this Category populates the Exhibitions page of the website

January 2012

Atlantic Works presents:

Rough Trade

Looking for art that’s well-mannered and innocuous? Looking for sweet and decorative? That’s not us. We’ve got something to say. There’s a reason we’re out by the docks. If you want truth and you want it in your face, you come to us. And at Atlantic Works’s Rough Trade show for just one month, you’ll find great work for $100 or less by some of the most fun, edgy artists in the Boston area.

Come here. You know you want it.

Exhibition dates: January 6–19, 2012
Reception: Thursday, January 19, 6-9pm
Gallery hours: Fridays and Saturdays 2–6pm

/by

NIMIS COMEDITE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
ATLANTIC WORKS GALLERY
PRESENTS
NIMIS COMEDITE
An Installation by
vanessa r. thompson and Mark Natale
East Boston, July 24, 2011 – The production of art is a tumultuous, visceral process, the results of which are hung on pristine gallery walls for consumption by the viewer. The production of food is a grueling, laborious process, the results of which are stacked in neatly shrink- wrapped packages in a grocer’s freezer for consumption by the shopper. vanessa r thompson and Mark Natale’s installation and photography intertwine process and product, the consumer and the consumed. Mark Natale’s black-and-white photographs of farm production hang on white walls. Behind the white walls, Thompson’s photographs hang within an installation of three claustrophobic fur-lined corridors.
Exhibit Duration: October 8-29, 2011 Opening Reception: Saturday, October 8, 6-9pm Gallery hours: Fridays through Sundays, 2-6pm or by appointment For more information or to schedule a private press viewing, email vanessa r thompson at vanessa@vanessaRthompson.com or phone her at (617)852-2385.

About the Artists:
vanessa r thompson received her MFA at the Art Institute of Boston. She has exhibited her work throughout New England, most recently at First Fridays at 450 Harrison Ave. in Bostonʼs South End, and at Somerville open studios.

Originally from New Jersey, Mark Natale “took art class for one semester in 7th grade.” He learned about art in Europe after visiting countless galleries and national art institutes. Markʼs artistic vision is influenced by the late Ray Johnson, Yousuf Karsh and Diane Arbus. Mark has exhibited recently at Atlantic Works Gallery in East Boston, Massachusetts.
Begun in 2003, ATLANTIC WORKS GALLERY, “East Boston’s Collaborative Space for Art and Ideas,” is a member-operated gallery located on the top floor of 80 Border Street on the waterfront of East Boston. It is T-accessible (near the Maverick T stop on the Blue Line) and parking space is usually ample. For detailed directions and other information about members and past and future shows, please see atlanticsworks.org.
/by

Getting Serious Press Release

Celebrating Women’s History Month
New Work by Chris Chou, Karen Kemp & Maureen O’Connor

80 Border Street East Boston
March 3 – March 26, 2011

Opening: March 3, 6:00-9:00 pm
Third Thursday: March 17, 6:00-9:00 pm

Come experience the artistic contributions of these 3 women artists living and working in Boston.

Chris Chou received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2007 and says of her work: “Painting is an attitude about life. I see things very directly. I love color. I paint the color of red hot, red is blood, red is energy. I love color and form. I draw the form of circle. It could be an egg: or a window: to lead you to another landscape. It could be an eye: but what an eye! I believe painting is my mission. My goal is simple, but is not easy. I want to make great art. I want use it to share, to comfort, and to celebrate. Through my painting– May you smell the different seasons of life. Have a date with surprise! Or .. Just simply a smile.”

Karen Kemp is in love with the shoreline and continues to portray it in her paintings simply and unspoiled. The essence of her landscape painting is nature unpeopled and uninterrupted which gives a sense of calm. Kemp also continues her work in etching with a new series of small dogs: cute loveable animals that are fun to draw! Kemp, a native of Long Island, New York, studied at Rhode Island School of Design and the University of New Hampshire received a BA in Art History. She has training in traditional fresco painting restoration from Il Laboratorio Per Affresco di Vainella in Prato, Italy. In 2003 Karen received a painting fellowship at the Vermont Studio Center. She has also been the recipient of several awards for her work in etching and oil painting. Karen is represented by Danette Koke Fine Art in New York, Boston Drawing Project at the Bernard Toale Gallery in Boston, MA. Her artwork has become a part of private and corporate art collections.

