Exhibitions - 2008
Making Their Mark
Rona Conti, Mark DelGuidice and Cui Fei
March 16 - May 25, 2008
Reception - May 18, 1:30 - 3:30
Mark Delguidice, Conundrum
Inventiveness and creativity in making the marks that form a work of art is a critical part of the art-making process. Each of the three artists included in this exhibition have a unique and unexpected way of Making Their Mark.
Since 2000, Rona Conti has made six trips to Japan to study calligraphy with Kobayashi Sensei at her school in the foothills of the Japanese Alps, 100 kilometers from Tokyo. When she returns to the United States,
she continues working with her teacher by sending calligraphy to Japan for correction. Her teacher marks on Conti's calligraphy using bright orange ink to indicate the way Conti should improve her brush marks. After
several years of this, Conti has accumulated many corrected calligraphy sheets. She takes the returned work or correspondence between her and her teacher and cuts them up into fragments. She then embeds the fragments into
a base sheet of handmade paper with paper pulp to create new works of art. The mark making occurs three times: first when Conti makes the original calligraphy, secondly when her teacher marks on it, and finally when
she uses the fragments as the marks to compose her collage/paintings.
Calligraphy is an important part of Chinese culture. Born in China, Cui Fei
currently lives, works and exhibits her artwork in New York. She creates large wall installations using natural elements, making her mark with vines, twigs, tendrils and grasses that are attached
directly to a wall. From a distance her installations appear to be a Chinese scroll. Upon closer examination Cui Fei's choice of natural materials replicate the variety of thick and thin Chinese
calligraphy brush marks. Fei attaches the twigs in rows, to further imitate the appearance of Chinese calligraphy. Her marks are not meant to communicate a traditional narrative but are a whimsical letter from nature.
Mark DelGuidice is an artist whose medium is wood. He is known throughout the United States for his elegant and well-crafted functional furniture. DelGuidice explains: "Over the years, my work has
developed through explorations of various forms, diverse woods and unique surface treatments. I use fine woods to present strong backgrounds on which I juxtapose colorful surface treatments."
DelGuidice carves mysterious and beautiful marks into all of the furniture he makes. "The incised markings in my work are intuitive hieroglyphs, intended to evoke personal interpretations from each viewer; they
are a response to the inundation of images from our visually sophisticated world." Additionally, he carves Morse code messages, utilizing the code from a visual perspective rather than its essentially
audible form. All the while, he strives to expose the sculptural aspects of his furniture's relationship to its environment.
Rooted in Tradition: Art Quilts from the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum
May 4 - September 7, 2008
Reception - May 18, 1:30 - 3:30
Quilts by Phil D.Jones, Virginia Harris, and Laura Cater-Woods
Rooted in Tradition: Art Quilts from the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum chronicles the history of the art quilt movement from 1980 through the present and
brings the quilt decisively from the bed to the wall. The quilts in this collection reflect the change from the traditional craft of quilt making based on
the repeated block to the free spirited, sometimes-edgy art form of today. Works by the artists in this collection represent the best in American art quilts
today. Well-known quilt artists such as Phil D. Jones, Yvonne Porcella, Michael James, Joan Schulze, Caryl Bryer Fallert, Jane Dunnewold, Carolyn Mazloomi, Nancy Erickson,
and M. Joan Lintault have donated their work to this collection in support of the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum's future and the future of the art quilt.
Rooted in Tradition is the first exhibition to examine the art quilt historically. Organized by decade, the exhibition consists of three sections. The first,
Rooted in Tradition, the second Art Quilts of the 1990s: The Watershed Years, and in section three, The New Century: Confluence and Creation. The quilts in this
exhibition reflect not only the movement of the quilt from bed to wall; they also show a vital and lively new take on traditional form. All of the artists in the exhibition
are still working in the art quilt medium, producing art that continues to interest, inspire, and fascinate. What this exhibition does best is show the continuing thread of art quilt
making that extends into the future.
Judith Trager,
Curator, The Art Quilt Project
Rotations: H. Gen Kozuru
May 4 - September 7, 2008
Reception - May 18, 1:30 - 3:30
Tea bowls and Mizusashi by H. Gen Kozuru
One of the artists Carl Weyerhaeuser visited during his travels to Japanese ceramic kilns in the early 1970's was
Hajime Gen Kozuru, who comes from a long line of Agano-style ceramic families in Fukuoka, Japan.
