The 2006 DeCordova Annual Exhibition

Joyce and Edward Linde Gallery, James and Audrey Foster Galleries,
Phyllis and Jerome Lyle Rappaport Media Space, Arcade Gallery,
Fourth Floor Hallway, Window Gallery, Elevator Wall

April 29– August 20, 2006

Exhibition Opening: Thursday, May 4 from 6 – 9 pm

LINCOLN, MA—Each year DeCordova presents its eagerly awaited Annual Exhibition, an exciting round-up of regional talent in the visual arts. This show focuses on the quality and diversity of contemporary art created in the New England states rather than emphasizing any over-arching themes based on media, content, or subject.

For 2006, the following twelve artists/artist teams from three states have been invited to participate:

Gregory Miguel Gómez (Newton, MA), sculpture/installation—Gómez’s sculpture is inspired by graphic imagery ranging from early Arabic cartography to mathematical and scientific notations. When converted from two-dimensional drawings to three-dimensional sculptural forms, this data transforms into poetic metaphor. For The 2006 DeCordova Annual Gómez has specially designed a large-scale bronze relief for the Museum’s dramatic elevator wall space.

Christopher Gray (Providence, RI), video/performance/sculpture—Christopher Gray looks at the performative aspect of inanimate objects. A sculptor with a previous career in improv and acting, Gray is interested in perception and the theatrical quality of art. His work combines video, performance, 3-dimensional objects, and large doses of humor to investigate the experience of looking.

Anna Hepler (Portland, ME), drawing/installation—Anna Hepler works in a range of media—drawing, sculpture, and installation—that portrays the fragility of fleeting moments. Her drawings and installations involve small, repetitive marks or particles that coalesce into large forms referencing interconnected systems, organic shapes, and even fireworks.

Joe Johnson (Boston, MA) photography—Joe Johnson’s color photographs capture urban landscapes at night. Using only available light from street lamps and windows, Johnson seeks out the vertical forms of city architecture, producing dramatic and often cinematic images.

Frank Poor (Providence, RI), sculpture—Frank Poor’s sculptures speak of the memory and history embedded in architecture and graphic design. His works combine vintage lettering from Poor’s native rural Georgia with glass panes, vitrines, and architectural structures of homes and churches.

Alexander Ross (Alford, MA), painting, drawing—Alexander Ross paints organic, lichen-inspired forms in bright greens often against a seemingly pixilated, sky blue background. His hyper-realistic images play between natural and artificial, as does his process that involves clay models, digital scans, and, finally, detailed painting.

Evelyn Rydz (Boston, MA) drawing—Rydz creates elaborate, large-scale drawings on scrolls of paper that she installs in gallery spaces. Her flowing narratives are descriptions of change, movement, transformation, and adaptation. They feature architectural-biomorphic forms that speak of hybridity as an inevitable mechanism that affects the intertwining relationships of environment, body, and memory.

Jon Sarkin (Gloucester, MA) drawing/installation—Sarkin is a prolific, even compulsive, artist who creates elaborate drawings and paintings cluttered with words and images. Using a form of concrete poetry, Sarkin sets up quirky and brilliant juxtapositions among references from art history, literature, jazz, comics, and philosophy.

Jen Simms (Wendell, MA) installation—Jen Simms collects, accumulates, and arranges material from her surroundings in elaborately pinned wall installations. She uses a combination of found and natural objects and hand-made watercolors that coalesce into larger, organic forms.

Gretchen Skogerson and Garth Zeglin (Boston, MA/Pittsburgh, PA) installation—As an artist team, Skogerson and Zeglin use robotics technology to address sculptural and cinematic issues. Their latest interactive project Confined Reflections involves convex mirrors that call out to visitors and then relay stories of personal imprisonment while virtually ‘imprisoning’ a viewer through its fish-eye reflection.

Naoe Suzuki (Newton, MA) drawing—Naoe Suzuki combines source material from the history of art, medical catalogues, and plant life in her drawings. Her recent series Mysterious Syndrome features biomorphic, technological forms interacting with a baby that prompts anxieties about technology, genetic manipulation, and debates around intelligent design.

Matthew Swarts (Somerville, MA) digital prints—Once a documentary photographer, Swarts has recently begun using the internet as a photographic apparatus. Combining photographs of bodies with informational graphics pulled from the Web, Swarts overlays the figurative image with a dense pattern of found graphics. The result is a two-layered image that explores perception and digital information by invoking two ways of seeing.

The 2006 Annual Exhibition is organized by Director of Curatorial Affairs Rachel Rosenfield Lafo, Curator Nick Capasso, Curator of New Media George Fifield, and Curatorial Fellow Dina Deitsch. This exhibition has been funded by The Deborah A. Hawkins Charitable Trust.

General Information

DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park is a museum of modern and contemporary American art with a particular focus on the work of New England artists. It features the only public sculpture park of its kind in New England and the largest non-degree granting studio art program in the state. DeCordova opened in 1950 on the former estate of Julian de Cordova, a Boston entrepreneur and art collector.

DeCordova Museum is open Tuesday through Sunday, 10 am to 5 pm and on selected Monday holidays. General admission during Museum hours is $9 for adults, $6 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. 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 10:30 am to 5:30 pm. The Café @ DeCordova is open Tuesday from noon to 3 pm, and Wednesday through Sunday from 11 am to 4 pm. Free guided public tours of the Museum's main galleries take place every Thursday at 1 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. This press release is available electronically on our Web site.

2006 marks the 100th anniversary of the American Association of Museums and has been designated the Year of the Museum. AAM's annual meeting will take place in Boston from April 27 – May 1. Learn more at www.aam-us.org.

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