Imlay Gallery

Taking a closer look at one of the works in Curlee Raven Holton’s portfolio “Othello Re-Imagined in Sepia.”

In 2010 Curlee was invited to do a project at the International Printmaking Workshop in Venice as part of their “Remembering Venice” series, connected to the Venice Biennale. Choosing Shakespeare’s Othello as his subject he created 10 sepia-toned prints that illustrate important points such as Othello's arrival, his identity, the costumes and clothing, repositioning Othello in a more positive light — giving him a sense of humanity, relevance, compassion, and vulnerability.

In this portfolio Curlee takes the viewer on a journey as he explores the inner life and public persona of the Moor of Venice, bringing to his story contemporary ideas about race, identity, and love.

Taking a closer look reveals not only the depth of meaning, but also the masterful printmaking!

Festival of Piazza San Marco; The man in the mask: in the midst of celebration, doubt., 2012
Etching, 22 × 15 in, Edition of 40 + 5AP

Featured on in our current show, "SIDE BY SIDE: David C. Driskell and Curlee R. Holton”
Just click the link in our Bio to see more!

"Soothsayer of Eyes” by Lori Field is one of three woven tapestries included in her one person show currently


Lori often chooses mediums that speak to the untold stories of women, in order to question the historical underpinnings of hierarchies. For instance, she took up embroidery and working with tapestry after a profound personal loss, “as a means to process my grief–and to connect to all those unnamed women through history whose only form of self-expression and self-healing was women’s work.”

Soothsayer of Eyes, 2022
Mixed media woven jacquard tapestry with embellishments, 52 x 37 inches

Featured exclusively on

"SIDE BY SIDE: David C. Driskell and Curlee R. Holton”

Preeminent artist Dr. David C. Driskell and artist and master printmaker Curlee R. Holton began collaborating in 2003, and never stopped. They produced over 40 creative projects together, with two in progress at the time of Driskell’s passing in 2020.

This show examines seminal editioned portfolios, David C. Driskell’s “Doorway,” and Curlee R. Holton’s “Othello Re-Imagined in Sepia,” to share an important untold story in the history of American art.

Click the link in our bio to learn more and to view the works in both portfolios!

“I think an artist is able to extend himself through the spiritual element when he deals with the symbolic presence of form.” — David Driskell

"Pine Trees at Night” (From the Doorway Portfolio), 2009
Serigraph, 15 x 12 in

Pine trees were one of David Driskell’s most beloved subjects throughout his artistic career. In fact he devoted his master’s thesis at Catholic University in 1962 to the subject matter. The pines transcend their landscape in his work to become icons.

This is one of the works in our current show, “SIDE BY SIDE: David C. Driskell and Curlee R. Holton” that explores the collaborative partnership between David Driskell and through two seminal editioned portfolios.

Click the link in our bio to view!

✨Available in time for the Holidays!✨

Acclaimed multimedia artist Lori Field’s Tiger Tarot reinterprets the cards for our times. Lori’s deck features a new suit — “Suit of Eyes” as well as a new court card, the “Divinely Feminine Soothsayers."

Accompanied by a booklet of poetic interpretations of each card by Latitia Barbier, this limited edition of 250 decks was created in conjunction with her first solo museum show, Lori Field: Tiger Tarot , September 10, 2022 – January 1, 2023.

Whether you are a tarot enthusiast or a lover of art — this deck, created from the original artwork executed in collage, is a treasure trove of Field’s mythical worlds of shapeshifting archetypes, and symbology.

Contact: [email protected] to order your deck while they last!

“The creative gift can be a means of expressing your humanity, and also a way in which one can connect with the humanity of others.”
— Curlee Raven Holton

Holton, a mentee of Robert Blackburn, early on saw the larger implications of fine print editions to amplify marginalized creative voices.

In his deeply moving portfolio, ‘Othello Reimagined in Sepia’ Holton invites the viewer to reimagine Othello’s themes for our contemporary times — in order to imagine a different future.

