Save the date for the annual Chelsea Art Walk

Opening Reception: Sunday, May 12, 6 - 9 pm

The Gallery is pleased to showcase the work of local sculptor Eileen Gagarin. Eileen uses sculpture to tell short stories, often satirical in nature. Inspired by travel, or  just sitting on bench and eavesdropping, she enjoys the ridiculous and creates exaggerated, intense, interpretations of reality. An artist and educator for many years, Eileen has a studio in Newton. This is her first solo show in the Boston area.

Visit eileengagarin.com to see more of her work.

ARTIST’s STATEMENT

There’s a great video of a male cuttle fish simultaneously courting a female and fighting off a male rival. The creature is split perfectly in half, one side red, the color of aggression and the other white, with sweet amour. There are many animals that can drastically alter their physical appearance to show their true emotions. Humans are more subtle. We glow when we are in love, and crumble when in sorrow, but not nearly as much on the outside as on the inside. Through art I can make a reality that is easier to understand and looks like it feels. I can give someone with a headache a bulbous cranium or highlight instability by creating a creature with absurdly small feet. My sculptures tell ridiculous, exaggerated, tense stories, doing a far better job of displaying my thoughts than words ever could. Most pieces start from a small but very clear idea in my head, a tilt, a finger position, the color of a glaze. I build from there.

Making art helps me to better understand my surroundings. Recently, I have begun exploring words themselves. They have always been a bit of a mysterious foe of mine as I have often found myself incapable of using them in a fulfilling way. At first I blamed it on the words, but others do wondrous things with them, so now I think it’s more about me. I wanted letters to seep in, so I replaced human form with text as a main form of expression.

Thoughts take form through words, and letters organize words. To examine words in general was too tall of a task so I just picked one. I chose big, the meaning and potency of the word loses intensity in popular culture. Big sale, big deal, and big shot. Conversely, terms like big bang, big fish, big foot preserve the word’s magic and mystery. Its familiarity and constant use both draws a person in and also repels him or her.

My aim is to pause and show how wide a range one common word can have. These pieces look at one word– big–and utilize the form, rather than the sound, to communicate meaning. Each piece uses “big” as a catalyst, one piece spurs from the idea of decadence, a second highlights scale change, a third as an endless trail to follow, and so on. I aim to spotlight the complexity of words and the potential of miscommunication as well as to celebrated the simple beauty in the visual form of an alphabet that is more than 2,000 years old.

For more information about the Gallery@Spencer Lofts: map and directions 

OPENING RECEPTION: Saturday,  March 9, 6-9 pm

How much of what we perceive is honest observation, or colored by our own internal projections? How often are we even honest with ourselves about this question? What do you think when you see the old couple walking arm in arm down the street? How do you know they’re even a couple? Did you ever ask them? How self-aware are we when make our own observations?

This tension between what we perceive and what we project is a huge part of our experience of art. When we observe a piece of artwork, trying to deduce its “meaning,” we have the opportunity to ask ourselves why we perceive it a certain way. I invite you to join us for a showing that encourages you to ask yourself, “Why?” And while you’re at it, enjoy the art.

Join us for Live Art in the Gallery every Saturday from March 16 thru April 20:
Guest Artists
Lily Berman, March 16
Paula Billups, March 23
Liz Manicatide, March 30
Helen McCarthy, April 6–CANCELLED
Pecan Nut, April 13
Helen McCarthy, April 20
more on the show

Opening: December 15, 6–9 pm

The Gallery @ Spencer Lofts welcomes The Boston Biennial 2012, a juried exhibition that will run through December 28. The theme of the exhibition, organized by The Biennial Project, is Illuminating Worlds. A shining light shows us what’s been lurking in the darkness. Secrets are exposed. The show is expected to include 2-D and 3-D works, sculpture, photography, mixed media, performance and installation art, and mixed media. An award ceremony will be held during the Opening of the exhibition.

www.the-biennial-project.com

Opening: Sat., November 17, 2012 at 6 pm (new date and time)

Moni Oolyonghai was born in Huhhot, Inner Mongolia in China. He lives and works in Boston and Beijing, and his paintings have been exhibited in more than 28 countries. The Gallery is pleased to host a show of his recent work.

