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D'Alessio Gallery
D’Alessio Gallery: Figures, Color and a Playful Bar Harbor Stop
Discover
D'Alessio Gallery brings a bright, figurative imagination into a Bar Harbor visit. At its Mount Desert Street space, Russell D'Alessio's paintings, drawings and mixed-media work offer an encounter with people, gestures and unexpected combinations. The artist describes a world connected with childlike innocence and continuing youth, but the work invites more than a quick response to cheerful color. Start with a face or movement that catches your eye, then notice how the surrounding shapes affect the small story you begin to imagine.
The gallery has presented D'Alessio's work in Bar Harbor since 1989. His relationship with art reaches farther back, including an introduction to Picasso's work at the Museum of Modern Art as a teenager. His father, an engineer who painted on weekends, encouraged his drawing, with rabbits becoming an early subject that continued into later work. That connection gives a playful animal more context than it might first suggest. A recurring image can carry a personal history while remaining available for a visitor's own associations.
D'Alessio's statement describes a process that often starts with abstraction and moves toward figures. This is a useful way to look: follow color, edges and the arrangement of forms before deciding exactly what is happening. His figurative paintings emphasize movement and expression, with humor entering through the relationship between bold gestures and subtler details. Try viewing one work from a little farther away, then move closer if the gallery arrangement allows it. The overall composition and an individual expression may offer quite different points of entry.
His background also includes graphic design and screen printing. Before concentrating on the gallery, he worked in print shops and operated a screen-printing business with his wife. That history offers another reason to pay attention to the organization of a picture, from a strong silhouette to the interaction of lettering-like marks and color. It does not prescribe how every work should be read. Instead, it adds context for an artist who moves among paintings, drawings, graphics and other media rather than following only one kind of image-making.
The choice of medium can change the encounter. Ask what is on view during your visit and how a particular work was made. An original canvas, a work on paper and a reproduction each have their own material qualities and purposes. If you are considering a purchase, discuss the actual work's identification and handling with the gallery. If you are simply looking, give a few works enough time for the figures' relationships to develop. The gallery's scale lends itself to attention directed at particular images rather than an attempt to summarize an entire career.
Check current opening arrangements before making a special trip, especially outside the main visitor season; alternative visits can be discussed by appointment. Ask before photographing the artworks. When you return to Bar Harbor's streets, you may find yourself more alert to a gesture, a passing conversation or an unusual pairing of colors. That is a satisfying result for a gallery stop: a familiar town view seen through a slightly more playful eye, shaped by time spent with one artist's way of bringing figures and abstraction together.
Fun facts
- The gallery has showcased D’Alessio’s work in Bar Harbor since 1989.
- His father encouraged early drawings of rabbits.
- His artistic background includes graphic design and screen printing.
Before you go
- Confirm current opening or appointment arrangements.
- Give a few works time before moving through the whole gallery.
- Ask about the medium and identification of a work that interests you.
- Request permission before photographing art.
Capture
- Photograph the gallery exterior from a public viewpoint without blocking entry.
- If permission is given, frame an artwork with enough context to preserve its identity rather than copying a detail for reuse.
Social
D’Alessio Gallery presents a personal artistic world in Bar Harbor.
The gallery’s history there reaches back to 1989.
Russell D’Alessio often begins with abstraction and moves toward figures.
Movement and expression are central to his figurative work.
Rabbits connect later imagery with an early drawing subject.
Graphic design and screen printing form part of his background.
Compare the material qualities of the different media on view.
Check current opening arrangements at Mount Desert Street.
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