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New
Show Opens at Hera Featuring Local and Far-flung Artists….
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Bringing a national and international perspective to Wakefield, Hera Gallery's upcoming exhibition of four gallery artists includes Mexico City artist Georgeanne Gonzalez, Chicago painter Berthold Boone, as well as South County collage and paper artist Jill McLaughlin and painter Jonathan McPhillips. This juxtaposition of artists working in diverse communities creates a conversation that is both lively and unexpected, raising the bar for local exhibitions. Berthold
Boone Boone's current series of small acrylics reflects his ongoing exploration of surreal, often narrative paintings. Objects, people and clearly rendered forms are placed against colorful, stylized backgrounds and illuminated by bright but often undefined light sources. These forms combine to create narratives that are both personal and provocative. Boone's works challenge the viewer to take a closer look to discover a hidden meaning often couched in a metaphor.
Boone's works reflect a close observation of the world that is at times satirical, humorous, or simply perceptive. Transformed by the artist's vocabulary of often recurring images and his use of conflicting visual elements placed in contrived situations, like actors onstage, the construction of a language of symbolic forms creates a sense of unreality and specificity in these intriguing narratives.
Gonzalez has studied in New Orleans, and at Vermont Studio Center, where she received credit through University of the Arts in Pennsylvania. She has also studied with well-known Hungarian painter, Irene DuBohous, a former apprentice of Diego Rivera. In 1988 she received a BA degree in Art History with an Honorable mention for her thesis, "the Language of Painting". She has taught at the School of Architecture at the National University of Mexico, the Institute de Cultura Superior, the School of Design at the Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana and the Centro Cultural de Arte Contemporaneo. Gonzalez's impressive and diverse body of work has followed her career-long interests in mark-making, language, history symbolism, and nature. Her use of materials is inventive and at times obsessive. The artist does not shy from using unorthodox combinations of paint, ink, and drawing materials. The versatility of Gonzalez' intuitive working process allows the artist to work in non-traditional, unexpected ways to recombine materials, and gives her pieces a sense of history. The artist often works on pieces "finished" years before to transform old ideas into new ones, and results in finished products with are layered and contain multiple meanings.
"I like the effect of the delicate and smooth surface of the cutouts against the oil bar and oil pastel, for they seem to emphasize the rough and mushy texture of the latter." Gonzalez's interest in formal composition and her intuitive use of material make her works beautiful. Behind this beauty lies a wealth of curiosity about the human condition that is slowly made available to viewers over time, adding layer after layer to these works.
Specifically, McLaughlin aims to express a connection between women's issues past and present. She explains, "I hope to communicate a common theme I see among women, past and present, who have struggled with some of the same health concerns. Treatment of issues such as weight loss and fertility have changed in many ways, but the underlying feelings that women face are timeless. My collages deal with these personal subjects in a subtle way by using symbols and relationships. Viewers can explore their own feelings with the help of the visual effects of text and images that carry different meanings for everyone." Jonathan
McPhillips McPhillip's current series of acrylics explores the impact of simple forms in complex environments that create narratives for the chosen imagery. His work is driven by surface quality and texture, varying from impasto approaches to transparent glazes. McPhillips' paintings often repeat the same abstract or recognizable forms as the artist employs a language of springs, swirls, curves, and botanical elements that waft through a dreamlike space.
Describing the motivations for his current body of work, McPhillips comments on the role time plays in this series, "My process of making art has fared well by being more retrospective. Perhaps events in our world and in my own world have directed me to place a bookmark on page 2002. Making visual connections between 'then' and 'now' has been a refreshing way for me to see how the last decade of making art has such a strong influence on my next painting or brushstroke….taking the time to examine the past is helping me to have a better idea of the present, and a determination for the future." Within
Diversity, Common Interests Emerge This event is free and open to the public. For additional information call 401-789-1488. Gallery hours are Wednesday through Friday (1-5), Saturday (10-4). Hera Gallery is handicapped accessible. |
For
example, in Versus (at left), two robed men on horseback
battle with sabers, while a third lies on the ground, hacking away
at both. This heated scene, painted expressively in tones of red,
brown, black and white, is set incongruously against a background
of regularly painted bar code stripes. Boone's juxtaposition of
a style similar to 19th Century Romantic painting of historical
events with a bold, 20th Century Op-Art style asks contemporary
viewers a question: how do painters and viewers of art reconcile
two opposing views of art, both of which inform us today, and has
consumerism undermined art?
The
Wall is one of a series of banners which were conceived by the
artist to be used for festival purposes in public places. Worked
on from several directions, the artist created a harmonious composition
and only decided which way to hang the piece as the pieced neared
completion. Typical of Gonzalez's works, with often incorporates
and transforms parts of older artworks, this piece features collages
of watercolor flowers done previously. Gonzalez describes the result:
Over
time, one of McLaughlin's main artistic interests has been to discover
unexpected perspectives on imagery that is familiar. In her latest
series of mixed media collages, McLaughlin marries photography with
vintage text, symbols and illustrations to add texture and a sense
of depth. Using familiar objects such as wooden drawers or photo
albums as a background for her collected images, McLaughlin recontextualizes
her source images. 
In
Season Squeeze No. 1, leaves and soft seed pods float in
a free-fall environment, surrounded by space that is neither air
nor paint, but something in between. The cropped forms and shifting
streaks of light reveal a state of flux, a particular moment as
it is captured, documented and preserved before it can elude the
viewer's grasp.