SUBJECT: JENNIFER DITACCHIO
Exhibition Schedule: July 22-August 3
CHERRYSTONE GALLERY
in Wellfleet presents an exhibition of work by Jennifer Ditacchio. The
exhibition will run July 22-August 3.
Jennifer Ditacchio, who grew up in Provincetown, has gained notice for her paintings since she began exhibiting them five years ago and her recent work, which will be on display at Cherrystone, firmly establish her as a skilled and insightful painter.
Long interested in the light and shadow cast by stark palette has moved from somber to serene and even celebratory. Ditacchio will be showing a number of paintings based on studies of water and sky inspired by a specific landscape Ditacchio observes near her home in New Haven, CT. "There's a bridge over a river where I stand and I have actually painted what I have seen there-the motion of the water and the reflections of the sky in it." She noted how ironic it is that, while living in Provincetown she was captured by urban subject matter, such as buildings and telephone poles, whereas now that she resides in an industrial city she has been drawn toward a more natural landscape.
In the diptych, "Closer to the Sea", for example, Ditacchio has used dark and light blues to summon a dream-like watery landscape. This oil on wood painting has a smooth surface and in it one can actually sense a thick, darker motion of a river moving into the crisp, clear bright water of the sea. This painting, as well as the other work in the show, is concerned with temperature, light and motion and brings to mind Monet's numerous paintings of the pond and lilies at Giverny. Ditacchio's recent work, however is clearly her own and reveals not only a precise and elegant painterly hand, but also, a powerful expressiveness and singular sensibility. It is not surprising then, that Ditacchio, upon graduation from Yale's prestigious masters' program this spring, won the coveted Blair Dickinson Memorial Prize "for the woman whose whole person demonstrates a developing consciousness, a personal vision and a spirit of search."
Ditacchio has had numerous solo exhibitions including those at Gallery 349, Hell's Kitchen and Gallery Matrix in Provincentown and many group exhibitions such as at the Provincetown Art Association and Museum, The Boston Center for the Arts and the Bakker Gallery in Boston.
