PRESS RELEASE: (Martha's Vineyard) It is with great pleasure that the
Louisa Gould Gallery presents the Seventh Annual Abstract Show,
“Abstract Vision: The Colors and Forms Behind the Everyday”
,
opening on August 29, 2014 and continuing until September 18, 2014.
The artists’ reception will be on August 30 from 5-7 p.m. The
exhibit showcases the work of (9) artists: Tracy Spadafora, Susan
Morosky, Cherie Clinton, Linda Cordner, Charyl Weissbach, Kellie
Weeks, Kay Hartung, Laura Roosevelt, and Roberta Gross. Each of
these artists look around them at the ocean, ponds, lakes, and
forests capture a sense of a reality beneath the changing everyday
appearances of these vistas. They creatively explore the color and
forms behind the everyday using an interesting variety of media:
acrylics, encaustics (highly pigmented beeswax which is affixed by
heating); abstract photography on paper; photo transfers on canvas
and mixed media compositions. Come by and meet the artists at the
opening and enjoy light refreshments. Also, join Roberta Gross for
a curatorial discussion of the exhibit on September 5 at 5 p.m.
Tracy Spadafora’s talent as an
encaustic artist has been recognized by her numerous group and solo
exhibitions both nationally and in Massachusetts, by her inclusion in
books and articles focusing on this medium and her demonstration of
the art of encaustic for various art supply companies including Dick
Blick and Jerry’s. She also is an active instructor at various
art colleges including Rhode Island School of Design and School of
Worcester Art Museum. Her art reflects her longstanding concerns for
the environment including global warming and genetic food
modification. The paintings exhibited in the show are box
constructions which are built on visual and symbolic associations.
She explains.
“(T)he layering, obscuring, deconstructing, and
preserving of images in wax helps me address a complex and shifting
relationship between man, his biological roots, and the shaping of
our natural environment”.
Susan Morosky’s vibrantly,
colorful acrylic paintings reflect her journey to understand the
natural world “through the observance of movement, form, and
color”. She works by continuously layering, adding and then
removing paint from the canvas. Her work
“develops from an
abstract vocabulary inspired by the properties of water, fields, and
their boundaries”. Susan exhibits both nationally and
internationally, and is reviewed in various publications including
Santa Fean, and Architecture Digest.
Cherie Clinton’s visits to the
canals of Venice and the surf of the Skopelos Islands in Greece after
earning her BFA from Massachusetts College of Art inspired her to
paint the natural world. She describes her work in both acrylics and
photo transfers and acrylics as
“a developing story.....part
autobiography with a dash of Grimm’s Fairytales around the edges".
Cherie has shown her paintings in solo exhibits at the Danforth
Museum of Art in Framingham (where she has taught painting and
drawing for 12 years) and the Tower Hill Botanical Garden in
Boylston, MA. She is the creator of the Fountain Street Studios in
Framingham, now the largest collective of working artists west of
Boston. And partnered with photographer Marie Craig to open the
Fountain Street Gallery.
Linda Cordner’s encaustic
paintings have been described as “
enveloping and intimate…
captur(ing) the shifts of the daily atmosphere, space and light…open
widows onto the dichotomous ephemeral, eternal quality of physical
experience”. She works in encaustics creating depth and
translucency by layering, preserving accidental traces of drips,
blurs, blooms left by the artistic process. She exhibits her work
nationally and her work has been reviewed in various publications
including Art New England and Artscope Magazine.
Charyl
Weissbach, a Boston based artist who also exhibits nationally,
explores nature using minimal color and flowing patterns. Her Balsam
Poplar Series is based on a western balsam poplar tree located in
Harvard University's Arnold Arboretum. She utilizes stenciled wax,
resin, metal, and incorporates accents consisting of different kinds
of metal leaf. The MetalScapes encaustic paintings combine metal with
polymer resin. Charyl’s artwork is in many collections, including
Brigham & Women's Hospital, Children's Hospital, UPenn, Harvard
Pilgrim Healthcare, Winchester Hospital, Oracle Acme Packet, and,
NovaCare Pharmaceuticals. She is featured in
“Encaustic
Works 2012: A Biennial Exhibition in Print”
,
by Joanne Mattera, and
100 Artists of
New England
, by E. Ashley Rooney.
Kellie Weeks paints with pigment
sticks and encaustic, creating basic fields of saturated color,
shapes, and objects in dynamic compositions. She views her paintings
as illuminating “…the human spirit and the journey it is on”.
Her work has been exhibited nationally in many juried and group
shows, and is included in many private and public collections.
Additionally, she has worked on many commissioned pieces. In October
2011, Kellie was included in a group show called
“Imagination”
at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. In 2010, she was the
featured artist of the month for
R&F, the premier
manufacture of commercial encaustic products. She also was the
featured artist for cadmium colors for that company in 2011.
Kay Hartung’s richly, colorful
encaustic work is related to her fascination with the microscopic
world. She explains,
“I have been looking at electron
microscope photographs and am inspired by the abstract organic shapes
and intense colors of this hidden world. I imagine the energy and
interactions that go on in my body and the mind to produce action and
thought.” Kay exhibits widely and her work is found in many
corporate and private collections. She has been an active art
instructor as well as a member of various art organizations.
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 abstract
photographer. In this exhibit, her abstract photographs reflect her
continued interest in bodies of water in which she responds to visual
images of the boats, pilings, docks, buildings -- seemingly solid
objects -- as they become 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.
Roberta Gross, the curator of, and
a participant in this exhibit, is a resident of Aquinnah and
Philadelphia, PA. She shows her work in galleries in Philadelphia
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 experimenting with burning
Tyvek, the material builders use in the early stages of preparing a
new house. The paper appears lacey and creates an interesting
dialogue with the colorful, textured layers on which they are
attached. These new paintings reflect a mix of chance effects and
controlled painting. She is also exhibiting several acrylic
paintings on canvas. These compositions with their bold, big shapes
and sinewy lines appear to reflect the earth’s organic formulation
and reformulations.
Please join us for the opening
artist reception on Saturday, August 30 from 5 to 7p.m. at Louisa Gould
Gallery located at 54 Main Street, Vineyard Haven. Please call (508)
693.7373 or visit www.louisagould.com
for directions. The show may also be viewed online.