SEEKING ENGAGEMENT NSA (NO STRINGS ATTACHED) Exhibition Opens Today at Lyons Weir Gallery

In Seeking Engagement NSA (No Strings Attached) curator Beth McNeill explores the work of eight artists in relationship to the audience's response to what they see. Featuring work by Jack Ceglic, Tom Dash, Tapp Francke, Julia Greffenius, Jeff Muhs, Nika Nesgoda, Darius Yektai and Gavin Zeigler.

The exhibition will be on view today, February 6- February 22, 2014, with an artists reception set for Thursday, February 6, from 6-9pm. The Lyons Wier Gallery is located at 542 West 24th St., New York, NY 10011. Gallery Hours: Tues-Sat, 11am-6pm. Nearest subway: C.E @ 23rd St & 8th Ave.

Art is a vehicle for artists to entice engagement with an audience. Whether literally or conceptually, art changes our personal and global consciousness. We want to know what engages you? Visitors are invited to leave a personal response that will be shared via social media.

Jack Ceglic approaches his work with immediacy, almost as an attack and yet he renders a tenderness in each piece. He creates candid and engaging life size portraits in oil stick and pastel on paper.

Tom Dash uses mixed media techniques to comment on social issues, music and popular culture. His collage and painted works in his "Pin Up" series project women and our contemporary culture.

Tapp Francke's latest mirror series engages the viewer in a process of self-reflection. The neon word and mirrored background forces the viewer to reflect upon the inherent personal meaning of what's being conveyed.

Julia Greffenius creates playful mixed media compositions of figures, landscapes, and abstraction. By exaggerating the highlights and softening the subject, her work appears illusory.

Jeff Muhs, known for his work as a painter, recently set on re-exploring his world championship background in sculpture, surprises us with "The ODB". This highly realistic hand sculpted clay figure shouts hip-hop culture and iconography.

Nika Nesgoda's Virgin series is a photographic compendium that brings elements of church-commissioned paintings by masters such as Caravaggio and Rubens to large-format color slide cibachromes of porn stars as models for The Virgin Mary, serving as "perfect" reflective surfaces for fantasy, redemption, or both.

Darius Yektai transcribes his feelings and memories into works on paper, canvas and sculpture. Yektai's "Three Graces" reflects on the beauty, charm and creativity of masters such as Botticelli and Raphael. His figures appear ethereal as they are dropped into the abstracted composition.

Gavin Zeigler explores surface and color. In his Peep Show series, Zeigler creates an interrupted playing field of figure, form and pattern. He un-earths the beauty of the body under both subtle and bold palettes, teasing his viewers both visually and emotionally.

Each artist currently lives and works on Eastern Long Island, New York.

Beth McNeill is an independent curator and proprietor of McNeill Art Group, based in Southampton, New York. Navigating the pool of contemporary art on Eastern Long Island for over twelve years, Beth is an authority on this rich historical geographic art region. Beth has curated exhibitions, lectured on collecting contemporary art and built collections for both private and public spaces including Tiffany & Co., East Hampton, NY , The Tribeca Project Space, New York, Cantor Fitzgerald, Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, NY and The School of Visual Arts, New York, among others.

Artwork: Gavin Zeigler 'Peep Show #1' acrylic, paper and mixed media on panel 30" x 60" 2013