ARTIST STATEMENT

When I was traveling in the Inner Mongolian grasslands this spring, I first saw these trees, and they left me shocked. They initially struck me as unearthly, as if I had landed on another planet. From far away, to look at them, I could see only black; from close, I noticed their diseased bodies, covered with scars and boils. Some had only one trunk reaching out of the ground, evoking a dragon, a snake, or a grotesque demon. Some were longing for the sky; others confronting, even hissing at, one another, while still others just reached forward…

I don’t know why these trees are on our earth. They are not new or young; each one looks hundreds of years old. They belong to the Willow family, but unlike the weeping willow, all the tears have been chocked out of their menacing gray bark.

Since that time, I have searched for information about these trees. Finally, I found someone who gave me an answer, someone born and raised in this area. The trees’ young branches and leaves are the choice food of cows and sheep. People as well use their youthful branches to weave baskets. So, every time a new branch grows, someone cuts it off, leaving only the trunk intact. Each “boil” is all that is let after the branches are taken. The tree itself will try its best to heal its own wounds, but the weight of the boils and scars eventually twist and bend the trunk as well. After many years, these once normal woods have become distorted orchards of strange, beautiful-ugly monsters.

When l got my answer, a completely unexpected one, I felt overcome with sadness. I couldn’t speak. Every year, people had thoughtlessly injured these trees for their own benefit, until they had become angry and misshapen. And yet, they also have their own dangerous grace. My pain, however, was not only for the trees. They seem to reflect our values.

If only we had just done this to the natural world! But, have we not also done this to each other? Haven’t societies, institutions and governmental bodies also turned us into strange, aggressive, yet inert monster trees?

Opening: Wednesday, October 3, 6-8 pm
Artist Working in Studio: Sunday, October 14, 2-4 pm
Closing: Monday, October 29, 6-8 pm (The Closing date has been changed to: Sunday, October 28 5:30 to 7:30 due to the threatening storm on Monday)

For the Closing, Deb has added more work in the upstairs gallery, and she will have her photo-transfer materials with her again and give a demonstration at 6:30. 

Point & Shoot: An Informal Conversation with Landscape and Architecture is a collection of architecture and landscape photographs taken from the point of view of a visitor, a traveler, a sightseer, an outsider, a guest. My visit to a city or town is temporary; I’m not staying long.  What I point my camera at is what I’m attracted to immediately.  As a stranger I am seeing a city for the first time and by shooting specific landmarks, signage, architecture or landscapes I am accumulating images that provoke an emotional response to a specific place in an instant of time. A conversation with architecture begins when I start walking with camera in hand, continues while I  process the images at home and extends to the viewer through a new lens.

Deb Hickey is a Rhode Island photographer who focuses on architectural and landscape portraiture.
She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Photography from The Art Institute of Boston in 1994.
Ms. Hickey currently works out of her studio in Providence, Rhode Island.
Her paintings and photography can be found in private collections and on her website: www.debhickey.com

Opening, Sunday afternoon, September 16, 4 to 6 pm

Vladimir Petinow was born in Lugansk, Ukraine, where he attended art school. He has lived in the Boston area since the 1990s and has shown in galleries in and around Boston. His work can be found in numerous private collections throughout the world. The actor Dennis Hopper and Donald Trump own his work, as well as the Princess of the Royal Family of Kuwait.

Bonnie Grad, professor emeritus of Art History, Clark University, describes his works in this way: “They seem to be of substance, but also ethereal; to be still, yet unforeseeable of slow and quiet movement, to be gentle yet discomforting. We are left with a humble sense of mystery and wonder.”

