Tugboats and Waterfronts Exhibit Welcomes Artist with Reception May 22

"Tugboats and Waterfront Scenes" encaustic paintings by New York artist Rich Samuelson will run through October 30 aboard Red Hook's antique wooden barge.  Richard Samuelson will be at the artist's reception May 22nd from 3 - 7 pm.  The Museum Barge is located at the foot of Conover Street in Red Hook, Brooklyn across from the Fairway Supermarket. Group Tours are available daily by appointment by calling 718 624 4719 or by visiting www.waterfrontmuseum.org. Free open boat tours are Saturdays 1 - 5 pm & Thursdays 4 - 8 pm.

The artist has selected works depicting tugboats and other aspects of the life of New York City's great harbor and its Brooklyn and Manhattan neighborhoods.

After earning his MFA at the University of Wisconsin, Rich Samuelson moved to New York, in the heyday of the downtown painter's lofts. Joining the front lines of the rebellion against the constraints of the two-dimensional canvas he began to create large multi-panel paintings, some of which are displayed at the Waterfront Museum. This strategy anticipates the even more fractured narratives created by contemporary artists working with graphic novels and digital media.

The artist's chosen medium is encaustic, an ancient process dating to the Egyptian empire of about 4,000 years ago. Encaustic involves mixing the chosen pigments, along with varnish and thinner, into heated beeswax. The artist then applies the very hot mixture directly to the canvas. The resulting image is glowing, luminescent with deeply saturated colors.

Samuelson started working with encaustic early in his career and is seen as one of the forerunners of the current popularity of the medium, having shown his work in various Soho, Madison Avenue and Brooklyn exhibit spaces since the early 1980's.

The Waterfront Museum is housed aboard the only surviving wooden example of "The Lighterage Era" (1860 -1960) -- an era in transportation and commerce history when goods were transported by Tug & Barge across the NY Harbor. The Lehigh Valley No. 79 is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Free open boat tours are Saturdays 1 - 5 pm & Thursdays 4 - 8 pm. The Museum Barge is located at the foot of Conover Street in Red Hook, Brooklyn across from the Fairway Supermarket. Group Tours are available daily by appointment by calling 718 624 4719 or by visiting www.waterfrontmuseum.org.

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