Appetite - four day exhibition in Melrose, MA featuring my work and my friends Patti Brady and Catherine Bertulli.
Lisa Crossman, Ph.D., Curator - Fitchburg Art Museum, had this to say about Appetite
Appetite begins with instinct and results in vibrant, playful excess. Catherine Bertulli hosts the artist-organized pop-up exhibit in her large studio in Melrose, MA. Each artist toys with the seduction of the surface such as the draw of bright colors. Bertulli’s monumental towers are impressive illusions, shimmering columns of gold, turquoise and other brilliant tints. They are eye-catching objects. Yet the aniline dyes are fugitive–presenting only impermanent effects–and they are hollow, only a shell of architecture. Adria Arch’s palette too confesses her interest in forcing the unexpected through experimentation–freezing a mark in time and then responding to it, and intuitively combining fields of color with shapes and patterns. Her paintings are pleasurable in their legibility as spontaneous fusions of a range of vivid hues that are, at times, more offbeat than pretty. Patti Brady too slips a barb (sometimes literally) into her otherwise ornate, decorative layers of patterns atop Plexiglas and bits of mirror. Slits of the transparent Plexi support or reflective planes are exposed to varying degrees, inviting the environment to permeate the pieces.
Experimentation with materials and a foundation of knowledge based on making, looking, and reading are evidenced in the objects’ forms and surfaces. Similarly the titles are evocative of free association and each artist’s consideration of her work in relation to the history of art. For instances, Arch engages with the gestural spill of an Abstract Expressionist like Helen Frankenthaler; Bertulli connects with the literal forms of Minimalism, wittily playing up their theatricality; and Brady looks to the Pattern and Decoration Movement that developed in the 1970s to contextualize her work, while also drawing from fashion and her longtime interest in sewing to manipulate hard surfaces to resemble lingerie-like doilies.
Appetite, as the title suggests, expresses desire and craving, humor, a taste for art making that is not easily satiated and the pleasure of indulging in the splendor of color, texture and pattern.
Lisa Crossman, Ph.D., Curator - Fitchburg Art Museum, had this to say about Appetite
Appetite begins with instinct and results in vibrant, playful excess. Catherine Bertulli hosts the artist-organized pop-up exhibit in her large studio in Melrose, MA. Each artist toys with the seduction of the surface such as the draw of bright colors. Bertulli’s monumental towers are impressive illusions, shimmering columns of gold, turquoise and other brilliant tints. They are eye-catching objects. Yet the aniline dyes are fugitive–presenting only impermanent effects–and they are hollow, only a shell of architecture. Adria Arch’s palette too confesses her interest in forcing the unexpected through experimentation–freezing a mark in time and then responding to it, and intuitively combining fields of color with shapes and patterns. Her paintings are pleasurable in their legibility as spontaneous fusions of a range of vivid hues that are, at times, more offbeat than pretty. Patti Brady too slips a barb (sometimes literally) into her otherwise ornate, decorative layers of patterns atop Plexiglas and bits of mirror. Slits of the transparent Plexi support or reflective planes are exposed to varying degrees, inviting the environment to permeate the pieces.
Experimentation with materials and a foundation of knowledge based on making, looking, and reading are evidenced in the objects’ forms and surfaces. Similarly the titles are evocative of free association and each artist’s consideration of her work in relation to the history of art. For instances, Arch engages with the gestural spill of an Abstract Expressionist like Helen Frankenthaler; Bertulli connects with the literal forms of Minimalism, wittily playing up their theatricality; and Brady looks to the Pattern and Decoration Movement that developed in the 1970s to contextualize her work, while also drawing from fashion and her longtime interest in sewing to manipulate hard surfaces to resemble lingerie-like doilies.
Appetite, as the title suggests, expresses desire and craving, humor, a taste for art making that is not easily satiated and the pleasure of indulging in the splendor of color, texture and pattern.
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| Some of my work in the installation phase. |
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| Patti Brady's work pre-installation. |
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| Installation photos, Catherine Bertulli's aluminum foil sculptures positioned near my wall. |
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| Patti Brady's work installed. |
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| Patti Brady on the left, me on the right. |
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| Catherine B. talking about her work at the opening reception. |
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| Patti Brady talking about her work at the opening. |
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| The panel discussion, Art, Sex and Democracy, that we held in the space on Saturday, May 6. | Moderated by Mary Tinti, PhD |
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| Mary Tinti and Silvia Lopez Chavez, discussion at the panel. |
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| Catherine B. explains her process to the students in her workshop, held in the space on Sunday. |