d berman gallery presents with pleasure Pocket Full of Posy (All Fall Down), our first solo exhibition of paintings by Susan Whyne. As an associate professor at the University of Texas at Austin, Whyne has influenced innumerable students in the studio art program.

Days after Whyne’s return from travel in London where she was taken with the architecture and decorative Victorian ironwork of the bridges spanning the Thames River, the attacks of September 11, 2001 occurred. Her new paintings reflect a distillation of former New Yorker Whyne’s emotional response to the confluence of the trip and the attack. She continues to use the theme of "memento mori," the images of water, table settings, modern aluminum and plastic chairs, and fanciful jeweled butterflies evoking the idea of transition. She combines these with the portentous imagery of smoking urns, ominous flames, Victorian era scrollwork snakes, ubiquitous British wrought iron gates, and coffee and tea cups perilously in mid-spill to evoke feelings of tension and dread. This unease is set amid the graceful architecture of the London bridges and the calmness of the alfresco cafe settings, left by the departed occupants. These new works are powerful paintings from an important artist.

Whyne’s title for the exhibition, “Pocket Full of Posy (All Fall Down),” refers to the children’s nursery rhyme which, despite the playful words in the verse, has, with its reference to “ashes” and “all fall down,” an undertone of darkness and dread.

This exhibition opens on 17 February 2005 with a reception from 6 – 8 PM, and will continue through 26 March 2005. A gallery talk will be held at 1:00 PM on Saturday, 5 March 2005 (the first Saturday of the month*).