Art

In the hands-on Gingerbread Adventures program at The New York Botanical Garden, children can learn about the different plant parts used in creating the favorite holiday snack, gingerbread. Step into Gingerbread Town, a fun and whimsical backdrop where gingerbread people are hard at work and play, delivering mail, making music, and generally amusing visitors. Pop inside the larger-than-life model of a Gingerbread House decorated with frosting and festooned with candy and treats.

 

The images in “Winter Stories” are narratives set in a small fictional Tuscan village in the early 1950’s; an imagined place full of dream-like memories. Through the lens of the camera, Ventura captures a unique marriage of storytelling with painting, drawing, and sculpture – all on a reduced scale. The results are intricately detailed and imagined visual scenarios.

Alex Beard lived the childhood I always dreamed of.  Introduced by his uncle, noted photographer Peter Beard, Alex was surrounded by pop-world icons including Andy Warhol, Truman Capote, and their many bohemian cohorts.   Their influences are evident in Beard’s work which comes across as the childlike dreams of a wise eccentric.