Thursday, December 12, 2013

Kim Carlino Gets Noticed!

Kim Carlino's career seems to be skyrocking since she was featured in the  last year's Amherst Biennial. Besides being selected for a curated exhibit in the prestigious Bromfield Gallery, Boston; she has just caught the eye of the ArtsyShark site as their latest featured artist.University Museum of Contemporary Art will be featuring Carlino's selections of the UMASS art colection along side her new artwork which recently exploded into this riot of color contrasting with these calm, geometric elements.

Nice review in Boston Globe hot off the presses:

http://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/theater-art/2014/01/07/iranian-photographer-captures-chaos-conflict/zk2fcuLTr4vQmedHCEttyI/story.html

https://fac.umass.edu/UMCA/Online/KimCarlino

http://www.bromfieldgallery.com/exhibitions.html

http://www.easthamptoncityarts.com

http://www.artsyshark.com/2013/12/09/featured-artist-kim-carlino/

Thursday, October 24, 2013

Portal to Art in the Park


Portal, Matt Evald Johnson Photo credit: Rene Theberge


We have reached our goal of $10,000 - PORTAL - Matt Evald Johnson's sculpture will be the premiere art installation in Kendrick Park, Amherst, Massachusetts. This sculpture is situated on a knoll at the gateway to the University of Massachusetts campus; a bridge between the town and gown.

I'd personally like to thank the Amherst Business Improvement for their challenge grant ($3500). John Musante, Town Manager for advocating for this project.  Larry Shaffer (former Town Manager) for all his support of the first Biennial & art in the park. I'd like to thank all our supporters - art lovers near and far who contributed. Special thanks to my co-curators -  Tony Maroulis, Director of the Chamber of Commerce & Susan Loring Wells, former Director of Fiber Arts for his curatorial expertise & support during the first Biennial. My gratitude to the Amherst Public Arts Commission & it's new Chair, Rene Theberge for carrying the torch to the finish line. This is a dream come true, to have public art in Kendrick Park.
.

There will be a celebration this Spring honoring the sculptor, Matt Evald Johnson at the Portal  in Kendrick Park. Details to follow

Terry Rooney, former Chair of the Amherst Public Arts Commission

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Alix Hegeler's Collage Visions Debut at Holyoke Community College

Alix Hegeler is one of the most modest and talented artists in the Valley that I know. It does not surprise me that many of her students at Holyoke Community College call her one of the strongest instructors of art there. She created iconic images for both Amherst Biennials, the first biennial her collaged image ( see below) captured the feeling of art in expected and unexpected places so we selected it for our announcement card. The second Biennial, her collage image of Amherst storefronts, was on inside back cover of our catalog , many of the Biennial artists had their artwork installed in these storefronts).
Hegeler's  most recent artwork is on exhibit at Taber Gallery at Holyoke Community College this month with Frank Cressoti, an exhibit not to be missed. 

Taber Gallery, Holyoke Community College,
303 Homestead Ave, Holyoke, MA 
Artists' Reception: Wednesday Oct. 23,           11 AM - 1 PM
Gallery Talk at Noon




Rowlett's Walk- About Hits NYC at Dorsky Gallery with some nice company!


Samuel Rowlett's performance during the Amherst Biennial was one of the most light hearted performances I've witnessed in a long time. He carried a large canvas on his back (braving wind & traffic) from UMass campus to Hampshire College. The purpose of his performance was to compare an artist's journey in creating a painting to early adventurers' exploring our country.
Presently, his work is part of a prestigious exhibition at Dorsky Gallery which includes some of the heavy weights of the performance art including Marina Abramovic. For this exhibition, Samuel Rowlett, with mobile studio on his back, embarked on a 8 mile public portrait journey through Manhattan, on September 6th. Portraits created during this trek by Rowlett are featured in The Art Walk Genre.  This coming Sunday, Oct. 20, 3 - 4:30 PM, Samuell will be part of panel discussion moderated by curator Earl Miller - The Art Walk Genre: The Persistence of Peripateticism  at the Dorsky Gallery, 11-03 45 Ave., Long Island City, NY

http://www.dorsky.org/

Monday, October 7, 2013

Dezso Solo Exhibit in NYC Nancy Margolis Gallery in Chelsea

Andrea Dezso's whose artwork has been exhibited in museums and galleries all over the world is having her first solo exhibit at Nancy Margolis Gallery this Fall. It's a mulit-media extravaganza featuring a site specific installation at this prestigious  Chelsea gallery in New York City. Catch this special exhibit before it closes Oct. 19th.

