CONTEMPORARY
DIALOGUES

work by Rick Dorff, John Greiner-Ferris, and Joan Ryan
March 2 – 30

Opening Reception: Saturday, March 2, 2-6 pm
Third Thursday Reception: March 21, 6-9 pm
Stations of the XX: Saturday, March 23, 3 pm

Atlantic Works Gallery’s March exhibition will be Contemporary Dialogues, a group show of three of the gallery’s newest members, Richard Dorff, John Greiner-Ferris, and Joan Ryan. The exhibition examines multiple forms of artistic dialogue, and opens Saturday, March 2 with a reception from 2:00 – 6:00 p.m. and closes Saturday, March 30.  There will be an AWG traditional “Third Thursday”—the gallery’s friendly, cultural community get-togethers—on March 21.

Dorff is a visual artist and set designer who works in sculpture and installation, and in this exhibition his primary interest is with the space his work occupies and how that space and the objects themselves interact with one another. “By making these connections primarily through lighting and placement, objects and space create installations that extend beyond their own physical dimensions,” he explained.

On Saturday, March 23 at 3:00 p.m., in conjunction with Dorff’s work, Fort Point Theater Channel, where Dorff is co-artistic director, will present Stations of the XX , a work-in-progress performance piece using sound and movement.

Greiner-Ferris, a politically motivated visual artist who is informed by the theater, combines his love of images and words in assemblage. “You don’t lean back in a theater seat and say, ‘Entertain me.’ For the actors to do their jobs well, the audience has to be just as involved as the actors to give the actors something to respond to,” he said. “Nor do you walk into a gallery and just look at pictures on a wall. Pictures are something you engage with. The worst thing I could think that could happen to my art is if someone leaves the gallery and says, ‘Well, that was nice. Do you want to get some ice cream?’ I want people to discuss and fight about art.”

Ryan uses painting and drawing as a critical language to explore contemporary society, politics, and concepts of identity. In her most recent works, she incorporates a wide variety of images, cartoons, fairy tales, and political iconography combined with heightened color to confront the viewer at an intersection of a broad range of cultural moments. “This junction of imagery creates dynamic interplay and peculiar juxtaposition with the past and present,” she said. “We no longer live in a world of neat patterns , and my work imitates the way knowledge often comes to oneself, which is by fits and starts and indirection.”

November 5–25, 2023
From Life: Drawings by Dan Hofstadter

Opening Reception: Sunday, 11/5, 2-5 pm
Third Thursday Reception: 11/16, 6-9 pm
For private viewing: DHworks5012@gmail.com

The urge to draw, every day if possible, is a compulsion common to many artists. I have drawn very regularly since childhood, doubtless as a way of maintaining some perceptual grip on the outside world. Though my painting is abstract, I have retained the habit of drawing from life. I try to achieve some sort of graphic, arguably “abstract,” image without forfeiting the observation of reality. Articulation – how things or their parts (human joints, tree branches, building elements, etc.) meet and act in concert tends to claim my attention.

Artist Statement by Dan Hofstadter

July 15 – August 26 2023

Opening Reception: Thursday, July 20, 6-9 pm
Closing Reception: Thursday, August 17, 6-9 pm

Atlantic Works Gallery is celebrating its 20^th anniversary with an exhibition showcasing member artists throughout its twenty-year history. From its founding members to new members, our gallery represents artists from diverse backgrounds of art and culture.

The Atlantic Works Building on Border Street was built in 1893 and was used to build and repair naval ships. In the 1990s the building was gradually taken over by artists looking for affordable studio space. In 2003 the occupants of the building rented a top floor studio as a space for art and ideas, naming it Atlantic Works Gallery. This evolved into a cooperative gallery with member artists doing all the work of running a gallery, with new exhibitions each month.

In 2006 the building was purchased by the East Boston Community Development Corporation who gutted and rebuilt the old leaky, but colorful building providing the Atlantic Works Gallery with a larger and improved space. The EBCDC has now, in our twentieth year, built a sparkling new space for Atlantic Works Gallery on the ground floor. This old marine building is located on the edge of the Boston Harbor and has dramatic views of the Boston skyline.

The arts community is an integral part of the East Boston community as a whole and 20 Years on the Edge is a celebration of that relationship.

20 Years on the Edge will also celebrate AWG’s new ground floor gallery space in the Atlantic Works building at 80 Border Street. We would like to thank the EBCDC for creating this new space, as well as the East Boston Foundation for their continued support over the years, enabling our artists to continue to share their work with the community.

April 8-29

Opening Reception, Saturday, April 8, 6-8 pm
Third Thursday Reception, April 20, 6-9 pm

We all have challenges to overcome, from getting to work to bringing food on the table to dealing with health or mental health issues. Artists often use their art as an outlet for their own challenges and a means of expressing not only their own soul but the human soul. In this exhibit, Kristen and Sandrine use colors and various artistic techniques to express their inner demons as well as hopes. They will let these fly away on the canvas or other supports to liberate their souls and attempt to create their own world of happiness.

Group Show by
Atlantic Works artist members

January 14-28
Reception: Thursday, January 19, 6-9 pm
Gallery Hours: Fridays and Saturdays, 2-6 pm,
and by appointment

Join us for the last group show in our current space. Soon we will be moving to a new gallery on the ground floor!

Nov 3rd – Nov 23rd. Opening Reception: Saturday, November 5, 6-9 p.m. Closing Reception: Thursday, November 17, 6-9 p.m.

TWENTY21
IAN BABYLON

and the Atlantic Works Gallerists

december 3 – january 8

exhibition reception: thursday, december 16, 6-9 p.m.

details/updates: ianbabylon.com

ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS

There are many ways to interpret what “environmental effects” can be. Most people see the environment as the natural world where all living beings live. In that context, “environmental effects” would refer, in our view, to any influence human would have on the natural world, either beneficial or detrimental. Another way to look at what “environmental effects” refers to is the surrounding or conditions that affects humans as they grow or as they live their life.

Sandrine Colson is looking at “environmental effects” as being the changes happening in our earth due to human influences. Her pieces are made up of a mix of flowing colors with textural effects using different acrylic pouring and mixed media techniques showing to us how nature (air, water, earth and fire) evolves as humans continues doing their thing, affecting their surrounding and the seasons in detrimental ways from the microscopic to the macroscopic. A lover of oceans, she constructed a message to all in her display “under the sea,” informing us how pollution and especially plastic affect us and the oceans.

The natural and built environment are our connection to the underlying reality of existence. Due to our actions, intentional or not, our physical environment is changing in ways that make our very existence, and those connections, problematic. Our collective lives are out of balance. In this show, George Shaw continues and complements Sandrine Colson’s explorations from a different perspective. George’s sculpture is a combination of wood panel, paint, glass, metal and found objects.

Opening Reception: Saturday, October 9, from 6-9 pm.

Third Thursday Celebration (Meet the Artists): October 21, from 6-9 pm.