‘Mushrooms’ at the Fountain House Gallery

Elizabeth Borisov's illustration of mushrooms, now on display at New York's the Fountain House Gallery. Courtesy of Fountain House Gallery

NEW YORK—Romanian emigree Ella Veres conceived and curated an art show entitled “Mushrooms,” presently at the Fountain House Gallery, which specializes in featuring the works of mentally ill artists.

Veres (pronounced VAIR-esh) herself has suffered many traumas. “Living in Romania under communism was unbearable, and I knew I had to escape that environment,” she recently said.

She came to the States in 1998 and became a U.S. citizen in 2012, but stresses continued to mount for her, and eventually she was diagnosed with PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder). After she received some weeks of treatment, a New York hospital recommended she contact Fountain House Gallery.

Founded in 2000, Fountain House Gallery is in the heart of New York City’s lively Hell’s Kitchen, as the area is popularly known. It provides a place “where artists living with mental illness can express their creative visions and exhibit their work,” according to the gallery website.

The Gallery is an outgrowth of Fountain House, an organization formed in 1948 “with the belief that people living with mental illness can be active participants in their own and each other’s recovery.”

‘Mushrooms’

Veres is not a painter herself but rather creates large shows both in art and in theater. She writes monologues, which she has read in a project at a New York City downtown venue, Theater for the New City, on lower Second Avenue.

A committee at the gallery approved Veres’s plan for an exhibition centered on the theme of mushrooms.

Why mushrooms? “Mushrooms are visually intriguing, and fungi have been integral to the development and maintenance of the Earth,” she said.

Veres sent out an inquiry to prospective artists and received a hearty response. “About 30 are represented on the walls. There were many more applicants than we had space for on the walls. But those not accepted for placement were given a digital display.”

“In fact,” she continued, “ very few were not accepted in one form or another.”

One work displayed is a painting by Elizabeth Borisov whose studies, in part, took place at Bridgeview Academy in Queens, New York. While she works from her imagination, she also loves to work outdoors and is very inspired by nature.

Her painting shows a group of stately mushrooms, which are close to being illustrated realistically, with a witty spattering of white spots.

Fountain House Gallery 702 Ninth Ave., New York City For information: 212-262-2756 Closes: March 8