Eclipse Mill Artists Annual Exhibition
North Adams Events in September and October
By: Charles Giuliano - Sep 06, 2019
Eclipse Mill Artists Annual Exhibition
September 6 to September 29
243 Union Street
North Adams, Mass. 01247
Gallery hours: Fridays to Sundays
12 to 5 pm
Opening Celebration:
Friday, September 13, 6 to 8 pm
Open Studios
Saturday and Sunday
October 19 and 20
11 to 5 PM
The Eclipse Mill at 243 Union Street, in North Adams, Massachusetts has forty artist live/work loft units. For a number of years it has hosted Open Studios in October. That has coincided with an Eclipse Mill Artists Annual Exhibition in the spacious, first floor gallery.
This year the annual serves as a preview, September 6 to September 29, for Open Studios which will be held on Saturday and Sunday, October 19 and 20 from 11 to 5 PM.
A reception for the special exhibition will be held on Friday, September 13 from 6 to 8 PM. It is free and open to the public. Many of the participating artists will be present.
The nature of the Eclipse Mill Artists Annual Exhibition, open to all residents, is eclectic. The range of work is diverse including realist and abstract paintings, multi media sculptures, prints and photographs.
Yet again the participating artist, Rick Harlow, has undertaken the daunting task of installing a stunning exhibition. That entails skill and diplomacy in providing every artist the opportunity to be seen at their best.
These community based projects represent a major regional cultural contribution. It is an invitation to enjoy the range and professionalism of Eclipse Mill residents. Established in 2004 pioneering Eclipse residents planted roots in Northern Berkshire County. They came to live and work near MASS MoCA with its vast potential.
Intially, that represented a hope and dream which each year comes closer to reality. MASS MoCA has expanded and attracted an ever growing community of artists. That has entailed developing North Adams real estate for residential as well as commercial use.
The annual exhibition represents a chance to note developments among the artists. Harlow, for example, is showing a new abstract work, in the color field tradition that is a departure from what he exhibited recently at landmark Real Eyes Gallery in Adams.
Marjorie Minkin also has shown recently at Real Eyes. She is represented here by two of her signature manipulated, Lexan and paint relief sculptures.
Visitors who have followed the work of Ed Carson are in for a surprise. He was formerly represented by the now closed Harrison Gallery in Williamstown. Carson has explored historical styles from Fauve to Abstract Expressionism. There is a Pop flavor to new high chroma, whimsical, prints on metal supports.
The jacquard loom tapestries of Betty Vera entail abstracted/ representational renderings of photographic imagery. There is always the challenge of deciphering the source. The work on view is particularly abstract with some tantalizingly recognizable elements.
Even if we do not know the subjects of portraits by Susan Graber they are always redolent of the persona of the sitter. Her rendering of a Savannah-based, arts leader is typically titubating.
While the mix of artists is readily familiar there are works by relatively new residents. Chuck Hotchkiss is exhibiting a pair of photographic studies of complex branches. Nancy Hotchkiss has fiber based sculptures displayed on pedestals.
The bird’s eye view of a nightscape by new resident Diane Sawyer seems as though taken from an airplane. Previously, we have viewed a range of landscape studies with deft and bravura brushwork.
The triptych by Astrid Hiemer was inspired by a performance of the Martha Graham Dance Company this summer at Jacob’s Pillow. A poem is flanked by abstracted, evocative photographs.
Two humorous, surreal, tall, narrow, assemblages were created by Linda and Opie O’Brien. One is intrigued and amused by the use of materials in the ersatz ethnography of “Emperor’s Bellringer.”
Noting that it is a September exhibition this writer is displaying four, photo collages from an extensive “Nine Eleven Series.”
Hopefully, this provides a taste of what’s on view. Please enjoy the full exhibition and y’all come back in October for Open Studios.