Dezso's Ghost Puppets 
http://nancymargolisgallery.com/
http://andreadezso.com/

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Bliss Around the World

Sarah Bliss whose work I first discovered at wunderart gallery, Amherst years before the first Amherst Biennial has found her voice in multi-media installations videos. I was so impressed with how she transformed a small elevator in the East St. School into a meditation into the fragility of life in Before the Drop. Here's an update on her recent achievements.

Sarah Bliss is one of the six moving images artists awarded a month-long residency in rural Scotland this October, sponsored by Alchemy Film Festival. She will be working with Scottish sound artist James Wyness to document and record the cultural and environmental landscapes of the Tweed River Valley.

In other news, her video The Poetics of Skin for which she and collaborator Rosyln Driscoll (both Amherst Biennial artists) were awarded the 2013 Massachusetts Cultural Council Fellowship in Sculpture and Installation, will be part of a special one-night showing at Creon Gallery, 238 East 24th St. in New York City on October 2nd.

www.sarahblissart.com
www.rosalyndriscoll.com

Sunday, September 8, 2013

Litchfield Collaborative Playground at Taber Gallery, Holyoke, MA

OVERLAP 
Taber Gallery at Holyoke Community College 
A site specific mixed media installation by Sandy Litchfield & Jen Simms
Sept. 3 - Oct. 3, 2013
Gallery talk/reception - Wed. Sept. 18
Noon - 2pm, artist’s talk begins at 12:30


Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Driscoll's Otherworldly Art in England

Rosalyn Driscoll whose work brings sensory perception to a new level has collaborated with Czech film-maker Tereza Stehikova for a haunting installation exploring tensions between world and underworld. This collaboration fills the gallery with narrative based on the Greek myth of Demeter and Persephone. Multiple videos of generations of women in Sthilkova's family are projected into Driscoll's visceral, organic sculpture made of rawhide and paper, thus transforming both the videos and sculptures. 

Exhibition runs Sept. 26-Oct. 5, 2013, GV Art Gallery, 49 Chiltern Street, London, UK

Thursday, August 1, 2013

Saving Kendrick Sculpture!! We're Almost There!!!!

I'd like to thank all the art enthusiasts from our community for stepping forward to support Art in the Park. We reached our goal for our second installment to secure Matt Evald Johnson's sculpture the Portal in Kendrick Park Amherst. Donations have come from all sectors of our community including the President of Hampshire College, Amherst Town Manager and his wife, recent graduates of UMass and many community members. We still need to raise just $1,000 more to reach our goal of $10,000. We're almost there, if we reach this goal soon, we will have a ribbon cutting ceremony this Fall. So don't delay, let's make this happen soon.  

Saturday, June 8, 2013

Save Art in the Park = Celebration Event at Portal, Kendrick Park 6/30/13 (2PM)

 I thought I could exit quietly as Chair of the Amherst Public Arts Commission, but it seems my committee is insisting on a royal send-off. Amherst Public Arts Commission would like to bring attention to the work I've done over the last 9 years. Such as producing Shedding Light, White House Project, Murals at Boltwood Garage, Visiting Artists Program at Town Hall and of course the two Amherst Biennials '10 & 12!!! So the Amherst Public Arts Commission would like to invite everyone to join us in June, in Kendrick Park at the sculpture, rain or shine (tents will be provided). Bring your frisbee's (Ultimate Frisbee started here didn't it?), we will provide lemonade and cookies. Come celebrate the Art in the Park, my work and this wonderful diverse community. Help us reach our goal and support the arts programs of the Public Arts Commission. Meet you at Matt's sculpture in Kendrick Park, Amherst (across from Bertucci's -  Sunday, June 30 @ 2PM.  See you there.                                                                                                          

