Evidence, by Melissa Shook, comprises a series of daily self-portraits taken with an iPhone between December 2014 and July 2015, which advances concerns of her original 1972-73 daily portrait series.  The new work reflects a woman now in her mid-seventies, with text referring  to personal and political concerns. In addition, Shook will show a selection of new Tree Knot drawings that have a very distinct sexual overtone, and an installation, “Landscape,” consisting of small clay pinch pots.

Shook is a retired member of the faculty of Art, UMASS Boston. She is represented by the Joseph Bellows Gallery, LaJolla, Ca., and is represented in various collections including MOMA, Moderna  Museet, Stockholm, and the St. Louis Art Museum. She is a  recipient of an NEA Visual Artist Grant. For the last ten years, she has been concentrating on animal and human doings at Suffolk Downs Racetrack, near Boston. See www.briarhillthoroughbreds.com for her latest work about the breeding and raising of thoroughbred horses.

Rachel Shatil’s Procession focuses on the image of a jacket as a symbol of displacement.  A jacket is a special item of clothing designed to provide the body with the thickest layer of protection.  In circumstances of displacement, a jacket is the most valuable item one owns.  In the gravest of situations, fleeing mortal peril, a jacket can become a feeble substitute for the lost home. It surrounds the body on all sides, distinctly separating inside from outside. One can hide within its warm, soft confines. The procession of jackets is a procession of the dispossessed, whose jackets, inadequate as they are, are their vehicles of survival.

Rachel Shatil is a Boston-based Israeli artist.  Her visual work is a continuation of an earlier career as a theater director and art director. Her pieces and installations challenge the viewer to interact with experiences of loss and displacement.

Opening Reception: