ANNOUNCING LOUISA GOULD’S CONTEMPORARY ABSTRACT SHOW

“ THE EMOTIONS OF COLOR AND PASSIONS OF GESTURE”

The Louisa Gould Gallery is pleased to present six contemporary abstract artists’ interpretation of “The Emotions of Color and Passions of Gesture”. The artists include Wendy Weldon, Marsha Staiger, Joan Konkel, Laura Roosevelt, Roberta Gross and Craig Cahoon. The show opens on August 16, 2012 and continues through August 29, 2012. These six artists use a variety of medium to express their artistic visions: monoprints on paper; acrylic on paper and cradled board; collagraph /mixed media collages on canvas; acrylic, mesh and aluminum on canvas; giclee photography on paper; and oil / acrylic and conte crayon compositions. Come by enjoy light refreshments and meet the artists at the opening reception on Saturday, August 18, 2012, from 6-8 p.m. Please also join us at the Gallery on August 22, 2012 at 6.p.m when Roberta Gross will be presenting an interactive discussion of the exhibit.

Wendy Weldon, a full time Chilmark resident, is well known to many on the Island both for her active civic involvement as well as her colorful distinct paintings. She will be exhibiting at the Gallery for the first time. Wendy began her career as an abstract non-objective painter in the mid-60’s. Gradually, more landscape elements appeared in her work, often featuring barns or stone walls. For this exhibit, she is displaying 4 monoprints which suggest rocks and rock formations. (A monoprint results where the artist paints with inks or acrylics on a Plexiglas plate and prints the image from that plate onto paper).

Marsha Staiger, an Island visitor, is an award winning artist from the Greater Metropolitan Washington D.C. area, including the Alexandria, Virginia Torpedo Factory award, “Artist of the Year” and the Alexandria Commission for the Arts Award for Art in City Hall. She will be showing both her long and short rhythm and balance (R&B) pieces. The large pieces, displayed at the Gallery for the first time this year, are cradled boards painted on 5 sides (top, bottom, front and sides) and measure 76inx 4in x3in while the shorter pieces, R&B2go measure 20x4x3inches.( R&B is an acronym for rhythm and balance, Marsha’s intentional allusion to rhythm and blues music). These painterly wall pieces reflect her sensitive response to the textures, colors and changing history of each painting as she proceeds to apply layers of loose, washy paint; sometimes more tactile layers, including collage, combining, isolating and recombining areas. The R&B’s can be displayed singly or in multiples, horizontally, vertically or at an angle.

Joan Konkel, recently featured in the hard cover publication “100 Artists of the Mid-Atlantic” (edited by Ashley Rooney) is exhibiting for the first time at the Gallery. Her sculptural wall paintings, which range from 12 inches to 60 inches, imaginatively incorporate such different materials as metal mesh, aluminum sheet and acrylic paint, on canvas. She uses these materials to create a dynamic, visual surface in which light is both absorbed and reflected as it filters between the layers of materials and bounces off the mesh and aluminum. Depending on the light, colors and shadows shift and move as part of the composition. Even by changing position, the viewer shifts the role of light in her dynamic work.

Roberta Gross, a resident of Aquinnah and soon-to-be resident of Philadelphia, PA after 33 years in Washington D.C., exhibits in the DC area and on the Vineyard. She often can be seen at the Featherstone Center for the Arts where she teaches the abstract and mixed media art courses. For this exhibit, she is exhibiting six larger acrylic paintings on paper. These compositions with their bold, big shapes, sinewy, weaving and disappearing lines and bubbly surfaces appear to reflect the meanderings and changing emotions of dreamscapes. Her mixed media pieces, consisting of collagraphs and hand painted paper collages, reflect her continuing experiments with different kinds of paper and scrap materials. In the six colorful works in the exhibit, she has organized rectangles consisting of stained glass-like acrylic painted papers, some brushed with gold metallic acrylic paint; an assortment of bits and pieces of her recycled art works and portions of her collagraph prints. (Collagraphs are prints made from the artist’s textured printing plates). These works reflect her interest in the dialogue between different kinds of papers as they come together in colorful, textured layers interwoven with bold, dark curvy lines reflect her willingness to respond to chance effects balanced against controlled composition.

Laura Roosevelt, a year round resident of West Tisbury, is someone many Islanders know as a poet, journalist, and/or active community member. She is also an emerging abstract photographer. In this exhibit, her abstract photographs reflect a trip to the Baltimore, MD harbor. There she turned her artist’s eye to the harbor and responded to the visual images of the boats, pilings, docks, buildings- seemingly solid objects- becoming distorted and transformed by the water’s movement. She aims for her photographs to appear painterly rather than more hard edged and presents colorful compositions of swirling patterns and distortions.

Craig Cahoon is a new exhibitor in the Gallery but during earlier visits to the Vineyard, he has shown his work in Island galleries. Throughout his artistic development, he has been awarded various residencies at art centers. He reflects the emotional reaction to being in these new locations in his paintings. In this exhibit, his small paintings synthesize his experiences into very minimal shapes, often drawn with conte crayon over the painted surface. Being an artist allows him to “relive sensations and memories, delve into archetypal imagery and engage in formal investigations of compositions and materials”.

We look forward to seeing you on Saturday, August 18 from 6 – 8p.m at the opening of “The Emotions of Color and Passions of Gesture”. The Louisa Gould Gallery is located at 54 Main Street in Vineyard Haven. For more information, please call 508-693-7373 or visit our website at www.louisagould.com