Three Newport artists to exhibit at Providence Art Club

What’s Up Newp / September 10, 2024

Three Newport residents will be among the artists featured in new exhibitions opening Sunday, September 15, from 2 to 4 pm at the historic Providence Art Club in Providence.

Watercolorists William Heydt, John K. Grosvenor, and sculptor Jeffrey Fischer will all have works on view. Little Compton painter Johanna McKenzie and Providence artist Wendy Ingram will also have works on view. These exhibitions continue through October 3.

Newport Art Trolley and Gallery Night: An exciting, but developing initiative

What’s Up Newp / August 13, 2024

On Thursday night, I checked out Art Trolley and Gallery Night in Newport, a fairly new event with the purpose of providing a platform for the many galleries throughout the City by the Sea. Managed by the Newport Artists Collective, the effort is meant to bolster the thriving Newport art scene in ways that artists can connect, collaborate and display their work while engaging with the community.

02840 Last Week:
Antiques, Art & Exquisite Objects

Newport This Week / August 1, 2024

A few days before The Newport Show opened, the Newport Historical Society shared a video of the ice rink at St. George’s School being transformed into a glamorous backdrop for 38 of the finest antique dealers from across the country. The New­port Show is a unique opportunity for the public to devote a weekend to discovering treasures from the past, but is also a vital fundraiser for two organizations dedicated to enriching our community, the Newport Historical Society and Boys & Girls Clubs of Newport County. And, really, what’s better than shop­ping when two amazing local causes benefit?

Studio Visit with Painter Mea Duke - Inside Art with Michael Rose

Go Local Prov / June 26, 2024

In her Pawtucket studio, artist Mea Duke is hard at work. In the vast mill complex where she paints, she is in the process of moving studios. She is also finishing up her most recent body of precisely executed artwork for her next show. They are headed to the artist’s second solo exhibition at Jessica Hagen Fine Art + Design in Newport. Titled SPF, the show will be on view from June 30 - July 28, and it is an unabashed celebration of all things summer and sea.

ART SCENE: Local Galleries Bloom with Spring

Newport This Week / March 28, 2024

Jessica Hagen Fine Art + Design just opened a new show, “Spring Forward.” Gallery owner Jessica Hagen describes the show as “an eclectic mix of artwork that energizes and reassures us that spring is finally here! Think color!” The group exhibition featuring a dozen gallery artists runs through April 14.

A new oil painting exhibition brings Buddhist philosophy to a Newport hotel

What’s Up Newp / March 1, 2024

Newport is filled with fine art galleries and art shops, but tourists and natives alike may be missing an intimate gallery space nestled in the heart of Hammetts Hotel, right on the corner of America’s Cup Avenue and Thames Street. The Sarah Langley Gallery is on the hotel’s first floor, just to the left of the concierge desk.

The gallery, open to the public and curated by Jessica Hagen Fine Art + Design in Newport, was named after the only female owner of the wharf in history.

The featured art in the gallery changes seasonally, and from now until April 30th, Massachusetts painter and photographer Karen Iglehart has transformed the space into a reflection on color and texture with her abstract oil on canvas paintings. 

Artistic Signs of Spring

Newport This Week / February 22, 2024

The final weeks of winter often seem to drag on for months, but Newport’s art galleries are awak- ening to get us ready for spring.

The Newport Art Museum continues several exhibitions, in- cluding two that feature work from its permanent collection. DeBlois Gallery and Spring Bull Gallery have shows that overlap in late February and early March, while some of the newer additions to the city’s art scene are also starting their exhibition season over the next few weeks. More information about various sites can be found below.

Jessica Hagen Fine Art provides a group treat with over 30 works by 14 artists represented by the gallery. The show, entitled “Chill Out,” is only tangentially about winter. Its real purpose reveals how a group exhibition with disparate artists can create a conversation and speak to viewers at the same time. Made up mostly of paintings both large and small, the show features figure paintings, abstract work, intriguing landscapes and a few pieces that defy labels.

