Linda Leslie Brown: Plastiglomerate and Nat Martin: New Landscapes

Linda Leslie Brown: Plastiglomerate

Gallery member Linda Leslie Brown says of the process of creating work for this exhibition, “This particular body of work is different in a few ways. Part of the process involves a playful collaboration with my husband James Montford, who is a prodigious walker with our hound dog, Red. As they go on their 10-mile jaunts throughout the city of Boston, James finds many of the plastic objects and other fragments I use in my work. I think it’s because we live near to the Children’s Museum that so many toy parts end up in my supply boxes.”

Brown did a residency at Haystack in Maine last year working in the clay shop and worked as an independent study member at Mudflat ceramic studios in Somerville this past summer. Ceramics are relatively new part of her sculpture practice and she plans to continue to develop this part of her work. She says particularly of this exhibition, “The part of me that loves to collect things, combine them, and transform them goes back to childhood. My imagination is sparked by recombination, and by the surprises evoked as objects coax out memories, illusions, and questions. Recently, I have been astonished and concerned, as we all have been, by the proliferation of plastic pollution in our landfills and oceans. Will-we bury ourselves, in a Wall-EE style dystopia? Or will new living creatures eventually evolve who can make use of our thoughtless mess? I want my work to enchant, provoke, engage and disturb viewers. Perhaps they’ll be inspired to undertake some transformations of their own.”

Nat Martin: New Landscapes

In this recent body of work, gallery member Nat Martin is fascinated with constructing false landscapes from his older photographs. The images are constructions of actual landscapes he has collected which are then altered towards the creation of an artificial or imaginary place.

This work began when Martin was trying to locate a small photograph he had taken as a reference for another project he was working on. As he manipulated the reference image he set challenges for himself, such as changing the mood or lighting of the original. As he worked on this project, he then started consciously adding in layers of stylization based on photographic history. He says of this work, “I want the viewer to be drawn in by the romantic effect of the images… these were intended to be visually seductive. But I ultimately want the viewer to be left in an artificial landscape- taking in a scene that has never existed and not knowing how to categorize it or how it has been altered. I like those slippery spaces.”

Linda Leslie Brown: Plastiglomerate is on view in the Kingston Main Gallery, Phyllis Ewen: Deep Time in the Center Gallery and Nat Martin: New Landscapes is on view in the Kingston Project Space through October 28, 2018.

BADA event: Art in the Age of the Anthropocene

 

Please join us for the BADA second Saturday event this month. On October 13, 2018, from 2-4:00pm the Kingston Gallery will host a panel discussion as a part of the Boston Art Dealers Association. The panel will be moderated by Samuel Toabe, the Gallery Director at UMass Boston’s University Hall Gallery.

Artists Phyllis Ewen and Evelyn Rydz will join Linda Leslie Brown will discuss issues of global ecology, with a specific jumping off point of Brown’s exhibition Plastiglomerate and plastic. The participating panelists will discuss issues of confronting recycling, disposal of plastic, consumption of plastic, as they intersect with artistic practice issues of building and decay within personal, art historical, and social narratives.

Linda Leslie Brown: Plastiglomerate is on view in the Kingston Main Gallery, Phyllis Ewen: Deep Time is on view in the Kingston Center Gallery and Nat Martin: New Landscapes is on view in the Kingston Project Space through October 28, 2018.

Steven Cabral: Seeking Balance

In this work for the exhibition Seeking Balance, artist Steven Cabral challenged himself to learn how to stay still and work delicately with a smaller surface. He is interested in breaking free from his earlier works, which were distinctly geometric, to create a series of paintings which are more organic with only a hint of geometry. This approach of getting out of one’s comfort zone allowed Cabral to enter a hyper-meditative state of mind resulting in the ability to simplify his practice and focus on two elements, line and a limited color palette.

Cabral says of this work, ‘I want the audience to be open when approaching and viewing the work. The body of work is quiet and minimalistic; however, perhaps that’s what the world needs right now. Something simple and quiet. As we become more connected to the internet and with each other, sometimes our brains need a break and simply disconnect. It’s easy to get lost and distracted by the noise. This show allows the viewer to look deeper into the work and find the simple beauty in the interplay of the fine oil filled lines and the deep layers and smooth wax surface.’

For more information on this exhibition please see the Kingston Gallery website.

Luanne E Witkowski and Denise Marika: STRATA is on view in the Kingston Main and Center Galleries and Steven Cabral: Seeking Balance is on view in the Kingston Project Space through September 30, 2018.

Luanne E Witkowski and Denise Marika: STRATA

Gallery member Luanne E Witkowski and artist Denise Marika present a collaborative work titled ‘Strata’ in an exhibition which highlights the cyclical nature of time and power relationships, while highlighting the interactions between humans and the environment. Included also in this exhibition are a series of works titled ‘Grounded’ which are constructed out of clay, sand, shell, wood, plastics, resins, and pigments by Luanne E Witkowski. These abstract non-traditional works are textural and reminiscent of natural landscapes which entice viewers to consider the ephemeral and physical, the present and past, and the physical and virtual.

Artist Denise Marika created the video works, including the installation ‘Gated’. This video installation addresses the restrictions on humans and animals through such devices as gates and fences, which intersect and interupt the natural landscape. The painted, crumpled paper works resemble topographic maps while the video was shot on the border of Nepal and China/Tibet. Marika’s studio assistant Tom Fahey, an experimental musician and multimedia artist, worked with Marika on these works as a technical assistant and sound designer.

