Friday, April 17, 2009

John Morra show in NYC

GCA instructor John Morra has a show coming up at Hirschl & Adler Galleries in New York City. Opening reception is Thursday, April 23 from 5:30 - 7:30 PM. The show runs from 4/23-5/22.


HIRSCHL & ADLER
21 East 70th Street
New York, NY 10021
Tel 212 535 8810
Gallery Hours
Tuesday through Friday 9:30–5:15
Saturday 9:30-4:45
Closed Sunday and Monday
April 25, 2009 is our last open Saturday for the season.


3 comments:

Marc Dalessio said...

Can't wait to see it!

Unknown said...

Congratulations! Go John!!

Anonymous said...

May 25, 2009

Grand Central Academy of Art
Hirschl & Adler Gallery
21 East 70th Street
New York, NY 10021

Dear John Morra,

After work on Tuesday, June 19, I walked into the Hirschl & Adler Gallery on the corner of East 70th Street and Madison Avenue to see your work, and was pleasantly surprised to see many of the paintings I first saw in your studio.

My favorite painting is “Breakfast" (2008) because it seems so inviting. It must be morning because the light source from the east lightens the gold wall. A boiled egg resting on a metal egg holder reminds me of the set of porcelain egg holders my ex-husband and I received at our wedding back in 1984. Only our egg holders were for poaching eggs. I wondered how the egg was boiled, and whether it was hard or soft inside. The blue stars of the dish underneath the metal holder is reflected on its sides. Next to the boiled egg on top of the plate is a pile of three hastily-placed pieces of thick, multi-grain toast. The top piece rests precariously over the others to form a ledge. The boiling water for making coffee has been poured into a clear glass container and the grounds pressed to the bottom. A large metal handle that compliments the smooth, shiny texture of the egg holder is held by a metal band that is tightened by a screw to one side of the glass cylinder. Nearby, a wide-lipped white coffee mug has a gold rim along the top of its rim, and a short, wide-necked bottle two thirds full of milk has the initials WB. A spoon rests under the rim of the dish. Jutting out to the viewer and over the edge of the wooden table top are three paper napkins between the cup and coffee press. Only the top napkin has been folded.

I am puzzled by your most recent work, “Twilight of Industry” (2009) since it is so unlike your earlier landscape paintings. Is this a science fiction, surreal-like rendering or a real scene?

Anyway, thanks so much for telling me about your exhibit here in New York City. I really am impressed by your talent. I am sorry I probably will not be able to sit down with you this weekend, but I still want to let you know how much I appreciated seeing your paintings.

Also, I just love the Upper East Side neighborhood where the Hirschl and Adler Gallery building is located which is near the Hunter College campus. I suspect this gallery is frequently visited by students! Also, I admire the quite gutsy array of Romanesque Revival and Gothic stables, carriage houses, social clubs and garages that were built for subway financier Charles T. Yerkes, and the nearby Richard Morris Hunt Memorial fronting Central Park seems appropriate since it is such an impressive monument to the first American architect trained at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, who was also the founding president of the American Institute of Architects (AIA). I later found out the handsome limestone town house was designated as a landmark in 1974 because it was built by William J. Rogers in 1918-1919 in an “austere French neoclassical style.” According to the AIA Guide, the Gustav and Virginia Pagenstecher House, as it was originally known, was the first of five town houses to be erected on the north side of East 70th Street.

Thank you again for sharing your wonderful work with me. I hope to see you another day.