CONFLUX: LLOYD MARTIN + STEPHEN NICCOLLS

Art New England / November/December 2023

The Dryden Gallery’s expansive exhibition space is the ideal venue for CONFLUX: LLOYD MARTIN + STEPHEN NICCOLLS, two accomplished, mid-career American artists. The exhibit includes forty-plus paintings, many large scale, and is presented by guest curator Jessica Hagen of Jessica Hagen Fine Art + Design of Newport, RI.

Hagen chose the name of the exhibition, CONFLUX, as it means a coming together, a confluence of Martin’s and Niccolls’ work. “To my eye, their paintings are a natural pairing,” says Hagen. “Both artists are highly skilled colorists creating compelling non-representational compositions. Martin’s work employs the use of straight lines to wrangle, define and convey areas of color, while Niccolls makes use of curvilinear shapes to do the same. The juxtaposition of these two stylistic approaches is exciting, uplifting, and energizing for the viewer.”

Colorful Exhibition Highlights Abstract Paintings — Inside Art with Michael Rose

Go Local Prov / October 4, 2023

In the last few weeks of gray and drizzly weather, many Rhode Islanders were looking for a respite from the drab landscape. One antidote is a colorful two artist show on view now through December 2 at Providence Picture Frame’s Dryden Gallery in North Providence. Featuring paintings by Lloyd Martin and Stephen Niccolls, the exhibition was curated by local gallerist Jessica Hagen and brings expertly selected abstract artworks to Dryden’s crisp and bright gallery space.

Match Game, One Year Later

Art New England / September/October 2023

Last year in Art New England’s Gallery Issue we met a powerhouse group of six women gallerists from all over New England for the feature “Match Game.” The group celebrated in October 2022 at the Boston International Fine Arts Show and hosted a panel discussion on points of entry into the commercial gallery world, including advice for artists on finding a good fit for representation. Art New England just had to check back in with the talented and inspired group for a catch up.

Modern subjects reside in these Massachusetts castles

Chronicle / July 24, 2023

The Searles Castle in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, is privately owned by artist Hunt Slonem. He currently has a show up at Jessica Hagen Fine Art + Design in Newport.

The Wheeler Mansion in Orange, Mass., hopes to be open for business soon as a bed and breakfast and event venue. Follow its progress on Instagram Revival Wheeler Mansion.

Internationally-acclaimed sculptor remembered for impact on others

The Independent / July 6, 2023

Jessica Hagen was one year into running Hagen’s Fine Art & Design, in Newport, when she met her.

It was the beginning of summer, 2006. A Saturday morning.

At that time, Hagen’s gallery was on Bellevue Avenue, across the street from the Redwood Library.

The front doors were open. Every now and then, for a fleeting second, from the foot traffic on the sidewalk, flashed a face, or outfit.

They each belonged to a soul who was either from Newport, or just visiting. Souls who were working on a life chapter or going through a transition onto the next. Who were carrying joy, sorrow, love, or a combination of all three. Who were either living or just existing.

Hagen was sitting at her desk when a blonde figure stepped inside her gallery.

The woman put her hands on her hips and looked at Hagen with a pair of dark blue eyes.

“I’m Anne Mimi Sammis,” the woman said. “And I want to have my sculpture in your gallery.”

Bunnies, Flowers and Her Majesty! What’s Not to Love?

Newport This Week / June 29, 2023

Back for a fourth time at the Jessica Hagen Fine Art + Design Gallery, Hunt Slonem’s whimsical, popular wall of bunnies is a much beloved display.

“I had to have the bunnies!” Hagen said as she welcomed guests to the opening reception on June 24.

Slonem’s work is in more than 250 museum collections, including the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art. He has been profiled by CBS Sunday Morning, the New York Times, ArtNews and Architectural Digest, not only for his artwork, but for his collection of historic homes that he has restored, decorated and filled with works of art.

His solo exhibition at the Hagen Gallery, on display through July 29, features colorful, expressionist paintings of bunnies, birds and butterflies, as well as a stunning collection of flower works in honor of the Newport Flower Show.

Hagen also attended the flower show at Marble House with Slonem that took place the same weekend. One look at Slonem’s wall of flower expressionist paintings and you could see why having the two shows in the same weekend was a match made in heaven.

“I was so thrilled to go to the flower show last night at Marble House,” said Slonem. “I loved chaining the flower paintings as a group.”

Other notable pieces on display include a swallow tale painting with monkey eyes and one of Slonem’s Queen Elizabeth works, “Her Majesty.”

“I’ve been coming to Newport since I was a child . . . I’ve always loved it; it’s such an amazing place,” he said.

Art Scene: Memories Made from Color

Newport This Week / May 18, 2023

Working from the historic 20th century representational perspec­tive of American Realism, Boston area artist Jessica Brilli creates calm yet brilliantly colorful views of mundane life from another time.

Rich blues and reds dominate her paintings of scenes we have all experienced, but the rich, vibrant colors transform those visions as your memory might. We remem­ber what our mind will remember.

Brilli has a solo exhibition at Jessica Hagen Fine Arts from May 20 to June 18. She showed work at Hammett's Hotel in downtown Newport last summer, but the ex­hibition at Hagen will feature all new work, including six small col­lages, which she has recently be­gun making.

Art Scene: New Art Shows All Over Town

Newport This Week / April 27, 2023

Jessica Hagen Fine Art & Design closes its annual “Flower Power” group show on May 6, and two weeks later unveils an exhibition of paintings and prints by Rhode Island artist Jessica Brilli. Her work utilizes vivid color to capture moods and auras of ordinary locales and scenes that seem like memories from the mid-20th century, but could just as easily evoke a contemporary sense of a time before life became over-technologized and lived at warp speed.

Art Scene: Spring Blooming in Local Galleries

Newport This Week / March 30, 2023

Spring doesn’t know it yet, but it’s about to bloom in some local art galleries. Two spring shows of flowers and wispy landscapes in Newport galleries are just the start. Over the next few weeks, you’ll find new exhibitions with a focus on nature, science and the environment, along with other subjects with spring in mind.

Jessica Hagen Fine Arts & Design on Bridge Street unveiled its new show. “Flower Power VI” features 13 artists in what has become a spring tradition at the gallery. Among them are local stalwarts Jeanne Tangney, best known for still life images, and Julie Smith, best known for politically charged scenes.

So, there is bound to be a variety of interpretations on the theme of flowers, from the straightforward to the metaphorical, from such artists as James Coe, Judy Chaves and Hunt Slonem. The show runs through May 6, with a reception on April 15.

Art Seen

Art New England / January/February 2023

On October 23, 2022, at the Boston International Fine Art Show. Art New England celebrates its panel entitled "Match Game" based on the September/October 2022 feature of the same name. From left to right: Panelist VanDaysha Taylor, The Firm Art Gallery; Art New England editorial assistant Autumn Duke; Jessica Hagen, Jessica Hagen Fine Art & Design; Patricia Trafton, Soapbox Arts; Cynthia Winings, Cynthia Winings Gallery; Juliet Feibel, ArtsWorcester; and writer/moderator/artist Kelly Holt. Photo: Rita A. Fucillo.

Every Picture Tells a Story

URI.edu / Fall 2022

Jessica Brilli ’00 paints from old Kodachrome slides. She is drawn to mid-century suburban American scenes, bringing them to life with unique color palettes. Brilli, who earned a B.F.A. in painting at URI, has shown her work in group and solo exhibitions across the United States and abroad, but her latest exhibition space, book covers, is bringing her work to a broad new audience.

Small Business Saturday

Newport This Week / November 23, 2022

Impress your host at the next tree decorating party. Jessica Hagen Fine Art + Design at 9A Bridge St. has Hunt Slonem ornaments ornaments featuring his iconic bunny.

Points of Interest

Hey Rhody / October 2022

Newport's Point neighborhood is a treasure trove of architectural delights, widely noted for having the largest intact collection of buildings - more than 300 - that predate the Revolutionary War. But one is decidedly more modern, with a history all its own, and serves as one of the best examples of adaptive reuse in a city casked with merging rich history with contemporary demands.

ART BUZZ: EMILY RANDOLPH JEWELRY TRUNK SHOW FLUTTERS HEARTS AND BUTTERFLIES

Newport Buzz / September 14, 2022

Artist Emily Randolph brings her jewelry designs of butterflies, hearts and gemstone beads to Jessica Hagen Fine Art + Design for an early kick off to holiday shopping. The trunk show is one day only on Saturday, September 24, 11am – 4pm.