All my best,
Terry Rooney 

sheddinglightamherst.blogspot.com/   

http://www.emilydickinsonmuseum.org/node/356  (White House Project)                                                                                                                 



Friday, May 24, 2013

Holly Lynton wins First Place in Syngenta Photography & Massachusetts Cultural Council Artist Fellowship in Photography

Holly Lynton, who moved from NYC to  farm country in Western Massachusetts in part,to live a more locavore life, defined mainly as living sustainably, eating locally and organically. Her photography has been featured nationally and internationally; she just received the First Place Award in the Syngenta Photography Competition, Holly received this honor during May in London. A two page spread was featured in Sunday's New York Times.

 http://www3.syngenta.com/global/photo/en/Home/Documents/Syngenta_double1.pdf
http://ruralurban.syngentaphoto.com/
http://www.hollylynton.com/

Thursday, May 9, 2013

Milliken's Monumental Installation in Boston's Christian Science Plaza


Nancy Winship Milliken has created this monumental ephemeral sculpture Lighthouse on the Christian Science Plaza in Boston. This huge public art installation will be on display through the Fall.  This is a must see if you're visiting Boston this season. Nancy's blog <http://nancymilliken.com/studio-blog/>

Monday, April 15, 2013

Andrea Dezso Installation at the Tides Museum, Review of Award Winning Book

Andrea Dezso has probably one of the hottest art careers in the Pioneer Valley. She has designed two NYC subway stations as well as creating a mosaic for the Bucharest American Embassy in Romania. She will be having her first Chelsea area NYC exhibit this year. Stay tuned.


http://andreadezso.com/
http://pyrajane.wordpress.com/2013/05/02/lies-knives-girls-in-red-dresses/

http://www.tidesinstitute.org/

http://www.uarts.edu/events/alumni/2013/05/arthur-p-williams-lecture-andrea-dezs%C3%B6

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Biennial Artist Covers Boston with Wool!

Nancy Winship Milliken & Terry Rooney
Nancy Winship  Milliken, created one of the most impressive installation of ephemeral art during the first Amherst Biennial (Fall 2010). It was a set of seven woolen sails, 20 feet high which "sailed" from the Thistlebloom Farm in South Amherst to the Swartz Family Farm in North Amherst. During it's final installation for the Biennial at the Swartz Family Farm, we (Amherst Public Arts Commission) relit the tobacco barn   Erika Zekos's  Shedding Light project (Public Arts Commission's -  special event for Amherst's 250th Anniversary) http://sheddinglightamherst.blogspot.com/ with Milliken's sails. This iconic image of the first Biennial was documented by yet another talented local artist, Anita Licis Ribak. This photograph has been our banner for this blog from the beginning. Anita did this time lapse photography, which captured these two special public art installation as well as, a visitor to the site carrying a flashlight which became the "Blue Line" in this iconic photograph. http://blog.anitalicis.com/ (Check out Anita's site for her installation at the "pop-up"  Boltwood Gallery during this latest Biennial)

Milliken's Pleiades at Swartz Family Farm photo: Jeff Derose
Nancy's reasoning in creating "Pleiades" - her sail installation for the first Amherst Biennial, was to honor the agricultural and nautical history of New England. She spent two years, gathering the wool from local Pioneer Valley farmers to create Pleiades. Milliken then proceed the laborious task of constructing these sails on a wooden frame that moved with the wind. After the first Biennial, these sails lived on be part of the scenery at the Double-Edge Theater production of the Odyssey the following summer. http://www.doubleedgetheatre.org/


This past Biennial, Nancy created cobb sculpture's using natural material from the land to create sculptures of farmers doing chores that are for the most part mechanized in today's farming. Here's a link to a video of her creating this work. http://nancymilliken.com/ill-arise-and-go-now/

Milliken is blazing new frontiers for her site-specific work The Lighthouse Project, taking it from the pastoral settings in Western MA to the urban center of Boston this Spring/Summer '13. She will be creating a wall of wool, cascading through  Christian Science Plaza, Boston contrasting this natural, soft, cozy of sheep's wool with the concrete facades of the neighboring buildings.

