PLG Arts Reception for Ethel Ackerman Paintings Retrospective at Tugboat Tea Co.

bobmarvin

The
reception for the current PLG Arts Tugboat Local Artist Series show
will be this coming Thursday, at Tugboat Tea Company, on Flatbush
Avenue, near Maple Street, from 6 to 9 PM. The show is a
retrospective of paintings by the late Ethel Ackerman, mother
of PLG Arts Co-president Rina Kleege.

Ethel
Ackerman (1917-2002) earned a BFA at Brooklyn College and an MFA at
CUNY-Hunter College, NYC. She continued her studies at the Art
Students League (1956-1959) and the Educational Alliance (1962-1976).
A regular exhibitor for decades at the Washington Square Art Show,
Ackerman also participated in juried one-woman and group shows at the
Hudson Guild and other Manhattan galleries. She was brought up in
Belle Harbor, Queens, and spent much time beach combing along east
coast shores. Her lifelong love affair with the ocean led to
small-group shows including the Fire Island Historical Society (1996)
and a juried outdoor exhibition at Westhampton Beach Dunes (1966).
Flea markets, a major source of inspiration and enjoyment, provided
exposure for Ackerman’s more iconoclastic art: boxes (à la
Cornell) and heads that blur the border between art and craft.

 

Ethel
Ackerman was devoted to realistic expressionism and worked almost
exclusively in thickly applied oils. Many of her subjects are women.
Surprising departures from the expected appear throughout her work,
demonstrating her unique style and approach to life.