With oil paint on canvas, artist Marlene Kurland transcends everyday experiences and imbues them with a joie de vivre, a joy of living. The personalities in her contemporary artwork radiate happiness as they walk on a sparkling beach or gather for family festivities. Their energy seems to break through the rectilinear confines of linen and wood stretcher bars, inviting the viewer to shift from stranger to informal friend and share in their celebration of life. At Agora Gallery, as Kurland exhibits her Wedding series, viewers can feel the experience of their own dreamy wedding memories or imagine an upcoming personal event of their own. In her previous series, also exhibited at Agora Gallery, cell phones were the main focus of her work, emblems of the modern experience of the social placed amidst more traditional imagery. 

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Inspired by the 19th-century French impressionist painters, Renoir and Monet, and post-impressionist Bonnard, Kurland utilizes color and light to emphasize emotion. In both of her Maryland and Florida studios, she often lays down shapes and neutral pigments at the outset of her process. Kurland adds bold brushstrokes of varied hue, deliberately forming the dynamic and energetic mood of her portraits. Academic backgrounds in psychology and art inform her paintings, combining the power of optimism with visual communication to capture the soul of her subjects. In a world where negative news can influence an individual's outlook on life, Kurland aims to evoke positive dialog with delightful moments through familiar and newly created memories.

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In addition, Kurland is frequently commissioned for family paintings, ordered by collectors from all over the world and inspired by their favorite photos. As Kurland stated, "I look forward to painting the love of you and your family members...a gift they will treasure forever!" Kurland includes in all of her commissioned paintings her upbeat and unique style to give life, through a canvas, to each family she paints, thus creating a loving, cherished, personal gift that inevitably elicits great emotion.