Imago Gallery Opens Regional Exhibition - Inside Art with Michael Rose
Michael Rose, Art Columnist
Imago Gallery Opens Regional Exhibition - Inside Art with Michael Rose
Juried exhibitions are a popular method for makers to share their work with new audiences and to get their art seen by influential critics, curators, and fellow artists. At Imago Gallery in Warren, a new regional juried exhibition just opened, bringing a varied and unexpected collection of artworks together. The show, titled Borders, Boundaries, and Beyond, includes the work of more than thirty local artists and is on view through July 13.
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The exhibition was juried from over 100 entries by Jesse Thompson, a RISD alum and former Providence resident who currently teaches art at Nayang Technological University in Singapore. The theme for the show was somewhat open-ended, with “borders” and “boundaries” showing up in both very literal and more subtle ways throughout the exhibition. Some artists interpreted the call in direct ways and incorporated formal qualities like strict lines into their works, while others thought of it more broadly and brought out the theme in relational ways.
On Saturday, June 8, the show opened with a well-attended and festive reception that saw neighbors and artists intermingling amongst the artworks on view. This is the type of community-oriented programming that makes spaces like Imago special. It also means that residents of Warren and the East Bay can see new artworks close to home. Cash awards were presented to five artists. Photographers Eric Hovermale and Marc Jaffe earned honorable mentions. Third Place went to collage artist Sarah Daughn, Second Place to painter Susan Graseck, and First Place to photographer Dave Kendrick.
While the prizewinners won the praise of the juror, there is plenty of interesting work to see in the show. In the front of Imago’s storefront gallery, a large photographic collage by Michael Guertin probes boundaries very directly. In the image, a circular border struggles to contain disintegrating photographic details with figures and architectural details showing up for the keen observer. The graphic border is overrun by sometimes tiny pixels escaping.
Beyond Guertin, other photographers made a strong showing in this juried exhibition as well. Dan Connolly is exhibiting two photographs that blur their subjects in order to make them more accessible and less specific. Connolly’s images suggest motion and speed, and are presented on panels rather than under glass to enact the artist’s intent to remove a literal boundary between artwork and viewer. Linda DiFrenna is featured with an unconventional presentation of a photograph shown behind a semi-opaque glass block familiar from architectural uses. The result is mysterious and suggestive, beckoning a second take.
Painter Mary Hurwitz has two entries in the show, both of which explore the urban landscape and the ways in which city corridors become abstract indicators of human experience and existence. One of Hurwitz’s entries is intimate in scale while the other is quite large, inviting viewers to get lost in a sea of mark-making. In the statement accompanying her work, Hurwitz describes it in part as “...linear, architectural, chaotic and unplanned where one can find streets, alleyways, ladders, windows, doors, and buildings.”
Other forms of making are also celebrated in this exhibition, with works of sculpture, collage, found-object, and the like equally prized. Artist Michael Yefko is exhibiting a pair of impressive assemblages that incorporate found and made objects. One is a barred cabinet that contains wooden house forms accompanied by broken china and canning jars filled with sand and other materials. This work invites onlookers to consider the idea of home and to explore the essential forms that the artist is using.
The back wall of the gallery is lined up with impressive works, too. An encaustic by Dot Bergen is small but impactful. Colorful mixed media pieces by Beth Voso quickly grab the viewer’s eye. Elizabeth Melfi incorporates plaster and thread in her work, breaking it out of typical 2D constraints. And Sharon Cutts is exhibiting two pieces that employ her unique canvas mosaic technique.
This varied exhibition and the opening that kicked it off are indicative of the importance of small cooperative style galleries in the local art community. Imago has been sharing art in Warren for more than twenty years and this show is yet another enticing installment in its exhibition record. On Saturday, July 20, from 6-10 pm, the organization will host a gala fundraiser at the Bristol Yacht Club to support its ongoing work, which includes exhibitions like the one currently on view, as well as concerts, readings, and scholarships for local students.
Borders, Boundaries, and Beyond is on view at Imago Gallery at 36 Market Street in Warren through July 13. The gallery is free and open to the public Thursday 12-3 pm, Friday and Saturday, 12-6 pm, and Sunday 12 - 4 pm.
Details on Imago’s current and upcoming exhibitions, as well as their July 20 Gala, are available at www.imagofoundation4art.org.