MAXWELL FINE ARTS is pleased to announce its Spring exhibition, “Social Tapestries”, which will be on view from March 13 to April 25, 2004.  This two-person exhibition includes paintings by Kenneth Addison and Stewart Birbrower. Addison, who is originally from White Plains and is now an artist-resident of Peekskill by way of Oakland, California presents us with a personal view of "nobility" amongst the everyday.  Stewart Birbrower graduated from Peekskill High School in 1954 and now resides on Kiawah Island, South Carolina where he paints Lowcountry scenes  of Charleston.

Addison has received wide recognition for his painting, collage and batiks of "human interrelationships and the more noble qualities of African American life and community."   Recently he has extended his social commenting by way of art making to various other cultures and communities.  Finding inspiration in the works of Romare Bearden and Jacob Lawrence, Addison, who has sometimes been referred to as an "art evangelist" for his social activist work with youngsters in Oakland, California, brings to Peekskill a fresh statement on community, culture, society, love and respect.  Emphasizing the noble qualities of people, Addison's work is best represented by the African proverb "I am we."  He studied art at the City College of San Francisco and the California College of Arts and Crafts and has his work in numerous private and public collections on the West Coast.

Birbrower has been recently exhibiting his paintings professionally since 2000 after retiring from the New York advertising world.  He studied painting and illustration at Syracuse University, choosing the advertising industry as a career rather than fine art.  After 40 years of outstanding work as a designer and director of ads that includes American Express's "Don't leave home without it." and several CLIO awards for his work in film, Birbrower returned to his first love, painting.  He chose to concentrate his work on representations of the Lowcountry streets of Charleston, capturing the spirit and zeal of its African-American inhabitants through exuberant color and primitive brush stroke.  Returning to Peekskill after all these years, he brings with him a stunning and delightful look at the South by way of New York.  Stew Birbrower not only graduated from Peekskill High School, as did his brother recently retired "Judge" Barry Birbrower who still maintains his law practice at 1 South Division Street in Peekskill, but was a star high school athlete for the school in 1952-53.  The PHS graduating class of 1954 will celebrate its 50th anniversary at a homecoming reunion October 8-11 at the "old" high school, now the middle school, in Peekskill.