Hera Gallery is proud to present The Perfect Age: Reflections on the Passage of Time

A National Juried Exhibition, juried by Lydia Gordon, Associate Director of the Peabody Essex Museum Salem, MA. The exhibition will be held at Hera Gallery, 10 High Street in Wakefield, RI, from May 14th- June 18th, 2022. The public is invited to attend during our open gallery hours, Wed-Fri (1-5pm) and Saturday (10-4). The opening reception will be held in person at Hera Gallery on May 14th, from 6-8pm.

Throughout the exhibition, participating artists will be featured on our social media, website, and virtual ArtSteps exhibition. Hera Gallery will also be hosting a live virtual artist talk featuring the exhibiting artists. The talk will be held on May 26th at 7pm via Zoom. Visit heragallery.org to join the Zoom. The artist talk will be recorded and featured on our website and social media pages.

The Perfect Age, showcases artists from across the nation exploring the transient and universal nature of aging and how it can be visualized and interpreted across time and cultures. Juror Lydia Gordon says the work “posed questions surrounding issues of age, memory, and cycles” and that she “felt deep visceral responses to works across medium, approach, content, and scale.” For Gordon, “emotions have played a large part in marking [her] own memory.” For this reason she chose twenty-five works from the open call to explore how “feelings seem to carry over passages of time and have powerful qualities for transportation and reflection.”

Featuring Artists: Sara Allen, Tronja Anglero, Michele Fandel Bonner, Laura Lee Brady, Stephan Brigidi, Amy Broderick, Lauren Comerato, Sharon Draghi, Rachel Green , Geri Hahn, Sarah Haskell, Judith Montminy, Nora Moore Lloyd, Paul Rodgers, Foad Seyed Mohammadi, Tina Tryforos, Lily Wieleba, Cynthia Zeman, Jane Zich

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Foad Seyed Mohammadi, FL Fairies Digital Photography $800.00 2019   Self-care routine in the Kurd culture where women before any get together, party or event, undergo a beautifying process. Especially taking care of old people and prep

Stephan Brigidi, RI Two Women, Rabo dei Peix Silver gelatin print $1,000.00 2006   I am a socially driven person. My curiosities have simply been to examine humanity and my own place and role within humanity. Through my many movements,

Michele Fandel Bonner, MA  Keeping Time  Mixed media NFS 2022   Rings of hair that fall out naturally are strung onto a cable, with each year marked by a knitting row counter. It is a literal timeline showing my hair turning w

Sarah Haskell, ME Well Used, Well Loved Hand dyed woven linen, handspun paper brocade, cotton thread $12,000.00 2017   A Community Art Project that explores age, beauty, attachment and impermanence through a dish towel and reflective wr

Tina Tryforos, RI Cracked  Photography $600.00 2021   Still began, pre-pandemic, with a picture of a 100-year-old broken water glass etched with flowers, one of the few objects I inherited from my maternal grandmother Polexeni. Eve

Judith Montminy, MA On the Cusp Archival pigment print $395.00 2018   As the topsy-turvy trajectory of everyday life grows ever more unpredictable, I’ve begun shooting a wide range of subjects close to home. Different vantage points hel

Cynthia Zeman, MA Bride Digital collage NFS 2020   Zeman’s paintings revive personal memories and societal issues around women. Collaging divergent images from high art, pop-culture, personal family photos, advertising, to funny baby go

Sharon Draghi, NY Time is an Illusion Archival pigment print $1,100.00 2020   Sharon Draghi is a graduate of the International Center of Photography’s General Studies Program. Her work explores intimacy and the solitariness of one’s inn

Sara Allen, PA Self-Portrait: Torqued Back Photography $975.00 2021

Sara Allen, PA  Self-Portrait: Feet Photography $975.00 2021   These images are part of a project exploring the emotions and perceptions emerging from a year and a half's exploration of self-portraiture. I began with attempts to ex

Sara Allen, PA Self-Portrait: Abstraction Photography $975.00 2021

Tronja Anglero, VA  New Beginnings Acrylic on canvas $1,200.00 2020   In my art practice, I paint vivid imagery of underrepresented women motivated by generational events, stories, and community. In reflection of my personal and co

Sharon Draghi, NY Helen Archival Pigment Print $950.00 2016

Lily Wieleba, NC  Free Etching $175.00 2020   I use printmaking as a way to hold on to memories, people, and places I can no longer tangibly hold or experience. Sometimes this means taking a memory and including every little detail

Lauren Comerato, MA Carmella's Afghan Crocheted yarns, polaroid, basket NFS 2020   Inspired by my great grandmother Carmella's afghan, I wanted to use the same process she used over 60 years ago and crochet a blanket as if we were toget

Jane Zich, CA Life Stages Colored pencil, acrylic, and pastel on paper $1,200.00 2018   This piece circles around the stages of a woman's life, including girlhood, adolescence, young woman, mother, middle-aged woman, and old woman, each

Amy Broderick, FL Mangroves Archival inkjet print $250.00 2020   My work embodies my interest in noting the specific topography of everyday life, while attempting to hold fast to the daily details that get lost to the fleetingness of ti

Amy Broderick, FL Mate  Archival inkjet print $250.00 2020

Nora Moore Lloyd, IL Elder Sharing Knowledge Photograph $250.00 2019   Traditional cultures have always held elders in high esteem - decades on the earth add layers of wisdom meant to be passed on to the next generations. Unlike many co

Rachel Green, GA Barbie Potato Head Walking cane, toys, Iron, arduino, sound board, and led panel $1,500.00 2020   Barbie Potato Head is an interactive, mixed media sculpture that makes a playful comment on aging. She lights up and make

Geri Hahn, NJ How Long Can I Stand on One Leg Before I Fall Into Infirmity Linen, silk, linen twine, cotton & metallic thread & floss $12,000.00 2018   Hand sewn reflection on my journey as a woman in my 70's. I am the ballet da

Paul Rodgers, KY Postcard 9 Collage with antique postcards $800.00 2022   History doesn't repeat itself, but it rhymes. In this series, antique postcards are fed through a paper shredder and collaged together, creating a puzzle of the o

Michele Fandel Bonner, MA  Empty Nesting Baskets Crocheted recycled t-shirts $3,900.00 2015   Eighteen Nesting Baskets is made from recycled T-shirts sourced from local thrift shops supporting the homeless. The work was well underw

Laura Lee Brady, RI Papa and the Girls Oil on canvas $800.00 2021   My piece “Papa and the Girls” reflects familial bonds across generations. I created this portrait of my father, who is immunocompromised and breathes through a stoma, d

About the Juror:

Lydia Gordon is a specialist in modern and contemporary art. At the Peabody Essex Museum, she is the coordinating curator for the nationally touring and critically acclaimed exhibition Jacob Lawrence: The American Struggle (2020-2021) and Hans Hofmann: The Nature of Abstraction (2019). Gordon is curator of Vanessa Platacis: Taking Place (2019-ongoing), a long term site-specific painting installation. Her book publication projects include Jacob Lawrence: The American Struggle (Peabody Essex Museum / University of Washington Press, 2019) and Inappropriate Bodies: Art Design, and Maternity (Demeter Press, 2019). Gordon’s writing can be seen in Hyperallergic, ARTnews, and Boston Art Review. She is also associate professor of Modern Art History at Montserrat College of Art.