Nancy Hoffman’s summer exhibition entitled “Flying the Coop” announces the gallery’s plans to move from a long life in SoHo on West Broadway to 520 West 27th Street during the coming season. Stay tuned for more information on this move during the fall months. The building in which the gallery will be located, and the gallery space are currently under construction.

To announce the move, “Flying the Coop” includes works by gallery artists who use winged creatures in their paintings, watercolors, photographs, sculptures and videos: birds, butterflies, sculptural angel wings attached to the body as appendages for flight.

A favorite subject of Joseph Raffael since the ‘60s, the bird symbolizes freedom of the human spirit. In “Renascence 2007,” one of the artist’s newest watercolors, a cockatiel alights on a branch, wings outspread, caught in a moment of surprise. Rather than surround this shimmering, vibrating creature with flowers, leaves, the abundance of nature’s garden, the artist chose to abstract the background with a riot of rainbow colors suggesting the essence of what nature offers in expressive gesture with colorful bursts of energy throughout.

Asya Reznikov, Translation: Supermarket 2004, digital c-print, 20 x 29 inches

Asya Reznikov, Translation: Chinatown 2004, digital c-print, 20 x 27 inches

Asya Reznikov’s “Translation” series depicts the artist in various locations in New York. In each image she wears large wings created out of translation dictionaries. Each feather is a word translated into 26 different languages. Reznikov captures a provocative moment in time and space for which she is the model. The dictionaries can no longer be used for translation, as the words have become the “stuff’ of her sculpture and her photographs; and the wings a metaphor of flight.

For Juan Gonzalez, winged creatures, particularly butterflies and moths, as well as birds, were a symbol of the fragility of beauty and transformation. In a rare collage entitled “The Touch,” light shines on the butterfly as the artist’s hand approaches a thorny branch, perhaps nature’s crown of thorns. The stage is set for a drama to unfold by the presence of a red curtain on the left in the midst of the artist’s night sky.

Eddy’s triptych “Epinoia and Dianoia” depicts three images, each with its reflection in water. In the title is the artist’s rationale for the painting: Epinoia means direct understanding of something, and dianoia means an interpretation of that “something.” The white egret in the right panel stands gracefully, curling its head into its side. The egret and its reflection create a loose symbol of infinity. In its whiteness the egret becomes a symbol of purity.

Hung Liu has long used birds of all kinds in her paintings, some derived from images of birds in ancient Chinese paintings, all historically based. “Cozy Birds” is one example of her love of the subject. A cluster of birds nestles together, surrounded by the artist’s signature drips and circles. The circle, or pi in Chinese iconography, symbolizes the universe, thus the birds are crowned in their warmth by this abiding symbol, and birds in their wild ways make nests in this same configuration.

Gregory Halili grew up in the Philippines and continues to paint its tropical beauties and wonders. “The air was filled with exotic creatures, insects, moths and butterflies,” the artist says while musing about growing up in Indang. When a butterfly or moth flew into his house, Halili says: “the elders would tell us children that the creature was our great-grandparent who had come to join the festive occasion.” He continues, “this tale forever captured my imagination and sparked my interest in butterflies and moths.” This magical lore of the family kindles his newest butterflies with backgrounds, intricate as lace, woven of pina fabric created in the Philippines.