this Category populates the Exhibitions page of the website

February 2018

New Members Show

“Point of View” by Diane Modica and “New Works” by Justin Rounds 

February 3 – 24, 2018

Opening Reception: Saturday, February 3, 6-9pm

Third Thursday Reception: February 15, 6-9pm

About the Artists

Diane Modica was born and raised in East Boston where she resides. A lawyer by day, she is a self-taught artist who has gained significant insights from classes, workshops, reading, traveling, history, heritage, faith, politics, people and other artists. By observing and engaging in life and all its emotional, and often unseen and unknown connections, her work resonates with surprise.  Her work is both abstract and representational in in all media-water color, oil, acrylic, collage, textile and whatever else calls out to her.

Modica approaches art with an intuitive spirit. While her knowledge and experience may come from years of engagement, intuition is a special gift that guides her artistic expression.

She believes that observing history, everyday objects, nature and life with an open mind can force a whole new perspective, or point of view, freedom from conventional perceptions and the release of imagination from its persistent constraints.

Modica says, “My finished pieces may change with the manner, mood and place from which I view them. It shows me that small marks, gestures and variations in art and life can inform me in an entirely different way.  Sometimes that different point of view is hidden until you search and it reveals itself. The key is an open mind. Points of view will find you if you let them”.

To schedule a private viewing and press interview at a more convenient time, please contact Diane Modica at 617 567-7200.

 

 Justin Rounds is a transmedia artist, musician, and educator living and working in Boston, Massachusetts. Employing painting, performance, and interactivity, his work investigates dynamics of power and control in culture and society, using processes emerging from the  intersection of art and technology. He is an active member of Atlantic Works Gallery in East Boston, adjunct faculty at Northeastern University, and passionate about helping people use technology creatively. You can find his work on line at justincrounds.org

 

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 nearby the Maverick T stop on the Blue Line. Parking is available in the 80 Border Street Lot,  and  on and around Border Street.  Please visit us at www.atlantic works.org and on Facebook.

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

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January 2018

Art Basil

January 12 – 27, 2018

Opening Reception and Artist Talks: Thursday, January 18, 6-9pm

 

Atlantic Works Gallery has a history of staging offbeat group shows to satisfy the personalities and talents of our eclectic artist members…

 

…so, this past summer, when one of our members climbed up a ladder to get basil from his rooftop garden only to fall off the ladder and bust his face up but good, we joked that the portrait he took of himself after returning from the hospital should be titled Art Basil.  

 

And then it hit us–our first 2018 group show must be Art Basil! What better way to play off the whole ART BASEL thing and its attendant hoopla and, at the same time, challenge ourselves to create amazing new work for the new year.

 

Another of our extraordinary members had the idea for an Art Basil cookbook that showcases AWG art and basil recipes, which we promptly got to work on.  

 

Now you have it in your hand: the ART BASIL cookbook. And we’re inviting you to come see the exciting ART BASIL show.  (You can check out the remarkable transformation happening on the East Boston Waterfront, too, in which AWG is prime art player.)

 

FOR MORE INFO, or to request another Art Basil cookbook, or a private viewing*, contact Anna Salmeron at annasalmeron@comcast.net or 617.913.1871, or Christine Palamidessi at christine@palamidessi.com or 617.460.0550.

 

Gallery hours: Fridays and Saturdays 2-6pm, or by appointment*

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December 2017

Nexus

work by Marjorie Kaye and Carmen Sasso

December 1-23, 2017

Nexus represents a constellation of ideas circulating in the present, originating with the ancients, and manifesting in the sculpture and painting of artists Marjorie Kaye and Carmen Sasso.

Marjorie Kaye examines the relationship between recent two dimensional paintings and three dimensional sculptures.  The paintings see interrelationships between shapes along the surface, as if there were entities co-existing within the space.  They encouraged three dimensional pieces that seemed to have jumped out of the surface, escaping from the confines of the second dimension. There is a dichotomy present in the works, from subtlety to complexity; iteration to minimalism.   Together the works address the balance between two disciplines, and the singular worlds that arise from their interaction, as in a thought giving way to the crystallization of form.

Carmen Sasso works with ideas which resonate with solace from the Old Testament through the Psalms of David, praising God, and confirming faith through the management of fear.  Echoes of gratitude sung from a simple shepherd thousands of years past are still heard today and offer calm to a modern person suffering the same.

