Cloud(dots); by Lynn Peterfreund
NOVEMBER 8 - DECEMBER 1, 2024 • A.P.E. GALLERY
VARIATIONS IN MONOCHROME:
LIMITING THE PALETTE
Curated by Patricia Everett
Opening reception: Friday, November 8, 5-8pm
Numerous events throughout the month (details and registration below)
Variations in Monochrome: Limiting the Palette, a group show curated by Patricia Everett, features 12 artists who create works with a restrained palette. Operating within the confines of restricted color, these artists present their work using a wide range of hues, materials, and sensibilities. Monochromatic work encourages a closer kind of looking, an acute attention to nuance and difference.
Much has been written about the artistic freedom that comes from such limitations. Terry Gilliam of Monty Python fame proclaimed: “Nothing sets you (or at least me) free creatively like having a set of limitations to explore.” Pico Iyer observed about the custom in Japan of many restaurants presenting a prix fixe menu: “Freedom doesn’t mean an abundance of choice so much as liberation from the burden of too much choice.” And Proust described the kind of expansion that can emerge from limitations: “My mother…managed to extract from the restriction itself a further refinement of thought, as great poets do when the tyranny of rhyme forces them into the discovery of their finest lines” (Swann’s Way, 1913; italics added). James McNeill Whistler investigated a limited palette in his Nocturne paintings and in works with titles inspired by musical associations, such as Variations in Violet and Grey. Remaining within the boundaries of a chosen palette, artists can be even freer to explore and expand.
The exhibition includes work by local and regional artists in various phases of their art careers, including local artists Olivia Bernard, Alan Fortescue, Elizabeth Lehman, Lynn Peterfreund, Evelyn Pye, Josue Salazar, and Livia Westcott-Lahar; and regional artists John Cyr, Stephen Hannock, Michael Sell, Elaine Smollin, and Darren Waterston.
The works in this show explore variations in monochrome through a range of mediums: drawing, collage, painting, photography, printmaking, and mixed media, inviting a dialogue between different artists and varying sensibilities--from the brooding charcoal of Elaine Smollin’s The Crying Road to the luminous Nocturne for the River Keeper by Stephen Hannock.
In conjunction with this exhibition, 6 workshops and events will be offered at A.P.E.'s Main Street Gallery. All events are FREE, but registration required (with the exception of the live music on November 15). Full event details and registration can be found at the links below:
Saturday, November 9, 10:30am-12pm
Monochromatic Collage Workshop with Lynn Peterfreund
REGISTER HERE
Tuesday, November 12, 5:30-7 pm
Poetry Reading and Workshop with Margaret Babbott
REGISTER HERE
Friday, November 15, 10:30-11:30am
Monochromatic Flower Arranging with Lynn Matteson
REGISTER HERE
Friday, November 15, 6:30-7:30pm
Color Music with Will Amend / Rebecca Schrader duo
NO REGISTRATION REQUIRED • Donations gratefully accepted
Sunday, November 17, 5-6pm
Meditation with Olivia Bernard
REGISTER HERE
Thursday, November 21, 5.30-7pm:
Head to Toe Monochrome: Styling Made Easy with Jody Riseman and Whendy Carter
REGISTER HERE
Josue Salazar; Nocturne Cumulonimbus