2016 EXHIBITIONS
DRIVING HOME
Photographs by Sarah HolbrookDecember 13– January 4
Taking a photograph is part magical journey to the spot where the rock leans just West, the mountain breaks the clouds or the woman turns her face into darkness . . . part magical pause filled with belief that the light will turn, the receding wave will leave its signature, she will set her glass in front of the candle . . . part moment of recognition as the image is tossed before you, in an instant, headlights catch snow, the wave breaks, she smiles . . . but always it is the gift of light, the dance of light, dancing with the wave and into the camera, dancing with her face and into the lens. I am grateful to have been able to hold a camera all these years. MORE
FORGET WHAT I SAID
Group ExhibitionNovember 4 - December 3
Forget What I Said is an exhibition featuring the work of eight artists: William Brayton, Brenda Garand, Carol Keller, Cathy Osman, Tim Segar, Joe Smith, Deborra Stewart-Pettengill, and Erica Wurtz. Although they have known each other for many years, to exhibit together or to have their work be in context with one another is an unusual and valued opportunity to create a visual dialogue across the disciplines of collage, painting, and sculpture. Each artist shares an interest in the formal language of abstraction and a deliberate use of material. Paper, paint, steel, wood, aluminum screening, clay, and porcupine quills are some of the materials used to convey ideas in two and three dimensions. The content of their works separate undeniably one from another, yet in conversation the pieces reflect and reveal new relationships within individual works, aswell as in response to the collective dynamic. In a time where the spoken and written word often describes what the viewer is looking at, Forget What I Said, places emphasis on seeing and bringing your own experiences and conclusions to the work.
UNITY OF OPPOSITES
Zea Mays Printmaking ExhibitionOctober 5- 30
It all started with a quote (which is revealed at A.P.E.).
Two artists, one from Zea Mays Printmaking and another from The Peregrine Press (Portland, ME), created prints inspired by the quote. Once completed, the two prints were sent to another three artists from each of the organizing studios, those six prints to 19 other artists until 75 artists had responded to each other over the course of five months. Each new “generation” of artists made their original print inspired by anything from the previous generation’s pieces, be it a subject matter, mood, color, the quality of a line, or a combination of many aspects of the pieces..
HOUSE OF LIFE
Anna DibbleJune 8- July 3
‘House of Life’ is a collection of recent work that was done during and after a three year stretch of loss and change in Dibble’s life. The subsequent deaths of her husband, her dog and her mother motivated Dibble to find ways to tame the pain of grief. “The grieving, which often seemed to be an outside force that attacked like an emotional terrorist, erased clarity and inspiration. It seemed there was nothing I could do to speed up the process and get to the elusive ‘other side.’’
After much change, Dibble finally got to work, attempting to “paint into the pain with hopes I could paint my way out.” In the process she found that it’s impossible to escape grief, but you can learn how to be patient with the dark, and find ways to live in a positive way with its presence. The resulting paintings tell a story of love, loss, change, hope and healing. MORE
MAGNETIC CIRCUITRIES
David BrewsterApril 14- May 15
David Brewster is in the process of creating a dynamic suite of interrelated oil paintings that provide exposure to rarely seen views of the spectacular visual realities implicit within various types of power generation plants operating in Massachusetts. The often monstrous and bizarre forms of nuclear silos, hydroelectric structures, wind turbines, and solar farms speak to vast movements of resources and energy and to unique and significant impacts on the surrounding landscape and communities. His main tool is the foam paint roller, which is the perfect match for the exuberance he brings to his work, the energy and velocity of how he moves paint increasingly becoming a subject in itself. Letting the mark expand and travel and become something more in its own right, he's able to liberate from descriptive tendency and come closer to his ideal of working as nature works, with the marks blooming and evolving of their own accord. MORE
QUESTIONS OF TRAVEL:
Recent LandscapesJustin Kim
March 8- April 2
“Questions of Travel: Recent Landscapes” includes a series of mixed media landscapes on paper executed over the past three years. The subject for these include specific locations where the artist, Justin Kim, has lived and worked, including: the California high desert, Sierra Nevada, New York City and New England. Kim’s work combines the grand tradition of painting with a contemporary sensibility, exploring themes such as pastiche, authenticity, the body, and the relationship between technology and the artist’s hand. His work generates tension between reality and artifice while challenging traditional painting structures. MORE
INCUBATION FROM EMPTY SPACE
Genevieve Mae Burnett, Michael Tillyer, Gordon ThorneJanuary 8- February 28
The form that fills empty space is an adequate definition of art. The idea that is born new from confusion can be thought of as the creative spark. The dredging of lakes filled with experience pulls forth the supply to weave and shape the stuff of reinterpretation. Over the months that introduce the new year, the empty space at A.P.E. will be filled week by week with exploration by three creative workers whose lives have been inextricably woven into the story of the Available space: Gordon Thorne, A.P.E. founder whose inspirational ideal elusively appears and reappears from the fogginess of public expectation; Michael Tillyer whose creative work and life has been as an emulator; and Genevieve Mae Burnett whose dejection has led to her final emergent victory. The A.P.E space will be open to the public at the Arts Night Out events over the next two months and at variable times over the incubation term of the working studio.