W.H.A.M. Art Exhibit 2022

Women’s Work: The Challenge of Making Our Mark – the W.H.A.M. Art Exhibit 2022 – presents a group exhibition of artwork from 19 women from Tuesday, March 2nd – Thursday, March 31st.

Historically, women have been underrepresented and undervalued in the visual arts. A mere 11% of acquisitions at 26 major US museums in the past decade were works by female artists. Of those, 3% were African American. With the theory that knowledge is power, we invite you to make your voice heard.

Thank you for joining us at the 7th Annual W.H.A.M. Opening Reception held on March 2nd! At the reception, guests were able to enjoy a special performance by Ballet & Beyond NYC and our Performing Arts Conservatory. Guests also got the chance to meet the other women artists participating in the 7th Annual W.H.A.M. Festival while enjoying wine and light treats.

All the artwork displayed is for sale! All proceeds go toward supporting the artists and the Performing Arts Conservatory.

W.H.A.M. Art Exhibit 2022 Team

• Barbara Shelly, Exhibit Director
• Denise Jones Adler, Curator
• Laurie Murray, Curator
• Cindy Bernier, Curator

Barbara Shelly, W.H.A.M. Artistic Director,  is a mixed media artist whose electrifying collages are an emotional response to current events in the world of fashion, the performing arts, and politics.

Florence Weisz is a primarily paper collage artist whose recent Sensuous Stripes series explores the myriad ways that rigid parallel lines can become organic and sensuous

Barbara Dirnbach’s adventurous figurative paintings reveal her ongoing love of new challenges and techniques as she examines life from literally every angle.

Terry Finch’s paintings reflect the formative years spent in the desert Southwest, where canyons, mountains, and mesas were her playground.

Kelly Elkowitz is an innovative figurative painter who places her subjects at unexpected angles on unique surfaces made by sewing, collage, embroidery and cutting away.  

Joan Menschenfreund’s oil and watercolor paintings reveal her love of the vibrancy and diversity of the Upper West Side after an impressive career in publishing and photo editing.

Henrietta Mantooth‘s painting can be described as “witnessing.”  The work is often based on images and stories in the news, people who look out at us every day from the printed page and television screen but who are usually nameless — refugees, rebels, farmers, men and women who tend and defend their land, homes, children, animals, and ideas.

Lola Sandino Stanton weaves form, line, and color into her portraits and floral compositions, in her quest to find and show beauty for the viewer’s appreciation.

Sandra Benhaim is a primarily abstract painter whose unabashed exuberantly colorful style often incorporates mixed media and collage on a full range of substrates.

Fang Sullivan is a violinist, dancer, advertising art director, and accomplished pastel and oil painter who creates her highly colored compositions at every opportunity.

Abbe Resnick is an oil and acrylic painter whose figurative and abstract paintings are notable for their competent design and fresh, balanced color combinations.

Xiu Fen Zhou is a multi-faceted Chinese American artist who is best known for her silkscreens and woodcuts, which have been exhibited all over the world.

Denise Adler, a W.H.A.M. curator, combines drawings, painting, and collage in portraits and dreamscapes that express the mythic and the legendary with found materials to tell a story within the story.

Cindy Bernier, W.H.A.M. Curator and lifelong dancer, explores paint as movement on canvas, through dynamic mark making and layers of color.

Laurie Murray, a W.H.A.M. curator, is a painter and metal sculptor whose work ranges from purely abstract to abstracted realism, using oils, acrylic, and repurposed metals.

Susan Wolfe’s acrylic and collage works are a clear indicator of her interior design background, revealing her strong sense of composition, color, and materials.

Brittany Vogel’s expressive paintings and drawings often focus on oppositional forces(order vs chaos, geometric vs organic) in work that is full of excitement, color, and life.

Lisa Lockwood is a ballet dancer with stellar credentials who works with mixed media and acrylics on linen to create paintings that reflect her expertise in gardening.

Nancy Sandler Bass captures a sense of place and immediacy in her oil paintings, to offer viewers an intimate visual experience before it is consigned to the concrete world.