This artist has raised over $4,000 towards her $6,500 goal to rent scaffolding to act as an armature for this installation. How about joining me in helping make this special public art installation a reality? Here's her site to learn more about this project and support it.

http://www.usaprojects.org/project/the_lighthouse

Hot off the presses, a write up in a trade publication on Milliken's upcoming instatallation: http://sheepindustrynews.org/?page=site%2Ftext&nav_id=0458c6b5db2f57731dece320e475d0a8&archive_id

Thursday, March 21, 2013

Biennial Artist's prints added to Mead Museum Collection

Mead Art Museum has purchased four prints from Lynn Peterfreund (Amherst Biennial '10 & '12) which will be on display at the museum during: Art for All: Additions to the Collection from Antiquity to Today, until July 7, 2013.

Peterfreund has been a member and instructor of the non-toxic print studio Zea Mays for years.

http://www.lynnpeterfreund.com/






Thursday, March 7, 2013

D. Shapleigh in Wheaton Biennial, Several Biennial Artists in Reach Video Event

David Shapleigh
David Shapleigh whose wonderful drawings were installed at Freedom Trails Gallery during the Biennial was also selected for the inaugural exhibit Out of Bounds drawing Biennail at Wheaton College which opened Feb. 27 - April 13, 2013. The juror was Judith Tannebaum, curator of contemporary art at RISD Museum of Art.

Also it seems several Amherst Biennial artists were invited the the REACH exhibit this Spring. REACH is an invitational exhibition of non-traditional artists, performers and sound artists from a spectrum of locatons including the Pioneer Valley, Boston, NYC and beyond. Exhibitions will begin in April 2013 in nine venues located in Easthampton and Holyoke, MA. All are invited to participate in the REACH One Minute Videofest that will be on view during REACH Fest.

Biennial artists that are participating are: Rosalyn Driscoll, Chris Nelson, Maggie Nowinski, Alicia Renadette and David Shapleigh.

.

Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Pope Joan at APE, Northampton, MA


Susan Montgomery's Pope Joan was one of the highlights of the last Amherst Biennial and her solo exhibition on this subject could not have been timed better with the resignation of the Pope.How would the Catholic Church be different - if the church had a woman pope? Montgomery's explores the myth of a 9th century woman pope in her exhibit at APE Gallery< http://www.apearts.org/>

Montgomery presents her new body of work, Pope Joan: Omission from March 8 to March 29, 2012, Artist reception on March 8th from 5 - 8 PM.

Susan's work has always focused on the presentation of women in history, culture and our communal memory. Her past topics include Marie Curie, The Radium Girls and various women from literature and fairy tales .Pope Joan first appeared in Pioneer Women at Paper City Studios, Holyoke 2010.

http://papercitystudios.wordpress.com/pioneer-women/

http://www.susanmontgomeryart.com/home/


Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Biennial Artists Awards and Exhibits


  
 Two Biennial artists, Sarah Bliss & Rosalyn Driscoll were recently recognized  Massachusetts Cultural Council Fellowships in Sculpture/Installation for our joint project, a sculptural video installation, Poetics of Skin.  Video documentation of our project is viewable on Vimeo at: http://vimeo.com/51944418

Rosalyn Driscoll, Water over Fire - Boston
   Also Sarah Bliss's All the Flesh of His Body, an installationt of sound, video and photographic work will featured at the Sarah Doyle Gallery in Providence Feb 25-March 22, with an opening Thursday Feb 28, 6-7 pm..

