The paintings of Franki DeSaro are on display at Salon Concrete beginning Saturday evening.
The early days of June offer up a bumper crop of art happenings in and around Red Bank — simply scroll through recent posts on redbankgreen for the details on current installations at the Art Alliance, Detour Gallery, Middletown Library, the Guild, and Monmouth Museum for proof.
But one of the downtown area’s most forward-thinking hair salons is preparing to transform itself into an artist’s “salon” of an altogether more luminous sort.
Franki DeSaro’s ‘Evening’ is among the works going on display at Salon Concrete.
Continuing a recently minted tradition at its Broad Street space, Christine Zilinski’s Salon Concrete returns to full gallery mode this Saturday when it showcases the work of borough-based painter Franki DeSaro in a solo exhibit entitled Sole Luminoso, a reception in which the visual art is illuminated by special performance pieces and even some special stimulation for the taste buds.
A native Jerseyan who studied and made a name for herself in Savannah, Georgia — and who returned recently to establish studio space here in town — DeSaro has shown in European galleries, and was heavily involved in a 2016 endeavor through which therapeutic art techniques were introduced to women and children who had been rescued from India’s sex trafficking industry.
Dedicated through her studio practice to “empowering her community through arts as activism, meditation, and yoga,” the painter is partnering for Saturday’s occasion with Concrete and with Red Bank’s Renaissance Pilates The Studio, for an evening that features a 6 p.m. artist talk by DeSaro, plus live music by April Peters and Seth Dyer, and a dance performance by Kristen Mangione.
Also featured will be a wine and cheese tasting presented by Direct Cellars. It’s all free and public welcome, with the Saturday reception event running from 6 to 10 p.m., and the Sole Luminoso exhibit remaining on display during salon business hours through August 30.
