Nina Haglund, Secluded7th Annual Colleges of Worcester Consortium Art Exhibition

ARTSWorcester Aurora Gallery, 660 Main Street

February 4 - March 3, 2011

Co-juried with Antonio Fonseca.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Drawing in Public

December 6, 2010 - February 18, 2011

Cambridge Arts Council Gallery, Cambridge, MA

Opening reception and artist talks: December 6, 6-8 PM

Beehive Collective picture-lecture: January 26, 2011, 6 PM

As an immediate, portable, and inexpensive medium, drawing is perhaps the most fundamental of artistic pursuits, and as such, has long been valued as a means of communication. The lines, marks, and forms that are the raw material of drawing constitute a visual language that transcends the limitations of knowledge and experience. Graphic forms alone can evoke a wide range of analogy and response, and the work in Drawing in Public falls along a spectrum from realism to abstraction, from reference to metaphor.

The work in this exhibition is reflective of both the expanded state of drawing in contemporary art as well as a shared consideration for art as a form of communication. Using a variety of approaches, processes, and media, the artists in this exhibition translate an intimate pursuit into the scale of public dialogue, while presenting four propositions for drawing now.

On view:

Drawing in Public includes banners by activist collaborative The Beehive Collective; a new cut-paper installation by Astrid Bowlby; “drawing room,” a mobile project led by Alex Rheault that invites community participation in drawing activities; and an installation and drawing exchange by Cassie Jones.

 

Beehive Design Collective, The True Cost of Coal (detail)

The Beehive Collective, an art-activist group headquartered in Machias, Maine, creates graphics campaigns that narrate stories of grassroots resistance in the Americas. Following extensive interviews with affected communities, the Collective produces pencil drawings that are then inked in and reproduced in a variety of sizes to use as tools for encouraging dialogue, critical reflection, and strategic action. Their latest campaign, The True Cost of Coal, explores the complex story of mountaintop removal coal mining in Appalachia, as well as the broader impact of global resource extraction.

 

 

 

 

Astrid Bowlby, The Clouds are Full of Rocks, 2010, ink on paper Astrid Bowlby’s installations expand drawing into three dimensions, combining lines, marks, and whimsical shapes with sculptural paper forms that alternately resemble a wild landscape and a tamed garden. She has likened her process to visual poetry, playing with density, accumulation, and scale to create rhythm. The addition of text is a recent development that continues this interest in word play, both suggesting and denying a particular narrative. Each element is analogous to a word on a page, carefully chosen and ultimately vital to the larger whole.

Dependent in part upon the architecture for structure, The Clouds are full of Rocks demonstrates how an artwork can be “in dialogue” with its site – a consideration vital to the discussions of public art that are central to the CAC Gallery.

 

 

 

 

Cassie Jones, Bridge, 2010, acrylic on dura-Lar

Inspired in part by scientific inquiry and an interest in the behavior of patterns, Cassie Jones’s non-representational forms suggest processes of transformation and metamorphosis. Each work is a complete thought unto itself, a closed system that both floats inside the paper’s borders and appears to merge with it, thanks to the translucency of both her acrylic medium and the sheet of dura-Lar on which she makes her marks. Exhibited in large grids, however, the individual works expand, inviting the viewer to search out patterns among the elements. Within the repetition of gestures, color combinations, and volumes, a kind of formal language begins to emerge – one that ultimately points back to the artist’s curiosity and intuition.

 

drawing room, facilitated by Alex Rheault

In 2006, Alex Rheault founded drawing room in Portland, Maine as both a space and a strategy for building community around drawing-related activities. Now a mobile project, drawing room is set up here in the CAC Gallery for public participation. A series of suggested themes will be posted on the table concurrent with those Rheault will explore with Cambridge youth and senior groups throughout the winter.

drawing room is supported by a Local Cultural Council grant from the Cambridge Arts Council and Massachusetts Cultural Council.