Temple Adas Israel hosts art shows that reflect both our traditional and contemporary Jewish culture in our Social Hall. Gallery curator is Ann Chwatsky annphotog@aol.com

current exhibit:

INAUGRAL EXHIBIT of the gallery in the renovated TEMPLE ISRAEL, Sag Harbor

Harriet Finck

ARTIST’S BIO:

I trained as an architect at Harvard, and worked for IM Pei and Partners, and then for myself. In midlife, I turned to art making, first by cutting up my own prints and refashioning them into collage. The abstract expressionists attracted me, particularly the work of Lee Krasner. At the present, I am occupied with landscape painters: George Inness, Charles Burtchfield, Monet. I progressed from collage to painting, and began working at a larger scale, still working with acrylic and paper. In spite of my varied subject matter - Hebrew texts (and their letters), landscapes over and under the earth, scenes of the cosmos, enlargements of cells and molecules, quilts, still lifes - I continue to focus on the tiny parts that compose a whole. I am interested in the rhythm and thrum of these particles, whether they be bits of paper, letters, tiny circles, or humming U shapes. I work at Manufacturers Village, a hospitable warren of studios in a group of old factory buildings in East Orange, NJ. I was an adjunct professor of art at William Paterson University, and a long time instructor of a collage class at an art center in New Jersey. I taught a decades long Artists Beit Midrash, where participants interpreted Jewish texts visually. My current work includes a diptych titled “ Above and Beyond”, several pieces from the phrase from Psalms, “Min Hamaamakim” (From the Depths), and paintings based on a Friday night Psalm, called River/Mountain/Sea.

Website: harrietfinck.com

Instagram: #harfinn

Email: hafinck@gmail.com

ARTIST’S STATEMENT:

Thank you for welcoming my work into your storied synagogue.

Trained as an architect, but profoundly influenced by a professor of art during

my graduate school years, I turned to collage and then painting and mixed

media in mid-life.

An important stream of my work has been devoted to making visual

“midrash” from Hebrew texts. For a former yeshivah girl, it was exciting -

even transgressive - to use my banked knowledge in the service of an

ongoing art practice.

Sparks flew.

Some of the work - like All the Rivers - embeds whole texts (in this case,

chapter three from Kohelet/Ecclesiastes) inside the painting.

The Garden of Eden triptych is a simple meditation on that profound and

puzzling story.

Malu Asameinu Bar: Our Storehouses Filled with Grain (I’ve also called it

“Plenty”) comes from an Israeli song that runs through my head during

joyous times. It was written on a kibbutz in 1933 by David Zehavi, from a poem by

Pinchas Lender.