Maureen O’Connor has been called a “masterful painter of our favorite things (like candy) by Randi Hopkins, curator at Boston’s Institute of Contemporary Art. O’Connor continues her work with ceramic ducks which are known for their anthropomorphic quality and have been compared to the work of Japanese artist Takashi Murakami. Her ducks are in the private collections of Bruce Dayton, founder of Target Department Stores, Richard Miner, founder of Android and a partner at Google. Her work is also in the collections of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, Fidelity Investments and Boston Medical Center among others. O’Connor won 1st Prize in Painting at Home for the Arts in 2007, juried by Paul Tucker noted Monet Scholar and author of Monet in the Twentieth Century. O’Connor is represented by the Jack Meier Gallery, Houston Texas.

Fridays and Saturdays 2-6 pm and by appointment
Free and handicapped accessible.

/by

Lick It Up Bitch New Members Show – Opening Night

Vanessa R Thompson – Grundo

Leah Grimaldi

Mark Natale -Bitch Dancers

Justin Augsperg – Raised by Wolves

Vanessa R Thompson

Vanessa R Thompson
Jack Hammers, Die, Die, Die and Antler Girls – Background
Chris and Sonia Enjoy Lick It Up Bitch

Nick DiStefano – Head in the Clouds



Live LIUB Dancers
/by

Atlantic Works Presents

East Boston, December 20, 2010 –
Atlantic Works Gallery is proud to present Lick it Up Bitch, an exhibit by its new members inspired by wall art photographed in a hotel room in San Francisco. Deliciously tasteless, the five new members use this exhibit to explore issues of gender, consumerism, public domain and propriety. The work ranges from photography to painting and sculpture, and is highly experimental.

The public is invited to the ARTISTS’ RECEPTION on Saturday, February 5 from 6-9PM, and to visit the gallery on Fridays and Saturdays 2 – 6pm from February 5 to February 26, 2011. The public is also invited to attend Atlantic Works’s monthly THIRD THURSDAY RECEPTION on February 17 from 6-9PM. To schedule a private press viewing and interview at a more convenient time, please contact Leah Grimaldi at 508-397-1482 or leah.grimaldi@yahoo.com.

About the Artists

Justin Augspurg received his BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art. In 2006 he was an MFA candidate at the University of New Hampshire, where he was an adjunct professor in 2005. “In the studio,” Augspurg says, “I strive to be open to any idea or impulse, incorporating quotation and appropriation from a variety of sources, both historical and popular. I want my pictures to grow out of an obligation to freedom and acceptance.”

Mark Natale is a self-taught photographer inspired by the works of Yousuf Karsh, Roy Volkmann and Diane Arbus, and by the vision of Ray Johnson. He became interested in flyposting and its legal implications after seeing the Shephard Fairey show at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston.

Leah Grimaldi received her BFA from Pratt and is currently an MFA candidate at Vermont College of Fine Art. Her images and soft sculptures conjure up impure, mixed-up feelings from the way that borders divide the clean form the unclean, the disgusting from the pleasing, the appropriate and inappropriate. In her work and in life, these borders constantly shift, so the dichotomies they enforce are constantly in threat of violation.

Nick DiStefano has a background in Art History. He has worked with the Mayor’s Mural Crew in Boston and is currently working towards a Master’s in Graphic Design at the New England School of Art and Design.

Vanessa R Thompson received her MFA at Art Institute of Boston. She has exhibited her work through out New England; most recently at first Fridays at 450 Harrison Ave, Studio 213 in Boston. Her photography and instillations recall the brightly-colored Technicolor heroes and fuzzy saviors who, sometimes with nothing more than a catchphrase, helped us through our day.

Begun in 2003, ATLANTIC WORKS GALLERY, “East Boston’s Collaborative Space for Art and Ideas,” is a member-operated gallery located on the top floor of 80 Border Street on the waterfront of East Boston. It is T-accessible (near the Maverick T stop on the Blue Line). For detailed directions and other information about members and past and future shows, please see atlanticworks.org.

/by

ALL WORKS GUARANTEED STOLEN

All Rights Reserved(;-)

A group show at Atlantic Works Gallery, celebrating the natural right of artists to “steal” the intellectual “property” they need to create their art.

Global corporations want to own everything you might see, hear, taste and smell, and charge you for the experience. Copyright law has been perverted from its constitutional role “to promote the progress of science and useful arts” into a means to ensure cash flow.

The members of the Atlantic Works Gallery challenge this state of affairs with the group show All Work Guaranteed Stolen, which features works of painting, drawing, print-making, sculpture/3D and video inspired by and built with other people’s and corporations’ proprietary images, sounds and ideas.