“Emily Randolph’s jewelry designs are well-made, beautiful and exceptionally original. Her choice of stones is informed by the fact that she is also a painter, making the work that much more special and unique. It’s going to be a great trunk show!” says Jessica Hagen.

Match Game

Art New England / SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022

Established in 2005, Jessica Hagen Fine Art & Design has enjoyed its strongest three years, from 2019-2022, thanks to a great client base and loyal supporters. Hagen takes pride in her longstanding relationships with the 38 artists she represents. “If you keep showing up and doing something well, eventually you will succeed.”

Hagen grew up in Woodstock, NY, making art. She attended art school and currently makes and sells her jewelry collection. She moved to Newport for the love of sailing, following her brother, Dan, a sculptor, who showed there. Eventually she opened her own gallery. Her collectors are a mix—approximately 30-40% are local, and the rest part time residents and tourists.

ART BUZZ: ANTHONY QUINN EXHIBIT OPENS TO PACKED CROWD

Newport Buzz / August 6, 2022

The opening sculpture exhibit of the late Anthony Quinn opened Friday night at the Sarah Langley Gallery at the Hammetts Hotel to a packed crowd hoping to get further insight into the man most widely known for his diverse roles on the cinema screen and stage. His wife, Katherine Quinn, was on hand to graciously answer questions and give her own personal thoughts on Quinn, whom she knew later in life and more as an artist than an actor.

Jessica Brilli, Creative, Engaging & Irrestible

401 Ocean State / August 2022

Through a collaboration with Newport Curates and Jessica Hagen Fine Art + Design, the Sarah Langley Gallery of the Hammetts Hotel exhibited the work of American realist painting Jessica Brilli throughout July. Art lovers were able to meet the artist July 1st, a balmy summer evening kicking off the Fourth of July weekend.

ART BUZZ: “LIGHT + COLOR” EXHIBIT ILLUMINATES JESSICA HAGEN GALLERY

Newport Buzz / July 28, 2022

Mark your calendars! Jessica Hagen Fine Art + Design invites you to view LIGHT + COLOR with paintings by Jane Bloodgood-Abrams and Tom Vieth from August 3-28th with a special opening on Saturday, August 6, 5-7PM. “Though these two artists paint in completely different styles, their shared appreciation of illumination shines through their work. Pun intended,” says Hagen of these accomplished exhibiting artists.

ART BUZZ: TORIN RICHARDS DELIVERED “COLOR BUZZ”

Newport Buzz / July 22, 2022

Thursday night, Providence jeweler Torin Richards delivered all the joy of summer in her trunk show, “Color Buzz,” at Jessica Hagen Fine Art + Design. The color spectrum of beaded pieces was a feast for the eyes. Luckily, if you missed the event, there will still be an assortment this weekend while supplies last (and they were going quickly last night). Furthermore, Hagen carries Richards’ line all through the year.

Harry Benson: Persons of Interest — a spectacular exhibition in Newport of 60 iconic works

New York Social Diary / July 6, 2022

Up in Newport, Rhode Island, the Redwood Library  — the oldest library in America — is celebrating its 275th anniversary this year. And to celebrate they are showing an exclusive photography retrospective exhibition, Harry Benson: Persons of Interest, at the lib until mid October.

The opening reception on June 30th drew a huge crowd of Newport’s art lovers as well as friends of Harry’s and Gigi’s. The talented photographer Sam Bolton, who lives in Newport, curated the exhibition and designed the interior of the glass cases using Harry’s magazine covers and letters from first ladies including Jackie Kennedy and were a terrific addition to the exhibition.

ART BUZZ: ARTIST JESSICA BRILLI OPENS AT HAMMETTS HOTEL

Newport Buzz / June 29, 2022

The summer art scene is truly buzzing in Newport! Mark your calendar for Friday, July 1st, 6-8pm, for the opening night of Jessica Brilli’s exhibition at the Sarah Langley Gallery within the Hammetts Hotel. Brilli is presented by Newport Curates and Jessica Hagen Fine Art + Design.

