Art Goes Global In Queens

The cultural diversity of Central Queens is richly evident in Queens International, the art exhibition on display at The Queens Museum of Art (QMA) through December 1.
According to Tom Finkelpearl, QMAs executive director who spoke earlier this week at Community Board 6 in Forest Hills, artists from Forest Hills and Kew Gardens are represented in the 40-artist show. All of the artists either live or work in Queens.
One local artist, Zhang Hongtu, is a painter living in Kew Gardens. A native of Pingliang, China he takes famous Chinese landscapes and executes them in the style of Monet, Van Gogh or Cezanne.
This artists paintings are a unique amalgam of Asian spatial arrangements together with western manipulations of color and brushstrokes.
Photographs of residential and public gardens in Forest Hills are the specialty of Rosalie Frost of Forest Hills. Frosts photographs distinguish themselves through the mastery in which the variety of seasonal colors is naturally caught on film. In one painting, "Autumn Fog," a large tree stands at the center of the frame. Its leaves have turned an electric shade of lemon yellow that glows like a vibrant cosmic form in front of the viewer.
Another photographer-exhibitor, Paul Anthony of Kew Gardens, began his career as an artist studying painting and print making at Queens College and the Art Students League,.
QMAs Finkelpearl points out that Queens is the most culturally diverse county in the nation with over 50% of Queens households headed by people not born in the US.
"Queens is particularly fertile ground for internationally-minded artists," said Finkelpearl who curated the exhibit.
The artists represented in the exhibit hail from 12 countries, just a fraction of Queens more than 100 nationalities.
Artists were selected by invitations only.