The public is invited to a reception at Art/Place Gallery on Sunday, June 9 from 3 to 5 pm. The show is the paintings of two members, Anthony Santomauro and Barbara Bernstein. The artists will talk about their work at 4 pm. The show runs from May 29 to June 23 and can be viewed every afternoon at 70 Sanford Street in Fairfield. See www.artplacegallery.org or call 646-258-6912.

Anthony Santomauro was born in NY City and lives in Fairfield. He has been an artist for over 45 years, now working in pastels and acrylic. In 1975, he won First prize in a South Carolina juried show, which was followed by a solo show and other prizes. He has won additional prizes for his artwork at Silvermine, and at the Salmagundi Club in New York,

Anthony has exhibited in many area galleries, including the Walsh Gallery at Fairfield University and the Westport Collective. He is a realist who uses portraits of humans and animals to “explore the variety and intensity of the human emotional experience.” He includes realistic detail and aims to draw observers “into the domain and creativity of his mind “ and “the world, power and emotion of each of his creations.”.His website is www.santomauroart.com.

Barbara Bernstein has participated in more than 200 group and national juried shows, including Salmagundi, Allied Artists of America, and Art of the Northeast, USA. She has won forty awards in addition to the Grumbacher Gold Medallion for outstanding achievement in oil painting and is a juried artist member of the Connecticut Watercolor Society, Connecticut Women Artists, and the New Haven Paint and Clay. Her works are in many private and public collections including General Electric Corp., the town of Westport, CT and the Connecticut National Bank, among others.

Barbara says, “My work is representational and draws upon the traditional range of subject matter; landscape, interiors, still lifes, and figures. There is an interplay in my work of the abstract and the objective. The high key of the color coupled with painterly strokes gives my work a strong expressive bent.

My dominant themes concern the inner serenity and restorative power of nature, and the celebration of the familiar. I place an emphasis on the relationships of colors and shapes, especially mindful of their rhythms and interactions.”