GESTURES
Anne S. Oldach and John Breakey

April 5 - 28, 2019

Opening Reception: Friday, April 5, 2019 | 5 - 9 PM during Art Loop

Anne S. Oldach

Anne S. Oldach emerges from the rich heritage of representational art in the Delaware Valley with her own unique approach. “My goal is to capture the vibrancy of life. Under the surface of the physical is spirit, and representations become metaphors for feelings. I see these as visual equivalency for the interwoven worlds of humans, nature, and the passion inspired in me by those encounters. Nothing is isolated or static in our world. Visual references parallel a kind of animist reverence for Nature. Portraiture searches for the internal in external forms. Having recently returned from a winter session in Florence drawing I am inspired to think about all the simple ways we can capture the world and our responses to it.”

Anne S. Oldach has been active as a sculptor for more than 40 years and drawing has always been a tool used to design and create those sculptures. Anne’s approach to sculpture has been to create work that balances the real with the abstract, the beautiful with the terrible, the tangible with the transcendental -- images that touch the core of what it is to be alive.

Anne is the former artistic director of the Delaware Institute for the Arts in Education [DIAE]. She received her B.F.A. and M.F.A. degrees from the University of Pennsylvania in sculpture and her Master's in Art History at the University of Delaware in 1985. 

She has exhibited locally in the Station Gallery in Greenville, DE; the Blue Streak Gallery, Wilmington, DE; University of Pennsylvania Faculty Club; Widener University Art Museum; Susan Isaacs Gallery; Delaware State Arts Council Gallery; Rehoboth Art League; and the Hatch gallery at the Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts; Concord Art Association, Concord, MA; North Hampton Center for the Arts, Northampton, MA; American Visionary Art Museum, E.Y.E. VAM  2000; Christiana Cultural Arts, Wilmington, DE; Schuylkill County Arts Council, Pottsville, PA; and the National Sculpture Society, NY, NY.

John Breakey

“The clouds, as hard-edged cityscapes, seem to intrude into our metaphorical blue-sky well being. However they may, there is much more than representations of life's proverbial black clouds. 

“The real interest for me is in the exploration of playful and curvilinear contrast to the hazy, rectangular tones as they hang there, mobile-like.

“Any lift of the clouds’ curves, juxtaposed within and to soft and hard edges is more of my artifice; simple, optical devices in my hope to give an impression of cloud-like drift.

“The orange hue that glows softly behind these collaged works is my color sense taking another turn at whimsical contrast. Behind the painted Cerulean blues on the art’s front is it’s color opposite ‘round back.”

John Breakey’s career has spanned thirty years as a designer and art director. Since 2003, he has served as the area coordinator of Graphic Design at the Delaware College of Art and Design helping Communication Design majors find success.

John’s love of typography has been put to use in the areas of signage, environmental wayfinding, branding, advertising, and web development for local, national, and global clients. 

Prior to relocating to Wilmington in 1997, he operated a studio in New York City and provided creative services to the publishing, advertising, and design industries.

Elizabeth Denison Hatch Gallery