Head on over to Artsy to view more from this seminal portfolio in our current show"SIDE BY SIDE: David C. Driskell and Curlee R. Holton"

Artworks:
To Live Without the Mask of the Past, 2012
Etching
22 × 15 in.
Edition of 40 + 5AP

Behold the Moor of Venice, 2012
Etching
22 × 15 in.
Edition of 40 + 5AP

From the “Doorway” Portfolio by David C. Driskell

In both “The Practice”, and “Forrest Girl” a single figure is surrounded by lush foliage in a composition bursting with color and form. David C. Driskell’s “Doorway” portfolio contains 12 hand-pulled serigraphs by the artist along with 12 pages of handset letterpress prose poems by Michael Alpert.

Printed by Master Printer Curlee R. Holton at the famed Experimental Printmaking Institute at Lafayette College, Easton, Pa, this portfolio speaks to David C. Driskell’s lifelong conversation about nature, artistic expression, and the divine.

Click the link in our bio to view the entire portfolio in our featured show, SIDE BY SIDE: David C. Driskell and Curlee R. Holton

The Practice, 2009
Serigraph
12 x 15 in.
Edition of 75 + 4 AP

Forrest Girl, 2009
Serigraph
12 x 15 in.
Edition of 75 + 4 AP

Master printmaker Curlee R. Holton’s suite,"Othello Re-Imagined in Sepia” is an emotional and technical tour de force.

In these exquisitely rich sepia-toned etchings, created at the Venice Printmaking Studio in 2012, Curlee explores the inner life and public persona of the Moor of Venice, bringing to his story contemporary ideas about race, identity, and love.

Currently featured in our show,"SIDE BY SIDE: David C. Driskell and Curlee R. Holton"on

Click the link in our Bio to view more works!

Artworks:
Knowledge of Betrayal, 2012
Etching
22 × 15 in.
Edition of 40 + 5AP

Othello's Reflection Before Venice (The trauma of death, memories of birth and renewal—the cycle of life), 2012
Etching
22 × 15 in.
Edition of 40 + 5AP

For those in the Montclair area— we’d love to see you tonight, Thursday, Nov. 17 for “The Art and Practice of Tarot: An Evening with Lori Field, Pam Grossman, and Laetitia Barbier.”

This promises to be a one-of-a-kind evening with a visionary artist, a practicing witch, and a
phenomenal tarot specialist in conversation on Art, Magic, and Tarot!!

Go to montclairartmuseum.org to register.

The show is online also - just click the link in our bio!

ARTWORKS:
Drowning of the Sea Witch and Her Sister, 2022
Flashe, silver leaf on glass, 11 x 22 in.

Escape of the Tiger Woman, 2022
Flashe, silver leaf on glass, 15 in. diameter

Hanged Woman, 2022
collage on paper, 10.5 x 7.5

cartomancy

Featured exclusively on

SIDE BY SIDE: David C. Driskell
and Curlee R. Holton

Printmaking has a long history as a vehicle to spread ideas and effect change. At a time when few Black artists were represented in major collections, it was David Driskell’s editioned prints that first entered into museum collections. Throughout his artistic career printmaking was an integral part of his creative process.

Curlee R. Holton, a mentee of Robert Blackburn, early on saw the larger implications of fine print editions to amplify marginalized creative voices. Holton went on to found and direct the renowned Experimental Printmaking Institute at Lafayette College, as well as Raven Fine Art Editions, which is one of the only Black-Owned, directed, and managed printshops in the U.S. operating today.

As artists, scholars, and professors alike Driskell and Holton worked side by side for decades utilizing experimental printmaking techniques both at Raven Fine Art Editions and the Experimental Printmaking Institute. In 2014, Holton was appointed Executive Director of the David C. Driskell Center For The Study of Visual Arts & Culture of African Americans & the African Diaspora.

Click the link in our bio to learn more about their important creative collaboration!



David Driskell
Down By the Brook (The Doorway Portfolio), 2009
serigraph, 15 x 12 in.

Curlee R. Holton
The Arrival (Othello Reimagined in Sepia Portfolio), 2009
etching, 22 x 15 in.

