The focus of Rust Never Sleeps is the vessels, factories and public buildings in and around the Brooklyn Navy Yard where Talese has been painting on location since 2005.  The painter is attracted to what is well made, “functional forms,” to quote Lewis Mumford  “with a certain cleanness of line and rightness of shape that spring, like the shape of a gull or a hawk, from the work to be performed.”  The buildings and ships that interest Talese are older, and represent the once sustainable economies of manufacturing, maritime trade, and working-class New York. Such images provide a useful counterpoint to the theory that America has ‘evolved’ into a knowledge- based economy.

View the Press Release for this exhibition by clicking here.