brings a new chapter to Montecito’s thriving arts scene, which represents the perfect mix of burgeoning local cultural and creative sectors coupled with a strong visitor economy.

As an active supporter of community-based cultural initiatives, the Montecito gallery will also collaborate closely with local museums, and other cultural and nonprofit institutions. Heather James Fine Art galleries are currently showing a number of major exhibitions including a Sam Francis survey show in Palm Desert. Two noteworthy exhibitions this spring will focus on Japanese-American post-war art at the San Francisco gallery, and Female Surrealism at the New York gallery.

According to James Carona, founder of Heather James Fine Art, “We are delighted to have Tom Venditti head up our third gallery in California, and our fifth location nationwide. Having advised many prominent art collectors, including Paul Allen, on building and managing their collections, Tom’s extensive network and market knowledge will be a tremendous asset as we continue to expand.”

Prior to joining the gallery, Venditti was an independent art advisor as well as a collection design, installation, and management consultant based in New York. Before that, he served as the Senior Director of Art Collections for Vulcan Inc. in Seattle. During his 14 years at Vulcan Inc., he advised on acquisitions for the Paul Allen Family’s public and private art collections, supervised due diligence on acquisitions and deaccessions, and established strategic planning and procedural standards for collections management at multiple properties globally.

Additionally, Venditti’s prior experience working in Seattle involved advising and consulting for several prominent private collectors. His work within the public sector has included supervising the fabrication and installation of public art by the 12 commissioned artists for the Seattle Seahawks Stadium. In addition, he served as the Associate Curator of Education at Tacoma Art Museum. He is a member of the American Alliance of Museums and the Western Museum Association.


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