John Clayton, Gabriella Fiabane, Valerie Hardy & Ashley Benton To Exhibit At Gingerbread Square Gallery
This special show will introduce the four (4) most recent artists to join the Gingerbread Square
Gallery family. John Clayton, Gabriella Fiabane, Valerie Hardy & Ashley Benton’s exhibition of
paintings opens on Monday, March 21, 2016 at Gingerbread Square Gallery with a reception from 5:30
to 8:00 P.M. However, it will be available for early viewing beginning on Noon on Sat, March 19th. This
exhibition of works by internationally known American artists John Clayton, Gabriella Fiabane, Valerie
Hardy & Ashley Benton will continue through March 28th.
John Clayton would paint outdoors as often as he could and is a matured and devoted plein air painter
painting in his own unique impressionistic style in Key West and Cape Cod. Gabriella Fiabane is best
known for her landscapes, seascapes and paintings of interiors of Key West and Nantucket. Valerie
Hardy likes to paint interior spaces in ways that capture the interplay of objects, spaces, and light to
create images of recognizable human experience. Ashley Benton’s work is sensitive, serene, sometimes
precarious and a bit surreal.
John Clayton, searching for of his own artistic voice, left the grey walls of The Art Students League of
New York. Clayton’s journey led him to the Cape School in Provincetown where he embraced the “Art of
Seeing Color”. Mr. Clayton is a matured and devoted plein air painter and does so as often as he can
outdoors in his own unique impressionistic style while in Key West and Cape Cod. “Color is the vehicle I
use to express my own sense of nature. Nature and light inspire me; its ever-changing conditions are
challenging to me. My work is about the light key, and expressing it through paint.” He has been the
recipient of many awards and honors including while attending The National Academy in New York, the
Arthur and Melville Philips and the Mrs. Roberts Forbes Scholarships and an award in the Academy’s annual show.
For Gabriella Fiabane drawing and painting was an important foundation of her childhood as she comes
from a family of painters and artists. Gabriella is primarily self-taught and has painted full time for the past
nineteen years focusing on her instinctive approach to art. Her talent has been recognized by the receipt
of numerous honors including having been the 2004 recipient of the Evelyn Kawaler Visual Arts
Scholarship in the Florida Keys and the Rodel Foundation of Florida fellowship in 2005. In 2011 she won
first place in oil painting at the Artist Association of Nantucket summer juried exhibition. Ms Fiabane has
shown her work in galleries in Boulder, CO, Silver City, NM, and Nantucket. While best known for her
landscapes, seascapes and paintings of interiors, Gabriella also works in the figurative and still life
genres. Her paintings appear in private collections in the US, Canada, Europe and South America.
Valerie Hardy has lived and worked as an artist since 1982. Her MFA training at American University
taught her that art first and foremost requires the artist to observe life. Consistent with that view, Hardy
creates images of recognizable human experience. She has been in many prestigious exhibitions and is
collected in the US and abroad. She comments: “I like to paint interior spaces in ways that capture
the interplay of objects, spaces, and light. When I paint people, I like them to be situated in interior
settings as well, most often in their own homes or workspaces. The challenge is then to reveal the
relationships among the people, the objects, the spaces, and the light, in a way that says something
visually interesting, and yet still represents these things as identifiably themselves.
Ashley Benton’s work is sensitive, serene, sometimes precarious and a bit surreal. Through line, form
and space she investigates the figure beyond traditional rendering. The work seeks to capture the
essence, emotion or feeling of the subject. “I want to visually articulate what is around us all the time but
we do not see or notice until we are reminded.” The paintings are that visual reminder and connection
back to the self. The work often emphasizes the unreachable. Making art for Ashley is the attempt to
make the fleeting more permanent knowing all the while it is not possible making the challenge the
process by which she can keep going.
Gingerbread Square Gallery is proud to present this special show to introduce the four (4)
most recent artists to join the Gingerbread Square Gallery family – John Clayton, Gabriella
Fiabane, Valerie Hardy & Ashley Benton and is excited about their new works. This
upcoming exhibition begins with an opening reception on Monday, March 21st from 5:30 to
8:00PM and continues through March 28th. However, it will be available for early viewing
beginning on Saturday, March 26th. The gallery is located “Uptown” at 1207 Duval Street, Key
West, Florida 33040 and is open daily 10:30 AM to 6 PM.
Phone: 305-296-8900. Email: [email protected]
The exhibitions can also be viewed on the gallery website at www.GingerbreadSquareGallery.com
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