LOUISA GOULD GALLERY ANNOUNCES THE TWELFTH ANNUAL ABSTRACT INVITATIONAL GROUP ART SHOW:

It is with great pleasure that the Louisa Gould Gallery on Main Street in Vineyard Haven presents the Twelfth Annual Group Abstract Show, “Abstract Art’s Unlimited Boundaries” opening on August 22, 2019 and continuing until August 28, 2019. The artists’ reception will be on August 24th from 5-7 p.m. The exhibit showcases the work of seven (9) artists, most with long time connections to Martha’s Vineyard:  Michaele Christian, Terri Dilling, Bricque Garber, Roberta Gross, Martha Mae Jones, Louisa Gould , Chetta Kelley, Heather Sommers, and Tachina Rudman Young. These artists create individual works of art by employing a variety of media: acrylics, fabrics, collage papers, oil- and water-based monotypes, pastels, and ceramics. The paintings, prints, collages, and ceramics reflect their personal approaches to their media and their artwork embodies how abstract art has unlimited boundaries. Pieces in the show range from the purely non-objective to allusions to the outside world.

Michaele Christian presents a body of work that she has created over the past decade, from her delicate plant silhouettes ( Untitled 109, 113) to the black shapes suggesting landscape or architecture (Ascent) to the strong profile references to Afro-Americans (Untitled 111). Her art largely consists of monotypes or monoprints from collographs (a print-making process involving an inked textured plate). It demonstrates her process of layering different colors and/or images, with an emphasis on composition and values. The common theme which runs throughout is her love of and interest in nature- real or imagined, including humans.

Terri Dilling’s art is inspired by the natural world. She uses large, active brushstrokes to create a sense of gardens, skies and oceans. Her Coastal Current series in this exhibit specifically relates to the ocean and the motion of water. The colors, the directions, and overlapping of brushstrokes create these land and seascapes. For example, in Coastal Currents 5, one has the sense of clouds, sand, sky and water by the movement of the blue, reddish brown, light magenta and white strokes floating over the surface of the painting.

Bricque Garber began her artistic endeavors in the early 70’s as a jewelry maker and then focused on textiles, photography and acrylics. This diverse background in materials influences her current mixed media style. According to her, this body of work “reflects the last two years of craziness, uncertainty and confusion in our current political world”. She describes her collage process as layering bits and pieces of despair and hope and my colorful prayers for amity. Garber pays homage to Toni Morrison who had written: The best art is political and you ought to make it unquestionably political and irrevocably beautiful at the same time.

Roberta Gross’s pastel compositions are part of a series on vessels. While there is a clear reference to still life objects, her primary purpose in this body of work is to be able to use the tactile and vibrant properties of soft pastels to display vivid color and shapes. This process of simplifying the composition subject has been employed by such artists as Jasper Johns who had depicted flags and targets so he could explore qualities of oil and wax paint. By limiting her subject to vessels, Gross can concentrate on the unique qualities of pastel to “paint” in soft but gorgeous shades of blues, greens, yellows and purples.

Martha Jones 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. In her current work, Pathways Home, the landscape motif was not intentional but, as she describes it, emerged with an insistent pull to which I surrendered. The different palettes offer a glimpse into the psychological, spiritual and emotional spaces from which I worked during a year of challenge and change.

Heather Sommers uses ceramics creatively in her series Re-frames. She forces the viewer to go back and forth in the composition to observe how the textured ceramic framing surfaces surrounding the focal subject matter interact. For example, in the Re-frame entitled Beach Drift, she employs a central area of tightly packed beach detritus surrounded by a calming ceramic area, seemingly the sand and dunes. Sommers is also exhibiting four black mountain clay vessels. Through three of these vessels, she explores longitudinal winged forms. The vertical sculpture, Moonscape incorporates a closed winged vessel.

Tachina Rudman-Young works intuitively, focusing on the joyful, passionate and celebratory aspects of color and gesture. She practices letting go, being present and infusing the work with spontaneous gestures. Her print Yellow consists of vibrant yellows, yellow/reds, and greens, interspersed with gestural marks, which run the viewers’ eye through these color fields. Rudman-Young describes herself when painting as delighting in the unpredictable element of chance…as splashes and drips meet intentional mark-making. This delight is clearly shown in her piece entitled Sound Blues.

Chetta Kelley is a multi-faceted artist.  This August. she was a first prize winner at the Ag Show for her photo realist black and white  bird’s nest and eggs.  In this show, her  two abstract works reflect her ability to paint and glaze layer after layer until her compositions satisfy her inner vision. For example, in her piece, “Tranquility”, the viewer experiences the icy blue of a sunny wintry day, perhaps at the shore, so different from the energetic orange and blues featured in her other piece in this exhibit.

Louisa Gould painted a series of small acrylic paintings at an Artist in Residence (AIR) program in December of 2019 at the Atlantic Center for the Arts (ACA) in Florida after Art Basel Miami Beach run by Abstract artist and teacher, Theresa Girard, who's work is shown at the gallery. Another piece, Vineyard Sound is a small acrylic she painted from a studio on West Chop this spring. Louisa an oil painter had fun learning how to use acrylics. The color are from the sound and shoreline but abstracted with just a hint of green. 

Please join us for the Artist Opening Reception on Saturday, August 24, from 5 to 7pm with live music. This affordable Pop-UP show is on exhibit at the Louisa Gould Gallery from August 22 to 28^th. All works in the show are available for viewing and to purchase online at www.louisagould.com. The Louisa Gould Gallery is located in the heart of the Historic Cultural Town of Vineyard Haven, on the island Martha's Vineyard. The gallery is located a block from the ferry. Please call (508) 693.7373 for directions.