STONY CREEK, CT.- The Gallery, located inside Willoughby Wallace Memorial Library, is pleased to present an exhibition of new art by Bob Kessel from October 1, through October 25, 2006. An opening reception will be held on Sunday, October 1, 2006 from 3- 5 pm. The public is cordially invited to attend.

Bob Kessel has developed a distinctive signature style. The pictures are a Gestalt, with the positive and negative spaces given equal weight. Delineation has been removed to give objects, and their surroundings, equal significance. When asked about the use of his strong straight lines in his artwork Kessel said, "Oriental line is direct and purposeful, not the searching, modifying line of the west. Straight lines or biomorphic lines, both are just translations of reality. Like Chinese characters, that denote things in the real world, it doesn't matter if the writing is cursive or block letters." as De Kooning said, "After all, there really isn't any object, just lines on paper."

Bob Kessel's art puts placement and design above over-anxious execution and difficult means. He reinvents the traditional pictorial genres with a knowledgeable affection for the high art of the past from the West to the Far East. His limited edition prints, which appear at first to be parodies of famous paintings, in fact, exhibit an astute knowledge of the genre and is, in fact, more of an homage to the Masters in the field of art.

"My art history series can be likened to a jazz musician playing a recognizable popular song,” remarked Kessel. “with just enough there that you recognize the song, but then the musician uses this a point of departure to develop his own original riffs. The art is in what you decide to keep and what to leave out."

Bob Kessel's ART HISTORY 101 series will be on view in The Gallery at Willoughby Wallace Memorial Library as well as series that are extended “riffs” on particular artists with names like, SHOW ME THE MONET!, GAGA FOR DEGAS and HABLO PABLO.

Also included will be Kessel’s Japanese genre series including- KAIJU (Japanese monsters), BIJINGA (Beautiful woman pictures), SHUNGA (Spring picture), and 100 VIEWS (an ode to Hokusai's 100 views of Mt. Fuji). Bob Kessel's art historical self-consciousness keeps the past ever- present. By "raiding the icebox" of art history he can retrieve, when needed, the ingredients to whip up his delightful confections. Robbin Zella, Director of the Housatonic Museum of Art, commented that, "Bob Kessel's bright, bold and over-sized prints are a new twist on the old, but widely loved, Pop Aesthetic. Bob Kessel brings a keen intelligence, educated eye and a sharp wit to his reinterpretations of iconic images gleaned from art history." Roberta Waddell, Curator of Prints at the New York Public Library also noted that, "The ART HISTORY 101 series is strong and arresting whether or not the viewer “gets” the art historical references, and the scale transforms the inspirational sources once again, and dramatically."

Not all of Kessel pictures are about art history though. Other series include, "NEWPORT NAUTICALS", "LIFE'S A BEACH", and "GIRLZ". These series use a limited palette of primary colors- red, yellow and blue. SUN, GALLERY, SOFA from the NEWPORT NAUTICALS series exhibited at the show- make up a triptych. SUN, at first glance, appears to be a simple abstract composition in primary colors of red and yellow, but then transforms itself into a seascape with the sun, not shown but implied, in the reflection in red waters. GALLERY, the middle panel of the triptyh, is a balanced composition of red, yellow and blue. In this panel, SUN is included in the image, this time as a discrete picture on a wall along with another picture partially showing across the implied gallery space. In the third panel, SOFA, which a predominantly blue picture, now includes the image of GALLERY, this time displayed on the wall of a home along with other pictures above a sofa with cushions. "Bob Kessel's work is spectacular, beautiful and even erotic through his use of line and color. He even manages to evoke humor out of deceptively simple forms,” remarked Michael Gross, Curator, Oceanside Museum of Art in California. These three prints playfully render a picture, within a picture, within a picture as well as chronicling the journey of a work of art from creation, to exhibition, to display in a home, and underscore the insightful comments of Michael Gross.

Bob Kessel is a nationally known illustrator and his work appears regularly in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal and many other national publications. He currently lives in Norwich, CT where he devotes himself to creating his art. His work is in numerous private collections as well as the Print Collection at the New York Public Library and the Housatonic Museum of Art in CT. His prints are sold through Mystic Seaport Museum as part of the "Great Illustrators of America Print Collection".