Events and Dates:
• The public is invited to attend the OPENING RECEPTION on Thursday, January 6 from 6:00 to 9:00 pm, and to visit the gallery on Fridays and Saturdays 2 – 6pm from January 6 through January 22, 2011.

• On Friday, January 14, we will have MOVIE NIGHT, with a viewing of the film Appropriation, by Mandeep Bhatia (http://vimeo.com/12300801).

• The public is also invited to attend the Atlantic Works Gallery’s monthly THIRD THURSDAY RECEPTION AND PRESENTATION/DISCUSSION ON LEGAL RIGHTS OF ARTISTS on Thursday, January 20 from 6:00 to 9:00pm.

Contact Information:
To schedule a private press viewing and interview at a more convenient time, please contact Sonia Dommkarova at (541)207-6236.

Begun in 2003, ATLANTIC WORKS GALLERY, “East Boston’s Collaborative Space for Art and Ideas,” is a member-operated gallery located on the top floor of 80 Border Street on the waterfront of East Boston. It is T-accessible (near the Maverick T stop on the Blue Line). For detailed directions and other information about members and past and future shows, please see atlanticworks.org

/by

The War and Peace Project

Lola and Lynn

East Boston, October 7, 2010 – In late 2009, Atlantic Works gallery member Laura “Lola” Baltzell initiated a “crazy and enticing” collaborative art project: making a collage from each page of her old Russian edition of Tolstoy’s War and Peace. The War and Peace Project, when complete, will include more than 750 individual collages. This show will feature the first 300 of those collages.

Each collage is on Bristol paper 7 inches tall and 5 inches wide, and incorporates a page of Tolstoy’s Russian text along with images, text, maps torn and cut from old books, guides, newspapers and a variety of other materials.
Ms. Baltzell and her project partner, Lynn Waskelis, have assembled a small group of friends dubbed “Team Tolstoy.” Team members are Lucy Arrington, Otto Mayr, Lucy Zahner Montgomery, Emma Rhodes, Adrienne Wetmore. Otto Mayr, who lives in Berlin, is the team’s long-distance participant. From time to time the group invites guest artists to contribute a collage. Each artist is free to use their own style, yet the individual pieces are unified by use of the Russian text as well as from working side by side throughout the process.
Team Tolstoy has a blog on which they post an image each day. Each post also includes comments made by the artist about their process or reaction to the individual piece or the project. You can follow along at www.warpeaceproject.blogspot.com. 
The public is invited to attend the OPENING RECEPTION on Friday, December 3 from 6:00 to9:00 pm, and to visit the gallery on Fridays and Saturdays 2 – 6pm from December 3 through December 18. The public is also invited to attend the Atlantic Works Gallery’s monthly THIRD THURSDAY RECEPTION on Thursday December 16 from 6:00 to 9:00pm.
To schedule a private press viewing and interview at a more convenient time, please contact Lola Baltzell at 781-308-2259.
/by

October 2010

Artwork by Bo Pertran and Chris Spuglio
East Boston, September 2010 – From October 8 to October 30, 2010, Atlantic Works gallery presents HEAVEN AND EARTH: New Work by Bo Petran and Chris Spuglio.
In this economic downturn, if you have been too much getting and spending, laying waste your powers, give yourself a night to reconnect with who you are and what matters at core.
In a series that marks a departure from his previous mostly abstract work, painter Chris Spuglio explores the Gods and Goddesses of Greek mythology. Fascinated by the relationships between the Gods since childhood, Spuglio has returned to this fertile imaginative terrain to portray their complex webs of identity and relationship thru an adult prism. Creating work that is both fanciful and provocative, his work reminds you of the divine within reach and your own “heaven”.
As contrast, Czech artist Bo Petran presents two new series of work that explore life, death and time. The first, Bohemian Earth, is composed of shocking and beautiful photographs of spring in an ossuary (bone storage facility) in Prague. His series about life is Snowblind, a large grid of gorgeous sculptural paintings with iron and marble dust combined with acrylic medium and paint. Bo will present both series in the installation “Studio Visit”, where he will recreate a friendly, working art studio.
Join us at the opening Saturday, October 9, 6-9pm and to visit the gallery Fridays and Saturdays from 2pm to 6pm.. The public is also invited to Atlantic Works Gallery’s monthly THIRD THURSDAY GATHERING, on October 21, 6-9pm.
Begun in 2003, ATLANTIC WORKS GALLERY, “East Boston’s Collaborative Space for Art and Ideas,” is a member-operated gallery located on the top floor of 80 Border Street on the waterfront of East Boston. It is T-accessible (near the Maverick T stop on the Blue Line).
/by