this Category populates the Exhibitions page of the website

September 2012

2012_9_augspurg

Diamond

new artwork by Justin Augspurg

Justin Augspurg is an artist who combines elegant painting and collage with a streetwise urban sensibility. In Diamond, his new exhibition at Atlantic Works Gallery, the diamond shape that is a unifying motif comes from the chain link fences he sees around his home in Chelsea. Augspurg is a scavenger, combining everything around him – fashion, automotive design, graffiti, store signage – into new and beautiful forms and ennobling them in the process. Because he insists on the right to appropriate, recontextualize and change what comes from the mass media, his painting is an assertion of personal and social freedom. Augspurg’s gritty new show is a diamond that could only have come out of the rough.

Exhibition dates: August 31 – September 29, 2012
Opening: Saturday, September 8, 6–9pm
Third Thursday reception: Thursday, September 20, 6–9pm

/by

July 2012

The Biennial Project presents

Bizarre Artist Happenings

The internationally renowned, cutting edge and East Boston based conceptual artist group, The Biennial Project, is pleased to announce the opening of their trail blazing newest show ‘Bizarre Artist Happenings’

Bizarre Artist Happenings’ will start off with a trail blazing opening reception at Atlantic Works Gallery this coming July 19th and will show until the boisterous closing reception being held on Thursday August 16th.These will be the art parties of the summer if not the decade and they are not to be missed. Partygoers are encourage to dress to impress as their ‘eclectic artist persona’. Bring out that Puchi or your leather chaps and lets all bring some of the faded glamour of the Warhol Factory to Beantown!!

We look forward to seeing you and your entire audience at our avant-garde, innovative event (which your grandchildren will surely be talking about)!!

Exhibition Dates: July 19–August 18, 2012
Opening Reception: Thursday July 19th 7–10pm
Closing Reception: Thursday August 16th 7–10pm

/by

June 2012

Skin

New work by Chris Spuglio and Stephanie Arnett

In SKIN, Atlantic Works veteran Chris Spuglio and newcomer Stephanie Arnett explore the types of identities we choose for ourselves through how we present ourselves to others.  Skin is our  blank human canvas indelibly marked with our life experiences.
Chris Spuglio’s new body of work explores the artistic and technical field of professional tattooing, from traditional to new school design. After a lifetime of painting on traditional surfaces, he now paints on bodies.

According to Stephanie Arnett, “As we become more accustomed to lives integrated with technology, we place more importance on finding ways of differentiating ourselves on the web. For Skin, I’ve been working with both the concept of constructing a curated digital identity as well as experimenting with new material surfaces.”

Exhibition Dates: June 8 – June 30, 2012
Opening Reception: Friday, June 8, 7-10 pm
Third Thursday Gathering: June 21, 7-10 pm

/by

May 2012

With a Little Help from our Friends

Work by ATLANTIC WORKS ARTISTS and Invited Guests

No artist is an island. Your ideas stimulate our ideas, and the exchange goes both ways. It is the dialog between the messages of friends, family and culture and our own internal dictates that makes art relevant. In our annual “Friends” show, we Atlantic Works artists invite friends whose input matters to us, whose work should be seen. We ask our artist friends with the most interesting ideas to contribute, to strut their stuff, to contribute to the dialog, to keep our gallery vital and fresh. We at Atlantic Works donʼt go stale. Our “Friends” show is part of the reason why.

Exhibition dates: May 5–26, 2012
Opening: Saturday, May 5, 6-9pm
Third Thursday reception: Thursday, May 17, 6-9pm
Open Studios: Saturday and Sunday, May 19-20, 12pm–6pm
Barbeque: Sunday, May 20, 4–6pm

/by

April 2012

Creative Couples:

artwork by 14 Boston-based artist couples

When two artists live together, what is the impact on their work? Creative Couples, an exhibit organized by Lola Baltzell, seeks to find the answer.

Of the encouragement that can take place in a creative couple, Mark Natale says, “My wife Lola Baltzell is fearless and her creativity is contagious. She inspired me to take my own photography more seriously. Now I am showing my work, which is very exciting.”

