NEW YORK.- Lori Bookstein Fine Art hosts "Painting in the Park," a celebration of New York City's most valuable assets—its numerous parks—and the painters who have immortalized them over the course of the last century. A number of the painters in this exhibition, Gifford Beal, Nell Blaine, John Heliker, Jane Peterson, and Maurice Prendergast—qualify as American masters, but most of the participating artists are our contemporaries. They are modern residents of the city who continue to draw inspiration from the city's islands of greenery and open space. A portion of the proceeds from this exhibition will benefit Asphalt Green's Summer Day Camp Scholarship Program.

Landscape painting has traditionally investigated the effects of weather, light, and space. The "marriage of earth and sky," of course, takes on an entirely new cast when the backdrop consists of walls of buildings instead of open sky. On one level, the works in "Painting in the Park" are explorations of nature accommodating, and accommodated by, the peculiar energy of the modern urban environment. This mirrors the dual motives of the painters themselves, who pursue the traditional allures of nature while residing and working in the electronic age. Many of the paintings depict Central Park, but the exhibition also includes scenes of Madison Square Park, Governors Island, Riverside Park, and Red Hook Park, as well as aerial views of Battery Park, Union Square, Tompkins Square, and Randall's Island. The artists' approaches range from faithful realism to expressionistic forays and stylized interpretations.

Asphalt Green is a not-for-profit sports and fitness facility situated between the Upper East Side of Manhattan and East Harlem. Community service is at the core of Asphalt Green's origins: each year, thousands of deserving children participate in community programs such as Day Camp, Waterproofing, Community Sports Leagues, and the elementary school-based Recess Enhancement Program.

The contemporary artists in the exhibition include Violet Baxter, Richard Chiriani, Catherine Drabkin, John Dubrow, Phyllis Floyd, Stanley Friedman, John Goodrich, Carolyn Harris, Diana Horowitz, Su-Li Hung, Penny Kronengold, Richard La Presti, Gael Mooney, Elizabeth O'Reilly, Kamilla Talbot and Trevor Winkfield.

"Painting in the Park" will be on view through August 1st, 2008. Please note the gallery's summer hours during this exhibition are Monday through Friday, 10:30am to 6:00pm.