“Jessica Brilli’s paintings are fresh, stylish and smart… conveying the high style cool vibe of a more mod time,” says Jessica Hagen.

ART BUZZ: OPENING ART RECEPTION ‘MEA DUKE: DON’T LOOK I’M CHANGING’

Newport Buzz / June 23, 2022

Jessica Hagen Fine Art + Design is pleased to announce a new exhibition, Mea Duke: Don’t Look I’m Changing, opening on Saturday, June 25th from 5:00 – 7:00pm. This show marks Mea Duke’s first solo show at Jessica Hagen’s gallery. “Mea Duke is the real deal,” says Hagen. “She does what all really great artists do: she makes the remarkable out of the unremarkable. Mea takes notice of what others would not, and through her considerable skill as a painter she elevates objects, like life jackets and patio furniture, to high art. Her upcoming exhibit Don’t Look I’m Changing is a wink and a nod to summers spent on the coast and is super charged with energy, memory, and significance.”

JESSICA HAGEN HOSTING ART EXHIBITION WITH PENNY ASHFORD AND EMILY RANDOLPH THROUGH JUNE 19TH

Newport Buzz / June 13, 2022

Gallery owner and director Jessica Hagen invites art lovers to view the artwork of water photographer Penny Ashford and artist Emily Randolph in the art exhibition BLUE + WHITE, through June 19th.

This beautiful exhibit includes photography, paintings and wall sculpture that intermingle and uniquely compliment each other. Viewers will be immersed in a visual world of water in Hagen’s intimate and welcoming gallery.

Artists Contrast the Beauty in Water

Newport This Week / June 2, 2022

As if to welcome and encourage the onset of summer, Jessica Hagen has mounted a lovely little show with a watery theme featuring a local artist and another who travels the world to examine artistic properties of water.

Penny Ashford, the world traveler, creates beautiful abstractions of moving water, combining photography and what she calls “archival print.” She has made these kinetic images from pictures she has taken in a variety of climates over the past several years.

In this show, the images are born of “the interplay of water and ice” in the Arctic, to borrow Hagen’s words. The resulting images swirl, dance and float in a poetic conjunction between the ice and the water. While they are beautiful, they also bring to mind the awful implications of the melting Arctic ice and the threat presented by its conversion to water. Climate change lurks even in beauty.

Emily Randolph, the Aquidneck Island artist, by contrast paints acrylic images that possess a seemingly mysterious stillness and energy at once. Tiny fish swirl in the water like vintage airplanes in the bluest of skies. Delicate flowers have whispery power and a sturdy personality made all the more interesting by the smallest whisps of white paint, revealing a shimmering energy that seems to escape the tips of the petals. These paintings are a contrast and a companion to Ashford’s excited water images, and together they create an inspiring first summer exhibit in the gallery, “Blue + White,” which runs until June 17.

Spotlight on: Blue + White

Tory Burch Daily / June 1, 2022

Blue and white, the most timeless color combination. Currently on display at Jessica Hagen Fine Art + Design in Newport is a new exhibition, BLUE + WHITE, featuring works by photographer Penny Ashford and artist Emily Randolph. Both artists’ works celebrate the world of water through compelling photography, paintings and wall sculptures. Stop by the gallery space between now and June 17 to experience the artwork first-hand.

A View From the Easel

HYPERALLERGIC / May 30, 2022

My studio walls are often crowded with paintings in various stages of completion, as shown here. The studio is a former bedroom in my home. It is not very large. I often spend time looking at and thinking about the range of visual ideas that have become manifest in the group of paintings that happen to be on the wall at any given moment. It becomes possible to consider the next step in the development of these visual ideas by considering what I’ve done in the recent past. I assembled this grouping while thinking about the diversity of visual decisions that I have made in the last year or so. These decisions are like proposals, in that they postulate forms or arrangements that are [or could be] in tune with my fascination with certain attributes of the visual world. For instance, I love looking at and thinking about nature, geology, and antique or ancient artifacts. These things all have an organic quality, difficult to define precisely, that inspires my work.

