MAXWELL FINE ARTS, after a nine month “sabbatical” will reopen on September 11, 2009 with its contribution to Peekskill’s Quadricentennial Celebration of the 400th Anniversary of Henry Hudson’s discovery of our glorious Hudson River. This contribution is entitled the WaterProject@MFA, which will be occurring at several sites throughout the City of Peekskill, and includes the following:

Detail, Perfect Circle: 6 December 1941 Digital Photograph with Handcoloring William C. Maxwell

MAXWELL FINE ARTS @ THE PARAMOUNT CENTER FOR THE ARTS, 1008 Brown Street, Peekskill.

“UNDERTOW: Thinking Water,” photographic images of water by six artists. August 28 to October 24, 2009, with a closing reception, 2:00–4:00 PM, October 24, 2009:

A photography exhibition entitled “UNDERTOW: Thinking Water,” curatedby Bill Maxwell and Dana DeVito, Co-Directors of MAXWELL FINE ARTS and installed at the Upper View Gallery in the Paramount Center for the Arts. Included in this special exhibit celebrating water are:

Andrew Courtney, whose work ascends from a life background in the fine arts, teaching and social activism.His work and medium involve an intentional and functional collaboration of these commitments. His photography and film documentary work reveal a determined curiosity and an artist’s participation with the edge where human activity meets the environment. His work in world conflict zones has the same intent as his work on the Hudson River’s edge (www.redfilms.com).

Howard Goodman, a commercial and fine art photographer for over thirty years, reveals in his work a true love of the craft of photography as well as a individualized and idiosyncratic personal expression. In this show, he exhibits his new meditative water images from his recent 9 week artist residency in Kyoto, Japan. His work is in the collections of the Whitney Museum, the International Museum of Photography at the George Eastman House, Rochester, NY and the Pfizer Corporation in Rye, NY. He owns and operates his studio from a lovingly restored 1885 Italianate revival house in Peekskill, NY (www.howardgoodmanphotographer.com).

Ira Leff, a native New Yorker, living in the Bronx and a member of the Putnam Arts Council, uses a painterly approach to his award winning photography, whether capturing an impressionistic landscape, the detailed beauty within a flower, or the spectrum of a magnificent sunset. His work has been extensively collected in both prominent National and International corporate and private collections. His images also grace the covers of many music CD’s, to include the MMO Music Group, Inc., in Elmsford, NY.

Penny Ventura has recently retired from art teaching at the George Washington Elementary School in White Plains, NY. As an artist, she has always been drawn to the water’s edge for inspiration, and finds the coastal environment to be a constant source of imagery for her work. She sees poetic parallels to the human condition in the many moods, textures and natural environments explored through photography. Recently, her photographs were featured at The College of New Rochelle’s alumni show.

Joseph Squillante, another 30 year veteran of fine art photography and whose work is in the permanent collections of the New York Historical Society and the Museum of the City of New York, has spent these past three decades photographically traveling the length of the Hudson River from its source at Lake Tear of the Clouds on Mount Marcy in the Adirondacks to its mouth at New York Harbor. His mission is to foster an awareness of the river’s visual magnificence through photography (www.hudsonriverphotography.com)

William C. Maxwell, Co-Director of MAXWELL FINE ARTS, who has recently been exploring digital photography and printmaking, which references his prior painting and drawing, and conceptually reflects on and investigate the metaphorical space between perfection and imperfection, stressing philosophical concepts of the absolute, completeness, and certainty. His prints are in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Brooklyn Museum, the Whitney Museum and the Library of Congress (www.maxwellfineartscom).

The hours of operation at The Paramount Center for the Arts is Monday and Saturday, 10 AM – 3 PM, Tuesday-Friday, 10 AM – 5 PM. The Upper View Gallery will also be open at all performances (www.paramountcenter.org). “UNDERTOW” will close with a public reception, with the curators and artists present, on Saturday, October 24, 2009, 2-4 PM.

Imamiya Mizu Howard Goodman	IS Ira Leff

MAXWELL FINE ARTS is an art gallery located in a renovated Victorian carriage house, c.1860, and an attached sculpture garden in the artist district of Peekskill, New York. This exhibition space presents unique and original works of contemporary art by emerging and established artists. All exhibitions are curated by Bill Maxwell, Dana DeVito and invited guest curators.

MAXWELL FINE ARTS is open Saturdays and Sundays from 12 noon to 5 pm, and by appointment. Its location is conveniently accessible by auto and public transportation at the junction of Routes 6, 35 and 202.

For further information contact: Bill Maxwell or Dana DeVito, Co-Directors of MFA, 914-737-8622, info@maxwellfinearts.com.