Opening Reception Featuring “Louise Weinberg”
Sunday April 7th
4:00 – 7:00pm
Touch Art & Craft Gallery is pleased to present the April 2013 Group Exhibition showcasing 22 artists, including established gallery regulars and several newcomers to the gallery. The exhibition will feature painting, collage, and drawing, with works by the following artists:
Louise Weinberg; Painter
Louise Weinberg’s work is concerned with the ebb and flow of human relationships. These new paintings suggest the sometimes ambivalent paths we must navigate in our relationships with others. The themes of closeness/ distance, connection/ disconnection, and containment/ freedom are of great interest to her. Much of her past work has focused on the issue of containment -the very basic human desire for the safety of enclosure and structure vs. the terror of entrapment. The images which reoccur in her nebulous abstract paintings -spheres, eggs, buildings, grids, bowls, bottles, jugs serve as metaphors. These images suggest that containers are ambiguous; they can protect, imprison or do both. In this new series of paintings, the focus is on how one navigates the issue of closeness/distance in a relationship.
These works are mixed media (oil paint, charcoal, and marker) on polymer. Weinberg literally paints with her hands. She does not use brushes and only on occasion will she use a painting knife. Many “happy accidents” occur because the surface is so very unpredictable. She finds that some loss of control, the continuous making of surprising discoveries, and an unpredictable end result are all essential parts of the painting process for her.
Skip Treglia; Visual Artist, Sculptor of repurposed materials
Artist Statement: I live by the sea which provides most of my materials and ideas. Nature and its elements have started a process for me to continue. Each piece of wood, metal or bone has a unique character – aged, weathered, pitted, twisted or polished. When I’m out gathering materials, I don’t know what the outcome will be – it’s almost like a puzzle that eventually comes together. I try to combine these randomly offered pieces in a form or design that reflects their organic origins. Making sculptures from found objects is a form of artistic recycling in which I’m connecting my sense of design with nature’s.
Since so much of my material has spent some time in the ocean, it seems natural to incorporate my love of fishing and sailing into my work. The whimsical shaman spirit figures are influenced by African and Native American art.
Andreea Vasiliu, Painter
Andreea Vasiliu was born in Bucharest, Romania, where she began her artistic path. She is both licensed as an artist and as a Pharmacist and she is now living and working in Massachusetts, USA. She patiently gathered ideas during her research years. Her finding wrap around an essentially dualistic notion: the light, the dual wave-particle manifestation of the matter. The light is responsible for our sense of sight, light reveals the forms, the colors and the motion. It is a painter’s magic instrument, just as the sound is a musician’s ally. It can become a symbolic instrument, as light penetrates the darkness and unveils the inner truths, the true self, both good and bad. A form wrapped in light become a bearer of concepts, symbol. Andreea calls this a “Conceptual Realism”, a dualistic bondage of the matter and the uncreated.
Valerie Maser-Flanagan; Fiber Artist
She is intrigued with the lines and shapes observed in natural settings and city architecture. Her designs are influenced by bold lines formed in venerable forests, refined lines flowing in stone and wood grains, complex ice crystals, and unusual shapes formed by stone walls, asymmetric holes in tree trunks, and worn brick walls in old New England mills.
Her approach is improvisational, starting with a general idea, a palette of colors, and a blank design wall. Freely cut lines in cloth blend shape and color into an initial composition. She finds this approach intriguing because of the fluid motion created when freely cutting lines and shapes. It is a dynamic approach because the interaction of line, shape and color cause unexpected results that the artist needs to continually respond to.
Jim Kociuba; Painter
Artist statement: Painting the local landscape has always held a fascination for me. My latest work has been inspired by the manmade and natural environments in and around Cambridge, Massachusetts. The interaction of land, sky, and water is a continual source of inspiration to view and attempt to capture. Lately, my interest has been on the wetland environments that are often passed by each day with little notice. These places are filled with plants and creatures of all sizes which depend on these habitats for nourishment and protection. With these paintings, I am hoping to bring the viewer closer to these spaces.
The process of painting brings me a closer to my neighborhood. When painting, it is easy to disconnect from the external and internal distractions of this civilized world. Working with paint creates a state of mind that is devoid of words, numbers, and problems. It is a wonderful state of being to explore and I believe that the world would be a better place if everyone could somehow find such peace.
Lynda Goldberg; Painter
“Her work is informed by nature. Whether working at the coast, in the colors of autumn, in the freshness of spring, or in the radiance of sunlight, I come to know myself and my goals as an artist.”
Her monotypes, oils, pastels, and watercolors focus on nature and her fascination with it. Her prints are one-of-a-kind; using monotype, monoprint, or collagraph techniques. She starts with an idea or feeling which she expresses in textures and colors using natural and manmade found objects. She is a tactile person, always touching things and feeling their texture. Because she is a printmaker she sees an item’s potential by how it might appear after color and pressure has been applied.
Fernando DeOliveira; Painter
In the amorphous of his painting, forms are either incoherent of irrelevant. The challenge of forming one of his painting is a succession of color and texture in pursuit of bringing light and life to the canvas. Thought the images are abstract, tangible feeling are provoked, which despite appearances are based on a rational structure, and bring the viewer inside his pictorial world… to his dimension.
Sharon L Smith; Figurative and Equine Sculptor
Among her favorite subjects are both horses and women, she love showing both their beauty and their strength. Her sculpture’s start with a feeling, emotion or movement she would like to convey. She was recently announced a winner in the “one of a kind” search of the magazine “Exploring TOSCA”. This magazine covers Theater, Opera, Shakespeare, Culture and Art for the Minnesota twin cities. Also, she was accepted a second time into the American Academy of Equine Art show, the first being in 2002.
The February Group Exhibition will present work by a number of artists who will return for solo shows over the coming months or the artist who past the solo show. Painter John Lobosco, whose colorful, contemporary takes on silkscreen will kick off March 14- April 10 in a solo exhibition at the gallery.