Layered:

new works on paper and in video by Kristen Freitas

May 2nd – 28th

Layers suggest depth and mystery over a vast range of entities from geological strata to historical representations of events to the recess of the human psyche, and, in all cases, it is rarely the most accessible layer that offers up the most profound truths. In Layered, Kristen Freitas exhibits the results of her recent explorations of materials and their contrasting, layered personalities, bringing to life both playful and intriguingly complex interrelationships between layered textures and chroma.

Works on paper reveal the natural beauty of the paint in its infinite response to manipulation by brushes and tools, by both invention and opportune accident, obscurantism and revelation. Videos present yet another set of conversations using the concealing and revealing powers of layers. In Layered, Freitas seeks to elicit from these diverse media both the direct and sensual pleasures of the eye as well as the subtler, more telling, and enduring responses of the emotions.

Opening Reception:
Saturday, May 2nd, 6-9 pm

Third Thursday Reception:
May 21st, 6-9 pm

Gallery Hours:
Fridays and Saturdays, 2-6pm or by appointment.

Inner Investigation/ Hidden Truths

George Shaw and Marjorie Kaye

March 6th – 28th

“A Persian rug is perfectly imperfect and precisely imprecise,” as it is said.  A flaw is deliberately included to represent humility, and to honor God, or Spiritual Intelligence.

When considering the relationship between Classical form and the Romantic in visual art, the “flaw” in the human gestalt, the romantic and irrational beauty of emotion and expression, fills a perfect mirror of the universe, the pristine Classical structure.  The rhythm of creation includes the passion of human existence.

The Golden Ratio, which is a system of order in the universe striving for eternal beauty and perfection, is present in the works of both painter George Shaw and sculptor Marjorie Kaye.  Both artists inject aspects of the Romantic into this form.  Shaw works the surface in a combination of oil paint and wax medium, textural mapping within a clean, geometrical composition.  His work investigates the area between conscious reflection and the otherworldliness of another dimension of reality.  The paintings are a balance between self-knowledge and unknown sources of experience.  The act of searching, reflection, discovery and manifestation take place at once in a skeletal form of geometric truth.  Kaye’s wood sculptures, on the other hand, utilize classical structure as a vehicle for blatant expression of joy and spiritual rapture.  They are boldly color-saturated and organic.  The forms point upward from a centrifugal base, hunting and seeking.  The questions and the answers rapidly become intertwined.  Time is visualized, stretched, emoted.  The forms contain and suggest energetic direction, almost to the point where observation stands on the edge of a physical experience.

Within the works of both artists, subjective expression is contained within the objective means of composition.  It is this realization of the harmonious in nature, the overwhelming presence of the divine unknown, which unifies structure both recognizable and mysterious.   This enables the passion and complexity of the expression of being to emerge within form.

Opening Reception:
Saturday, March 7th, 6-9 pm

Third Thursday Reception:
March 19th, 6-9 pm

Gallery Hours:
Fridays and Saturdays, 2-6pm or by appointment.

Pyromania

a group exhibiton

January 9th – 24th

Pyromania, an idea so exotic that we need to reach beyond English to the language of archetype to contain it. In a group show this January 9th-24th, gallery members will explore its meaning in permutations ranging from hearth and home to smoldering libido to Miltonian abyss.

And you thought only firemen were closet pyromaniacs…

Third Thursday Reception:
January 15th, 6-9 pm

Gallery Hours:
Fridays and Saturdays, 2-6pm or by appointment.

Numinous: In the Spirit of Things

September 6th – 30th

What does “Numinous” look like? Two Boston visual artists take on the challenge and bring form to this idea in concurrent solo exhibitions. Artists John Kennard and X Bonnie Woods bring us wit, whimsy, and wonder with their two- and three-dimensional works.

Kennard and Woods are long-time colleagues. The theme of these exhibitions allows the two artists to delve into their notions of spirit, wonder, and play.

Woods has shown her works in the U.S. and Germany for many years. Her paintings explore the medium of traditional Japanese inks on paper in map-like conceptual pieces. She has also worked as a documentary photographer. She says of this new exhibition, “Perception and puzzles are the key. I like finding the edges between painting, printmaking, sculpture, photography, and words.“ Her work is in many corporate and academic collections.

Primarily a photographer, John Kennard’s work has been shown at a variety of venues over the years. Kennard says, “In addition to photography, this offering presents works made with materials such as eggshells and tea bags, exploring the spirit of these normally discarded items.”

Opening Reception:
Saturday, September 6th, 6-9 pm

Third Thursday Reception:
September 18th, 6-9 pm

Gallery Hours:
Fridays and Saturdays, 2-6pm or by appointment.