Please join us Thursday, Nov. 17, for “The Art and Practice of Tarot: An Evening with Lori Field, Pam Grossman, and Laetitia Barbier, for a conversation on magic, and tarot!

Our fabulous panelists:

Lori Field is a self-taught, symbolist artist who is best known for her mysterious modern-day fairytales in multiple mediums. She employs a recurring cast of predominately female or androgynous human animal hybrids to explore themes of identity, vulnerability, and spirituality.

Pam Grossman is a writer, curator, and teacher of magical practice and history. She is the host of The Witch Wave podcast and the author of Waking the Witch: Reflections on Women, Magic, and Power, and What is a Witch. She is also co-editor and co-author of the WITCHCRAFT volume of Taschen’s Library of Esoterica series.

French born Laetitia Barbier is an independent scholar, as well as a professional tarot reader and teacher. With a background in art history she considers the cards a portable museum, and tarot reading as a poetic art form with the capacity to heal. She is the programming director and head librarian at Morbid Anatomy Museum, New York.

Check the link in our bio to register.

We are thrilled to see our exhibition as a featured Gallery on this week!!

SIDE BY SIDE: David C. Driskell and Curlee R. Holton

This show examines seminal editioned portfolios, David C. Driskell’s “Doorway,” and Curlee R. Holton’s “Othello Re-Imagined in Sepia,” to share an important untold story in the history of American art.

Click the link in our Bio to view all the works by these American Masters!

📣Thrilled and honored to announce!

This year's annual Julia Norton Babson lecture on Nov. 17 will feature artist Lori Field, author Pam Grossman, and tarot reader Laetitia Barbier in conversation! Moderated by guest curator Kathy Imlay, this year's event will also include a visit to the exhibition "Lori Field: Tiger Tarot" and a special reading using Field's Tiger Tarot deck. Tickets are free for members and $10 for non-members.

To purchase tickets: https://cart.montclairartmuseum.org/5660/5828
or go to for the link to get yours today!
.cartomancy

Lori Field’s fascination with the Middle Ages began as a teenager when she spent countless hours at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s world-renowned medieval collections. Upon discovering the armor galleries, she recalls, “I was entranced by the idea that a culture based on aggression in battles would have created such elaborate suits of protection that were also objects of beauty and delicacy.” The medieval period is also a conceptual framework for the artist; it is a means to investigate and process current political events and social conditions by looking back at an era with many parallels.

Lori’s solo show 🐅LORI FIELD: TIGER TAROT is happening now thru January 1, 2023🐅

Artworks:
Knight of Eyes
mixed media collage on paper

Knight of Wands
mixed media collage on paper

Embracing the third Self
Silverpoint drawing on paper

Thank you for the beautiful installation shots of ’s Tiger Tarot 🐅exhibition at !!!

Lori Field’s Tiger Tarot is here!🐅🐅🐅

This limited edition of 100 decks is signed by Lori, and comes with a beautiful booklet of card interpretations by the phenomenally talented Laetitia Barbier .cartomancy

Thanks everyone who so patiently waited over a year for this first edition to be complete!!!
86 cards total — what a great opportunity to collect Lori’s work!

❤️‍🔥You can DM us to order a deck❤️‍🔥

👂Tune in if you can today at 1:40 pm to for a chat with about her first solo museum show, Lori Field: Tiger Tarot, 🐅

field

These works are from ’s series, Emerald City and are currently in her solo show —
LORI FIELD: TIGER TAROT

In response to the pandemic and political events of the moment, Lori remarked of Emerald City, “the world is upside down so I keep making green things hoping for renewal.”

👀Check out the detail on the frames which Lori hand embellished!👀

Queen Mariposa
ink, collage on paper
10.5 x 8 in

Queen of Green
ink, collage on paper
10.5 x 8 in

TODAY ‘s solo show OPENS to the Public !!

🐅🐅LORI FIELD: TIGER TAROT🐅🐅

Drop in and say hello — Lori will be there!💕

.cartomancy

Fantastic story and portrait by Dan Epstein on and her solo show, LORI FIELD: TIGER TAROT, opening September 10th !
Thank you Dan and Suburban Essex Magazine!

