The new Elisa Contemporary Art exhibit, Not Just Black & White, opens January 27 at the Elisa Contemporary Art Gallery in Riverdale NY. There will be a VIP opening on January 20. The exhibit will run through April 7, 2021.

We so often think of things in terms of being Black and White, simply one way or another, but as we all know the world exists with everything in between. We balance a look back in time, alongside a vision into the future. The featured artwork is all black, all white and black & white with a touch of color.

The exhibit includes New York City Subway photographs taken between 1975 and 1984 by John Conn which capture the grit and graffiti of the time. A series of Vintage Typewriter sculptures and limited edition prints by CT artist, Nina Bentley. And a 2020 Black on Black Oil painting by New York artist, James Austin Murray, which captures light and movement.

The debossed white paper artwork by DC Sculptor Michael Enn Sirvet is part of a new 2020 series using sculpture elements to create dimensional works on paper. His work is often inspired by the shapes found in Nature. While, the Europa Series paintings by California artist, Stephanie Cate are based on outer space and the moon Europa’s great potential for life.

Nina Bentley According to Westport artist, Nina Bentley, "Many events have influenced me as an artist, growing up in Brooklyn, having a father who was an Italian anarchist, a mother who worked; being a cheerleader in the 1950's, a history major at college, a writer of advertising copy, a designer of department store window displays, a mother, a corporate wife; living fifteen years in Europe, becoming a grandmother - now many times over. All of these experiences have left their mark and occasioned reflection…The result of my introspection and insights are in my art. I hope this work speaks to some of its viewers."

Stephanie Cate is an abstract painter based out of California. She spent most of her childhood in France, before relocating to Los Angeles, California at fourteen. She attended Massachusetts College of Art and Design in Boston, receiving a BFA in painting. Being surrounded by the history and architecture of France as a child and the grand decaying beauty of former centuries left an early impression on her that still influences her work to this day. Cate's work is in public and private collections including Kelly Wearstler, Renee Zellweger, Annabeth Gish, Avi Amiel (President, Art Collector Int’l Magazine), Rasa Center for Yoga (Oregon) and Wynn Tower Suites (Las Vegas).

John Conn got his start as a Marine Combat photographer, and later earned his BFA at the School of Visual Arts in New York. His work has appeared in New York Times Sunday Magazine; Time/Life Books; IMAX Films; LensWork Magazine to name a few. His iconic Subway series photographed between 1970 and 1982 in New York City is part of the permanent collection of the Museum of the City of New York, The New York Historical Society and Hoboken Historical Museum.

James Austin Murray is a graduate of Parsons School of Design, New York. As the light shifts, one begins to notice that James Austin Murray's compositions visually shift from concave to convex. It is odd to speak three-dimensionally about a two-dimensional surface, but with Murray's paintings the viewer is transfixed by the surface of the painting, following the brushstroke across the canvas, only to approach the piece and look at the piece from its side as their brain is not convinced as to what their eyes see. Murray’s work is found in public collections such Sofitel (Philadelphia, PA), Hotel Palomar (Philadelphia, PA), Four Seasons Hotel (Washington, D.C.), Omni Hotel (Nashville, TN) and Tom Ford (Designer).

Michael Enn Sirvet American structuralist artist, designer, and engineer Michael Enn Sirvet strives to capture the primitive beauty within familiar forms. Sirvet builds structures that recreate the ocean’s waves in steel tangent lines; the decaying of leaves in thousands of perfectly drilled holes; and the ephemeral wind captured in billowing metal. The artist explains: “My hope is that the simple intricacies of my abstracted, purified forms will invoke recognition and impart the wonder that I feel for nature". Sirvet lives and keeps a full-time studio practice in Washington D.C. Many of his pieces can be found in private collections and at several US embassies.