BLUE + WHITE

Newport This Week / May 26, 2022

Gallery owner and director Jessica Hagen is hosting a new exhibition “BLUE + WHITE,” at the gallery featuring two extraordinary artists, Penny Ashford and Emily Randolph. Ashford will be showing her photography taken on a journey to Antarctica which explores the interplay between water and ice.

Newport artist and designer Randolph is also inspired by the beauty of water, and portrays water themes through her selection of more than 200 artworks ranging from traditional photography and mixed-media paintings and wall sculptures.

Holiday Show Highlights at Jessica Hagen Fine Art and Design - Inside Art with Michael Rose

GoLocalProv / December 15, 2021

Since 2005, gallerist Jessica Hagen has mounted regular exhibitions at her eponymous exhibition space in Newport. Over more than a decade-and-a-half, Hagen has established a reputation for melding artists from a range of backgrounds to create a diverse and exciting gallery stable. On view through December 31, 2021, Hagen’s Holiday Show offers an enticing selection of works by artists she represents, inviting viewers to establish aesthetic connections between objects of divergent sensibilities.

In the exhibition at 9A Bridge Street in Newport, visitors will find a plethora of objects from paintings and sculptures, to photographs, ceramics, and even works of textile that blur the line between fine art, craft, and design. The show is a feast for the eyes featuring art-makers from throughout the region. Among the multitude of items on view, there are plenty of things to like and also a few particular standouts.

Kahane Puts Viewers in the Driver’s Seat

Newport This Week / October 21, 2021

Recreating experiences with her large scale yet intimate photographs is E.A. Kahane’s passion and specialty. Her latest exhibit, “Front Row Seat” at the Sarah Langley Gallery at the Hammetts Hotel, co-curated by Jessica Hagen Fine Art and Newport Curates, puts viewers in the driver’s seat at the legendary Mille Miglia auto race in Italy.

“My goal was to tell the story of why this is called the most beautiful race in the world,” said Kahane, who lives in New York and Newport.

E.A. Kahane Opens Her ‘Mille Miglia’ Exhibit at Hammetts

Newport This Week / October 7, 2021

E A. Kahane has once again mounted an exhibit in her highly personalized fashion, using the camera to tell the story through photography. For her current show, “Front Row Seat,” at the Sarah Langley Gallery at the Hammetts Hotel, Kahane fittingly held an opening on the eve of the Audrain Concours. In June, Kahane joined her husband, Bill, and son, Harry, as they participated in the legendary “Mille Miglia” race, photographing the start in Brescia, Italy, traveling south to Rome, and returning to Brescia to complete the 1,000-mile loop, a race that is passionately tied to the country and the people of Italy. The show is on view and open to the public through Oct. 31.

Bunnies, Birds & Butterflies

Hunt Slonem’s Preview Event is a Success

401 Ocean State / August 2021

THE PHOTOGRAPHS OF ML KIRCHNER

How Narrative Works in Serial Photography and How We Look at Pictures

Medium / June 2021

To look into a Kirchner picture is to enter a 20 x 20-inch space rich in possible narratives and depths of meaning that stay with you long after you have moved on. Shapes, lines, shadows, and patches of light come together around her mysterious subjects, and, as in the most interesting work of photographers, these unique combinations sketch at the outlines of stories.

Newport art galleries offer an intimate opportunity to get out during the coronavirus

NewportRI.com / March 26, 2020

Gallery owners also find a silver lining, the opportunity to return to their own art.

“I figured that corona had eclipsed everything.”

So wrote gallerist Jessica Hagen in an email to me Wednesday evening, March 18, after I relayed uncertainty over what would happen to my planned review of her most recent show, “Meltdown.”

Hagen’s Fine Art + Design, like every other art venue on Aquidneck Island, is now closed as the coronavirus forces people everywhere to brace themselves for an uncertain future.

