Gail Winbury: MVA Open Studios

Manufacturers Village Artist Studios, located in an 1880’s historic industrial complex at 356 Glenwood Avenue in East Orange, NJ, will feature the work of over 60 different artists at its annual open studios weekend, Friday 10/15 (VIP Preview) and Saturday thru Sunday from 11-5, 10/16 and 10/17.

International artist Gail Winbury puts into visual language that which cannot or dare not be uttered aloud. Her materials and process emphasize the psychological layers that make us all human. Her paintings explore gender, mortality, childhood memory, and the emotional landscape. Winbury’s art is in museums, Universities and galleries in the States, Italy and Germany. She is represented by the Carter Burden Gallery in Manhattan. She participated in residencies including Bau Foundation, Italy, School of Visual Arts, Manhattan, World of Co-residency, Sofia Bulgaria. She received a grant for a residency in Israel. Winbury’s paintings are collected privately in the States, and Europe. Her public collections include Atlantic Health ,NJ, The Copolozous Museum, Greece and the Canary Wharf Group, London, UK. She studied privately 15 years with Dorothy Yung and at the School of Visual Arts.

Tell me about yourself and your art.

I am an abstract oil painter and collagist. I typically work in series lasting two years. The series, psychological in nature concern mortality, gender, early childhood but from a female perspective. I am most interested in the communication and understanding of non-verbal emotion. Although I work small in my collages and art-books, in my paintings, I like to work large. I love the physicality of painting, the movement, the smell, applying the oil paint to the canvas as well as color. Since 2021, the work while quite large still, has become quieter and more minimal.

What will we see in your studio?

The first thing that we see entering my studio is beautiful light, a blue sofa and paint splattered floorboards. My large white walls hang with several recent series. On one side are minimal 48” x 48” oil paintings which are part of the “Green Field” grouping. On the opposite wall we will see works on paper completed during the height of the pandemic. This work is dense with color, agitated mark-making, and quite exciting. I channeled the surrounding zeitgeist when New Jersey was part of the epicenter. There will be “post pandemic” paintings on paper, sparer, with oil and cold wax. Also, on another wall will be 48” x 60” oil paintings from the “Otherside”. This is a series of large oil paintings about early childhood. The series began late 2018. I left the States for Mexico January 2020 not returning until March 2^nd. The series has 12 oil paintings with cold wax and ended January 2020.

There are flat files containing playful, colorful collages composed of discarder older work, small art books and other works on paper. My studio has a movable large wooden table on wheels with 30 home depot painters’ knives of different sizes, 30 tubes of paint and 10 metal and ceramic jars chuck full of brushes of different sizes and ages. I can hide many of my materials under the skirts of my tables. Finally, we will see a large roving easel with layers of dried paint and storage racks full of finished canvases.