#Newsflash | Queens Studio Holds Opening Reception for Visual Artist on Saturday

All are invited to marvel at beautiful paintings, sculptures, and wall-mounted assemblage boxes near Queens Plaza on Saturday, Jan. 28.

The art collective Studio 41 will host a free Opening Reception for James Seffens from 1 pm to 8 pm. (His works will be on view there through Feb. 26.)

Favoring oil-based enamels, Japan colors, and varnishes, Seffens likes to create his paintings in stages over extended periods of time. The Ohio native builds up his pieces with thin layers of paint before reducing them by sanding.

“Stuff, in one form or another, gets me started,” he writes on his website. “Old photographs, postcards, or newspaper clippings might serve as models for drawings and paintings. A fabric swatch, an interesting fragment of wood, a ‘street find,’ or other artifacts might be the center around which a box is created. A narrative might drive the work, but as often as not, it emerges only after the execution is completed.”

Several Western Queens artists — including Casey Concelmo (egg tempera painting), Nancy Gesimondo (assemblage), Tina Glavan (encaustics, mixed media), Nancy Macina (painting), Dianne Martin (printmaking), Joachim Marx (painting), and Sheila Ross (pottery, ceramics, paper) —  founded Studio 41 at 27-15 41st Ave. in September 2022. There’s limited metered street parking, but the venue is near the 7, E, F, M, N, R, and W lines as well as buses that run through Queens Plaza.

Images: James Steffens