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June 2016
The Cape Cod Times published a review of Breaking the Mold: Inspired by Innovation at the Cape Cod Museum of Art .
"SMART ART"
Museum's anniversary exhibit opens to non-Cape artists
To start the celebration of its 35th anniversary, the Cape Cod Museum of Art in Dennis has reached out to artists nationally to discover who is working in innovative ways. And the response from beyond our peninsula was huge. The juried exhibition “Breaking the Mold” received 718 submissions by 227 artists from 29 states.
Juror and curator Mim Brooks Fawcett, executive director of the Attleboro Museum, selected 35 pieces of art for a show, which includes pieces that are unorthodox in materials and content, but also some that are – surprisingly – relatively traditional.
In some pieces, the material fools you. Jessica Dupuis’ three-dimensional, abstract “Side Panel A” looks like it is was assembled from slips of paper. But, no, the pieces are cream and green ceramic chips that build in a rolling motion. In “An Awkward Beauty,” Lauren Eve Skelly has created an arrangement of flower-like bows, which look like fabric but are actually porcelain and stoneware. She says the individual sections can be arranged in a variety of ways for
different exhibitions so the piece is eminently versatile.
In “Dirty Thirties,” Abby Schmidt uses different shades of grain (wheat, barley and rice) to make up two mosaic, sepia-colored images, one of a landscape and another of figures. Both present a stark mood.
Carolyn Conrad’s “Maybe Cape Breton” looks like a painting of cottages in a landscape, but actually is a photograph of handmade objects. Kate Sullivan’s watercolor “October 2014” does just the opposite. The image of a shop window, showing reflections of buildings across the street against the motorcycle on display, is so meticulously painted that it looks like a photograph.
More traditional works in “Breaking the Mold” include the expressively painted “Seaman” by Provincetown artist Lawrence Young, as well as Randy Van Duck’s surrealist “Plum Crazy,” of a bird perched on a flying plum.
While installing the art, Fawcett wanted to create associations that would complement one another. Hanging Tanya Fletcher’s “Branch 1” – of an extended arm and a face in profile, glowing with copper leaf – over Jeff Stauder’s “Squirrel” – also with an extended arm, but with a squirrel perched on top and the hand holding an ear of corn – has that kind of effect.
Fawcett chose three pieces as best in show: Robin Cass’ “Ocular Candanthus,” a horn-like shape made with hot-formed glass and silver; Depuis’ “Side Panel A”; and Schmidt’s “Dirty Thirties.”
Art is subjective, though, and my favorites were none of those. Instead, I was impressed and couldn’t stop exploring Stefania Urist’s “Window Dressing,” a three-dimensional, leaded-glass wall piece. It shows a strapless dress with flared skirt, which fans out and throws shadows on the white board on which it is mounted. Peggy Wyman’s “Meditation on Spring,” a sculpture made of fiber (pine needles), which circles and loops in rhythmic dance configurations, represents a moving object despite its stillness. And Diana Maria Rossi’s “City of God: Why Am I Painting the Living Room” is a small glass-mosaic and mixed-media work, which exudes a mysterious quality that is intriguing.
For Cape Cod museum-goers, “Breaking the Mold” is an opportunity to see what artists around the country are creating. Considering the richness of our own art community, it is likely that Cape artists will view the exhibit with interest, appreciating the range, but knowing that the best work here has the same energy and excitement as what they are seeing in the show.
Museum's anniversary exhibit opens to non-Cape artists
To start the celebration of its 35th anniversary, the Cape Cod Museum of Art in Dennis has reached out to artists nationally to discover who is working in innovative ways. And the response from beyond our peninsula was huge. The juried exhibition “Breaking the Mold” received 718 submissions by 227 artists from 29 states.
Juror and curator Mim Brooks Fawcett, executive director of the Attleboro Museum, selected 35 pieces of art for a show, which includes pieces that are unorthodox in materials and content, but also some that are – surprisingly – relatively traditional.
In some pieces, the material fools you. Jessica Dupuis’ three-dimensional, abstract “Side Panel A” looks like it is was assembled from slips of paper. But, no, the pieces are cream and green ceramic chips that build in a rolling motion. In “An Awkward Beauty,” Lauren Eve Skelly has created an arrangement of flower-like bows, which look like fabric but are actually porcelain and stoneware. She says the individual sections can be arranged in a variety of ways for
different exhibitions so the piece is eminently versatile.
In “Dirty Thirties,” Abby Schmidt uses different shades of grain (wheat, barley and rice) to make up two mosaic, sepia-colored images, one of a landscape and another of figures. Both present a stark mood.
Carolyn Conrad’s “Maybe Cape Breton” looks like a painting of cottages in a landscape, but actually is a photograph of handmade objects. Kate Sullivan’s watercolor “October 2014” does just the opposite. The image of a shop window, showing reflections of buildings across the street against the motorcycle on display, is so meticulously painted that it looks like a photograph.
More traditional works in “Breaking the Mold” include the expressively painted “Seaman” by Provincetown artist Lawrence Young, as well as Randy Van Duck’s surrealist “Plum Crazy,” of a bird perched on a flying plum.
While installing the art, Fawcett wanted to create associations that would complement one another. Hanging Tanya Fletcher’s “Branch 1” – of an extended arm and a face in profile, glowing with copper leaf – over Jeff Stauder’s “Squirrel” – also with an extended arm, but with a squirrel perched on top and the hand holding an ear of corn – has that kind of effect.
Fawcett chose three pieces as best in show: Robin Cass’ “Ocular Candanthus,” a horn-like shape made with hot-formed glass and silver; Depuis’ “Side Panel A”; and Schmidt’s “Dirty Thirties.”
Art is subjective, though, and my favorites were none of those. Instead, I was impressed and couldn’t stop exploring Stefania Urist’s “Window Dressing,” a three-dimensional, leaded-glass wall piece. It shows a strapless dress with flared skirt, which fans out and throws shadows on the white board on which it is mounted. Peggy Wyman’s “Meditation on Spring,” a sculpture made of fiber (pine needles), which circles and loops in rhythmic dance configurations, represents a moving object despite its stillness. And Diana Maria Rossi’s “City of God: Why Am I Painting the Living Room” is a small glass-mosaic and mixed-media work, which exudes a mysterious quality that is intriguing.
For Cape Cod museum-goers, “Breaking the Mold” is an opportunity to see what artists around the country are creating. Considering the richness of our own art community, it is likely that Cape artists will view the exhibit with interest, appreciating the range, but knowing that the best work here has the same energy and excitement as what they are seeing in the show.
March 2016
"City of God: Why Am I Painting the Living Room?*" (*song title by Lou and Peter Berryman) was chosen to be part of the exhibit, Breaking the Mold: Inspired by Innovation at the Cape Cod Museum of Art.
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