LIQUID REFLECTIONS: A Group Show at JIM JACKSON'S Gallery and Studio
329 Windham Hill Road, West Townshend, VT.
Saturday and Sunday September 2nd and 3rd, 12-5 PM
OPENING RECEPTION-Come meet the artists! SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 2nd, 5-7 PM
Parking is limited, please carpool if possible.
Matthew Donaldson
Amy Dudash Robinson
Robert DuGrenier
Jim Jackson
Mike McGrath
Leigh Merinoff
Lisa Robinson
For more information please contact: smithmcindy@gmail.com
Liquid Reflections: A Group Show
Water is fluid, soft, and yielding. But water will wear away rock, which is rigid and cannot yield. As a rule, whatever is fluid, soft and yielding will overcome whatever is rigid and hard. This is another paradox: what is soft is strong. Lao Tzu
Drawing inspiration from the term "Blue Humanities," this exhibition brings together a selection of works that represent the artists' engagement with water through landscape, abstraction, and sculpture. What comes across in these representations is the affective impact of their subject, as the artists associate water variously with natural beauty or the sublime, with fluidity or a dropping of limits, or with ecological fragility.
Amy Dudash Robinson is primarily a portrait artist and has said about her process that her goal is "painting the delicate balance of a unique moment in time and timelessness itself." This is also applicable to her "plein air" landscapes on view here from moments spent in Windham, Vermont. In contrast to her portraiture which requires planning over a period of time these paintings unleash a freedom of movement while still disclosing her commitment to realism.
Matthew Donaldson's watercolor self-portraits on wood bring together disparate images from the artist's experience in a Surrealist manner, expanding the definition and potential of self-portraiture. The viewer, especially one familiar with the local terrain, can identify specific details, as with the landscapes of Amy Dudash Robinson. These recognizable elements mark a path for the viewer into the artist's subjectivity in these dense and playful works.
Jim Jackson's 50 year career resists categorization and mediums as he freely moves between painting, sculpture, animation and text. Defying both the integrity of the canvas medium itself as well as traditional framing techniques Jackson's exuberant compositions in paint spill over onto the frames, making the image and the framing device inseparable. At other times the canvas is cut revealing yet another layer of canvas and paint.
Leigh Merinoff founded Meadows Bee Farm in Vermont to provide an example of the benefits of a biodynamic lifestyle. Following a 25 year career as a sculptor in metal, glass, and clay, her commitment to artmaking and handcraft is evident in the educational program at Meadows Bee Farm. The sculptures on display combine photography, light, and glass, resulting in hard-edged industrial compositions framing images of water in the landscape.
Mike McGrath employs a monoprint printmaking technique in which he literally collaborates with the material with no visual goal in mind. Using a limited palette of primary colors–red, blue, and yellow–his actions with the ink result in abstract forms and surprising colors that the viewer can decipher as they see fit. Interpretations abound from landscapes to pure abstraction.
Lisa Robinson's painting practice evolved from a period of abstraction to a more realist approach primarily devoted to landscape. The three paintings on view here evoke the lush vegetation of Naples, Florida where she resides during part of each year. While based in realism the brush strokes in her "plein air" works exhibit a robust impressionist touch sufficiently expressive to conjure details like water lilies in a few swift strokes.
Robert DuGrenier's sculptures in glass are inspired by and collaborate with the natural environment in a myriad of ways. The works included here are larger variations of DuGrenier's Mobile Homes for Hermit Crabs. DuGrenier explains that great care is taken "to pose no harm to the crabs. By imitating the interior shape of each hand-blown crystal shell and following the spiral formations they accommodate the contours of a hermit crab's body."