Dafne Confar & Harry Folsom
July 08-20, 2005

The William-Scott Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of two solo exhibitions by painters Daphne Confar and Harry Folsom, on view July 8 to 22, 2005.  Please join us for an artists’ reception, Friday, July 8, from 7 to 9pm.

Daphne Confar paints intimate portraits of idiosyncratic characters, most often using oils applied to a wood block, giving the work the presence of a three-dimensional object.  Confar places her subjects in austere landscapes, or the most minimal interiors, focusing attention on her exquisite and sensitive rendering of their sometimes imperfect features.  These are ordinary folks with whom we become acquainted through Confar’s descriptive titles such as, “Kurt awaits the spring thaw,” “What was Edwin doing here?,” and “May is pleasant enough.”  Often the artist gold leafs the edges of the blocks, thus imparting her subjects with a sense of sainthood and divinity as found in Medieval and Renaissance  icons.

Confar has gallery affiliations on the west and east coasts, with recent exhibitions at Peter Blake Gallery in Laguna Beach, CA, and the Pepper Gallery in Boston, MA.  She holds a B.F.A. from the Art Institute of Southern California, Laguna Beach, as well as both a M.F.A. and M.A. from Boston University, where she won the Dean’s Scholar Award, and the Constantin Alajalov Award.

Dafne Confar

Harry Folsom

Harry Folsom paints his subjects  with expressionistic intensity—his character studies, landscapes and still lifes emanate exuberance and vitality.  The artist begins by creating a tumultuous, frantic underpainting upon which he places his subjects.  Visually, the underpainting delivers power and movement to the composition, metaphorically it speaks of strong, sometimes disturbing, underlying emotions.  He invents bizarre characters—they grit their teeth, laugh out loud and grimace— whose provocative nature arrests the viewer’s attention and elicits a visceral response.    Folsom experiments with the support for his work, often creating constructed pieces painted on wood, or painting directly on glass.  He also makes sculptural works, some of which are playfully mounted on wheels.

The William-Scott Gallery is located at 439 Commercial Street in the heart of Provincetown’s East End gallery district.  All exhibitions and receptions are free and open to the public.   Gallery hours are daily from 11am to 10pm.  For more information please call Almitra Stanley, Director, at (508) 487-4040

Digital images available for publication upon request.