Still Life With Red (SOLD)
14" x 11"
Oil On Canvas
Lovers’ Haloed Hearts (SOLD)
38′ x 50″
Oil On Canvas
Portrait In Orange Circles (SOLD)
32″ x 24″
Oil On Canvas
Sweet Summer Breeze (SOLD)
15.25″ x 12″
Oil On Canvas
"My paintings emerge from sustained study and labor, shaped by an ongoing attachment to material and process. Each work is an attempt at sincerity, a rendering of internal conditions rather than fixed narratives. The images exist as moments of realization, provisional and evolving, reflecting the instability of perception and emotion in the present.
Awkwardness and uncertainty are not avoided but embraced as part of the work’s honesty. In seeking to capture feeling, the process often reveals its own limitations; the act of translation remains imperfect. Yet it is within this inadequacy that meaning persists. The paintings hold the residue of effort, emotion, and attention, records of an attempt that continues."
- Benjamin Passione
Turtles All The Way Down, 40" x 50", Oil On Canvas
Benjamin Passione was born in Willingboro, NJ in 1987. He attended life drawing classes at Moore College of Art & Design and then completed the Certificate program at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.
There, he studied painting under artists Bill Scott and Sidney Goodman, and was a recipient of the Lewis S. Ware Travel Scholarship.
His work is in the permanent collection of Woodmere Art Museum, and The Way I Remember It is his fourth solo show at Gross McCleaf Gallery.
Passione lives and works in Philadelphia with his wife, fellow artist Mickayel Thurin, and their two sons, Maurice and Maximo. Passione and Thurin were Artists in Residence of the Philadelphia Art Museum during the summer of 2023.
As The Birds Fly, 30" x 48", Oil On Canvas
Dancing Underwater, 40" x 40", Oil On Canvas
Passione's paintings breathe color. They are symphonies in spatial complexity and color harmony. The frenzy of the artist's marks connect through an underlying order building complex rhythms like the confluence of currents from flowing waters. Be it with paper, pigment, or thread, Passione's works materialize from an abundance of momentary decisions and find an unexpected wholeness through accumulating sympathetic moments.
Elizabeth Johnson: Battle is so balanced but full of change. I especially notice calligraphic lines that, to me, become figures or active movement...Do you remember how many sessions you had with this piece? Did the layers need to dry between working moments?...Did you imagine a drama when you were making it? Or do you prefer to focus on color effects, pattern and line but not story?
Benjamin Passione: I would guess sixty sessions on this painting. But most sessions are me just looking, sometimes two to three hours of work could amount to zero to three brush strokes. Usually, the bulk of the painting explodes quickly, and then there is this super, super, slow editing process that can take a year, maybe longer...I try not to imagine anything. I try to be the sponge or turn on the faucet. I want to let the picture reveal itself. I have my own interests that I let wander on to canvas and suggest the story.
Gross McCleaf Gallery is pleased to present The Way I Remember It, a new solo exhibition by Benjamin Passione. In this body of work, Passione continues his sustained exploration of memory, emotion, and the immediacy of the present moment. Allowing time and space for each painting to unfold, he balances vibrant color, fine lines, and expansive washes without forcing resolution. The works move between urgency and rest, remaining energetic - guided by intuition and feeling rather than explanation.
Passione’s approach in the studio emphasizes patience, openness, and care. “Be kinder to them, not so much on top of them as before, but the paintings paint themselves,” he reflects. “Intense but not too serious...I want to keep things vibrant and dazzling, even comical, energetic, a little hypnotizing.” The result is a body of work that remains lighthearted and intense at once...
Click the image to continue reading
Jeffrey Reed: Of Time, Light and Change
Gross McCleaf Gallery is pleased to present Of Time, Light and Change, a solo exhibition of new paintings by artist Jeffrey Reed. Attuned to the interplay of atmosphere, space, and light, Reed continues his practice of capturing the beauty of familiar landscapes through meticulous observation and thoughtful exploration. For over twenty-five years, Jeffrey Reed has returned to County Mayo, Ireland, painting and teaching at the Ballinglen Arts Foundation, his newest works thoughtfully capturing the subtle beauty and shifting atmosphere of Ireland’s coastal landscape.
Life, Still – Group Exhibition, Curated by Douglas Martenson
At first glance, Life, Still suggests the classical still life—carefully composed objects held in quiet contemplation. Yet, the title holds deeper layers of meaning, much like the paintings in this exhibition. It speaks to the act of pausing in stillness, engaging with the everyday, and reflecting on the persistence of life itself. Stillness does not mean stagnation; rather, it is a moment of attention, an embrace of presence, and a connection to what endures.
Click the image to read more
“Live in each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influence of the earth.”
– Henry David Thoreau
Gross McCleaf Gallery invites you to experience the magic of summer with a group exhibition titled Summer Playlist. Curated like a finely tuned mixtape, this vibrant selection of works explores seasonal themes of celebration, relaxation, and engagement with nature.
Gross McCleaf Gallery is pleased to share a new body of abstract oil paintings by Benjamin Passione in No Time To Be Shy. These vibrant paintings mark Passione's continued exploration of atmospheric color fields, layered with his linear, script-like markings. These new works are larger, lighter and brighter than before and feature the emergence of spherical shapes drawn in Passione’s signature style. Passione’s poetic titles continue to offer inspiration and invite the viewer to search the scene for possible hidden imagery and underlying narratives.
“I think everything is in there: events, people I know, stories, architecture, music…I’m a big believer in coincidence, synchronicity, and numerology: it’s all about how things get funneled and filtered into a linear, transcendent expression.”
-Thomas Paul Raggio
Gross McCleaf is pleased to exhibit a new body of hard-edged abstractions by Thomas Paul Raggio in his first solo show with the gallery. This exhibition, titled In the Valley, features Raggio’s signature combination of carefully organized lines and stripes, meticulously painted in acrylic. While non-objective, the painted bars create harmonious color vibrations that ripple across each canvas. Crisscrossing diagonals offer geometry, movement, and balance...
