RANGE II ~ an exhibition

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

RANGE II
Curated by Peter Dudek

July 3-18, 2012
Opening Reception Friday, July 13, 5-8pm
[ARTS NIGHT OUT]

Artists’ Salon Tuesday, July 10, 6pm
Moderator Leslie Ferrin and Curator Peter Dudek will engage artists from the Pioneer Valley and the Berkshires in a moderated conversation. All are welcome to participate in or observe the dialog with local artists. A reception will follow.

A.P.E. Gallery 126 Main Street Northampton, MA
Contact: Lisa Thompson, 413.586.5553 or lisathompson@apearts.org

RANGE [Part 2]
A cultural exchange between
the Berkshires and Hampshire County.

A few years back, Leslie Ferrin moved her gallery from Northampton to Lenox. That change in location unexpectedly triggered an artistic dialog between Hampshire County and the Berkshires. When Curator Peter Dudek first met Leslie, he was the Director of the Storefront Artist Project in Pittsfield and Leslie, knowing that he actively sought to engage artists from the surrounding areas, suggested an exchange of sorts, a two part exhibition where artists from one county would show in the other. Thus, Range, an exhibit curated by Elizabeth Stone, was born and appeared at the Storefront in the fall of 2009. Range contained the work of seven young artists from the Northampton region displaying a wide range of artistic practices.

Range II is the second half of this exchange and continuation of the dialog. It additionally includes seven artists with diverse and roaming practices. All have exhibited with the Storefront and beyond; all welcome this opportunity to again engage with their artistic neighbors.

THE LINEUP:

Maggie Mailer’s paintings display an inventive mix of color and narrative. This combination jabs at ones collective memory, resulting in an unanticipated cognitive jolt. It may not hurt, but does it stay with you.

Michael McKay’s artwork sources cold war imagery and supermarket displays. An odd coupling that is rational, yet not. Fear, malaise and an irrational belief in the future plays out in this unsettling scenario. The result? Anyone’s guess.

Christin Couture unearths an almost forgotten nether world, a dim and hazy past that lingers on, just beyond our consciousness. Through her modest sized evocations, Christin induces a memory, a sense, of an unknown time.

For David Ricci chaos and color is all. His image dense photographs are ensnarled with lines and chunks. It is a freefall into detritus filled abysses, wrought by man and nature. Large, bold and direct. There is no ambiguity here.

Monika Sosnowski photographs the ephemeral nature of being. A strange beauty rooted in the unexpected and the awkward. Everyday wonders, previously overlooked or submerged, rise to the surface of her photographs, becoming known, or at least less unknown.

Peter Dudek enlists a miscellany of mid-century architecture, modernism, color theory and cartoon knowledge in the making of his episodic sculptures. By orchestrating diverse subject matter with scavenged materials, he produces familiar yet distanced ensembles.

Bill Hosie’s installations, made from found, fabricated and altered found things, are a rambling discourse on the world around him. There might be a story here, deep inside his maze-like logic, or could this be a creation without intention? No.

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Peter Dudek has once again done his alchemy in assembling a delectable group of artists who offer a compelling range of impressive visual sensibilities in painting, drawing, sculpture and photography .  Thank you for including me in this superb exhibition!

Hope to see some of you next Friday, July 13th at the opening reception.

For those in the area this Tuesday please attend the special Artist Salon talk at the gallery where most of the artists will engage in a discussion regarding their work with the curator extraordinaire, Mr Peter Dudek and the Berkshires’ premier gallerista Ms. Leslie Ferrin – 6:00 pm at the gallery.

xo,

Monika