"A Journey Worth Celebrating"
Longevity is a relative rarity in an art world where galleries come and go. Sometimes you get lucky and find yourself with a gallerist who works as hard as you do. Kenise Barnes is one such gallerist. Her current exhibition, Director's Choice: Celebrating 30 Years at Kenise Barnes Fine Art, features the work of artists who have been with her through the long haul. The gallery is located in the Kent Barns complex in Kent, Connecticut.
Director's Choice is up through April 13.
"Thirty years ago, I never could have imagined that what began as a small idea would become a life’s work," says Kenise Barnes. "I am proud to say that the gallery supports many artists in a multitude of ways allowing them to continue their important contributions and work. The rewards, the complexities, and the sheer tenacity that being in this business for three decades requires are many: countless studio visits, writing hundreds of press releases and letters of recommendation, juggling finances in a fluctuating marketplace, managing personalities of artists, collectors and art advisors, marketing, sales, parties, dinners, long installation days, endless loading and unloading my SUV, gallons of white paint only eclipsed by the gallons of white wine and so much more. It has been a journey worth celebrating.
"Director's Choice brings together some of the many artists who helped establish the gallery and with whom we have longstanding relationships: Daniel Alselmi, Jackie Battenfield, Gabe Brown, Cecile Chong, David Collins, Susan English, Gregory Hennen, Michiyo Ihara, Mary Judge, Andrea Kantrowitz, David Konigsberg, Margaret Lanzetta, Joanne Mattera, Laura Moriarty, Margaret Neill, Jill Parisi, Melanie Parke, Donna Sharrett, Eve Stockton, Josette Urso, Eleanor White, and Tricia Wright."
Gallery hours: Thursday-Saturday, 11:00-5:30; Sunday, 12:00-4:00
More info
Director's Choice features figuration and abstraction, nature and geometry, brilliant color and richly achromatic work. We're going to travel clockwise around the gallery and then walk into the annex space, whose entrance is at left on the fall wall
Cecile Chong, three by Tricia Wright
Cecile Chong, Self Service, 2021, encaustic and mixed media on panel
Tricia Wright, Small Matters (hand and flower), 2023, 23-karat red gold leaf on handmade paper
Continuing around, Tricia Wright, Donna Sharrett
Below: Donna Sharrett, Hitkwike Green River Watershed, 2021, fabric, trimming, thread, guitar strings, and ball ends
Margaret Lanzetta
Installation view above
Below: foreground, Glinda, Good Witch of the North, Wizard of Oz 1939, 2016, stoneware with graphite finish; on shelf: Princess Diana, Spencer Tiara, UK, ca. 1930, 2016, porcelain; print: Marquess Marchioness 1, 2021, oil-based inks, paper and Mylar relief monoprint on Rives BFK paper
Foreground left: Margaret Lanzetta, Joffrey, Game of Thrones, 2011, 2016, stoneware with graphite finish
Continuing around: Eve Stockton, Mary Judge, Susan English
Eve Stockton, Falls Var. 10, 2022, woodblock print with colored and silver inks on paper
Continuing around: Mary Judge, Susan English, David Collins, David Konigsberg
Mary Judge, Pollinator, 2020, oil on linen
Susan English, Seagirt, 2024, tinted polymer on Dibond panel
David Collins, Here and There, 2025, acrylic on canvas
David Konigsberg, Sprite and Anemone, 2022, oil on canvas
Turning the corner to the next wall, with Josette Urso, Jill Parisi, Gabe Brown
Josette Urso, Overview, 2019, oil on canvas
Jill Parisi, Earth and Sky Star, 2021, hand-colored digital prints on hand-cut, pigmented, handmade lotkah paper pinned with black enameled brass tipped entomology pins to fabric-covered Ethafoam, Dibond, and wood strainer in acrylic shadowbox
Gabe Brown,
Water Diaries, 2021, oil on linen on panel
View of wall from opposite angle: three by Jill Parisi, Gabe Brown, Margaret Neill
Margaret Neill, Sweet Talk, oil on canvas
With our tour of the first gallery complete, we head into the smaller second gallery, passing this work by . . .
Daniel Anselmi, Untitled (7-14), 2024, painted paper collage on panel, 12 x 18 inches
Entering the second gallery: Laura Moriarty, left; Eleanor White
Eleanor White
Above: Earthbound, 2022, crushed jade, snakeskin shed, porcupine quills, bonded copper, fossilized wood, eggshell, wood ash, glassbeads, polymer medium on painted paper
Below: Hanging on back wall, Untitled, 2025, sodalite, labradorite, mother of pearl, kyanite, ruby, volcanic rock, howlite, polymer medium on painted paper, 21.5 x 15 inches framed
On wall: Donna Sharrett
On pedestal: Laura Moriarty
Laura Moriarty, clockwise from top left: Many Moons, Heart Geode, Flint #12, Flint #10, Flint #14, Flint #15, all encaustic
Donna Sharrett, Hitkwike Pocantico River Watershed 2019 #1, 2021, fabric, trimming, thread, guitar strings, ball ends
Continuing around: Gregory Hennen, top; Melanie Parke, bottom
Center:Cecile Chong, Nada Extraño/Nothing Strange, 2024, encaustic and mixed media on panel; diptych
Gregory Hennen, Long Shadows Feb Wyatt Mt, 2022, oil on panel
Melanie Parke,
Flora Seeds, 2023, oil on canvas
Cecile Chong, Andrea Kantrowitz
Andrea Kantrowitz, Vernal Pool, 2024, sumi ink and pumice on Mylar mounted on acrylic panel
Jackie Battenfield, Michiyo Ihara, Joanne Mattera, Mary Judge
Jackie Battenfield, Coral Fling, 2018, acrylic on Mylar mounted on acrylic panel
Detail below
Michiyo Ihara, Snowflakes #139 Companions, 2015, graphite on paper
Joanne Mattera
Above: Silk Road 410, 2
Below: Silk Road 412, both 2018, encaustic on panel
Joanne Mattera, Silk Road 415, 2018, encaustic on panel
Mary Judge, Primavera Pop 36, 2023, powdered pigment on paper
Finishing up the tour: Battenfield, Ihara, Mattera, Anselmi (more accurate color below)
Daniel Anselmi, Untitled (4-20), 2024, painted paper collage on panel
Brava, Kenise Barnes, right, with Patricia Miranda
