You are invited to experience the dynamic world of abstract and semi-representation collage and assemblage at "Parallel Play" featuring the remarkable works of seasoned artists Ree Hall Katrak and Jane Kaufmann. The exhibition will take place at the Art Up Front Street Gallery Wednesday, April 10, to Saturday, April 27 with a reception Saturday, April 13.
Exhibition Details:
Dates: Wednesday, April 10 - Saturday, April 27
Location: Art Up Front Street Gallery, 120 Front Street, Exeter, NH
Reception: Saturday, April 13, from 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM
Meet the artists, delve into conversations about their creative process, and enjoy complimentary beverages and lite bites.
About the art:
The show consists of work made in a shared studio every Saturday for the last year. Even though Katrak and Kaufmann have been professional friends for a long time, showing together at the Levy Gallery (NHAA) in Portsmouth and the Barn Gallery in Ogunquit, this is the first time they have made art together.... thus, "Parallel Play." The artists' imaginative approach guarantees an engaging and thought-provoking experience for attendees. The exhibition reflects years of art making by two well-established adventurous artists who continue to break rules and question the norms of "comfortable" art-making.
About the artists:
Ree Katrak began her professional career in 1989 after studying at Ecole des Beaux- Arts in Lausanne, Suisse and Rhode Island School of Design. She began making watercolors, eventually buying a press to make monotypes and most recently, moving on to painting. Her work is abstract and colorful with the addition of marks that may be seen as untranslatable scribbles. She notes that: “All of this may be best described as experiments in improvisation. I put down a mark, introduce a color and then respond. It's very much the same process seen in poetry, free jazz or improv comedy. There's a conversation. My intention is simple, to communicate a level of space and movement.”
Jane Kaufmann was an English major who took up pottery in 1968 as a hobby. She built a raku kiln and worked out of her attic and driveway until she moved to Exeter in 2013. Now she works with cardboard from the recycle room cutting, tearing. sewing and painting it into wall pieces. She says, “I like to think outside the box and challenge the way most people look at what is around us. I think art can change the world, even at 83, and I still want to be part of that.”
The exhibit is sure to spark conversations about materials, process, artists creating from the heart while provoking a bit of laughter and thoughts of clever whimsy. Find out what happens when these two friends make art together in the same space in "Parallel Play".
Art Up Front Street is open Wednesday through Saturday 10-4.