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Fragments and The Work of Shozo Nagano

August 18, 2024 - July 29, 2025

curated by:
Anita Shapolsky

The Anita Shapolsky Art Foundation is proud to present a rotating exhibition of the foundation's collection alongside  a selection of works by Shozo Nagano.

Galleries 1 and 2
Ernest Briggs
Seymour Boardman
Herman Cherry
Nassos Daphnis


Michiel Dominick

John Hultberg
Joel Lebow
Nick Sperakis

Gallery 3
Shozo Nagano

Galleries 1 and 2

Gallery 3

GALLERY 1

ERNEST BRIGGS (1923 - 1984)

Ernest Briggs studied under Clyfford Still at the California School of Fine Arts in San Francisco. The faculty, assembled by Douglas MacAgy, also included Mark Rothko and Ad Reinhardt. After moving to New York in 1953, Briggs began exhibiting at Stable Gallery. He participated in several Whitney Museum Annuals and in 1956 was included in the Museum of Modern Art’s exhibition “12 Americans” curated by Dorothy Miller. Briggs sought inspiration in nature. The changing qualities of the natural world are conveyed through his ragged and expressive brushwork. A second generation Abstract Expressionist, Briggs represents “action painting.” His paintings are alive; they offer viewers an experience that is both mysterious and known.

JOHN HULTBERG (1922—2005)

John Hultberg studied at the California School of Fine Arts with Clay Spohn, Richard Diebenkorn, David Park, Clyfford Still and Mark Rothko. Hultberg made his mark with dramatic, often dark, landscapes and interiors interspersed with recognizable imagery, grounded by an obvious horizon line. His paintings take viewers through compartmentalized, apocalyptic and alien lands, where uncluttered expanses create windows into the unknown. His works were prophetic, emphasizing pollution and environmental issues.

ELAINE KURTZ (1928-2003)

Elaine Kurtz was an American Postwar & Contemporary painter who was born in 1928. She attended and later became an instructor at the Philadelphia College of Art (now the University of the Arts). She exhibited at Locks Gallery in Philadelphia and other museums and galleries across the United States. She began using earth and natural minerals in her work in the late 1980s and early 1990s, finding beauty in beach sand or farm soil, and having these natural materials sent to her studio from great distances.

NASSOS DAPHNIS (1914 – 2010)

Nassos Daphnis  was a major figure in the 20th Century art world and is recognized for his mastery of geometric abstraction and his evolution into what became known as Hard-Edge Painting.

Daphnis was actively supported by the Leo Castelli Gallery for 39 years, who placed his work in collections around the world (Guggenheim, Whitney, MoMA, to name a few). He was given 17 solo shows, making him the 3rd most exhibited artist of the Leo Castelli Gallery, after Jasper Johns (19) and Robert Rauschenberg (18). In addition to his solo exhibitions, Daphnis was featured in group shows alongside John Chamberlain, Ellsworth Kelly, Edward Ruscha, Richard Serra, Frank Stella, Cy Twombly, among others.

Daphnis was one of the pioneers of the Minimalist school of New York. Well-known New York art critic April Kingsley wrote, “Some of Daphnis’ paintings from the later 50s are so radical you’d assume they’d been painted at least 10 to 15 years later. His devotion to purity predicts 60s minimalism; his systemic approach predates systemic painting.”

JOEL LE BOW

From the 1950s to the early 1960s, Joel Le Bow worked from his studio was on 8th Street, five doors east of Cedar Tavern. There, he spent time with many of the giants of abstract expressionism. This time greatly influenced his works while he gradually utilized other forms to express the human condition. He would be heavily influenced by his teacher and friend Franz Kline.
His work was widely exhibited throughout the city and the Northeast. His time with and studying under Franz Kline heavily influenced his work. Le Bow’s works have been widely exhibited over the past sixty years and are held in both public and private collections throughout the United States and internationally.

GALLERY 2

MARIO BENCOMO (1953)

Mario Bencomo was born in Cuban and sent as an unaccompanied minor to live in Spain. At the age of 14, he left Madrid for the U.S., arriving by himself in New York City in the 1960s. His work is elegiac in concept; informed by myth, the ambiguity of form found in the natural world, literature, poetry, art history and importantly, his personal experience; often blurring the line between the spiritual from the sensual. Since 1977, Bencomo's work has been included in exhibitions at international museums and galleries. His work is in the collection of numerous museums, including, The Metropolitan Museum of ArtNew York CityMuseo Nacional de Bellas Artes de La Habana, CubaArt Museum of the AmericasWashington, D.C.; among others.

SEYMOUR BOARDMAN (1921 – 2005)

Seymour Boardman began to acquire recognition in the 1950s with his paintings of griddled facets seen as if through a frosted glass, without any crisp lines. He would have his first one-man show in New York at the Martha Jackson Gallery receiving favorable reviews from Hilton Kramer, Emily Genauer, and others. He would gradually eliminate the arbitrary aspects of his work until only straight lines and two or three areas of flat, usually somber, tones remained, reducing an image to its bare essence.  Boardman created unique paintings reminiscent of the romantic landscapes of Milton Avery and early Mark Rothko (who was a friend). Gradually he would develop works akin to hard-edged painting.

HERMAN CHERRY (1909—1992)

Herman Cherry was born in Atlantic City on April 10, 1909. He grew up in Philadelphia, where he developed his interest in the arts. When he was 15, he moved to Los Angeles and dropped out of high school to design set blueprints for 20th Century-Fox. Cherry would study under Stanton MacDonald, an LA painter. In the 1930's, he and other artists were commissioned by the WPA (Works Progress Administration) to paint murals. However, he is most known for his Abstract Expressionist paintings that explore color fields and geometric forms.

MICHAEL DOMINICK

In 2002 Michael Dominick received his MFA from Hunter College in New York City where he also studied abroad at the Slade School of Fine Arts in London. His work has been exhibited in galleries and museums in the U.S. and Europe and reviewed in numerous publications such as ARTnews, The NY Times, The New Yorker and The Village Voice. Dominick is a trained sculptor, but has been developing a process using 2800 degree molten iron as a painting medium. He is the founding member and main organizer of New York City's only molten iron performance group, the Manhattan Iron Project.

NICHOLAS SPERAKIS (1943-2017)

Sperakis studied at the Art Students League, New York, NY; Pratt Graphics Center, New York, NY; and The National Academy of Design, New York, NY. He has taught the woodcut technique at a number of locations including Bogota, Columbia; Columbia University, New York, NY; Long Island University - Brooklyn Campus, NY; Pratt Graphic Art Center, New York, NY; and Fashion Institute of Technology, New York, NY. He is a member of the Society of American Graphic Artists (SAGA), The American Federation of Modern Painters and Sculptors, Rhino Horn Group, and American Federation of Art.  

Sperakis co-founded Rhino Horn (neo-expressionist figurative artist group), has received a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, and a Rosenthal Foundation Award.  His work has been in shows in Europe, United States, Mexico and South America.