The exhibition and installation piece, Strata, came about through the long-time friendship between Witkowski and Marika, and represents their first fully collaborative work. Sadly, Marika passed away in early July after a long illness. On September 22, Luanne E Witkowski and Marika’s studio assistant Tom Fahey will be doing an artists’ discussion at 3:00pm at the Kingston Gallery.

More information on this exhibition can be found in the Boston Globe in a review by Cate McQuaid and on the Kingston Gallery website. Luanne E Witkowski was also recently featured in the Boston Voyager online magazine.

Luanne E Witkowski and Denise Marika: STRATA is on view in the Kingston Main and Center Galleries and Steven Cabral: Seeking Balance is on view in the Kingston Project Space through September 30, 2018.

Meet Emily Brodrick: Kingston’s 2018 Emerging Artist

What is different or specific to your practice or creation of this work?
During and post college, for four years I created my pieces solely with fiber. Gradually over the past year or so I have shifted to using other traditionally considered craft media such as cut paper and ceramics but because of the history of my practice, I think my work will forever reference textiles in some way. Because the historical link between fiber and women, this gives my work a feminine energy that is essential to the way I make and think about my art, and the way it is seen by others as well.

How did you begin working on this body of work? What are your inspirations?
Back in June I headed up to Haystack to take a ceramics workshop and when I came back I began to respond to the organic forms that I was in contact with every day. Seaweed, leaves, fungi and other shapes started creeping their way into my visual language. I began to produce small collections – of both materials and objects – and thinking about what we choose to pick up not only physically, but also in our memory, when we are outside and in nature. This series is a continuation of a concept I have been working with since last summer of bringing the outside in.

How do you want your audience to feel after viewing your work?
Since I began showing in college, a constant in my work has been the question what is craft and what is art? As I mentioned, I use historically considered craft media to create my work so this is something that I think about often. There is a lack of respect for crafts in our culture that is rooted in class inequality so with my work, I ask viewers to question their personal beliefs when it comes to how they define craft vs. art.

To see more of Emily’s work please see her website:

https://www.emilybrodrick.com

 

To learn more about the Kingston Emerging Artist program please see the link below:

http://www.kingstongallery.com/about/emerging-artist-program.php

TEN: Kingston Associates: Entangle

TEN: Kingston Associates: Entangle features the work of the gallery’s associate members, where the artwork explores what it means to ‘entangle’ through many different mediums.

This exhibition features bold, colorful works and more contemplative, quiet pieces. However, each of the works included explores the relationship between the material object and the ephemeral idea. In a review of the exhibition, Jacob Cutler from Artscope magazine says of the theme and show, ‘Viewers are encouraged to ponder how both they and the artist react to the same ideas and feelings contained or transmitted by a work of art.’ Whether one is transported back in time to a memory evoked from the work of art or intellectually engaged with the technique or idea presented in a particular work, it is that entanglement between the viewer and artist that is so successful as one views this exhibition. Artists included in this exhibition: Jamie Bowman, Steven Cabral, Anthony Falcetta, Tatiana Flis, Jane Lincoln, Brian Littlefield, Rachel Mello, Rachel Sevanich, Rachel Thern, and Anne Sargent Walker.

TEN: Kingston Associates: Entangle is on view in the Kingston Main and Center Galleries, and Kingston Project Space through August 12, 2018.

A Talk with Associate Member Jane Lincoln

This months the exhibit TEN Kingston Associates: Entangle features the work of the gallery’s associate members. The work in this exhibition embodies the physicality of art making, ‘where the process of making art becomes an entangling of shape, light, realism, and abstraction.’ One associate member, Jane Lincoln, shares insight into her creative practice:

What is different or specific to your practice or creation of this work?

The TEN Kingston Associates discuss and vote on the title for our show each year.  “Entangle” was favored by the majority. This was a challenge to me as I consider myself a minimalist. I liked the challenge to find a totally new type of work in order to have it apply to the title.

How did you begin working on this body of work? What are your inspirations?

My first two works “Tangled Up In Blue” and “The Green Line” were just playing with colored pencil and overlapping lines vertically. Each has a single strand for an accent. One has more white ground while the other becomes dense.

In working on the above, the conceptual artists of the 60s and 70s came to mind. Having viewed the exhibition “Sol LeWitt: 100 Views” at MASSMoCA several times, it excited me to have a space – Kingston Gallery – in which I could be assured to hang a large wall drawing. Ideally drawing directly on the wall would be great, but taking the time to create it in my studio on a roll of BFK Rives sufficed. I expected “Scribbles” (detail pictured above) would take several months but found the process so much fun it practically created itself.

Another inspiration was from the quote of Jasper Johns: “Do something, do something to that, and then do something to that.” Combining this concept with a Brice Marden notebook, I created “Do Something”. The process of repetition becomes accumulation – similar to briars growing in nature; or yarn becoming tangled. The layering mimics computer design work but the hand drawn speaks that nothing can ever be exactly the same. I had many thoughts while working on this, such as: What is Art? How closely does a viewer look? Is merely the “time spent working in the studio” enough? How can I present this tiny notebook so someone doesn’t pocket it? J

How do you want your audience to feel after viewing your work?

Artists react to a given word or theme totally differently. My primary intent is to have the viewer pause and consider the concept of the work.

TEN Kingston Associates: Entangle is on view in the Kingston Main and Center Galleries and in the Kingston Project Space through August 12, 2018.