Inside Art with Michael Rose - Jamestown Arts Center Hosts Strong Members’ Show

Inside Art with Michael Rose - Jamestown Arts Center Hosts Strong Members’ Show

 

Rhode Island enjoys the benefits of many community art organizations that show off local artists. The regular member exhibitions of such groups are a resource for those looking to learn more about art-makers in their community. They are also a great place to start supporting artists by purchasing featured artworks. The Jamestown Arts Center’s Members’ Exhibition, on view through December 15, is one such opportunity and it is stocked full of highlights.

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JAC’s Members’ Exhibition was judged by Entang Wiharso, a multi-disciplinary artist and Guggenheim Fellow who lives and works in Rhode Island and Yogyakarta, Indonesia. The top prize-winning works selected by Wiharso are distinguished and enjoyable. Best in Show went to Tracy Weisman’s inventive “Essential Workers’, which assembles blue collar name tags into an American flag, recalling the identities of the all-too-often anonymous individuals who kept the country running during pandemic chaos. Second Place is an enticing and textural mixed media work by Jemison Faust and Third Place is a small but hypnotic textile work by Paula Stebbins Becker.

 

 

Beyond prize-winners, there is much to see in the show, which celebrates works in a range of media in a densely assembled collection. One could make several circuits around the show before grasping it all. Thematically and materially, the works on view are diverse, offering points of interest for a litany of tastes.

Some of the works on offer are notable for their clarity and precision. Marjorie Hellman’s “Drum and Pong”, a foot square panel, is one such piece. Carefully constructed, it recalls the color theory and layered values of the Bauhaus. Nearby, Timothy Welsh’s “Postcard on the Cafe Floor” is illustrative and pleasantly surreal, contrasting the staccato feeling of a tile floor against a lyrical Matisse print. Across the room, Robert Prata’s “Composition 20” is another fine example of what bold color and geometric composition can do to draw a viewer in and hold their attention.

 

 

Themes of nature are also recurrent throughout the exhibition. Loren Deveau’s brushy acrylic view of Jamestown’s Beavertail upends more traditional interpretations of a beloved scene. Molly Dickinson’s “(w)hole” is another work that makes viewers second guess their preconceived notions of landscape painting. Presented on a diptych of reclaimed cardboard, Lisa Barsumian’s “Sacred” shows off a facility with material that is enticing and full of meaning. Alongside these earthy offerings, Kathy Hodge’s “Shelter in Place” stands out with its delightful image of a frog peeking out from a triangular rock outcropping. Hodge is one of the region’s strongest painters of animals and the natural world.

Alongside two-dimensional works, there are ceramics, assemblages, and more. A favorite among these is Jennifer Clancy’s “Home”. Made of cast glass and bronze, Clancy’s diminutive sculpture recalls a sort of philosopher’s garden. It is striking and catches the light beautifully.

 

 

Some of the artworks in the show defy easy categorization. Don Cadoret’s “Golden Garden No. 1” is at once botanical and graphic, playful and extremely technical. Ayeel Schofield’s “At Home En Masse” is an entrancing multi-part print that draws the eye back for repeated exploration. On the same wall, Peter Marcus’s collagraph mixed media work  “Based on the figure” excitedly jumps off the support and towards the viewer. Frank Gasbarro’s “Spatial Artifacts” is yet another highlight. Gasbarro’s oil on canvas invites viewers to look at, in, and through the perceived surface of his abstraction towards mysterious and hidden ends. Finally, Eliza Boyer’s “Hypersensitive Obsessive Depressive” textile work covers challenging subject matter with the familiar aesthetic language of something akin to home craft.

Looking around the exhibition, it is easy to pluck out other favorites, too. Near the gallery’s garage-door windows, one will find Christopher Terry’s beautiful and quiet “Still Life with Yellow Teapot”, which is surmounted by a Thomas Lotas painting. Lotas’s “Skygaze” offers a mountainous composition that recalls Cezanne’s frequent treatments of Mont Sainte-Victoire.

 

On the other side of the room, Shahin Barzin’s “Morning Glory” captures a hazy view of local landmark house Clingstone, which, through the magic of black and white photography, appears as an apparition under an overzealous sun. In the center of another wall, Allie Sabalis’s “Shadows and Leaves” shows off the possibilities of watercolor in a painting that is frank, meditative, and beautiful.

There is clearly much to see at the Jamestown Arts Center’s Members’ Exhibition and ample opportunity for each visitor to find their own favorites in a strong collection of work that shows off the talents of artists from throughout the area and beyond.

 

The Jamestown Arts Center’s Members’ Exhibition is on view through December 15, 2021. JAC is open to the public Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, 11 am - 3 pm and Thursdays, 11 am - 7 pm as well as by appointment. Learn more and plan your visit at www.jamestownartcenter.org.