Each artist approaches the meeting point between structure and idea. Both offer an elixir to the malaise of the present in the forms of joy, reverence and contemplation.

Opening Reception: December 2, 6-9pm
Third Thursday Reception and Artists’ Talk: December 22, 6-9pm
Gallery Hours: Friday and Saturday, 2-6pm or by appointment

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November 2017

Silent. Silence. Silenced

2017-11 Silent Silence Silenced Palamidessi

November 4 – 25, 2017

Silent. Silence. Silenced, at Atlantic Works Gallery, pits the duality of quietude vs. inquietude within a provacative month-long show that is likely to stir up some controversy.

Exploring the particulars of silence, Boston artists Charlene Liska and Christine Palamidessi slide between sound made visible and the unquiet silence of nature; between the shrouding of a spokesperson and the aftershock of decapitated explosives. Each artist takes a different approach while working together to consider both the existential character of silence as well as the modes-of-being that cause us to remain or appreciate the silent, whether we have been made speechless by regime or silenced by awe.

Palamidessi’s sculptural work and monoprints re-mythologize noisy historical and contemporary events, with deliberate subtraction of sound and actions of self-censorship.

Using video and photography, Liska layers the psychological with the scientific, looking at the unreliability of perception and sound, the anxiety resulting from loss of signal, and, finally, the joy of small sounds.

Several artists have been invited to participate in the Silent. Silence. Silenced exhibition:
Christine Coënon, French sound artist.
John Wilkinson, Boston mobile maker.

Opening Reception and Special Event:Saturday, November 4, 6-9pm
“Everything You Wanted to Know About Abaya But Didn’t Know Who to Ask”
Three Arab women, in full black abaya, will answer questions about the experience of being silenced, or not, by their garments; as well as share the cultural history of the abaya.
Third Thursday Artist Talks: Thursday, November 16, 6-9pm
Gallery Hours 2:00-6:00 pm Fridays and Saturdays, or by appointment

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October 2017

Here and There

New England artists investigate place

Saturday October 14 – Friday October 27th

“[Places] give us continuity, something to return to, and offer a familiarity that allows some portion of our own lives to remain connected and coherent.”

Rebecca Solnit, The Faraway Nearby

Vermont College of Fine Arts offers a low-residency MFA in Visual Art program, and so students of the program inevitably end up thinking about place and what it means. The program is here (Montpelier, Vermont) and it is there (wherever students live and work). Threads from across the country and sometimes globe meet in Montpelier and connect students, teachers and alumni. In Here and There, thirteen alumni of the program offer their interpretations of place and what it means to them. In addition to attending VCFA, Renee Lauzon, Muriel Angelil, Heather Park, Chip Rutan, Sumru Tekin, Kim Darling, Valerie Hird, Sabrina Fadial, Brian Zeigler, Samantha Eckert, Wendy Powell, Maggie Nowinski and Leah Grimaldi have lived or currently live and work in New England.

Opening Reception Saturday, October 14, 6-9pm
Third Thursday Reception and Artist Talk Thursday, October 19, 6-9pm
Gallery Hours 2-6pm Fridays and Saturdays, or by appointment

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September 2017

Narrow

new work by Perla Casteneda and Kristen Freitas

September 9 – 30, 2017

Both artists will examine the reality of the world around them. Come broaden your world!

Perla will showcase her recent trip to Guatemala through photographs, video and
installation. Her work will focus on the ideals of the quality of life, culture and its expectations,
and her husband’s identity while in his native country. Perla will examine how each world relates
and differs.

Kristen will dig deep into the emotional and physical ideals of society. These ideals that
we either choose to accept or push away. Our choice determines our emotional wellbeing.
Narrow will focus on an imposed and socially acceptable reality and how it can affect your
surroundings.