ARTIST’S STATEMENT

In 2011 I began to create abstract paintings using spray paint. I like the freedom of the medium, it has a wonderful fluidity. I have a technique that allows me to control the process of creation that only can be achieved with spray paint.

My paintings have a strong presence and an element of mystery. My method requires planning prior to completion of the painting, yet spontaneity plays a major part in the creation.

I often use similarly shaped objects appearing from the bottom of the canvas, they have one dimensional occurrence and an element of stillness. I want to redefine the conventional composition by avoiding perspective, horizon, dimension, etc. I wish to communicate with the viewers by giving them freedom to interpret my work.

–Vladimir Petinow

We’re having a closing for CORE: August 17, 7 pm

For those of you who missed the CORE exhibition during the Chelsea Art Walk, you are in luck! The closing offers another opportunity to see one of the most exciting shows we’ve ever had at the Gallery. Come see these amazing contemporary sculptures of cast iron before it’s too late–from an imposing yet elegant giant zipper to lacy, delicately woven wall sculptures.

Iron is the oldest element in the universe. It makes up the core of our planet. It is at the foundation of almost all developed societies. Our modern world is built from it. And it is essential for every living organism. Iron is a universal language in that no single culture can claim responsibility for the knowledge and power it holds today.

Iron’s inherent qualities are what put it at the core of industry. It is valued for its strength, adaptability and abundance. It is common in both home and factory. Industry converts iron ore into cast iron, which is then made into building materials, decoration, and everyday household objects, giving it an undeniable presence in our world.

Iron as a material must be transformed using fire; the process is primal, ceremonious, and performative. While iron is poured daily in industry, it is less commonly used in art. By repurposing the excess created by industrialization of the material, artists are transforming old radiators, bathtubs, and other cast iron objects into artwork that celebrates and reexamines what iron is. CORE is a collection of work by artists who use iron because of its historic prevalence, intrinsic qualities, and specific process. Their work celebrates where iron has come from, and explores what iron can be.

Gallery@ Spencer lofts is proud to present CORE: Contemporary Cast Iron during the Chelsea Art Walk, June 16-17, 2012.

Iron is the oldest element in the universe. It makes up the core of our planet, is at the foundation of almost all developed societies, built our modern world, and is essential for every living organism. Iron is a universal language in that no single culture can claim responsibility for the knowledge and power it holds today.

Iron’s inherent qualities are what put it at the core of industry. It is valued for its strength, adaptability and abundance. It is common in both home and factory. Industry converts iron ore into cast iron, which is then made into building materials, decoration, and everyday household objects, giving it an undeniable presence in our world.

Iron as a material must be transformed using fire; the process is primal, ceremonious, and performative. While iron is poured daily in industry, it is less commonly used in art. By repurposing the excess created by industrialization of the material, artists are transforming old radiators, bathtubs, and other cast iron objects into artwork that celebrates and reexamines what iron is. CORE is a collection of work by artists who use iron because of its historic prevalence, intrinsic qualities, and specific process. Their work celebrates where iron has come from, and explores what iron can be.

Opening: May 19, 2012,  6 - 9 pm

Artist’s Statement

Polaroid was once indispensable to the professional photographer. Before the advent of digital technology the Polaroid print provided an instantaneous preview of the image derived from film. When one conjures an image of this iconic material, seen with it is the coater which accompanied each pack of film and whose aroma was as classic as the film itself. Because the black and white films, 665 and 55, were vulnerable to oxidation the coater would seal the surface to prevent it from aging.

I believe it was my good friend Clark Quin who first pointed out to me the effect of oxidation on the unsealed Polaroid print. He pulled from a drawer a print left unattended for some period of time and the beauty of the color and the unique bleaching that was apparent in its surface compelled me to explore the effect more deeply. I found that by removing the film from its pack and leaving it to air for a year or so prior to exposure seemed to encourage oxidation. That was desirable for without preparation as long as ten years might be required to achieve the desired effect and even then it would not have the richness of the prepared print. (more…)