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V&AP Benefit Exhibition to Raise Funds for AMDF and Artists with Vision Loss

by: A’Dora Phillips

August 23, 2024

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To celebrate the tenth anniversary of The Vision & Art Project, What Was Once Familiar: The Vision & Art Project’s Tenth Anniversary Benefit Exhibition was on view at the National Arts Club in New York City this spring (March 20-April 26, 2024). Currently, twelve works from the exhibition are being shown at The Lighthouse Guild in NYC.

Work is available to purchase via our online benefit exhibition site through December 31, 2024. Proceeds will support the American Macular Degeneration Foundation (AMDF), the Vision & Art Project’s parent organization. A percentage of sales will also support artists with vision loss who have contributed artwork to the show.

Works on sale include
Scroll to bottom of page to see thumbnail images

Lennart Anderson
Back View Woman on Box | Spiderplant | Crawford Sugar House

Robert Birmelin
The Lost White Dog | The Morning of September 11, 2001
The Red Room | Sidewalk and Gallery

Serge Hollerbach
City at Night | Waiting | Hanging Out | Headed Home | Pale Sky | Sunset City Scene | Reading
Figure with Dog on Red | Beach monoprints | Aproned Figure | Cityscape montype

Robert Andrew Parker
Annapurna, Nepal | Camden, NJ |

William Thon
Moonlight on the Forest Floor

Erika Marie York
All for You | Graffiti Me

Thumbnails of benefit exhibition works can be perused in the slideshow below, but go to our secure online benefit exhibition site to buy works or make a donation to AMDF. Or contact A’Dora Phillips at aphillips.visionandartproject@gmail.com.

