Opening Reception: Wednesday, July 8, 6-9 pm
Third Thursday Reception: July 16, 6-9 pm
East Boston, July, 2009-From July 8 to July 31, 2009, Atlantic Works Gallery presents A Little Help from my Friends, works created by gallery member artists and their invited guest artists.
Boston is a collection of neighborhoods. From the European feel of the North End, the tiny parking-challenged streets of Beacon Hill, the lovely brick bowfront-endowed garden squares of the South End…each of the city's mini-communities carries its own unique character.
East Boston, with its diversity and with its ties to ship-building and air transport, has long been a melting-pot. It therefore seemed fitting that the next show staged by East Boston's Atlantic Works Gallery also be an amalgamation of sorts. In July's A Little Help from my Friends, each member of the gallery invites someone from outside of the gallery to participate in the show. The result is an engaging, eclectic assortment of artworks certain to appeal to a variety of guests hailing from….you guessed it… a virtual melting pot of perspectives.
As interesting as the art installed in the gallery may also be who and how the guest artists were chosen by their respective member artist partners. Not surprisingly, a number of the pairs have a familial connection. Many are showing together out of admiration for each others' work... and occasionally the admiration is for more than just the work… (No names here!)
Atlantic Works founding member, Bo Petran, has invited a fellow Czech artist who coincidentally shares the same last name. Bo says he asked Dusan Petran (no relation) to show with him in order to “connect more with his Czech artistic identity.” Kasia Bytnerowicz invited fellow painter Pamela Sienna, whose work was recently added to the permanent collection of the Evansville Indiana Museum of Arts, History and Science. Maureen O'Connor invited her husband, David Harrison, to be her exhibition partner. David's work is in the collection of a current Obama advisor and of a Nobel prize-winning physicist.
Science plays a role in Karen Kemp's selection of Mia Champian. Karen says that her friend is a scientist and also an artist and that “both think creatively and use the same side of the brain.” According to Kemp, this is a perfect opportunity “for Mia, the scientist, to be Mia, the artist.” For Charlene Liska, inviting her daughter Emily Higgins also had a science-related theme. Emily is to attend a graduate program in cognitive science in the fall, but Liska says that her daughter “also has an artist's insights and this show will demonstrate some of those!”
Member artist Joe Kitsch puts a global political spin on his collaboration. He teams up with EMERGE, a Sri Lankan group working with persevering sexually-abused teenage mothers providing them with tools to transform their lives. Beginning as a jewelry workshop EMERGE “strives to facilitate avenues for economic empowerment that promotes joy, responsibility, self-worth and confidence to teenage mothers in Sri Lanka so that these women can feel free and alive in body and spirit.” Joe and his friend, April Wachtel, are organizing a series of art shows focusing around gender issues but centering the show around EMERGE.
The public is invited to attend the OPENING RECEPTION on Wednesday, July 8 from 6 to 9pm and to visit the gallery during the following hours: Fridays 2-6pm and Saturdays 2-6pm. The public is also invited to attend Atlantic Works Gallery's monthly THIRD THURSDAY SHINDIG on Thursday, July 16 from 6 to 9pm.
To schedule a private press viewing and interview at a more convenient time, please contact Laura Rollins, 617.877.8249.
Begun in 2003, Atlantic Works Gallery is a member-operated collaborative space for art and ideas. It is located on the top floor of 80 Border Street on the waterfront in East Boston. Parking is available and it is T-accessible (Maverick T stop on the Blue Line) . Please come to visit!