Carl admired Kozuru's work so much that he purchased over thirty ceramic bowls, plates,
tea bowls and vessels from the then thirty-year-old artist. For almost thirty years Kozuru and his wife
Mitsue have split their time between their home and ceramic studio in Fukuoka, Japan and an 1847 New England
farmhouse/studio in Topsfield, Massachusetts.
In November 2008, Kozuru will celebrate his seventieth birthday,
an important milestone. In honor of the long relationship between the Kozuru
family and The Art Complex Museum, the museum is honored to celebrate Kozuru's birthday with a
one-person exhibition, housed in Rotations Gallery. The exhibition will include functional
Agano ware from the museum's collection, as well as new work by this prolific ceramic master. Over his
long career, Kozuru has had numerous gallery and museum exhibitions in Japan and the United States. In
Japan, he has been the recipient of many awards for excellence.
In addition, Kozuru has written books about the extensive excavations and research he undertook of
ancient Agano, wood-fired kiln sites. He conducted research to understand the history, techniques
and background of the Agano style and its people.
Kozuru's inspiration comes from his environment; blending elements of New England with those of his
native Japan. His work reflects the energy and vigor of this extraordinary man.
Complex Conversations: Joan Paley and Alice Means
June 8 - August 17, 2008
Reception - June 22, 1:30 - 3:30
Joan Paley and Alice Means
Complex Conversations has always had the objective of putting artists together in an exhibition that will
create an artistic dialog. The conversation between the works of book illustrator Joan Paley and
quilt artist Alice Means actually began quite a while ago.
Joan (Bujnowski) Paley and Alice (Perko) Means became best friends in grammar school and remained so
through high school in Chelmsford Massachusetts, graduating in 1957. After losing track of each other
for over forty years, they reunited at a gathering of high school classmates and were surprised to learn
of each other's artistic achievements and the similarities between their works. Alice was creating
award-winning quilts and Joan was illustrating children's books. Both artists used small cut pieces, fabric
or paper to create their work.
From a gift of all Joan's illustrated children's books to Alice, came a quilt made from an illustration
in "Little White Duck". It became the connector of their work.
Says Joan, "My interest and love of illustration began very early. Not only can I remember always
wanting to add pictures to school papers but also loving the idea of making a book out of them. I grew up
in the country where there were lots of animals, trees, a pond and an apple orchard. Now, I live in a town
near the sea where there is an abundance of wildlife and birds providing tremendous inspiration."
She explains, "Every time I begin illustrating a new book, I think of myself as an explorer. Each book is an
adventure. I wonder where this book will take me and whom I will meet along the way. First, I begin by
consulting my own extensive reference shelves. I love doing research and learning about new things, birds with
amazing beaks, emperor penguins, insects, animals in winter and the life of a sea otter family."
"I begin my work by making small thumbnail layouts of the entire book. Then those designs are refined and
enlarged to become actual page size. The paper for my collages is painted with bright colored washes adding
textures with crayon, or colored pencils. Then shapes are cut from the painted papers and combined to create each
piece of art."
Alice Means began full time quilting in 1994 and has made more than 200 quilts. She says, " I am a
traditional quilter and my strengths are piecing accuracy, needle-turn appliqué, color selection, adaptations
of existing patterns, and embellishments such as couching, embroidery and beading."
Her earliest memories are of her mother teaching her how to do needlework and sew. "I would sit on her lap and
watch her sew, making all of our clothing on her sewing machine. She taught me the basics of sewing, embroidery,
crocheting, knitting, and needlepoint," says Means.
Means' quilts have appeared in national magazines such as "Quiltmaker" and "American Quilter", as well as the
2008 American Quilt Society Quilt Art Engagement calendar. Alice lives with her husband, Terry, and they divide
their time between Bolton, Connecticut, and Haines City, Florida.
Joan Paley has illustrated nine children's books including, "What's That Sound Woolly Bear?" "One More River",
"Little White Duck" (listed on Oprah Winfrey's web site), and " I Like Stars", written by Margaret Wise Brown.
Joan lives with her husband, Norman, in Scituate, Massachusetts.
Haiga
August 31 - November 9, 2008
Reception - September 28, 1:30 - 3:30
Stephen Addiss, Crusty
Haiga are Japanese paintings that accompany haiku, a seventeen-syllable poem usually describing a
fleeting, seasonal moment. The painting may not directly represent the images of the poem, but juxtapose
them. Calligraphy used to write haiku is the third component of the visual image. Haiga and haiku complement
one another. The result is greater than the sum of the three individual parts - painting, poetry and calligraphy.
