Peninsula Gallery to host opening reception Aug. 31

The Peninsula Gallery is going abstract with its Cutting Edge exhibition, on display from Saturday, Aug. 31 to Sunday, Sept. 29.

Visitors will see a mixture of nonrepresentational paintings and sculptures that accentuate where geometry and organic imagery come together.

Cutting Edge features work from Linda Celestian, Paul Daniel, Karen Delaney, Lisa Katharina, Saurabh Oza and Sherri Trial. 

An artists’ reception will be held from 5 to 6:30 p.m., Aug. 31, and is free and open to the public. Call 302-645-0551 or email peninsulagallery1@gmail.com for further details.

Celestian is a Wilmington-based artist with over 31 years of experience. She holds a master of fine art degree in fashion design from Moore College of Art, and completed a year of graduate study in painting and sculpture. After working in fashion for four years, Celestian returned to art full time. Her three-dimensional fiber creations comprise different forms of energy, movement and colors to replicate those found in nature. Layers of poured fluid paint and various mark-making techniques create depth and intrigue. 

A kinetic sculptor based in Baltimore, Daniel earned a master of fine art degree rom the Rinehart School of Sculpture, Maryland Institute College of Art, and has received a number of awards for his work. Nature plays a part in Daniel’s work, as the final step in bringing each sculpture to life is a gust of wind that puts the piece into motion. His style combines industrial materials and scientific design with organic whimsy and pops of color. Earlier this year, the Lewes Public Art Committee placed an installation of kinetic sculptures by Daniel in George H.P. Smith Park. While he is known for his larger-than-life work, Daniel is including more compact pieces in this show. Despite their smaller size, these studies also dance and spin with wind pressure as seen with his outdoor exhibits. 

Delaney has been a sculptor for 34 years, exhibiting in galleries and group shows nationally and internationally. Her works are in private collections and in several public institutions, including a permanent 13-foot-tall sculpture on the Danube River in Hungary. Delaney’s sculptural figures in Cutting Edge are inspired by ancient monoliths and grange circles, as well as the bird life found on the Chesapeake Bay. Like many of the megalithic structures situated around the world, her pieces are four-sided, unadorned and rise swiftly from ground to top. As sculptural forms, they make uniform and direct statements that are both dynamic and primitive. Though her sculptures are not realistic portrayals of birds, they embody the postures and gestures of birds when they interact as a flock.

For 15 years, Katharina taught art in the classroom and at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Barnes Foundation. She worked at as a museum educator and facilitator in the teacher resource center, where she assisted classroom instructors with incorporating art into curriculum development across diverse subject areas. For this exhibition, Katharina created abstract artworks that embrace a coastal color palette and utilize a soak-stain technique. Drawing with the edge of a broken scallop shell or a dipping pen, she added rearranged calligraphic lines and shapes, some created by outlining keepsake pebbles and large stones from her own collection of beach treasures.

Oza is an award-winning artist based in suburban Philadelphia. The love, energy and sense of community he experienced growing up in urban India helped him appreciate beauty in often-overlooked places, which he seeks to re-create through his paintings. Bold colors serve as both accent and atmosphere in Oza’s work, and the geometric character of his images produces a feeling of wonder and contemplation. While his pieces have a striking similarity to each other, it’s in the fine detail and close observations that viewers find the distinctive elements of each scene. 

Trial has been a lettering artist for over 30 years and has exhibited extensively around the U.S., as well as in New Zealand, Moscow and Tokyo. She is largely self-taught, having taken only a few workshops that have guided her through her career. Trial’s work combines poetry and visual art, bringing words to life through evoking imagery. Her pieces create a mood from a single thought. Shapes, colors, designs and images weave through languages, and her goal is to interpret and bring the elements together. 

Works from the show can be previewed at peninsula-gallery.com. The Peninsula Gallery is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Tuesday to Saturday, and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., Sunday, in the Shops at the Beacon, 520 East Savannah Road, Lewes.