On one of the coldest night of the year, friends, art lovers and members filled the legendary National Arts Club for the opening of abstract artist Rosalyn A. Engelman’s Soul Memories. The exhibition, on display through February 13th, brings new works as well as canvases lent by local collectors together for the first time. In the crowd were the artist’s husband Irwin Engelman; The Bruce Museum Circle’s Michel Cox Witmer; Museum of Arts and Design President Lewis Kruger and his wife Hebrew Union College Museum Curator Laura Kruger; Baruch College’s President Kathleen Waldron and Deans John Elliot and Jeffrey Peck; Wally Findlay Galleries’ Patricia Attoe; I-20 Gallery’s Alice Judelson; De Lorenzo Gallery’s Sarah Hill; interior designers Geoffrey Bradfield, Harry Heissmann, Tom Cashin, Robert Lindgren and Roric Tobin; artists Colette, Tina Louise, Marcia Raff and Michelle Marie; Lord Colin Campbell; Renee and Carl Landegger; Gillian and Sylvester Miniter; Lauren Thierry Watkins; Swifty’s Executive Chef Stephen Attoe; Sharon Bush; R. Couri Hay; Michèle Gerber Klein; Dr. Laura Philips and fashion designers Maggie Norris and Kelvin Nugroho.

Included in the show was a white, gold and silver canvas lent by a collector from the celebrated series Echo Sonata, based on the art and poetry of Kõetsu, a 17th century Japanese artist. In 2005, Gallery & Studio magazine’s Ed McCormack called the series, “a career-crowning achievement.”

There were also several colorful canvases from the series Poems of Provence.  In the words of the artist: “These paintings mirror the passage of time. They are painted to music, and the brushstrokes have their tempo. Often incandescent hues flicker and shine as stasis and motion co-exist as the viewer moves.”

“Rosalyn Engelman fills our need to be sensitized,” said The National Arts Club President Aldon James in welcoming remarks.

Included at the National Arts Club is the installation Dry Tears. The centerpiece is The Three Graces, sculptures of women representing Europe, Asia and Africa who are chained together, a symbolic rendering of how all people suffer separately and together.  “Pain is a universal language,” Mrs. Engelman says.

Others at the event were artnet’s Brian McConville, art writer Edward Rubin, The Wall Street Journal’s Carol Kelly, Dr. Dino Riviera, High Voltage, John Wegorzewski, Mimi Strong, Jon and Hudson Heinemann, Roy Kean, Amy Rosi, Peter Rosenthal, Antoinette Quarshie, Dennis Karr, Iris Rossi, Nat and Joan Hirsch, Jason Ashlock, Michelle Gallagher, Christopher Hawkins, Christine Schott, Stanislav Sokolov, Blaine Caravaggi, Jim Ferentino, John Paterakis, Lee Fryd, Dr. John de Guzman, Marcy MacDonald, Thomas Knapp, Mogulette’s Carmina Perez, Shane Parouse, Katya Debear, Sylvia and Edward Agostini, Laurel Wilson, Peter Poley, Irene and Sy Cohen, Dr. Maurice Kuntz, Marilyn Newman, Dr. Jajou, Marcia and John Shyer and members of the artist’s family including Madeline and Scott Cohen (CEO of Dime Store Media) and Dr. Fred, Elana and Nathan Lado.
 
A native New Yorker, Engelman has been creating all her life. She received her BA in the art program at CCNY. She earned a Master’s Degree in Museum Studies and Asian Art from the University of Rochester. In 2008, Ms. Engelman had the distinction of simultaneous solo exhibitions in New York City at Gallery 440, on Lafayette Street, and at the Hebrew Union College Museum. Earlier in the year, she exhibited at the Museum of South Texas in Corpus Christi. She participated in the 2007 Florence Biennale and has been invited to return for the 2009 Biennale.