Shades of Color, Shades of Grey
Hera Gallery Presents:
Shades of Color, Shades of Grey
Uli Brahmst, Mandy Howe, Viera Levitt,
Abigael McGuire, Jill McLaughlin, and MJ Yeager
July 30th – September 3rd
Opening Reception: Saturday, July 30th, 6-8pm
Artist Panel Discussion: Thursday, August 18th, 7pm
Hera Gallery is pleased host Shades of Color, Shades of Grey, an exhibition featuring the work of Hera Members Uli Brahmst, Mandy Howe, Viera Levitt,
Abigael McGuire, Jill McLaughlin, and MJ Yeager. We invite the public to join us Saturday, July 30th from 6:00 to 8:00pm for the opening reception and to the artist panel discussion on Thursday August 18th, at 7pm.
Uli Brahmst is a German born artist who has been living and working in Canada, the Czech Republic and since 1996 in the United States. Brahmst's spirited portfolio encompasses painting, sculpture, fiber art as well as site-specific installation. She moves freely between abstraction and the figure. Her imaginative work has been shown extensively in the United States and around the world. In New York City she has exhibited in such venues as Galleria Galou, Perogi, Lehman College Art Gallery, Rotunda Gallery, Cave Gallery, Cork Gallery Lincoln Center, Exit Art, Art Expo, The German Consulate, Pool Art Fair, the New Art Center and Wuersch & Gering LLP. Other exhibition venues include The Providence Art Club, RI; the Bannister Gallery, RI; the Jamestown Art Center, RI; the Islip Museum, Islip, CT; the New Jersey Center For Visual Art; Woodson Art Museum, Wausau, WI. Ms. Brahmst is a member of the South County Art Association, an associate member of Hera Gallery, and an elected member of the Art League of Rhode Island.
Mandy Howe is an artist and art teacher from Rhode Island. Primarily a land and seascape painter, her work often includes natural objects and collected things. She is a graduate of Boston University and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts. She has two children and teaches art in both independent and inner city schools.
Viera Levitt is a curator and photographer. She settled in Rhode Island in 2006 following her Artslink Residency at RISD's Graduate Studies and an internship in the Photography Department at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. After 3 years as the Director of the CCRI Knight Campus Art Gallery, she has, since September 2012, worked as the Gallery Director for the University of Massachusetts in Dartmouth. Her show at CCRI about its brutalist megastructure “We Talk About Architecture, Architecture Talks Back” won the 2011 New England Art Award in the Concept/theme show curator category. With her photographic exploration of Brutalism, Viera continues to reveal the hidden beauty of this architectural style often derided as gray, crude, soulless and austere. From 1996 to the present, she has curated or co-curated more than sixty exhibitions in Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Germany, Austria, Luxembourg, and in the USA and has lectured about contemporary art in Bratislava, Brno, Berlin, Rotterdam, Hiroshima, New Delhi, Caracas, Nairobi, as well as in Rhode Island
Abigael McGuire is a person of many hats, but mainly dons those of the arts blogger, independent curator, and artist. Returning to her native Ocean State in late 2012 after a bout of California living, she has been immersing herself in the Rhode Island arts community and beyond. Her artistic and curatorial work often looks to explore the universal cultural experiences of being human and revealing the underlying ties that connect us. At present, she enjoys living in Providence, RI.
Jill McLaughlin was born in Minnesota. After studying art and photography in Michigan at Delta Community College and Western Michigan University, she moved to New England. She has lived in South Kingstown for thirty years. She has been active in teaching and exhibiting at many local art organizations and is currently an Associate Member of the Hera Educational Foundation, Artists Cooperative Gallery of Westerly, Mystic Art Association and the Newport Art Museum.
MJ Yeager worked in the design field from 1974 in Pittsburgh, Los Angeles, New York City, Washington DC and Maine until 1994 shortly after the birth of her daughter when she and her family moved to Maine. It was then that she retired from the graphic design field and began teaching art to children and adults. She moved here to Rhode Island in 2003 and taught art locally at Quest Montessori School. Teaching provided her an opportunity to fine-tune her own expressive art forms including painting and blended media collage.
Her 20-plus year career as a graphic designer may explain her passion for the process of collage. As a designer/art director in the 70s, 80s and early 90s prior to the onset of digital technologies, all of the design and production was prepared in cut-and-paste format and sent to print houses for reproduction. By 1992 all design projects were completed on computers but her passion on to trim and paste imagery continued.
The exhibition and events will take place at Hera Gallery located on 10 High Street in Wakefield, RI. The public is invite to attend the Shades of Color, Shades of Grey opening reception Saturday, July 30th from 6:00 to 8:00pm.
These programs are presented with partial support from The Rhode Island State Council on the Arts, Hera Educational Foundation, and The Friends of Hera. Hera Gallery is free and open to the public and is accessible to persons with disabilities. Parking is available.