Sometimes a partner’s different background can lead a mate in a new direction. Marjorie Kaye, who will be showing with her partner George Shaw, says, “George is a finish carpenter who specializes in restoration, so he encouraged me to include more sculptural elements in my paintings.”

Or both artists may collaborate. Inspired by the writings of Carl Jung, photographer David Weinberg and painter Louise Weinberg began exploring the same house/tower that Jung built in Bollingen, each in their respective medium.

Anna Salmeron & Bo Petran
Lola Baltzell & Mark Natale
Kelly Slater & John Wilkinson
Laura Torres & Pietri Valbuena
Carol Odell & Tom Odell
Louise Weinberg & David Weinberg
Marjorie Kaye & George Shaw
Elisa Hamilton & Andrew Edman
Trish Crapo & Tom Ashley
Courtney Hadden & Michael Dowling
David Piemonte & Terry Del Percio-Piemonte
Charlene Liska & Bart Higgins
Jenny Grassl & Anton Grassl
Margot Stage & David Crane
Jennifer Amadeo-Holl & Tanwin Chang
Dominic Chavez & Silvia Lopez Chavez

Exhibition Dates: April 7 – 28, 2012
Opening Reception: April 7, 6 to 9 pm
Third Thursday Celebration: April 19, 6 to 9 pm

/by

March 2012

Getting There:  Terror and Desire in Uneasy Times

New work by Leah Grimaldi and Charlene Liska

What do we want?  We often seem to hover in the uncomfortable regions of knowing both too much and too little.  A fifteenth century inscription in Paris’s Cimetiere Des Innocents refers to us as “Oh rational creature/who wishes for eternal life.”  The Jesuits say we’re a “being without a reasonable reason for being.”  Hank Williams says, “I’ll never get out of this world alive.”  Little wonder then, that we’re, most of the time, more comfortable with the sweetly false sentiments of Disney’s ‘When You Wish Upon a Star”:”Fate is kind./She brings to those who love/the sweet fulfillment of/their secret longings.”

In painting and video, Charlene Liska entertains the extremes of aspiration and fear, the competing bids for our attention between pop culture’s appropriations of these and blunt reality, and the places where the differences are not so easily discernible, or possibly even meaningful.

Leah Grimaldi explores the boundary where horror and seduction meet. This is a place of terror and the sublime. Using paper cut-outs with cartoonish lines and candy colors, Grimaldi constructs imaginary organic forms.  Tiny two-dimensional flesh pieces conjoin to form weighty figures, which are both disgusted by and delight in themselves and their fluid ephemerality.

“extreme seductiveness is probably at the boundary of horror.”
-Georges Bataille

Exhibition Dates: March 9-31, 2012
Opening: Saturday, March 10, 6-9pm
Fourth Thursday: March 22, 6-9pm

/by

February 2012

control.release.transform.

Artwork by Atlantic Works New Members

At Atlantic Works, our new members show features three very different artists. Matthew Keller’s installation, prints and drawings are about intimate and subtle power over others, ideas of practicing restraint, thoughts of regulation of the dangers to oneself. He explores the daily give and relinquishment of power in personal communications, and the struggle to understand unknown entities.

Paintings of windows and doors have always held a special fascination for Kelly Slater. According to Slater, “Whether clearly recognizable or only merely suggestive, depictions of windows, doorways and other portals convey a sense of hopefulness and possibility–inviting us to look out onto a new vista or to cross a threshold into a different world.” In this series of abstract paintings and prints, Slater explores crossing over through the painted window and door.

In his kinetic sculptures, John Wilkinson uses common tools and materials to achieve a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts. Moving through space, propelled by subtle air currents often created merely by the movement of people within that space, these sculptures establish a delicate connection between the object and the viewer. This connection gives life to the mobile. And, adds John, “it is my hope that the mobile in some way returns the favor.”

Exhibition dates: February 2–26, 2012
Opening: Thursday, February 2, 6-9pm
Third Thursday Reception: Thursday, February 16, 6-9pm

/by

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