Ray Waterhouse was pleased to present an exhibition benefitting The Michael J. Fox Foundation, the world's largest funder of Parkinson's research. Partnering with Team Fox, the Foundation's grassroots fundraising arm, a portion of the sales from the exhibition went directly to Parkinson's research efforts. Paintings, drawings and photographs of five artists represented by Ray Waterhouse were featured. Two of these artists – Tom Shannon and Jay Zukerkorn – have Parkinson's disease, a progressive degenerative neurological disorder that affects more than 5 million people worldwide.
Jay Zukerkorn was diagnosed in 2004. Born in Hawaii, Zukerkorn has been a successful commercial photographer for 25 years and Ray Waterhouse was the first dealer to showcase his fine art endeavors. Zukerkorn's first series Movement Disorder began as a response to his initial diagnosis, as he accentuated his condition by deliberately blurring the images in bright, colorful beach scenes. In his new series, The Road I Am On, the photographs appear abstract, highlighting the contrast between dark pavements and bright, crackled paint. The series is another leg of his journey through artistic reinvention and rediscovery.
Tom Shannon is an internationally renowned artist, working in a variety of mediums since 1967. His work is in the collections of many museums including The Museum of Modern Art, New York, The Musée d'Art Moderne in Paris and The Tate Gallery, London. His famous ‘Ted Talk' in 2009 was filmed in his New York studio when he created two of the works that will be exhibited in this show. Shannon's art is inspired by science and is endlessly inventive. Shannon is an inventor, holding a number of patents, and his art is inspired by science and the forces of nature. The onset of Parkinson's intersects in his life and craft. View his 2009 TED Talk, “The Painter and the Pendulum.”
Work by gallery artists Doug Argue, Karen Gunderson, Kim Keever, Xavier Guardans, and Nick Veasey were also featured.
The Michael J. Fox Foundation is dedicated to finding a cure for Parkinson's through an aggressively funded research agenda and to ensure the development of improved therapies for those living with the disease today. Since its inception, the Foundation has funded more than $525 million in Parkinson's research and 89 cents of every dollar raised goes straight to high-impact research programs.