Opening Reception: Saturday, September 9, 6-9PM
Third Thursday Reception and Artist Talks: Thursday, September 21, 6-9PM
Gallery Hours: Fridays & Saturdays, 2-6 PM or by appointment

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July and August 2017

Atlantic Works Gallery presents

Friends

A group show of Atlantic Works Gallery members and their invited guests

Thursday July 20th – Saturday August 19th

Thursday, July 20th 6:00-9:00 pm Opening Reception

Thursday, August 17th 6:00-9:00 pm Closing Reception

Gallery Hours Fridays and Saturdays 2:00-6:00 pm

Atlantic Works Gallery 80 Border Street East Boston

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June 2017

History is Here and Now

curated by Rachel Shatil

June 3 – 30, 2017

With the rise of nationalism in the USA and all Events over the globe, there is a sense of déjà vu. There is a shared anxiety among millions across the globe that history is repeating itself, that we are witnessing an epic process of dehumanization, that we are living in a world that not only tolerates hate, segregation, atrocities, and genocides, but rather promotes those things. Therefore it is essential to bring back the collective historical memory of our brutal past – to remind ourselves that the abyss is not just a vague paranoid delusion, it is happening here and now.

The show will take advantage of the very well-researched public domain photographs of war-zones, deportations, mass killings, and other atrocities. The visitor experience, although a bit uncomfortable, will be engaging and informative. The images will be integrated into a collage of past and present. Together they will form a four-walled landscape that will transform the Atlantic Works Gallery to a solemn
space for remembrance, discussion, and reflection.

Opening Reception: Saturday, June 3, 6-9PM
Artist Talk on Art and Politics: Saturday, June 10, 6-9PM
Artist Panel Speakers on Human Rights Activism: Thursday, June 15, 6-9PM with
Anat Biletsky, Former Chairperson of B’Tselem, an Israeli human rights organization
Rick Sacra, M.D. a doctor serving in Liberia 20 years and Ebola survivor
Gallery Hours: Saturdays and Sundays, 2-6 PM or by appointment

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May 2017

the Replacements

work by Marjorie Kaye, Walter Kopec, Brian Reardon, Justin Rounds, George Shaw, Melissa Shook,  and Dominick Takis

May 6 – 27, 2017

the REPLACEMENTS: Because even Nothing is Something
the REPLACEMENTS: Be a Stand By, be a Stand In, be a Surrogate, be an Alternate
the REPLACEMENTS: If at first you don’t succeed, there’s always an alternative universe to rely on
the REPLACEMENTS: Or Alternative Facts
the REPLACEMENTS: Look at THIS not THAT
the REPLACEMENTS: Fake News
the REPLACEMENTS: Leftover Casserole
the REPLACEMENTS: Replacing blank walls with sublime energy
the REPLACEMENTS: From the Sublime to the Ridiculous
the REPLACEMENTS: Common Sense
the REPLACEMENTS: Compassion
the REPLACEMENTS: Art, Life, Beauty in a Time of Overwhelming Unbalance

Opening Reception: Saturday, May 64, 6-9PM
Third Thursday Reception and Artist Talk: Thursday, May 18, 6-9PM
Gallery Hours: Saturdays and Sundays, 2-6 PM or by appointment

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April 2017

Landscapes of Memory…and Things that Remain

work by Walter Kopec and Melissa Shook

April 4 – 25, 2017

Walter Kopec’s work, … And Things That Remain, is a response to the volatile world of contemporary politics and social turmoil. The work explores our personal relationship with public symbols and our ability to express ourselves through them. Using visual and verbal references, Kopec probes our reliance on shared symbols to reflect our common bonds and our ability to communicate using them in this uncertain world. While some pieces may read as haunting visual poems, others unveil a tinge of humor… some toe the very thin line between the two. Using the simplest of concept-appropriate materials and the strategies of linguistic puzzle-making and myth-construction, the sculptures and drawings deconstruct and reconstruct the meaning of the “things that remain.”

www.walterkopec.com

Melissa Shook’s Landscape of Memory chronicles the seasonal changes of flowers grown in a community garden plot, from bare earth to seedlings, first flowering, late summer abundance, frost and snow. This multi-media installation uses large sequential color photographs of zinnias, sunflowers, cosmos and marigolds, small pastel and ink drawings, watercolor and acrylic paintings of flowers along with text and video to pay homage to the grandfather who so unexpectedly produced a mass of flowers in a backyard garden when Melissa Shook was thirteen.

www.melissashook.com

Opening Reception: Saturday, April 1, 6-9PM
Third Thursday Reception and Artist Talks: Thursday, April 20, 6-9PM
Gallery Hours: Saturdays and Sundays, 1-5 PM or by appointment

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