User:Needhca/Denise Regan

template Denise Regan is a living artist and very important part of the East End (NY) Art Community. I am in the process of adding sources and editing.

Denise Regan was born in 1949 on Ellis Island where her father was as a physician in the public health service. Growing up as the daughter of a doctor she would always have an interest in medicine, but early delight with crayon and paper-- not to mention the fortuitous sale of one of her paintings when she was ten-- caused art to become her focus. She pursued these interests throughout high school, winning scholarships to study at the Staten Island Museum Children’s Program, the Pratt Institute Saturday Program and the School of Visual Arts. Regan would say the most defining moment in her life would be the birth of her son in 1968 and was followed by a turbulent divorce in 1970. From that moment she was responsible for two. While working part time, she returned to school maintaining a 4.o average and receiving a BFA from Wagner college in 1972. In 1973 Ms. Regan began working on her Masters of Fine Art at NYU. Her graduate work was influenced by her study with professors including Illia Bollatowsky, Chuck Close and Paul Pollaro. Their input was critical in shifting he work from representation to abstraction. Her graduate work was composed of large canvases with bold geometric shapes. Ms. Regan was invited to exhibit these canvases in group shows at the Chuck Levatan Gallery, the Babcock Gallery, The Brooklyn Museum and the Grey Gallery. Upon Graduating from NYU in 1976, she was awarded a one person graduate show at Grey Gallery, NYU, exhibiting drawings prints and paintings. This was the same year she was nominated as an Outstanding Young Woman of America.

After graduation, Ms. Regan was offered a position as director of the Screen Print Workshop in East Hampton, NY founded by Arnold Hoffman. She readily accepted, not only because she would be working with former Art Editor of the New York Times but because the east end of Long Island would allow for added safety for her young son and herself. Ms. Regan found herself in a growing and significant art community. In East Hampton she was quickly making silkscreen prints and often acting as an assistant for such artists as Wilhelm De Kooning, Estaban Vincente, James Brooks, and James Ernst. At the same time, she was also working to develop her own style-- big bold paintings in a constructivist manner. Her former teacher Athos Zacharias invited her to be in a two person show at Ashawagh Hall in East Hampton, NY in 1979. Soon a solo show followed at the Julliette Hallowah Gallery in New York in 1980.

Ms. Regan Left the Print shop in 1980 to better support her son, herself and her art. Ironically but perhaps inevitably she turned to skills she had developed working in her father’s medical office, and accepted a full time position at cornell University Medical Hospital, a Position she kept for more than 15 years. By working very long hours, Regan was generally able to complete her work in 2 days allowing her 5 days in East Hampton to paint. As an aside, Regan ultimately headed up the Quality Assurance Department at Cornell and became the only non MD to be board certified in Quality Assurance.

This very disciplined Schedule continued as she redefined a personal language. He bold geometric shapes developed and gradually a reference to the grid was added. Color was becoming a more sophisticated and personal element. These paintings were exhibited in NYC one-person shows between 1983 and 1985 at such galleries as Julliette Hallowah Gallery, Marie Pellicone Gallery and Elena Prohaska Fine Arts. 1986 Was another pivotal year for Ms. Regan, when she won a fellowship to the Vermont Studio Colony. By now her son was away in prep-school, which allowed her to take the time to re-examine her imagery. Ms. Regan went back to a representational style. In the blue snow light of a Vermont winter, Ms. Regan happily painted a series of bold giant vases with billowing flowers and interiors. These paintings would be shown primarily at Marie Pellicone Gallery, NYC and Renee Foutui in East Hampton.

For the next three years Ms. Regan would spend winters on Fellowship at the Vermont Studio Colony, continuing her journey into the discovery of a somewhat primitive painting style using interiors, still lives and landscapes. Her development of a personal visual poetry of complex patterns and colors often earned comparisons with French masters. These paintings were shown at Markel/Sears Gallery NYC Rene Fittoui Gallery, East Hampton and Parish Museum, Southampton. In 1993 Ms. Regan went to Vienna. There She Attended the National Circus of China. The beautiful one-ring circus in a red velvet tent hooked her by what she saw. She went home and painted a circus series of 50 paintings. They were her first show at the Morgan Rank Gallery in 1994, a relationship that continued for 4 years. In 1998 she moved to the Lizan-Tops Gallery, East Hampton as well as at Kathryn Markel Gallery in NY. in 1999, Regan’s son graduated from college, allowing her to leave her medical position and to begin to attend exclusively to her art, encouraged by continuing gallery invitations and by the appreciative reviews that followed each show. In 2002 Ms. Regan me the love of her life and 2 years later married. She and her husband moved to shelter Island, NY within a 2500 acre preserve. Living on the shore of Coecles Harbor, she studied the water and light. These paintings were shown in a new gallery, Pamela Williams Gallery, Amaghansett NY in 2005 and 2006.

Sources: http://www.artnet.com/artists/denise%2Dregan/ http://www.deniseregan.com/Denise_Regan/Welcome.html http://oneartworld.com/artists/D/Denise+Regan.html http://www.danshamptons.com/content/danspapers/issue42_2011/21.html http://danhamptons.com/content/danspapers/issue09_2007/62.html http://www.markelfinearts.com/html/ArtistResultsFull.asp?artist=14