A nude woman is posed with her back to us. The left side of her body is perched on a box; her left buttock and thigh visible, her left arm supporting the weight of her shoulders and upper body, palm of her hand pressing against the top of the box. Her right leg stretches out behind her to the right. Her head is tilted down and away so that we see only the back of her head.
Back View, Woman on a Box  | 2008
A spiderplant in a clay pot droops off to the right. Both the background and the shadows under the table in the foreground are dark but alive with colors. A suggestion of dim yet warming light permeates the scene.
Spiderplant  | 2006
A landscape showing a wooded area with a dirt road and a shack.
Crawford Sugar House, Shearer Hill Road  | c. 1969
People hurry up the steps of a subway station while a man reading the newspaper turns as if the viewer had asked him a question, all while a white dog passes by.
The Lost White Dog, 14th St., NYC  | 2002
A street in New York, busy with people going about their business, with, in the far distance, the twin towers against a hazy blue sky. In just a few minutes, the first tower will be struck by a hijacked plane, which we know from the painting’s title and the clock above one of the storefronts.
The morning of September 11 2001  | 2002
The color red predominates in this watercolor of two different scenes. Above is a street lined with trees; below is a studio with drawings on a wall. The painting is reversible.
Two in One--Sidewalk and Gallery  | 2020
The color red predominates in this watercolor of two different scenes. Above is a gallery space with drawings on the wall and a guard in the right corner; below are the heads in profile of a couple facing one another. The painting is reversible.
"The Red Room"  | 2020
A semi-abstract beach with four figures—three large and one small—is depicted on a rectangular sheet of paper. The larger figures are in profile, hunched over and walking on the beach toward the left side of the canvas, seemingly against a strong wind. The smaller figure walks toward the water, their back to us.
Untitled (beach scene, #1)  | Date unknown
A semi-abstract beach with four figures—three large and one small—is depicted on a rectangular sheet of paper. The larger figures are in profile, hunched over and walking on the beach toward the left side of the canvas, seemingly against a strong wind. The smaller figure walks toward the water, their back to us.
Untitled (beach scene 2)  | Date unknown
Three figures stand together in a field of simple geometric color shapes. The figures are rendered somewhat abstractly, in a style reminiscent of cubism, with angled lines, simplified features, and exaggerated gestures. Each is carved out of off-white paint and looks as if it has been collaged on to the canvas against a flat geometrical background of orange, mustard yellow, and pale pink shapes.
"Hanging Out"  | Date unknown
A man and woman sit on pavement, cross-legged, perhaps at a train or bus station, waiting to board. The man has bushy dark hair and a beard. There's a backpack in front of him and a canned soda with a straw in it. He's reading to the woman. There's an indistinct figure behind them.
"Reading"  | Date unknown
A woman in profile sits cross-legged on the ground. She's drinking from a cup with a straw in it. There's a paper on the ground beside her and a backpack behind her.
"Goin Home" ("Waiting")  | Date unknown
Three figures with featureless faces stand in a line facing the viewer. The figure on the left has an apron and chef's hat on. The figures are flat in aspect against a background of abstract shapes.
"Untitled" (aproned figure)  | Date unknown
An abstract painting that seems to depict a figure in a complex layering of blue and white paint that has been scored by lines, such as might have been made by the wooden tip of a paint brush. The background is intensely red.
Untitled (abstract with red background)  | Date unknown
A lone figure, his back to the viewer, stands in a half circle of ochre light in front of a dark cityscape.
"Pale Sky"  | 2007
A city scene at sundown.
"Untitled" (sunset city scene)  | Date unknown
An almost abstract rendering in broad brushstrokes of a city street at night with, in the foreground, the shapes of people whose inner lives we can almost sense heading home from work.
City at night  | Date unknown
A street with buildings in the background and snow piled along the sides of the road. Three figures head home, walking along the side of a road. The sky is slate gray, either because it's evening and getting dark or because of an impending storm.
"Headed Home, Winter"  | Date unknown
Monotype in muted tones of an urban scene with tiny figures and a roiling sky.
"Untitled" (cityscape monoprint)  | Date unknown
A painting of a white-capped mountain. Above it, a cool, bluish-purple sky is etched with the thin orange streaks of a setting sun and wispy grey and white clouds. Most of the mountain is dark, but the brown paint has been laid over a warm orange-red underpainting, and, with the end of a paintbrush or some other blunt tool, the painter drew into the brown paint while it was still wet to expose glimmers of this orange beneath.
"Annapurna, Nepal"  | 1983
Geometric neutral-colored buildings are smudged one into another and bristle with glimmers of sunlight. Lines drawn in dark paint outline some of the buildings and suggest roads or electrical wires or antennae—or some other city infrastructure that ensures connectivity. Seeming to evoke the painter’s mind as he traveled across the canvas, these lines skate calligraphically, delightedly, across the painting’s surface, thickening and puddling near the base of buildings and on the right side of the picture plane, where a few tiny dark silhouettes of people populate a gap between buildings. There are wispy streaks of clouds in the sky, as well as a few detached white cottony cumulus balls.
