We have been asking Jana to paint Portsmouth and the surrounding area for many years and this past September she finally agreed living and working in the NH Seacoast. The results are nothing short of spectacular. The subjects are immediately familiar but Matusz allows us to see our historic town as if for the first time. The works are colorful, whimsical, challenging, and dramatic. By capturing the power of the early fall light through high contrast and saturated color Matusz grabs our attention. She then sets us spinning with a vantage point which induces vertigo.

The exhibition will open on December 7th with an Artist reception to follow on Thursday December 12th from 5-7PM. The exhibition will conclude on January 4th, 2014.

To view the works in this exhibition please click here.

Sumenr Winebaum is one of the great citizens of the NH Seacoast, and now after many decades of hard work he is one of it's most accomplished sculptors. This December Winebaum will exhibit new large scale bronze pieces. The Herculean effort of these works is astonishing and the imagery is unmistakably his own.

This work continues the large public commissions completed in recent years, such as the sculptures at York Hospital, Temple Israel, Hartley Mason Reservation, and the soon to be installed Mount Agamenticus.

The exhibition will open on December 7th with an Artist reception to follow on Thursday December 12th from 5-7PM. The exhibition will conclude on January 4th, 2014.

The Banks Gallery will reopen after nearly 4 months following the Daniel St fire of June 30th, 2013. The gallery sustained facilities damage requiring extensive renovations. Two exhibitions will highlight the reopening, Postwar Abstraction, featuring a collection of paintings by American artists at the forefront of the avant garde during the 1950’s through the 1980’s. Also opening will be Visions in Granite III, featuring 19th century paintings of New Hampshire’s White Mountains. Visions in Granite III is the third installment of continuing exhibitions by The Banks Gallery to focus on the Hudson River School painters who lived and painted in the White Mountains. The opening reception for both exhibitions will be held on Thursday October 24th, 2013 from 5-7PM.  The shows will conclude on Saturday January 4th, 2014.

Postwar Abstraction will focus on both abstract expressionism and geometric abstraction, which were championed in the 1950s by the New York School. These initial works were created by a small group of artists who had fled Europe during World War II to seek refuge in America. Their work dramatically changed the direction of American Art and placed America, and New York City, as the new center of contemporary art.

Some of the countries greatest Postwar Abstract painters are included in this exhibition, such as: James Brooks, Elaine De Kooning, Robert De Niro Sr. Sam Francis, Michiel Gloecker, Hans Hoffman, Stephen Pace, Ludwig Sander, Ralph Coburn, Jack Roth, Hanns Beckman, Wolf Kahn, Sol Lewitt, George McNeil, Paul Resika, Manuel Neri, and John Little.


Visions in Granite III will be an exhibition and sale of works from a prominent New Hampshire collection, which were assembled during the past two decades. The exhibition will include over 20 paintings by the most sought after artists of the White Mountain painters, such as Benjamin Champney, Frank Henry Shapleigh, Samuel Lancaster Gerry, and Edward Hill. 

"We will reopen", became the mantra of the past 3+ months. Now that we are less than two weeks away from reopening it finally feels real. The experience has been surreal and the time has passed by quickly. Without having a place to go each day I was awarded a freedom I haven't had since my early 20s. I cherish the the time I was able to spend with my family, especially with my children, but that was the trade off of lost opportunity and an unknown future. Today the future is still uncertain but instead of frustration there is hope, hope that I return to the business of art a bit wiser then when I left, hope that when reopened the gallery will be better then when it closed.

On Sunday June 30th our building caught on fire. After many hours the fire was out and the gallery was saved. We were the lucky ones, the apartments in the upper floors are a complete loss and the Eye Glass Shop was lost due to water and smoke damage.

At this point the gallery is going to be rebuilt. Many of the walls will be torn out, as well as all of the flooring and ceiling. We have moved all of the art work out to a secure storage location and will move works back into the gallery as soon as the construction is complete. To stay up to date with our progress please follow us on facebook and sign up for our newsletter. 

For more information about the fire please click on the links bellow:

Portsmouth Herald:
Three-alarm fire hits downtown
Fire chief: Blaze threatened city block

Portsmouth Patch:
Picking up the Pieces After Downtown Blaze 

The paintings have come in from Boston, New York, Chicago, Santa Fe, and San Francisco  We are almost ready for Thursday evenings opening, we hope everyone will have a chance to see this exhibition.

Postwar Abstraction

Opening Reception: Thursday, June 20th 5-7pm

Show Dates: June 20th - July 27th

The Banks Gallery recently acquired this exquisit marine scene by Warren Sheppard. This small gem is one of Sheppards best works depicting a moonrise over the coast of Rye, NH.

Warren W. Sheppard  (1858 - 1937)
"Moon Light Sail"
8" x 12", oil on canvas
Price on Request



A student of Dutch marine artist, Mauritz de Haas, Warren Sheppard built two successful careers around his love of the sea: marine painting and yacht designing.  

He was born in Greenwich, New Jersey, a town on the Delaware River below Philadelphia, which has been associated with ships and shipping since the earliest Colonial times.  His father was a sea captain and the young Sheppard took many voyages with his father to make artistic studies.  He learned perspective drawing at Cooper Union in New York City in addition to his studies with de Haas.  In 1879, he spent four months sketching Mediterranean port cities including Gibraltar, Genoa, Naples and Messina in Sicily.  Between 1888 and 1893, he also studied painting in Venice and Paris. 

By the time he was in his mid-thirties, he had established himself as a successful illustrator and painter.  The yachts he painted were the most lavish of his day, owned by the wealthiest of men.  He was an expert in the design and rigging of ships of present and earlier times.  His work was highly regarded for its authenticity as well as its artistic merit.

Sheppard was also an expert navigator and sailed a number of famous yachts in races.  Twice he was to command Tamerlane when it won the New York to Bermuda run.  His book, Practical Navigation, was used for many years by the United States Naval Academy.  Though he retired from the sea, Sheppard continued to paint until his death in Brooklyn, New York in 1937.

 

One of our favorite new arrivals, James Coes "Ice on the Creek". Coe is simply at his very best with subtle colors and a powerful composition that creates abstract shapes with the ice, water, snow, and grass.

James Coe
"Ice on the Creek"
24" x 36", oil on linen
$7,500 

     The expansion of the gallery is moving along quickly as we approach our opening date of June 20th. The entire gallery has had new lights installed and the new exhibition space will be completed within days. 

     Today our friends from Anthony Moore Painting Conservation picked up over 30 paintings in Manhattan for the upcoming Postwar Abstraction show. Next week we will receive another 15 works from Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, and Santa Fe. Artists such as Sam Francis, Hans Hoffman, George Mc'Neil, Jack Roth, Ludwig Sander, Norman Bluhm, Hannes Beckman, and Ralph Coburn are a few of the artists represented in this monumental exhibition.  

     
    
     The exhibition will focus on both abstract expressionism and geometric abstraction which was championed in the 1950s by the New York School. These initial works were created by a small group of artists who had fled Europe during World War II to seek refuge in America. Their work dramatically changed the direction of American Art and placed America, and New York City, as the new center of contemporary art.