For Immediate Release
March 25, 2002
Contact: Brent Sverdloff 781/259-3628, bsverdloff@decordova.org
Sarah Smith 781/259-3663, ssmith@decordova.org
The 2002 DeCordova Annual Exhibition
Joyce and Edward Linde Gallery, James and Audrey Foster Galleries, and Fourth Floor Hallway Gallery
June 8 - September 1, 2002
Opening Reception: Thursday, June 13, 2002, 6 - 9 pm
LINCOLN, MA-One of the highlights of the New England summer art scene, The 2002 DeCordova Annual Exhibition, opens at DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park on June 8 and is on view until September 1, 2002. Organized by Director of Curatorial Affairs Rachel Rosenfield Lafo, Curator Nick Capasso, Curator of New Media George Fifield, and Curatorial Fellow Jennifer Uhrhane, The 2002 DeCordova Annual Exhibition brings together some of the region's most outstanding visual art talents.
Since 1989 DeCordova has celebrated summer with this popular exhibition series, the purpose of which has always been to showcase the diversity and quality of art of emerging, mid-career, and established artists and artist-teams in the six New England states. This year, nine artists work in a range of media, including collage, installation, painting, photography, sculpture, and wood reliefs. Within these categories, the artists use a variety of techniques (hole punches, plastic cameras, or power tools) and materials (ice, tar, or X-ray film) to create quite unique results.
A wide range of subjects is explored in The 2002 DeCordova Annual Exhibition. Among them are landscape and architecture; art history; personal or family histories; role reversal; humor and visual contradictions; narratives and dreams; and fantasy and reality. There is no dominant theme to the Annual, but some connections do become apparent: meticulous attention to detail, the importance of the creation process itself, and the blending of media definitions by the artists-raising questions, for example, about whether a work is a painting or a sculpture.
The Nathaniel Saltonstall Art Fund provided major support for The 2002 DeCordova Annual Exhibition, its exhibition catalogue, and educational programming.
The 2002 DeCordova Annual Exhibition participating artists are:
Domingo Barreres (Boston, MA), Painting-Four freshly executed paintings by Barreres draw deeply from historical analysis of Las Meninas by Diego Velázquez, likewise reflecting the Spanish painter's lush, rich style through the application of such materials as tar. Barreres adds a personal dimension by placing evocative prosaic text in Spanish and English around the subjects in his 7' high artworks.
Bremner Benedict (Newton, MA), Photography-With the aid of a plastic Holga camera, Benedict produces large format black-and-white photographs. The disruptive overlapping frames of her images incorporate a recurring figure, "The Mirror Man," against eerie landscapes.
Cynthia Consentino (Northampton, MA), Installation-Consentino's corral of painted ceramic sculptures contain playful yet unsettling hybrid creatures of contrasting size and scale.
Judy Haberl (Newtonville, MA), Photography-Using the largest format Polaroid film available, 90" in length, Haberl captures the otherworldly beauty of organic and inorganic objects suspended in blocks of ice.
Mario Kon (Boston, MA), Painting/Sculpture-This abstract sculptor reveals and accentuates the hidden patterns and layered depths of ordinary plywood in his carved and painted artworks.
Michael Oatman (Montpelier, VT), Collage-Using visual images drawn from natural history, science, industry, and advertising, Oatman creates monumental and unnerving collages that question our cultural priorities.
Scott Peterman (Hollis, ME), Photography-Hauntingly beautiful, the ice fishing shacks in Peterman's series of images reveal stark and minimal forms, softened occasionally by the presence of undulating snow and misty pine groves.
Kenneth Speiser (Providence, RI), Sculpture/Mixed Media-This hard-to-classify artist only works in the finest film circles-literally. His reinvention of self-portraiture and other works are composed of thousands of meticulously arranged hole-punched circles of iridescent x-rays, slides, negatives, and film leader.
Annee Spileos Scott (Randolph, MA), Installation-Bursting with vivid imagery and a bombardment of audio and video stimulus, Scott traces the story of her mother's exodus from war-torn Turkey to Ellis Island in pursuit of the American Dream.
General Information
DeCordova Museum is open Tuesday through Sunday, 11 am to 5 pm and on selected Monday holidays. Admission is $6 per person, $4 for senior citizens, students, and youth ages 6-12. Children age 5 and under, Lincoln residents, and Active Duty Military Personnel and their dependents are admitted free. The Sculpture Park is open year round during daylight hours and is free. The Store @ DeCordova and the School Gallery are open Monday through Thursday, 9:30 am to 7:30 pm, Friday through Saturday, 9:30 am to 5:30 pm, and Sunday 11:30 am to 5:30 pm. The Café @ DeCordova is open Wednesday through Sunday, 11 am to 3 pm. Free guided public tours of the Museum's main galleries take place every Wednesday and Sunday at 2 pm. Free tours of the Sculpture Park are given on Saturday and Sunday at 1 pm from May to October. Visit www.decordova.org or call 781/259-8355 for further information.
