The Noble Barn
Paintings by Inverna Lockpez

Just published!

"BOOK SIGNING and RECEPTION for the ARTIST"

Sunday, August 31, 5 - 7 pm

Inverna Lockpez

Chace-Randall Gallery, Andes, NY, celebrates the publication of Inverna Lockpez's new book, The Noble Barn, Sunday, August 31, 5 - 7 p.m. Ms. Lockpez will be signing books throughout the reception.

"Inverna Lockpez's evocative portraits of Catskill barns reveal an integral part of our collective consciousness. Lockpez has chosen essayists whose writings combine a plea for historic preservation, poignant local history, and hope for the future of a diminished agricultural community. The Noble Barn is a beautiful and important book," writes Catskill Regional Folklorist Janis Benincasa. Indeed, the sixty-page book with 34 color reproductions of area barns is accompanied by essays from professor Michael Tomlan, Cornell University, and the chair of the Barn Coalition, Barnard College professor Hertha Schulze, regional historian Diane Galusha, and galleryist Zoe Randall. Each page, each color, and each word make known the care and respect the author has taken to underscore the deep importance of our sometimes lost and often forgotten barn heritage. The Noble Barn is a tribute to the symbols of Catskill Mountain farm life.

Inverna Lockpez, a native of Cuba and well-known painter/curator in New York City, built a studio in the Catskills in the 1980's. Ms. Lockpez's accomplishments in the Catskill Mountain Region, as well as New York City, are numerous: While living in Manhattan she won a major outdoor competition for a 25-foot sculpture under the auspices of The Municipal Art Society. She received two grants from The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), Creative Artists Public Service (CAPS), CINTAS Foundation, and a CETA award. By the nineties her paintings had already been part of more than 80 exhibits around the country and for her work she received three NYSCA Decentralization Grants administered by the Roxbury Arts Group.

In a recent book review published in the Catskill Region Guide, T. M. Bradshaw writes: Inverna Lockpez's "romantic expressionist canvasses are highly textured, richly colored and very beautiful, but they are much more than beautiful - they are a record of a disappearing icon, a commentary on changes in the way we live, a love song in praise of a cherished landscape." Ms. Lockpez is currently the director of the Catskill Center's Erpf Gallery, Arkville, and its Platte Clove Residency.

Ms. Lockpez's work is represented exclusively by Chace-Randall Gallery. The book is available in the gallery for $30 (cash or check payable to Inverna Lockpez) and will be distributed in area bookstores.