.cartomancy

COUNTDOWN to Lori Field: Tiger Tarot 🐅Opening to the public in 10 days!

’s reoccurring cast of human and animal hybrids explore themes of identity, vulnerability, and spirituality.

The Lovers card in most tarot decks is represented by a man and a woman. Field’s two female tiger hybrid figures are inspired by the nudes of Belgian Surrealist painter Paul Delvaux (1897-1994). A giant eye, polka dot wings, blue roses, Luna moth, and a cat with many eyes fill the rest of the composition. What does it all mean? Field says of the original tarot collage for the Lovers, “it was my most subconscious interpretation of a titled Major Arcana card. This one just fell out of my brain, composed itself with little conscious thought about what imagery would appear. I can’t totally understand how all these ‘fave’ symbols of mine collided in this piece. I just knew it was finished when it was finished and I love it.”

Images:
The Lovers, 2022 Oil on canvas, stretched, 30 x 22 1/4 in.

The lovers, 2021, Mixed media collage on paper, 11 x 8.5 in.

The Lovers card from Tiger Tarot Deck — coming soon! 🐅🐅🐅Lori’s Tiger Tarot with interpretations by the phenomenal Tarot specialist Laetitia Barbier!

.cartomancy

COUNTDOWN to Lori Field: Tiger Tarot 🐅Opening to the public in 10 days !!

‘s reoccurring cast of human and animal hybrids explore themes of identity, vulnerability, and spirituality in a multitude of mediums.

The Lovers card in most tarot decks is represented by a man and a woman. Field’s two female tiger hybrid figures are inspired by the nudes of Belgian Surrealist painter Paul Delvaux (1897-1994). A giant eye, polka dot wings, blue roses, Luna moth, and a cat with many eyes fill the rest of the composition. What does it all mean? Field says of the original tarot collage for the Lovers, “it was my most subconscious interpretation of a titled Major Arcana card. This one just fell out of my brain, composed itself with little conscious thought about what imagery would appear. I can’t totally understand how all these ‘fave’ symbols of mine collided in this piece. I just knew it was finished when it was finished and I love it.”

Images:
The Lovers, 2022 Oil on canvas, stretched, 30 x 22 1/4 in.

The lovers, 2021, Mixed media collage on paper, 11 x 8.5 in.

The Lovers card from Tiger Tarot Deck — coming soon! 🐅🐅🐅Lori’s Tiger Tarot with interpretations by the phenomenal Tarot specialist Laetitia Barbier!

.cartomancy

Today we are wishing a Very Happy Birthday to whose first solo museum show, Lori Field: Tiger Tarot opens September 9th !

A self-trained artist who works across media, Lori began creating her tarot deck during the early days of isolation due to the pandemic. She says of her motivation," I suddenly found myself with time and a really compelling reason to seek out a system of personal divination that could make some sense of the complex dilemma we all found ourselves immersed in.”

Featuring over 100 works of art in 12 mediums, Lori’s show aims to take you on a journey of divination at once humorous, irreverent, poetic, and profound.

Happy Birthday Lori and congratulations on your upcoming show!🎂💫🐅🎉🥂👏

Images:
1. "Lori’s World,” artist portrait by the phenomenal
2 + Installation in progress

Opening September 10th 🐅🐅🐅
LORI FIELD: TIGER TAROT

Image: wall mural of Lori Field’s tarot card—Knight of Cups and Spheres. Mural created by

We are thrilled to announce Lori Field: Tiger Tarot is Opening September 10, 2022! 🐅🐅🐅

This is ‘s first solo museum show. Built around a tarot deck she created during the COVID-19 pandemic, the exhibition focuses on Field’s endlessly inventive practice and includes a wide range of media, including drawing, collage, paintings, woven tapestry and embroidery, printmaking, sculpted metal works, and moving image animations.

Image: Catalogue cover
The exhibition catalogue is designed by Rich Sheinaus/Gotham Design and will be available at the MAM Shop.

