Gregory Gillespie retrospective at the Forum Gallery on Park Avenue

The Forum Gallery in Midtown Manhattan is currently presenting a collection of work spanning the nearly four-decade career of Gregory Gillespie. Gillespie's work cannot be easily categorized as his subjects and medium varied intensely. His subjects included self-portraits, landscapes, genre scenes, and dimensional paintings many of which contain elements of realism and fantasy. One of his major works that stands out is Studio Wall (Still Life With Self-Portrait) which is an inside look at Gillespie's work space and uses several different types of media such as oil paint, paper collage, and wood to make it truly realistic. Gillespie's studio appears to be split in two different rooms that feature works of character studies such as models of human faces and busts, several portraits including one upside down one resembling Frida Kahlo, and a nude wooden sculpture of a bald woman posing while seated on cinder blocks. Some of his character studies include a series of portraits including five of himself in different settings and in different periods in his life, a couple of his second wife Peggy, and one titled My Aunt, a moving portrait of a dear relative of Gillespie's against a navy blue, floral background, with an adoring expression on her face. To add a supernatural element, Gillespie includes a depiction of the zodiac chart place below her chin, near where her heart is. Another depiction of a character and family study is the painting titled Sisters featuring two young women sitting on opposite ends of their living room couch engaging in subtle conversation as they each enjoy a glass of juice. On the shelf on the wall behind them are two figurines of young girls situated almost directly above the sisters' heads. Some of Gillespie's landscape paintings include depictions of rural settings such as Cow, Massachusetts and Landscape With Cart, and a medieval themed fantastical piece titled White Lions which is modeled after the tapestry paintings of hunters and unicorns famously featured at the Met's Cloisters Museum. At the Forum Gallery, 475 Park Avenue at 58th St.,through Nov. 8. The gallery is open Mon.-Sat. from 10:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. IMAGE: Studio Wall (Still Life With Self-Portrait) (1976, oil, printed paper collage, pencil, and Magna on wood, in four parts.

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