Octagon Gallery to open solo show of works by Cecelia Ivy Price
WESTFIELD — Octagon Gallery will be opening a new show on Friday, featuring the artwork of Cecelia Ivy Price, former art therapist at Gowanda Rehabilitation and Nursing Center, and former art teacher at Aspire of Western New York where she created artwork with adults with disabilities. She is now attending Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, pursuing a master in art education. Guests can meet the artist at the opening reception from 7 to 9 p.m. in the gallery while enjoying wine from The Winery at Majim Manor and A Gust of Sun Winery as well as some light refreshments.
Entitled, “Recherche'” Price’s exhibit will run from Feb. 16 to March 9, showcasing the paintings and conceptual works that have won her praise and awards for the past five years. The Octagon Gallery is located in the Patterson Library, 40 S. Portage St., Westfield. Gallery hours are Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Tuesday and Thursday 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. closed on Sunday.
Patterson Library Octagon Gallery is a regional WNY gallery exhibiting 12 installations per year. Contact Curator Nancy N. Ensign for information at 326-2154 or nancynixonensign@gmail.com.
For more information about the gallery go to www.pattersonlibrary.info.
Recherche’ means rare, exotic, or obscure. The artist invites you to dance with darkness, become entangled in your own story, summon the demons of your nightmares and explore new worlds. Baroquesque bodies fill the canvas and entice viewers to become voyeurs of the moment. Let death tempt you however briefly and face your mortality.
Price is a former member of the Board of Directors of the North Shore Arts Alliance and worked out of her studio at the Historic Gatehouse at Forest Hill Cemetery in Fredonia. Her studio was one of the featured stops on the 2016 and 2017 Chautauqua-Lake Erie Art Trail.
She graduated with honors from SUNY Fredonia in 2015, where she received five significant awards and scholarships in her senior year, including the Rosa Parks Memorial Scholarship, an international award to study in Italy, and a teaching assistantship in Professor Alberto Rey’s drawing and painting class.
A Buffalo native, she earned an associate’s degree from Niagara County Community College, where she garnered more awards, including the NCCC Excellence in Fine Arts Award.
In 2014, she presented the one-person show, “Dangerous,” at the Rockefeller Arts Center at SUNY Fredonia. The theme of this show, “Healing Through Self-Expression: ‘Dangerous”‘ was the subject of a talk she was invited to present at the 2015 SUNY Undergraduate Research Conference in Brockport and at SUNY Fredonia.
In April of 2016 Price held her first large-scale solo show at Sensory Winery and Art Gallery in Ripley. This show titled “Eclectic Selection” featured more than 45 works from the artist. This show featured works from multiple series the artist has done, most notably is part of the Grave Expressions series called “Pins and Needles” which Price has been asked to speak about at the Skeletons, Stories, and Social Bodies Conference at the University of Southampton, UK this year.
This presentation was made possible, in part, through financial support from the School of Graduate Studies at Case Western Reserve University.
To see more of the artist’s works visit her website at: http://artisticchaos.weebly.com.