LOUISA GOULD GALLERY ANNOUNCES THE ELEVENTH ANNUAL ABSTRACT GROUP ART SHOW:

VIGNETTES

It is with great pleasure that the Louisa Gould Gallery on Main Street in Vineyard Haven presents the Eleventh Annual Group Abstract Show, “Vignettes” opening on August 30th and continuing until September 12, 2018. The artists’ reception will be on September 1 from 5-7 p.m. The exhibit showcases the work of six (6) artists, all with long time connections to Martha’s Vineyard: Jo-Anne Bates, Michaele Christian, Roberta Gross, Martha Mae Jones, Chetta Kelley and Laura Roosevelt. These artists create individual works of art by employing a variety of media: acrylics, fabrics, digital photography, oil and water based monotypes, and mixed media. The paintings, print, collages and photographs reflect their personal approaches to their media. The individual artists and their work are described below:

Jo-Anne Bates’ mixed media monotype prints reflect her visit several years ago to South Africa, often referred to as the “Rainbow Country”. She was so impressed with the colors and textures of this beautiful country that she created a series of prints using bold, new color combinations. She also began exploring folding and tearing the prints as well as creating texture by adhering her shredded junk mail to their surfaces.  Finally, she added text on race, women and conversations about the human condition. The resulting prints are sculptural vignettes.

Michaele Christian has again explored the powerful potential of monoprints to reflect abstract imagery as well as her political views. Her work demonstrates her process of layering different colors and/or images. Sometimes, she overprints immediately, while the original print is wet. Other times, she waits until it has dried. Sometimes, layers are created by collaging parts of previously printed monotypes and/or embedding other multimedia elements. Some, such as Beneath the Façade took years to complete, including elements from 2006, 2016 and 2018.

Roberta Gross’s oil based monoprints are abstract compositions, created with no intention to be representative of the outside world. They reflect her intuitive placement of materials on the inked plate as well as automatic mark-making resulting from removing ink before printing. She utilizes common household objects which can leave interesting shapes unconnected to their origins. These objects include Christmas tinsel, onion bags, rug runners and solvent. Her process allows her to transfer to her prints both a sense of energy and strong composition.

Martha Jones is a fabric artist who uses remnants of silk, cotton, rayon, bamboo, hemp, and other fibers to make art that can define or embellish a space. She creates painterly abstractions using textiles, attaching them to the canvas, like painters use paint. For her, it is a challenge to integrate these seemingly disparate fragments of fabric. The resulting collages are colorful, energetic and often narrative.

Chetta Kelley creates abstract narrative paintings working in an intuitive manner. She places marks on the canvas, steps back and looks for a beginning composition. She layers continuously, sometimes adding colorful washes and textures. This process will often ignite additional ideas that she will continue to explore, sometimes over many months. She paints using acrylics and watercolors. She particularly likes exploring how these materials react on YUPO, a synthetic paper which seems to release her intuitive mark-making.

Laura D. Roosevelt, a long time resident of Martha’s Vineyard, has been photographing reflections on water since 2010. She began this exploration after she noticed that objects reflected in bodies of water were interestingly changed -- stretched, fractured and repeated -- by motion on the water's surface. With her camera, she is on the lookout for appealing abstract compositions and colors. She is intensely aware that the water is in constant motion and so she never knows exactly what she will get when she takes her shot. For her, this process is something of a treasure hunt. “I've learned to recognize promising patterns on the water's surface, and sometimes I'll take several dozen shots of one spot in hopes of getting one that works as a piece of art. Back at home, I use Lightroom to crop and enhance my images. I think of the entire process as ‘painting with my camera’.”

The Louisa Gould Gallery is located at 54 Main Street, Vineyard Haven, on the island of Martha's Vineyard. The gallery is open daily from 11am to 5pm and by private appointment. For further information please call us at (508) 693.7373 or visit us online at louisagould.com.