2019 DESIGN AWARDS

Rhode Island Monthly / October 2019

You know good design when you see it; it catches your breath and gives you pause. Its beauty makes you tingle, and its innovation makes you giddy. It’s artistic and scientific and mathematical. We love good design, which is why we love the annual Design Awards. This year three jurists — David M. Fenchel, owner and architect of Traverse Architects in Cambridge, Massachusetts; Kate Maloney, principal designer of Kate Maloney Interior Design in Somerville, Massachusetts; and Dan Kasmarak of ACTWO Architects in Wayland, Massachusetts — selected fourteen award-winning local design projects from among nearly fifty entries. Cheers to all the winners: Thanks for making Rhode Island just a little more lovely.

Newport Photographer Goes Into The Wild

Newport This Week / September 26, 2019

It’s often said that art can transport the viewer. The current exhibit at Jessica Hagen Fine Art + Design takes that idea literally.

“Off the Wall: On Safari with E. A. Kahane” is a multimedia show that recreates the experience of the photgrapher’s African safari, where she was able to get close to lions, zebras, giraffes, leopards and other wildlife in their natural environment.

E.A. Kahane exhibit takes viewers on a safari without leaving Newport

Newport Daily News / September 24, 2019

Kahane took these pictures in 2017, in South Africa’s Kruger National Park.

“Ooh, let’s shut the lights off. Jessica, can you shut the lights off for a second?”

Darkness follows at the private reception for “Off the Wall: On Safari with E.A. Kahane,” and it’s the exhibiting artist requesting shadow. Kahane wants to see her creation better: “Mama Leopard Guarding Her Litter,” a five-foot tall, illuminated, wraparound photo — or, as she describes it more succinctly, a “light tower.”

Artist Opening
OFF THE WALL: ON SAFARI WITH E.A. KAHANE

Jessica Hagen is pleased to announce the opening of the new exhibit: OFF THE WALL On Safari with E.A. Kahane. The exhibition is equal parts photography show and art installation and is unlike anything the artist has ever created before. While Elizabeth Kahane delighted her viewers with photos of NYC in her first show, the new exhibit treats them to something far more wild: an African safari in not only two, but three dimensions. E. A. Kahane explains, “I saw The 1/4 Mile by Robert Rauschenberg at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art last February and I was blown away. I couldn’t wait to go home, gather up my images and make silkscreens with them. Suddenly, I was inspired to do so much more with my photographs than simply put them in a square frame. I began to fabricate sculptural pieces using my images, to experiment with dimensional printing, and even to design wallpaper. The title Off The Wall grew out of this multifaceted approach to my art.”

Hunt Slonem is a Force of Nature

Newport This Week / July 11, 2019

There is a dazzling menagerie at the Jessica Hagen Fine Art + Design Gallery as floating butteflies, vibrantly hued tropical birds and whimsical bunnies fill the walls. It’s the distinctive work of Hunt Slonem, the New York-based, internationally recognized expressionist painter who is having his second solo show at the gallery until July 31.

ARTS REVIEW: Bunnies multiply in Newport gallery solo show

Newport Daily News / July 7, 2019

NEWPORT — “The Real Housewives of New York City,” season 11, episode 8, contains a near-sublime instance of two cultures colliding. Cast members Bethenny Frankel and Sonja Morgan visit Hunt Slonem, a Brooklyn painter whose studio doubles as an aviary. While Slonem and his longtime friend Morgan pore over a table of snapshots and memories, Frankel, dazzling in a green-sequined bomber jacket, proceeds to gawk at the exotic fowl.

The Gallerist

Celebrated Living / July/August 2019

After managing two galleries in Newport, Jessica Hagen opened her eponymous space in 2005, showing contemporary painting, sculpture, photography, ceramics and jewelry. “There are many more art galleries in Newport now than in 2005, and that’s good news for the city and its cultural institutions,” she says. “A vibrant art scene makes Newport an even more interesting place to live and visit.”

Art Exhibit Opening Reception

Newport This Week / February 7, 2019

“Weather or Not,” public welcome, Jessica Hagen Fine Art and Design, 9A Bridge St., 6-8 p.m., 401-835- 7682, jessicahagen.com.

In February, gallerist Jessica Hagen just wants to have fun

NewportRI.com / February 6, 2019

Newport gallery group show “Weather or Not” offers an antidote to winter’s frost and gloom.