"Camden, NJ"  | 2012
A monkey on a tree branch with a full moon in the upper right hand corner behind it. The background of the monkey is streaked with different variegations of greenish paint.
Untitled (monkey on branch with full moon)  | 1982
A black and white photo of the bottommost parts of a small copse of trees, the mound where they're planted bordered with large stones. The primary focus of the photograph, however, appears to be on the pattern of shadow and light on the earth around the trees.
Stony Point, New York  | 2020-2021
A chandelier-like network of silver rectangles hangs from a square armature of wire and is suspended from the ceiling in a dark, timbered space.
Sammamish Study  | 2009
A nighttime landscape with a bright moon in a deep blue sky shining on a other-worldly forest that looks enchanted.
"Moonlight on the Forest Floor"  | Date unknown
A few confident lines of black paint depict a woman holding a baby in the crook of her arm. The peaceful blue of the woman's body is almost violently interrupted here and there by streaks of brown and pinkish orange designs.
All For You  | 2023
We see the upper body of a faceless woman, arms folded in front of her, boldly presented in black outline and bright paint: red for her body, pink for her tank top and green for the background. A kaleidoscope of line work scrolls across every part of the painting, except for the woman's hair, which is a disorganized page-like halo of black and red around her head.
"Graffiti Me"  | 2014
A nude woman is posed with her back to us. The left side of her body is perched on a box; her left buttock and thigh visible, her left arm supporting the weight of her shoulders and upper body, palm of her hand pressing against the top of the box. Her right leg stretches out behind her to the right. Her head is tilted down and away so that we see only the back of her head.
Lennart Anderson, Back View, Woman on a Box, Oil on canvasboard, 20 x 16 inches, 2008
A spiderplant in a clay pot droops off to the right. Both the background and the shadows under the table in the foreground are dark but alive with colors. A suggestion of dim yet warming light permeates the scene.
Lennart Anderson, Spiderplant, 2006, post-macular, oil on canvasboard, 20 x 16 in. ©2024 Estate of Lennart Anderson / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Courtesy Leigh Morse Fine Arts.
A landscape showing a wooded area with a dirt road and a shack.
Lennart Anderson, "Crawford Sugar House, Shearer Hill Road," Oil on canvasboard, 15 x 22 inches, c. 1969
People hurry up the steps of a subway station while a man reading the newspaper turns as if the viewer had asked him a question, all while a white dog passes by.
Robert Birmelin, The Lost White Dog, 14th St., NYC, 2002, pre-macular, acrylic on canvas, 18 x 24 in. Image courtesy Robert Birmelin.
A street in New York, busy with people going about their business, with, in the far distance, the twin towers against a hazy blue sky. In just a few minutes, the first tower will be struck by a hijacked plane, which we know from the painting’s title and the clock above one of the storefronts.
Robert Birmelin, "The Morning of September 11, 2001, 8:45 AM," Acrylic on canvas, 24 x 30 inches, 2002
The color red predominates in this watercolor of two different scenes. Above is a street lined with trees; below is a studio with drawings on a wall. The painting is reversible.
Robert Birmelin, Two in One--Sidewalk and Gallery, 2020, post-macular, ink, watercolor, and acrylic on paper, 30 x 22 in. Image courtesy Robert Birmelin.
The color red predominates in this watercolor of two different scenes. Above is a gallery space with drawings on the wall and a guard in the right corner; below are the heads in profile of a couple facing one another. The painting is reversible.
Robert Birmelin, "The Red Room," 2020, post-macular, ink, watercolor, and acrylic on paper, 30 x 22 inches. Image courtesy Robert Birmelin.
A semi-abstract beach with four figures—three large and one small—is depicted on a rectangular sheet of paper. The larger figures are in profile, hunched over and walking on the beach toward the left side of the canvas, seemingly against a strong wind. The smaller figure walks toward the water, their back to us.
Serge. Hollerbach, Untitled (beach scene 1), Monoprint. Sheet: 15 x 22 in.; image 8 3/4 x 11 3/4 in., date unknown. Image courtesy Drew Saunders / Newman & Saunders Galleries
A semi-abstract beach with four figures—three large and one small—is depicted on a rectangular sheet of paper. The larger figures are in profile, hunched over and walking on the beach toward the left side of the canvas, seemingly against a strong wind. The smaller figure walks toward the water, their back to us.
Serge. Hollerbach, Untitled (beach scene 2), date unknown, monoprint. Sheet: 15 x 22 in.; image 8 3/4 x 11 3/4 in. Image courtesy Drew Saunders / Newman & Saunders Galleries
Three figures stand together in a field of simple geometric color shapes. The figures are rendered somewhat abstractly, in a style reminiscent of cubism, with angled lines, simplified features, and exaggerated gestures. Each is carved out of off-white paint and looks as if it has been collaged on to the canvas against a flat geometrical background of orange, mustard yellow, and pale pink shapes.
Serge Hollerbach, "Hanging Out," Tempera on paper, 38 ½ x 26 ½ inches, date unknown. Image courtesy Drew Saunders / Newman & Saunders Galleries
A man and woman sit on pavement, cross-legged, perhaps at a train or bus station, waiting to board. The man has bushy dark hair and a beard. There's a backpack in front of him and a canned soda with a straw in it. He's reading to the woman. There's an indistinct figure behind them.
Serge Hollerbach, "Reading" (two figures sitting), date unknown, pre-macular, acrylic on paper, 35 ½ x 41inches (framed). Image courtesy Drew Saunders / Newman & Saunders Galleries.
