Summer Art at ARTSWorcester
BY LEON NIGROSH
August 2005 - Wow, folks, it’s a twofer. That’s right,
there are now two art exhibitions going on simultaneously at the ARTSWorcester
galleries at the Aurora, 660 Main Street. The “Sanctuary of Trees”
exhibit is a collaborative effort by Lora Brueck, Debra Ostrokolowicz,
and Pamela Redick based on – you guessed it – trees. There
are nearly 50 pieces from these three artists on display, both 2- and
3-D, all created in a variety of styles and in a number of mediums.
This exhibition was selected by an ARTSWorcester jury after a “call
to artists” was issued. Normally, individual artists apply for this
type of event, but in this case the three women applied with a group proposal.
In fact, Lora, Deb, and Pam have been working together for a long time
– they’re one fourth of the women’s artist group Art
XII and have been showing together around town for the past decade. You
might have seen their fascinating interactive installation at Worcester’s
First Night a
couple of years ago. The centerpiece of this exhibit is the group’s
reconstruction in 42 separate sections of an image of an old elm in Elm
Park; it’s mixed media but limited only to black and white. From
there on, it’s every woman for herself. Brueck’s favored medium
is photography, sometimes hand tinted, sometimes digital. My favorite
is her “Tree House: Self Portrait” which consists of a tiny
fabricated shack perched in a tree twig) with teeny hovering origami birds
and way inside, a small head shot of Lora herself.
Ostrokolowicz is showing some very sensitive pastels of trees deep in
the woods, but her strongest work is “Tree Graphic,” a large,
free hanging paper, fabric, and branch collage of a big old tree. Redick,
whose recent foray into automobile spray paint shows real promise, is
nonetheless a master draftsman (woman) when it comes to acrylic paintings
such as her haunting “Old Orchard.” There’s more, but
you have to see them for yourself.
Take a deep breath and head downstairs for the “Summer Members’
Exhibition.” Unlike of Trees” and Members’ Exhibition
unlike the tree show, this one is non-juried, which means that if you
bring it they’ll show it. This accounts for the great variation
in style, medium, and quality of the 56 works on display. The show is
the usual mix of the regulars who are showing simply in support of the
organization and the newcomers who’ve either been cajoled by their
teachers or are tentatively testing the waters to see if anyone cares.
Tops in the show is John Gamache’s “Tribute to Grant Wood:
Death on Ridge Road,” a magnificent painted wooden cutout reproduction
of Wood’s famous painting set into an antique trunk. Brett Christian
offers a small, gracefully shaped and beautifully colored blown glass
flower vase. Natashe Plummer pushes thin paint around, taking advantage
of its drips and foibles in her oil painting “Not to Exceed My Expectations”
and achieves a semi-abstract image that exudes a certain peace and tension
at the same time.
As usual, photography entries abound and run the gamut from blurry to
digital. There is some fine exterior work by Do minick Marcigliano and
Susan Sedgwick, and an interior by Don Feeney. But they, like most other
photographers, are taking pictures of stuff that other people made. So
it’s refreshing to see that newcomer Greer Muldowney took the time
to stage her photo “The Baptism of Middle Management” with
a suited guy standing in the middle of a white shower stall about to be
drenched.
Both shows run through August 26.
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