Material Needs 2019

Tess Barbato, Amanda Bastien, Aimee Cotnoir, Melinda Goodhue, Teresa Lamacchia, Piya Samant, Lyn Slade, Jaimee Taborda, Cathy Taylor, Tyler Vance, and Sarah Williams

On view September 6 through October 5, 2019

Opening reception: Friday, September 6, 6:00-9:00 PM

Please join us in celebrating the artists who won Material Needs Grants in 2018. This group exhibition showcases new artwork created in Worcester County by eleven recipients: Tess Barbato, Amanda Bastien, Aimee Cotnoir, Melinda Goodhue, Teresa Lamacchia, Piya Samant, Lyn Slade, Jaimee Taborda, Cathy Taylor, Tyler Vance, and Sarah Williams.

In 2018, eleven artists were selected to receive Material Needs Grants, and now go on to display the work created with these funds a year and a half later. Grants are available to artists living in Worcester County, who have been ArtsWorcester members for at least one year. Made possible by an anonymous donor, the funds support the supplies for the creation of new art in Worcester County, with grants ranging between $500 to $1,500. From encaustics to felting to sculpture, the work created by these grant recipients illustrates the diversity of ways this opportunity serves local artists.

The exhibit includes felted wool with luminous effects (Slade); large-scale paintings inspired by the imagery of film noir (Cotnoir); close-up observational paintings of skulls and bones that create abstract landscapes (Bastien); assemblage pieces investigating and elevating the “Divine Feminine” (Goodhue); a fusion of encaustic painting and slip-cast ceramics (Taborda); intuitive drawings that fall between representation and abstraction (Vance); ceramic vessels that speak to modern cultural concerns (Williams); photographic prints on aluminum that illuminate the beauty of nature (Taylor); semi-abstract floral paintings that experiment with texture and depth (Samant); mixed media work that integrates paint with digitally manipulated images presenting points of view that befuddle the audience (Lamacchia); and chiarscuro paintings highlighting the sinister nature of consolidated wealth (Barbato).

Concurrently on view:

Robin Reynolds: Summer Blooms/Winter Gardens in the East Gallery through October 5, 2019

Nastasia Lawton-Sticklor: Tea Time in the Davis Art Gallery through October 5, 2019

Sarah Williams: Dysfunctional in the Davis Art Gallery through October 5, 2019

images: Lyn Slade, Immodest (detail), needle felting and pastels, 57″ x 17″; Tyler Vance, Annunciation 7 (detail), charcoal on paper, 30″ x 22″; Amanda Bastien, Orbital (detail), acrylic on canvas, 40″ 16″