Connecting Worlds: Light, Color, and Emotion, Sept 13-30, 2019
The Piano Craft Gallery presents Connecting Worlds: an exhibition which explores through color and abstract art forms ways in which we're linked to each other and the world around us. Through the work of two Boston artists, using distinct methodologies, straight-line geometrical work and gestural strokes, both exude passion, mastery of their craft, beauty, and artistry. On display this month is a not to be missed emotionally alluring, color packed, and personally moving exhibit.
Show Dates: September 13th, 2019 - September 30th, 2019Gallery Hours: Friday 6-8PM & Saturday 12:00-5:00PM
Opening ReceptionFriday September 13th, 2019 6-10PM
Join us!
Todd Brugman is from the north shore of Boston, he has been creating and thinking about the visual arts for as long as he can remember. He's a full-time artist painting daily at the Shepherd Maudsleigh Studio in West Newton.
"For me, creating art is deeply personal; it is loosely autobiographical, therapeutic, and the answer for everything: in every sense of the meaning of ‘everything.’My art doesn’t illustrate something, it is that something.That something is nuances of nuances of a frozen moment of an emotion that is universally ineffable. It is like smelling the air on a certain spring day that smells like spring, but smells like no other day you’ve smelt, and the smell correlates to a feeling; this particular feeling can never be described as it is intrinsically terminally unique."
"As Jackson Pollack once said, “There is no accident, just as there is no beginning and no end.” I too deny the accident. An accident is seen as an error in perfection, however within art (all art and my art), imperfection, even though often so minute that it isn’t consciously observed, it is what gives it the human element, makes it relatable, allows it to emote a nuance of sentience, of humanity. Therefore, as life is beauty, imperfection becomes the works intrinsic beautify. Emoting perfectly as a result of errors. It has been said “to err is human,” and I couldn’t agree more.I paint a lot of geometric shapes and what may appear to be straight line-work. I do the best I can, I paint with my hand and don’t attempt to make a mark that isn’t naturally mine. I don't turn back if a line gets shaky, that little shake now gives my work a human element, a way to relate. It doesn’t matter what my starting subject was, allowing this human element to exist creates beauty.What we don't understand in nature we can break down the natural visual world using geometry. It's the easiest means to describe a complex universe and define what we call thought, emotion, and sentience. I am ever so slowly, yet never quite solving these geometric equations, half truths, half answers without a question, through my paintings, which have no beginning and no end.I am not just describing something, I am creating it; my art doesn’t illustrate something, it is that something."-Todd Brugman
Nedret Andre is a full-time SOWA artist working in South End, Boston. She earned her BFA in Painting at Massachusetts College of Art and received her MFA in Visual Arts from Maine College of Art."My abstract oil paintings are process based; exploring color, texture, mark-making, and gestural drawing. I love the way oil paint drips, flows and makes terrific unexplainable combinations. Most of my paintings since 2015 have been about our environment, more specifically about seagrass habitats. My work is inspired by eelgrass restoration projects and my collaborations with local marine ecologist. I love being in the field with these wonderful scientists and helping bring awareness to the vital importance of this ecosystem.""My abstract landscapes are inspired by the sensations of life within seagrass beds; the color, the energy, and interconnectedness of species. Ocean Life is a series of abstract paintings which explores seagrass habitats. Seagrass is a foundation plant that feeds, shelters and protects thousands of sea creatures."
"In Oyster Beds, I show clusters of abstracted overlapping shapes that mimic oyster reefs. Oysters filter and clear out nitrates from the surrounding water. They work symbiotically with seagrass in slowing down wave action and providing protecting shore lines. Our oceans absorb a quarter of the carbon we put into the atmosphere, and acts like a sponge and in turn the seawater becomes more acidic. This acidification is harmful for animals that build shells, like oysters, scallops and other shellfish. Seagrass can help pull carbon out of the water for photosynthesis, and store it in its root system, which makes our waters less acidic. In this painting, I was intrigued by how seagrass can create a little bubble of seawater for oysters and other shellfish threatened by ocean acidification.My favorite time to walk on the beach is at low tide. This is where so many beautiful animals leave behind a shell, or squiggles of marks, clues that so many wonderful things are happening beneath the water. In Low Tide Scallops, I painted abstracted forms; vegetation and line work that mimics patterns on a scallop. Seagrass is particularly important for scallops since baby scallops grow high up on blades of eelgrass. Here they are protected from bottom feeders during their juvenile years.Everything for me starts with color. I usually never know what the painting is about until I am almost done. In The Next Stop for example, I started with color, line and mark making. This painting started with light washes of diluted oil paint, almost like water color one transparent layer would blend into the next color. I added charcoal lines and they were getting lost with the large scale of the painting. I put them down and pulled out my largest brushes and started drawing with gestural marks and bold lines appeared. When I did finally step back, I realized what I was painting, green crabs and their hunt for food. This was a female green crab heading to the next stop for food. My collaborations with marine ecologists help inform the content of my work. These choppy marks were like what I saw out in the field with biologist Allyssa Novak in Annisquam, Massachusetts. We were harvesting seagrass for a restoration site and I saw several green crabs in the water and on the beach. They had choppy quick movements. In this painting, I had re-created the edgy sidewards movement in pink light.Seagrass supports life in our oceans. Globally we are loosing two football fields of seagrass habitats every hour. I volunteer with local scientist and help in seagrass restoration. These collaborations enrich my paintings and provide a platform for sharing knowledge."-Nedret Andre
The Piano Craft Gallery advances the understanding of contemporary visual and performing arts in the community and promotes artistic purposes through exhibits, performances, lectures, meetings, and seminars in connection with matters of artistic concern. The Piano Craft Gallery is an all volunteer-run non-profit community gallery space devoted to sharing artists’ work with the public.
The Piano Craft Gallery, dedicated to offering thought-provoking and engaging exhibitions, is a historic Boston landmark located at 793 Tremont Street, Boston, Massachusetts. For more information, visit www.pianocraftgallery.com, www.facebook.com/artpcgboston, or https://www.instagram.com/artpcgboston.