At a time when anti-immigration and xenophobia is very prevalent, ‘s work champions multiculturalism by bringing the interconnection of different cultures and the beauty it creates to the foreground.

"Differences in culture and race should be celebrated! There is beauty in diversity and we need that today more than ever, my works seeks to do its part to advance this purpose.” — Kwesi O. Kwarteng

Kwesi uses a diversity of culturally significant fabrics from around the world, and canvas – which he dyes by hand, and stitches. His work explores multi-cultural identity, social cohesion, inclusion, and global interconnectivity – reflecting his experiences growing up in Ghana and moving to the United States as a teenager.

Kwesi is one of three artists featured in “Craft as Strategy: Crystal Gregory, Heather Jones, and Kwesi O. Kwarteng”
On — just click the link in our bio!

Images:
1. Blocks of Friends, 2022
Culturally Significant Fabrics, Dyed Canvas
54” x 44”

2., 3. Studio Views

This work makes my heart sing💖 - the colors, juxtapositions, and the irregularities of line Heather creates in her process. Exquisite!

The incomparable on her practice:
"I choose to work with fabric rather than paint, in reference and reverence to the fact that the fiber arts were often the only type of art that a woman was encouraged to practice for many years. Conceptually, my work carries on the tradition of woman as maker, pushes the boundary between fine art and craft, and questions the definition of painting.” Heather Jones

Heather’s work is currently featured in our online show, Craft as Strategy: Crystal Gregory, Heather Jones, and Kwesi O. Kwarteng
You can click the link in our bio to see more!

Turn A Blind Eye, 2021, sewn cotton, 48 x 36 in.

"My works explore multi-cultural identity, social cohesion and inclusion, and global interconnectivity which act as counterpoints to the absurdity of racial tensions and social divisions that persists in the US and around the world.” — Kwesi Kwarteng

See more of in our current show on :
“Craft as Strategy: Crystal Gregory, Heather Jones, and Kwesi O. Kwarteng,” explores how image making practices once derided as domestic, are being used to reclaim lost narratives, empower the maker, and question value perceptions.

Just click the link in our bio!

Artwork:
Brothers and Friends, 2021
dyed canvas, Culturally significant fabrics, 45 x 37 in.

"I document the story of our current world, particularly the female narratives that are often neglected from history. By working with geometric compositions, I create a universal visual language to tell these stories, using textiles as a reference to issues of domesticity."
— Heather Jones

You can explore more works by by tapping the link in bio to view our current show; Craft as Strategy: Crystal Gregory, Heather Jones, and Kwesi O. Kwarteng.

Heather Jones
“Waiting As My Heart Drops”
2021
Sewn cotton
15” x 12”

We are thrilled to share our most recent online exclusive with you—

“Craft as Strategy: Crystal Gregory, Heather Jones, and Kwesi O. Kwarteng,” explores how image making practices once derided as domestic, are being used to reclaim lost narratives, empower the maker, and question value perceptions.

This exhibition features work by three contemporary artists whose practices reflect a deep engagement with materials and process as a means to challenge hierarchies of art making, and shift perceptions.

Referring to her works as ‘material paintings’, Crystal Gregory investigates the intersections between textile and architecture. By combining seemingly opposite worlds – hand knit textiles and common building materials such as concrete, and metal, she questions material stereotypes – notions of what is strong, what is soft, what is permanent, and what is ephemeral.

Heather Jones’s geometric compositions made with commercial cotton fabrics and a sewing machine, reference and pay homage to countless untold female narratives in history. Conceptually, Jones’s work carries on the tradition of woman as maker, pushes the boundary between fine art and craft, and questions the definition of painting.

Kwesi O. Kwarteng uses a diversity of culturally significant fabrics from around the world, and canvas – which he dyes by hand, and stitches. His work explores multi-cultural identity, social cohesion, inclusion, and global interconnectivity – reflecting his experiences growing up in Ghana and moving to the United States as a teenager.