It was Monday afternoon, Feb. 4 — an unusually sunny day for a New England winter. Just three days earlier, the typically coldest month of the year arrived severely, as any Newporter might expect. But on Monday, gallerist Jessica Hagen was enjoying the warmth of 68 degrees as she cruised down Route 9 in Connecticut.

This ideal weather also proved an ideal setup for my phone conversation with Hagen, who spoke to me (hands-free, of course) about the latest show at her Bridge Street gallery.

Woman up: Are gender exclusive art shows still a thing? And does anybody even care anyway?

NewportRI.com / September 5, 2018

They invaded quietly, in the middle of the night. Posters began floating like ads on walls, streetlights, telephone booths. Pasted around SoHo by a team of anonymous activists, the fliers offered acerbic takes on the art world and its profound misogyny. Museums and galleries were skewered for failing to exhibit women. The provocateurs called themselves the Guerrilla Girls and, with visual finesse as campy as it was threatening, donned gorilla masks as their disguises.

Sneak Peek: This Old House's 2018 Idea House

Rhode Island Monthly / September 5, 2018

Gardner points out a colorful work of art above the staircase in the guest quarters: a photograph of a peony printed on aluminum by Rhode Island-based artist, Victoria Mele. The artwork throughout the main house and guest quarters, Gardner tells me, is curated by Newport’s Jessica Hagen Fine Art and will be up for sale at the grand opening celebration this Saturday.

Strong Female Viewpoints Mark ‘The Fairer Sex’

Newport This Week / August 2, 2018

There’s nothing demure about “The Fairer Sex,” the new show at Jessica Hagen Fine Art + Design running through Aug. 19.

The exhibition features 24 contemporary women artists whose work is represented by painting, photography, sculpture, jewelry, ceramic and furniture. The title of the show is ironic, Hagen said, but it’s also meant to acknowledge the very real gender gap in the art world.

Jessica Hagen Gallery Heralds Spring with James Coe Exhibit

NewportSeen.com / June 2018

The charming gallery on Bridge Street , Newport, welcomed artists, art lovers and friends back after a stormy winter to view  the best in American Contemporary Art.  The featured artist, James Coe,who has a passion for birds, nature, old barns, and relics of our rural heritage was there, commenting on his recent works and explaining techniques, and gallery owner Jessica Hagen was introducing him to guests.

Jessica Hagen Fine Arts Displays American Craft Furniture

NewportSeen.com / May 2018

It is furniture that is sculpture, lovingly and carefully crafted of wood. Mira Nakashima, daughter of the preeminent furniture maker George Nakashima (1905- 1990). has extended the tradition of her father's studio by producing the classical and traditional lines, as well as continuing the evolution of new design solutions by way of her new line, the Keisho Collection. Through this line, Mira preserves the methods and techniques embraced by her father. George Nakashima  was an American woodworker, architect, and furniture maker who was one of the leading innovators of 20th century furniture design and a father of the American craft movement.

Woodstock photographer's works speak to a generation

Newport Daily News  /  July 28, 2017

MIDDLETOWN — Photographer Elliott Landy brought it all back home for his listeners Friday as he talked about the anti-Vietnam War protests, the pro-choice demonstrations, and the rock stars and bands of the late 1960s, illustrating his narratives with the photos he shot at so many of those scenes.

The Woodstock photographer who preserved Dylan's grin

Newport Mercury  /  July 25, 2017

As your typical millennial whelp, I wasn’t familiar with the work of Elliott Landy — the official photographer of the Woodstock Festival in 1969. So luck was not on my side when I tried arranging an interview with the famed photographer earlier this month. He was in traveling in France, photographing models (of course).

Acclaimed Contemporary Artist Hunt Slonem at Jessica Hagen Fine Art + Design

NewportSeen.com  /  July 8, 2016

Newport's collectors and art patrons turned out for a special viewing of  artist Hunt Slonem at Jessica Hagen Gallery.  Mr. Slonem is an American painter and sculptor best known for his Neo- Expressionistpaintings of bunnies, birds and butterflies. He maintains a large studio in Brooklyn, New York filled with his paintings and sculpture, an impressive collection of antiques and fifty-plus birds who provide him constant inspiration.