There are a wide variety of styles and subjects in haiga which were sometimes created at gatherings of
friends as a form of communal entertainment.
Restraint and simplicity characterize these images brushed with ink and light color on paper. Often
the brush strokes are like the calligraphy in the same work of art. There is no unnecessary detail. There
may be an amusing or ironic element. Because the subjects are frequently unpretentious and unremarkable, they
encourage us to view everyday things in a fresh manner. Although they may appear simple, they often reflect
profound observations. Literally, hai means comic and ga means painting.
This exhibition will focus on contemporary haiga, including work by Dr. Stephen Addiss and Reiko Yoshida.
Addiss is on the faculty of University of Richmond, Virginia and is the author of over thirty-five books on
Japanese and Chinese art. In 1995, he organized the first major exhibition of Japanese Haiga in the United States. Because Addiss's poems are written in English, they allow non-Japanese speakers to more clearly understand the whimsical, childlike playfulness and humor of haiga.
Reiko Yoshida lives in Nara, Japan. She uses a variety of paper, ink washes and abstracted Japanese
calligraphy in her non-traditional haiga. Translations of her calligraphy will be provided.
Rotations: Glass en Masse
September 21 - January 25, 2009
A sampling of glass from the collection.
The American glass industry of the nineteenth century developed tremendously with the establishment of factories on the
eastern seaboard, such as the Boston and Sandwich Glass Company in 1825. Methods of mass-production were perfected. The
introduction of the pressing machine in 1826 rapidly generated more complex forms and decoration.
Maud Moon Weyerhaeuser Sanborn avidly collected Ribbed Bellflower glassware, which was made by both the Boston
and Sandwich Glass Company and the McKee Brothers of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. One of the most popular patterns of the 1850's and
early 1860's, Bellflower embellished a large variety of tableware. The museum's extensive pressed glass collection and other types of
glass made by Steuben, Tiffany or in Bohemia will be represented in a unique display in the Rotations Gallery.
Artists and Books
September 21 - January 25, 2009
Reception - September 28, 1:30 - 3:30
Butterfly book by Johanna Finnegan-Topitzer.
Artists and Books showcases a diverse and talented survey of New England area artists - printmakers, photographers, painters and sculptors - all making art from books and about books and giving us the
opportunity in this digital age to take a second look.
Making books and altering books go hand and hand and share a long history. In the eleventh century, Italian monks recycled old manuscripts written on
vellum by scraping off the ink and adding new text and illustrations on top of the old. This was known as Palimpsest.
In the late nineteenth century, people used old books as a sort of scrapbook, pasting on their pages the ephemera from their
society including magazine images, personal recipes, and family pictures. Grangerism, as it came to be called, can be found in the Victorian practice of
illustrating a particular book with engravings torn from other books.
Today, artists are exploring the form of the book along with its substance. Existing images and text
become something entirely new. By covering, cutting, and changing the structure, altered books run
the gamut from books that have become shrines to books that are transformed into colorful images totally unrelated
to their origins. It is an art form in which existing books are reworked into works of art in a variety of
ways. The existing book becomes the canvas for the new ideas and images. Sometimes, words or images from the book are
retained as a part of the altering. At other times, the book is entirely obscured and becomes a new idea totally.
On Their Own: Laura Tryon Jennings
November 23 - February 15, 2009
Reception - November 23, 1:30 - 3:30
Laura Tryon Jennings, Two Scoops
oil on canvas
Marshfield painter Laura Tryon Jennings fills Phoenix Gallery with her bold and colorful paintings. Her aerial views of seemingly simple table settings are more than they
first appear. She says," My paintings represent the complexity and intricacy of life and relationships. Within each piece I use an amalgam of color and composition to depict the wavering tension between tranquility
and chaos. My perspective is achieved by physically viewing my subject as though I am looking down at a puzzle, and connecting the shapes, that don't appear to fit, but somehow work to complete a scene."
Jennings uses the images of coffee cups, cereal bowls and assorted found materials as metaphors, reminding us that we should take time from our hectic pace to "reflect and treasure life's simplicity, if
only for a moment." She has shown her work in solo exhibitions at the Wall Street Gallery in Madison, Connecticut and at Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Her work is collected by a diverse and eclectic
group including, Grammy Award winner Bruce Hornsby and his wife Kathy, author Mary Higgins Clark and Broadway producer David Black.
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