Artworks:

Shapes of Stillness and Force 12
Knit silk cast in pewter embedded in concrete
18in x 24in

I Have Scars From Where I've Been, 2021
Sewn cotton
18 × 18 in


Friendly Ties #1, 2022
Dyed canvas, Culturally significant fabrics
44” x 32”

Just click the link in our bio to view the show!

In her encaustic works Lori Field] creates worlds of mystery and beauty using a technique that combines drawing, collage and bees wax.

I’m Just Wild About Saffron, 2010 Colored pencil, rice paper, wax on panel, 16 x 16 in.

You can view this and more works by Lori in our group show, “Of Women, By Women: Strength in Vulnerability” at Spiro Harrison MRLW, 363 Bloomfield Ave. Suite 2C, Montclair, NJ. Please call for an appointment: 973-744-2100

Or click the link in our Bio to see the show on .

Artists in Show:
Amy Putman .art
Dara Goldman
Andrea McKenna
Cheryl Gross
Ellen Goellner
Lori Field Lori Field]
Danielle Scott
Jennifer Levine

Over her career has focused her creative practice on community engagement. Most known for her murals, Jennifer
fuses modernist styles of painting with her background as a puppeteer, and as a graduate of the San Francisco School of Circus Arts. Her colorful and expressive compositions teem with people, shapes and forms ready to burst off the canvas.

Artwork on the left: Three Friends, Oil on canvas, 66 x 62 in.

Artwork on the right, and detail:
It Will Work, Oil on canvas, 66 x 107 in.

Installation photos by

You can view this and more works by Jennifer in our group show, “Of Women, By Women: Strength in Vulnerability” at Spiro Harrison MRLW, 363 Bloomfield Ave. Suite 2C, Montclair, NJ. Please call for an appointment: 973-744-2100

Or click the link in our Bio to see the show on .

Artists in Show:art

We are so pleased to show the work of Danielle Scott] in “Of Women, By Women: Strength in Vulnerability.”

In her mixed-media assemblage, “Lady Pearl” Danielle sourced the photograph from the Amistad Research Center at Tulane University. Adorned with a gold crown, in a setting of 24 Karat gold and surrounded by pearls and roses, Danielle chose them with the aim of giving life, voice, and stories to the silenced voices of women and girls of color. Danielle states, "We must speak as women and artists so we do not remain unheard, unknown, and unseen." The series pays homage to all women of color, African American, Asian, Indian and Hispanic. As an Afro-Cuban/Filipino artist, Danielle makes sure that she celebrates and honors all that she is in her work.

Pictured: Lady Pearl, 2022, Mixed media, assemblage and resin, 12 x 12 in.

You can view the show at Spiro Harrison MRLW, 363 Bloomfield Ave. Suite 2C, Montclair, NJ. Please call for an appointment: 973-744-2100

Or click the link in our Bio to see the show on .

Artists:
Dara Goldman
Cheryl Gross
Andrea McKenna
Amy Putman .art
Danielle Scott Danielle Scott]
Ellen Goellner
Lori Field
Jennifer Levine

Ellen Goellner is known for her mixed media works combining visual and textual elements that illuminate the relationship between the two by exploring the tensions and undercutting as well as mutual insights. A poet herself, Ellen’s artwork mixes literature, design, and social concerns, in a manner similar to the women of the Dada art movement, such as Suzanne Duchamp (Marcel’s sister).

In “Lovers and Pandemic,” she juxtaposes imagery from magazines, a red cross button, an homage to painter Richard Deibenkorn , and a page from Albert Camus ‘The Plague’. Ellen say of her intent, “I strive to give the viewer an experience of intimacy with the work, and with the ideas and feelings the work may provoke.”

Artwork pictured: Lovers and Pandemic, Mixed media on canvas, 9 x 12 in.

On view at Spiro Harrison MRLW, 363 Bloomfield Ave. Suite 2C, Montclair, NJ. Please call for an appointment: 973-744-2100

Or click the link in our Bio to see the show on .

Artists:
Dara Goldman
Cheryl Gross
Andrea McKenna
Amy Putman .art
Danielle Scott
Ellen Goellner
Lori Field
Jennifer Levine