Mark Borghi Fine Art - Sag Harbor
Mark Borghi Fine Art, Sag Harbor opened its doors in the summer of 2020 amidst turbulent times. Since its inception, gallery director Marisa Borghi has brought a unique curatorial perspective that tends to focus on the more intimate and personal bodies of work and art projects. The current exhibition on view, To Be an Artist is to Embrace the World in One Kiss: Works by Mercedes and Herbert Matter is an intimate exploration of Mercedes Matter’s drawings done later in life that seem to evoke the aesthetics of her husband Herbert Matter’s experimental, Surrealist photography. This visual dialogue between husband and wife offers both a formalist gratification of congruencies, while also telling an intimate narrative of the Matters’ life together as artists who both had a profound impact on the New York Avant-garde.
Prior to the Mercedes and Herbert Matter exhibition, the gallery examined a body of work by artist Catherine Lepp, which was an incredibly intimate portrayal of her children over time playing in bodies of water as they were growing up in the New York area. Lepp’s dramatically gestural paintings use Impressionist-like color schemes and lighting to offer a deeply personal lens from which a mother views her children. Mark B
orghi, Sag Harbor also recently showcased the work of Jonathan Harkham with his solo exhibition: My Beloved Chogokin. The paintings in this exhibition are a type of autobiographic exploration of the artist through the focus of Japanese toys from the 1970s and 80s. Fusing influences of punk rock, zines, skating and the aesthetics of street culture, Harkham achieves a type of collaged self-portrait. Finding the intimate through the inanimate is the beauty of Harkam’s work. Also, on view at the gallery this past summer was a solo exhibition of Maurice Sievan. A close friend of Mark Rothko and Milton Avery, Sievan was seen as part of the New York School and hailed by Clement Greenberg as “one of the best painters in the country.” Sievan’s body of work spanning from his earlier landscape paintings of Manhattan during the Great Depression to his later abstract work tends to encapsulate a mood of isolation. The profound psychological impact of Sievan’s paintings aligns his work with Marisa’s emphasis on Art’s ability to both capture and trigger very personal sentiments.
Marisa Borghi was a watercolor painter from a very early age and achieved a good amount of recognition. Her impressive portfolio took her to the Rhode Island School of Design where she earned a BFA in graphic design. Marisa transitioned from her career in graphic design to the New York art world when she began working for James Graham & Sons Gallery. As her career progressed with sales/ marketing and curatorial roles with a number of other New York galleries, she met gallerist, Mark Borghi and the two married in 2005. Soon she began working with Mark on expanding his renowned brand. Upon her successful contributions to Mark Borghi Fine Art from both a sales and curatorial perspective, Marisa launched Mark Borghi, Sag Harbor. The gallery will continue to showcase sincere work rooted in personal examination and exploration, coinciding with Marisa’s own belief that art can both influence and heal the human condition. In addition to the success of the Mark Borghi brand name, Marisa and her husband Mark are incredibly proud of their four children who are all actively engaged in The Arts.