Tria Gallery presents its annual “Summer Cocktail” from July 9 through August 7, 2009. On display to help viewers escape the heat will be a cool mix of artwork, including mixed media sculpture by jazz great Oliver Lake and vibrant and colorful works by painters Giuliano Guarneri, Suejin Jo, and Nicole Parcher.

The works in Tria Summer Cocktail vary in terms of medium and style, but are united in their undeniably playful quality. Each presents the viewer with its own type of innocent joy; some conjuring up childhood memories of trips to the beach, or the feeling of a hot summer day with grass underfoot, others the simple and almost innocent thrill of viscerally connecting to a vibrant color or compelling arrangement of geometric shapes. In the dog days of summer, this “Summer Cocktail” is intended to provide viewers with some respite and to impart a cool, colorful and joyful experience – a visual popsicle, if you will.

Giuliano Guarneri

Born in Italy, Giuliano Guarneri has been interested in drawing and colors since childhood. He received a degree in Graphic Design in 1992 in Milan, Italy, and afterwards worked as a photographer for six years. He moved to New York City in 1998 and has been working as a painter, illustrator and decorator for private clients ever since. Says Guarneri, “Art is part of my life, and I like to share this experience with others.” Guarneri’s work exudes a clear spirituality and a oneness with nature. Harmonious and peaceful images of animals, trees, lotus blossoms, hills, blue sky and green earth suggest a very real connection between all living things. With his beautiful paintings he has certainly found a way to communicate with his viewers and to “share his experience with others.” Guarneri’s work can be found in private collections in the U.S.and in Italy. This is Mr. Guarneri’s first gallery exhibition in New York City.

Suejin Jo

Suejin Jo is a Korean-born abstract painter based in New York. She studied with Stamos and Vytlacil at the Art Students League where she won McDowell Award juried by Richard Pousette Dart and Romare Bearden. There are dichotomies in her work, for example delicate lines with masses of color, or themes of fish and cactus. She paints with the unique media combination of oil and dry pigment which gives her pictures surfaces that resemble old fresco painting. Her paintings have been described as having the character of ancient wall paintings.

Ms. Jo exhibits widely in New York and in Korea and her work can be found in many private and public collections including The Library of Congress, Chase Manhattan Bank, General Instrument Company, the Embassy of San Marino, Sogang University, the Ahl Foundation, and the Korea Exchange Bank. Her paintings are also included in the “Art for Embassies” program.

Oliver Lake

“It’s all about choices,” states modern Renaissance Man Oliver Lake to explain his expansive artistic vision. An accomplished painter, poet, and performance artist, Lake has published a book of poetry entitled Life Dance, has exhibited and his unique painted-sticks at the Montclair Art Museum, and has toured the country with his one-man performance piece, “Matador of 1st and 1st.” Although his greatest reputation exists in the world of jazz, Lake’s amazingly eclectic musical approach is best expressed by his popular poem “Separation”—put all my food on the same plate!

Extremely few artists could embrace such a diverse array of musical styles and disciplines. Lake is not only able to thrive in all of these environments, but does so without distorting or diluting his own remarkable artistic identity. Part of this is due to his experience with the Black Artists Group (BAG), the legendary multi-disciplined and innovative St. Louis collective he co-founded with poets Ajule and Malinke, and musicians Julius Hemphill and Floyd La Flore over 35 years ago. But in reality, Oliver’s varied artistic interests go back even further than that.

Born in Marianna, Arkansas in 1942, Oliver moved to St. Louis at the age of two. He began drawing at the age of thirteen and never stopped. Today he paints daily, using oil, acrylics, wood, canvas, and mixed media. Lake moved to New York in the mid-’70s, working the fertile ground of the downtown loft scene and quickly establishing himself as one of its most adventurous and multi-faceted artists. Tria is honored to be exhibiting Oliver’s mixed media sculpture in Summer Cocktail.

Nicole Parcher

Through repetition of images and the exploration of mark making and materials, Nicole Parcher creates lively and curious environments in her work. Her jumbled landscapes are often humming with a chaotic harmony, much like the world we live in. Archetypal images conjure up notions of a journey, life-path, enlightenment, stability, upheaval, and longing, reflecting some of our innermost fears and desires. Parcher is also interested in extracting from the notion of drawing and collage and applying it to painting, thus narrowing the gap between them. She endeavors to take viewers inside her two dimensional works, allowing them to move through a space that has been activated by the materials and imagery.

Nicole Parcher was born in 1968 in Long Island, New York. She currently lives and works in New York City on the Lower East Side. This is her second exhibition at Tria.

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Tria Gallery specializes in contemporary painting and mixed media by established and emerging artists. In addition to artwork on exhibit, the gallery maintains an inventory of select works by its featured artists. Tria’s three directors, Carol Suchman, Paige Bart and Latifa Metheny, are committed to presenting artists with compelling bodies of work, and ones whose stories, should, in their opinion, be told.