Picasso to meet Matisse at Bay Ridge exhibit

It’s the best of both worlds.

Bay Ridge-based creative space The Art Room will welcome the work of a local artist as part of a brand new exhibit, starting Friday, November 13 and running through Friday, November 27.

“We haven’t had an exhibition in some time,” said owner and operator of the Art Room Leigh Holliday Brannan, excited to welcome contemporary artist Pablo Matisse (the alias of Ridge-based artist Dane LaChiusa) to make use of her space. “Hopefully, this will act as a springboard for more.”

LaChiusa, Brannan said, has led cartoon workshops at the Art Room in the past and — in his work as Pablo Matisse — has turned out a series of “incredibly unique” pieces she feels might really resonate with local residents.

Those pieces, she said, blend the work of modern masters Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse.

“Matisse and Picasso were notorious for ‘appropriating’ from each other,” said LaChiusa. “Now I have appropriated from both of them in hopes of shedding a new light on the complementary styles of these two great masters, while producing works that are unique and not reducible to either of them, or both together.”

“It’s kind of a playful way to combine the two masters,” noted Brannan, delighted to be a part of the blossoming art scene in Bay Ridge, and beyond.

“I think that this area is really kind of beginning to take shape in terms of arts and culture,” she said. “We only hope to be able to enrich that landscape.”

The exhibit will premiere this Friday from 7 to 9 p.m. at The Art Room, 8710 Third Avenue.

For more information, visit www.pablomatisse.com.