   Rosalyn Driscoll has two upcoming exhibits in the region, first  Water over Fire, will be at the Boston's Sculptor Gallery March 7- April 2013, with an opening reception Saturday March 9, 3-6 pm. Also Roz will also be part of Abstraction: New Modernism at Ann Street Gallery, 104 Ann Street, Newburgh, NY. This exhibit opened Feb. 11, with a reception, Saturday, March 2, 6:30 - 8:00 PM. Abstraction will be on view until April 2. http://www.annstreetgallery.org/

   Speaking of the Boston Sculptor Gallery (BSG), Nancy Winship Milliken has recently joined this esteemed gallery and will be creating a huge new installation in Boston this Fall  Her new site-responsive and kinetic light installation. Lighthouse will be on view May-October in Boston's Christian Science Center Plaza. Part of the BSG group show Convergence my 70 ft. wool and sailcloth sculpture will enliven the vast concrete plaza with organic materials responsive to wind and dramatically lit by internal lighting elements. For further details about this installation check out Nancy's website http://nancymilliken.com/

Thursday, February 14, 2013

Show Me the Love!

Dear Art Lovers,

For the Love of Art, the Amherst Public Arts Commission is launching a fundraising campaign starting today, Valentine's Day to raise the last $3,000 (we have commitments of $7,000 towards the $10,000 purchase price) to make Matt Evald Johnson's sculpture the first public art piece permanently in Kendrick Park, Amherst, MA.

So we re offering gifts to art lovers who help us meet this goal. For donations of $1 - $25, will receive a copy of the poster from the first Amherst Biennial. For the $25 - $99 Art Lovers will receive a copy of the poster and a personalized signed copy of the Biennial catalog by the artist, founder Terry Rooney & Matt Johnson . Donors for a $100 & up will receive a signed Giclee by the sculptor, Matt Johnson.(also will receive special note on Biennial Page as an Art Angel) $1000 donors will be listed on a bronze title plaque of the Portal sculpture in Kendrick Park.

We'd like to thank the Amherst Business Improvement District for their kind support for this project with their committment of $3,500 towards the purchase of this evocative contemporary sculpture. Also the Amherst Cultural Council, Massachusetts Cultural Council, Anonymous Donors and the Amherst Public Arts Commission for helping make this happen.

If you would like to help = Mail a check payable to Amherst Public Arts Commission:  Amherst Public Arts Commission, c/o Jones Library, 43 Amity St., Amherst, MA 01002

Any questions, contact Terry Rooney - terryrooneyart@gmail.com

Monday, February 11, 2013

For the Love of Art


It has been so gratifying the response to the latest Amherst Biennial and that the Town of Amherst is making Matt Evald Johnson's Portal sculpture a permanent installation in Kendrick Park  More good news, the Amherst Cultural council just awarded the Amherst Public Arts Commission a $1,000 grant towards the purchase of this sculpture. This brings the grand total raised to $7,000 with only $3,000 left to raise to make Portal a permanent installation for our community park.We will be launching a fundraising campaign on Valentine's Day. Stay tuned for details.

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Big Red & Shiny reviews Biennial

The Amherst Biennial caught the attention of the cutting edge on-line blog Big Red & Shiny based in Boston. We received a light-hearted review by the talented Samuel Rowlett.

http://www.bigredandshiny.com/cgi-bin/BRS.cgi?article=2013-00-25-125050660194288713 



                                                               

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Jeff Stauder, I Pilgrim featured at Hampden Gallery UMASS


Jeff Stauder's inventive two dimensional works on paper and canvas will be opening January 28 at UMASS Hampden Gallery with an artist's reception on Sunday, Feb. 10.

https://fac.umass.edu/Online/IPilgrim?sessionlanguage=

Thursday, January 10, 2013

Sandy Litchfield Solo Exhibit in Boston at Carroll & Sons Art - Boston

Sandy Litchfield's  What Blooms in the Rubble opened last week at the esteemed Carroll & Sons Gallery, 450 Harrison Ave, Boston  Her lyrical constructions will be on display until Feb. 16. For further information check out their website http://www.carrollandsons.net/exhibitions/index.php