J. Cacciola • Gallery W is pleased to announce the upcoming exhibition: the 2019 Winter Invitational. An opening reception will be held on Friday, January 18, 2019 from 5:00 - 7:00 pm. All are welcomed to attend.

Our annual winter invitational is an opportunity to present new artists and their works to our area and clients, as well as display new work from represented artists. This year, we are excited to present works from James Lahey, Francisco Bentiez, Julia San Roman, Judith Thompson, and Richard Lane.

James Lahey is a Canadian artist living in Toronto where he maintains his studio. He completed his BFA at York University in 1984 with studies in Art and Architecture in Italy (1982) through a joint program with York University, Toronto and Lowell University, Massachusetts. In 1986 he obtained a certificate from the O.M.A. in the preservation of Art and Artefacts. Upon graduation, James negotiated career and vocation, including positions at The Art Gallery at Harbourfront, The Power Plant, The Art Gallery of Ontario and Bruce Mau Design. Since 1998 James has concentrated exclusively on his painting practice.

Francsico Benitez is a Santa Fe-based artist of Latino heritage. From childhood, he began emulating the great Spanish masters, such as Goya and Velázquez. Benitez later discovered Caravaggio and the work his followers. The themes in his works are a focus on the recuperation of Old Master techniques and approaches, with an awareness of contemporary art. Benitez uses historical pigments and materials to excavate the past, and make statements about our own place in history during the time of change.

Julia San Román is a California-based artist originally from Madrid, Spain. After earning a Ph.D in biology, the influence of her childhood exposure to art remained an integral part of her passion for life. After receiving training in Studio Arts and Art History at the college level, she has fully committed her life to painting. Her most recent works have focused on light, to express a sense of hope. Under the influence of the southern California light, San Roman explores abstraction with a new impetus. She integratesgeometric abstraction with naturalistic occurrences of light, which creates a bilingual body of work that expresses who she is as an artist.

Richard Lane began to develop an interest in maritime art and history from a young age, having spent many summers in Cape Cod and Nantucket. He studied fine art and illustration in college and received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from The School Of Visual Arts in New York City. Lane strives for absolute accuracy in his paintings. Extensive research goes into each work of art, as he studies ship models, photographs from museum archives, and blue prints of boats to most accurately represent his subjects. Lane also builds wooden ship models from scratch, so that he can better and further understand the construction and the mechanics of ships and their rigs.

Judith Thompson is a Virginia-based artist, who received her BFA from Syracuse University, and her MFA Tyler School of Art at Temple University. Thompson seeks her artistic inspiration from several sources, including the female form, fabric, animals, nature, and color. Most often in her works, Thompson will use repeating patterns to create tension in the work, which is juxtaposed against the calm face of female subject. The incorporation of animals in her work accentuates the theme of woman as the protective nurturer. The relationships of the texture, pattern, and color, evoke serenity the within the painting.