A woman in profile sits cross-legged on the ground. She's drinking from a cup with a straw in it. There's a paper on the ground beside her and a backpack behind her.
Serge Hollerbach, "Goin’ Home" ("Waiting"), date unknown, pre-macular, acrylic on board, 29 ½ x 21 ½ inches. Image courtesy Drew Saunders / Newman & Saunders Galleries.
Three figures with featureless faces stand in a line facing the viewer. The figure on the left has an apron and chef's hat on. The figures are flat in aspect against a background of abstract shapes.
Serge Hollerbach, Untitled (aproned figure), date unknown, post-macular, acrylic on museum board, 40 x 30 inches. Image courtesy Drew Saunders / Newman & Saunders Galleries.
An abstract painting that seems to depict a figure in a complex layering of blue and white paint that has been scored by lines, such as might have been made by the wooden tip of a paint brush. The background is intensely red.
Serge Hollerbach, Untitled (abstract with red background), date unknown, post-macular, acrylic on paper, 38 1/2 x 27 1/4 in. Image courtesy Drew Saunders / Newman & Saunders Galleries
A lone figure, his back to the viewer, stands in a half circle of ochre light in front of a dark cityscape.
Serge Hollerbach, "Pale Sky," Watercolor and acrylic on paper, 30 ¼ by 22 ¾ inches, 2007. Image courtesy Drew Saunders / Newman & Saunders Galleries
A city scene at sundown.
Serge Hollerbach, "Untitled" (sunset city scene), date unknown, acrylic on paper; 40 ½ x 31 ½ inches (framed). Image courtesy Drew Saunders / Newman & Saunders Galleries.
An almost abstract rendering in broad brushstrokes of a city street at night with, in the foreground, the shapes of people whose inner lives we can almost sense heading home from work.
Serge Hollerbach, "City at Night" (detail), Acrylic on paper, 31 x 27 1/2 inches, date unknown. Image courtesy Drew Saunders / Newman & Saunders Galleries.
A street with buildings in the background and snow piled along the sides of the road. Three figures head home, walking along the side of a road. The sky is slate gray, either because it's evening and getting dark or because of an impending storm.
Serge Hollerbach, "Headed Home, Winter," date unknown, acrylic on panel, 19 ¼ x 22 ½ (framed). Image courtesy Drew Saunders / Newman & Saunders Galleries
Monotype in muted tones of an urban scene with tiny figures and a roiling sky.
Serge Hollerbach, Untitled (cityscape monoprint), date unknown, monoprint. Sheet: 15 x 11 ¼ inches; image: 11 ¾ x 9 inches. Image courtesy Drew Saunders / Newman & Saunders Galleries.
A painting of a white-capped mountain. Above it, a cool, bluish-purple sky is etched with the thin orange streaks of a setting sun and wispy grey and white clouds. Most of the mountain is dark, but the brown paint has been laid over a warm orange-red underpainting, and, with the end of a paintbrush or some other blunt tool, the painter drew into the brown paint while it was still wet to expose glimmers of this orange beneath.
Robert Andrew Parker, "Annapurna, Nepal," Oil on panel, 10 x 8 inches, 1983
Geometric neutral-colored buildings are smudged one into another and bristle with glimmers of sunlight. Lines drawn in dark paint outline some of the buildings and suggest roads or electrical wires or antennae—or some other city infrastructure that ensures connectivity. Seeming to evoke the painter’s mind as he traveled across the canvas, these lines skate calligraphically, delightedly, across the painting’s surface, thickening and puddling near the base of buildings and on the right side of the picture plane, where a few tiny dark silhouettes of people populate a gap between buildings. There are wispy streaks of clouds in the sky, as well as a few detached white cottony cumulus balls.
Robert Andrew Parker, "Camden, NJ," Oil on panel, 10 1/8 x 15 13/18 inches, 2012
A monkey on a tree branch with a full moon in the upper right hand corner behind it. The background of the monkey is streaked with different variegations of greenish paint.
Robert Andrew Parker, Untitled (monkey on branch with full moon), 1982, pre-macular, watercolor and gouache on board, 29 3/4 x 21 5/8 in. Image courtesy the Estate of Robert Andrew Parker.
A black and white photo of the bottommost parts of a small copse of trees, the mound where they're planted bordered with large stones. The primary focus of the photograph, however, appears to be on the pattern of shadow and light on the earth around the trees.
Philip Perkis, Stony Point, New York, 2020-2021, post-macular, gelatin silver print. Sheet: 18 x 16 in., image: 8 1/4 x 12 1/2 in. Image courtesy Philip Perkis
A chandelier-like network of silver rectangles hangs from a square armature of wire and is suspended from the ceiling in a dark, timbered space.
Tim Prentice, Sammamish Study, 2009, post-macular, aluminum and stainless steel, 9 x 40 x 40 in. Image courtesy Tim Prentice.
A nighttime landscape with a bright moon in a deep blue sky shining on a other-worldly forest that looks enchanted.
A few confident lines of black paint depict a woman holding a baby in the crook of her arm. The peaceful blue of the woman's body is almost violently interrupted here and there by streaks of brown and pinkish orange designs.
Erika Marie York, "All for You," 2023, post-macular, acrylic on canvas, 20 x 16 in. Image courtesy Erika Marie York.
We see the upper body of a faceless woman, arms folded in front of her, boldly presented in black outline and bright paint: red for her body, pink for her tank top and green for the background. A kaleidoscope of line work scrolls across every part of the painting, except for the woman's hair, which is a disorganized page-like halo of black and red around her head.
Erika Marie York, "Graffiti Me," 2014, post-macular, acrylic on canvas, 22 x 28 inches. Image courtesy Erika Marie York.

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