|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
The title kinda says it all. But not really. How could it?
“25 Years / 40 Artists Reflect on a Quarter Century of Exhibitions,” currently on display at the Grimshaw-Gudewicz Art Gallery, is a dynamic and ambitious sampling of paintings, sculpture, and other works by artists who have previously displayed in one of the largest and quietly elegant galleries on the region. But it is hardly all-encompassing.
But how could it be? When I asked Kathleen Hancock, the chief curator of exhibition development and creative programming director of the Grimshaw-Gudewicz, how many artists have exhibited in the space, she estimated “Including students, and big all media shows from time to time … around 1,500-1,700? Maybe more.”
Given the deep talent pool and the physical space limitations, determining which gallery veteran artists would be asked to participate in the silver anniversary exhibition was a formidable (and perhaps, unenviable) job. But that said, no one could possibly be better suited to take on the task than Hancock.
She was there from day one, back in October 2000. Experience, devotion, determination and a sense of humor have made her a master curator and communicator. Looking back on 25 years at the Grimshaw-Gudewicz, Hancock has noted she does not only see the arc of 141 exhibitions but also the countless hours and invisible tasks that shape them. As the founding director, she has been not only the primary curator but also a preparator, lighting designer, writer, advocate, collaborator and floor washer.
“Wearing so many hats has been less a burden than a privilege. Each role has been a way of tending to the work and the people who pass through the space,” according to Hancock.
She understands the value of creating environments in which conversations can happen about what it is thought that art should be while reckoning with what art actually is. Reflecting that “art is not a static concept, it is one that is constantly evolving, and it’s always a reflection of the world around us,” Hancock’s curatorial philosophy is, at once, both steeped in history and necessarily of the moment.
“25 Years / 40 Artists Reflect on a Quarter Century of Exhibitions” features work culled from some of the South Coast’s most talented visual artists and artisans with decades of experience, and from up-and-coming creatives decades younger, and others somewhere on the path in-between.
Woodworker and furnituremaker David Richardson’s “Drifting” is a handsome cherry entryway table to which a series of vivid cyanotypes have been adhered, including a page of text from “Moby-Dick” accompanied by a Rockwell Kent illustration, a photograph of a cicada, and almost delving into stream of consciousness territory, text from Yoko Ono’s “Voice Piece for Soprano,” (autumn 1961), which reads: “SCREAM 1. against the wind 2. against the wall 3. against the sky”
Pamela Hoss’s “Hope” is an elegant self-portrait, rendered with graphite and pastel, that reveals a certain level of vulnerability, tempered by the resilience garnered through decades of experience. On a placard beneath her drawing, Hoss notes, “This beautiful gallery allowed me to see five years of large scale works on paper (that) I had not been able to see in relation to each other in my studio. It meant a lot to me to share this work in a professional place with the public.”
Multimedia artist, designer and art educator Sixten Abbot’s somewhat dystopian “Imprettynow” is an adolescent mannequin in a cheap magenta wig, a purple short-sleeved shirt over a long-sleeved pink one, and faded jeans with little hearts printed on them. Clasped in their hands is the mannequin face, detached from the head. In its place, there is a framed photograph of a “real girl.” Think the android gunslinger Yul Brynner in the original “Westworld” meets Jan Brady at her most diffident.
“The Duel,” created by Kate Korra, features a pair of bespectacled doppelgangers rendered with varying hues of thread on curtains sheer enough to cast a shadow of the figures on the wall a foot behind. But despite the title of the work, it appears to be devoid of any animosity. More likely a friendly rivalry, an imaginary dance-off against one’s own self rather than a back alley brawl.
There is only one work of art in the exhibition that is overtly political. Michael Yefko’s “Ice” features three small American flags. They and the large sheet of paper to which they are attached are obscured with an ugly brown-black ink that runs and drips down. On the floor below, there are scraps of wood that suggest the broken homes that have become a hallmark of ICE’s zealous enforcement, and perhaps of the fracturing of civil society itself.
Sculptor Stacy Latt Savage laser cut a multitude of circular steel disks, all about the size of half-dollar coins, and then welded them together to create “Impact,” a sturdy and buxom female form that honors the goddesses of antiquity. The disks are joined in such a manner as to allow light to pass through the figure, imbuing her with a sense of Olympian divinity. The Venus de Milo was long ago disarmed and Savage nods to that particular Goddess of Love, Fertility and Victory with a knowing wink and a smile.
Richard Creighton’s “American Beach Carrot” is a small, pedestal mounted steel and brass sculpture as whimsically Seussian as any of the good doctor’s creations. Barbara Owen’s “Red Necklace over a field of blue cross-hatch” is whimsical in its own kind of way, as her painted hand-cut strips of paper hover off the surface of the gallery wall, suspended from a wooden dowel, to effectively create an abstract expressionist painting without the benefit of a canvas.
Kate Frazer Rego, the South Coast’s matriarch of art whimsy, has her alter-ego, a giant blue alien superheroine known as Skywoman, hovering from the ceiling of the gallery, keeping a watchful eye over all.
She shared her thoughts about the Grimshaw-Gudewicz and of Hancock in particular, saying:
“From the moment my work entered the gallery, it was given the chance to speak for itself without any predisposed notions. Kathleen brings an eloquence and nuance when writing about each show, allowing the artist’s voice to come forward and speak in conversation with her as she centers connections and collaboration between artwork, artists and gallery alike. She is a true bastion of care and respect for artists and their voices.”
Stephen Remick exhibits “The Covid-19 Nurse from Brazil,” one out of his many acrylic painted portraits of medical professionals done during the height of the global pandemic. Her pale blue mask is pulled down below her chin and the bands have worn red marks into her forehead and cheeks. She looks both stunned and exhausted. With that series, Remick was recording history as it happened.
He had this to say of Hancock:
“Kathleen is a master at putting shows together. What I like about her approach, especially with group shows, is that she finds relationships among works that might not be obvious at first glance, but there’s always a reason. She has a great eye for diversity, making connections, creating dialogue and opening eyes. You can tell she loves her job. Congratulations on 25 years of enriching the community.”
Charles “Chuck” Boucher, a longtime fixture in the Fall River art scene known for his paintings of rather zaftig women and his vibrant landscapes, displays “Interludes,” a masterful depiction of a particular moment in time. Sparse lanky trees in early spring struggle to push forth the green and everything is in harmony, from the lavender-gray mist to a determined blue sky to the buds of yellow and orange, rising from the soil.
Boucher offered his thoughts about the gallery director:
“Over 25 years, Kathleen has created a space that serves the college and the greater community in ways I never imagined feasible in our evolving mill city. Her kindness and her care is evident as soon as you enter the space. At an opening, hundreds of people interact, discuss and learn. I am encouraged and inspired by people I otherwise would never have met. This doesn’t happen by accident. It requires skill, vision, and yeah, love.”
I suspect the other 47 artists in the exhibition share much of the same sentiments.
Long live the Grimshaw-Gudewicz Art Gallery!
And Kathleen … are you up for another 25?
“25 Years / 40 Artists Reflect on a Quarter Century of Exhibitions” is on display at Bristol Community College, 777 Elsbree St., Fall River until April 2.
Don Wilkinson has been writing art reviews, artist profiles and cultural commentary on the South Coast for over a decade. He has been published in local newspapers and regional art magazines. He is a graduate of the Swain School of Design and the CVPA at UMass Dartmouth. Email him at dwilkinson@newbedfordlight.org
Great review Don ! Judith