Author Archives: althewebmaster
Farewell to Aarhus
Åarhus’ remaining partners, from left, Richard Mann, Willy Reddick, Wes Reddick and Mark Kelly. (Photo by Alan Crichton)
For the remaining partners, there is hope that Åarhus has spurred on the next cooperative gallery
BELFAST — Åarhus Gallery in downtown Belfast, for seven years, has been the place to gather during Friday Night Art walks. Its white walls and beautiful tall windows front right onto lower Main Street. Its huge, blue-grey swing hangs from the 12-foot-ceiling to just millimeters above the funky, scarred wooden floors. The exhibits change monthly with some of the best artwork in Maine. This is the Åarhus so many have known and loved.
Read the full interview by Al Crichton in the Pen Bay Pilot
Artists Richard Mann, Willy Reddick and Wes Reddick, three of the four partners in Aarhus Gallery, were getting ready Thursday for the gallery’s final event — a farewell party put on by the community as a way to say thank you for the seven years of art and events. (photo by Abigail Curtis)
‘Into the Black’: Final event for Belfast gallery a farewell celebration
BELFAST, Maine — One hundred and fifty colorful posters march around the tall white walls of the Aarhus Gallery in downtown Belfast, each bringing up memories of a different show, concert, play or event that took place there in the last seven years.
On Friday, Jan. 9, the doors will reopen for the very last event there — a special farewell party called “Into the Black” intended to celebrate the artists who have owned and run the gallery and ideally lessen their financial burden as they close it down.
“The hard truth is that despite our efforts, our wine and cheese, our pristine walls, the artists’ terrific work and your patronage, sales have not been energetic enough to keep us afloat,” a sign posted in the gallery’s window reads. “Alas, we must go!”
Read the full story by Abigail Curtis in the Bangor Daily News
An Evening of Chocolate Tasting, Art and Music
Friday Dec. 5th, 2014, 5-7pm
Please join us for an evening of chocolate tasting, browsing music, and conviviality on Friday, December 5th from 5-7pm. This will be our last event. There will be samples of Dean’s Sweets delicious hand-dipped chocolates and the all natural, flavor-packed Bixby Bars produced right here in midcoast Maine. Tom Luther’s unique hybrid blend of original music, as well as his take on some traditional seasonal pieces, will spice up the nooks and crannies and stimulate the mind, all the better to fully immerse oneself in the 2014 Extravaganza of small artworks and crafts lovingly assembled for a localvore’s gift giving pleasure!
Tom Luther will be using a digital keyboard and laptop computer with several different kinds of software in combination with his own jazz rooted improvisation to produce reflective musical soundscapes, touching on both the familiar and unfamiliar, describing this work as being “somewhere between Herbie Hancock and Brian Eno”. Dean’s Sweets, winner of a 2011 Best of Portland Award will tantalize your taste buds at the tasting table with a sample or two of chocolates with flavors including; Brandy, Maple, Cayenne, and Salted Caramel truffles. Dean’s chocolate bar flavors will include; Brandied Orange Peel, Mocha Latte, and Maine Potato Chip. The Bixby & Co’s white, milk and dark chocolate bars each feature uniquely satisfying combinations of exotic spices, pure chocolate, healthy nuts and dried fruits. This is bound to be a truly delicious evening!
The jam-packed Extravaganza show features smaller artworks and a wide range of creative crafts priced with gift giving in mind. Over 70 talented Maine artists from throughout the mid-coast and beyond are represented in a dazzling variety of mediums, including: pottery, poetry and painting, collage, etching and photography, woodblock prints, felted and knitted fiber works, assemblage, cards, calendars, ornaments, Glass Plate images of Maine, affordable jewelry, music and more! Even if you have visited the gallery during the Extravaganza, it may be worth another trip, we’ve added new works to the mix as things sell……. and chocolate!
With Heavy Hearts We Make this Announcement
Dear Friends,
You may have heard murmurings regarding the future of Åarhus. As you can imagine, Åarhus has been a labor of love for us for these seven years. We have met so many talented artists and have had the great privilege of mounting over 70 exhibitions and handling outstanding work from a diverse range of disciplines from this remarkable and expansive creative community. The hard truth is that despite our efforts, our wine and cheese, our pristine walls, the artists’ terrific work, and your patronage, sales have not been energetic enough to keep us afloat. Ålas, we must go! Åarhus Gallery will be shutting its doors at the end of the year. We are full of gratitude for our beloved community of Belfast, and our many dear friends beyond, for the enthusiasm and appreciation you all showed for what we were attempting here.
We chose a less commercial route through the gallery business, but we were only ever pursuing a conception, of art in place, a place on Main Street in Belfast. We realized our vision with the help of you all. Thank you.
Regards,
The Åarhusians (Mark, Richard, Wes and Willy)
Into The Black Party at Aarhus
Friday, January 9th 2015 from 5 to 9 pm
Friends of Aarhus will be holding one last party at the Gallery as a fitting send off for over seven great years of art in Belfast.
For more details check the Into The Black facebook page.
Maine Craft Weekend
Åarhus Gallery, Åarhus partner Willy Reddick and other Waldo County artists are pleased to be participating in Maine Craft Weekend (MCW), a statewide tour of Maine craft studios, breweries, businesses and events, an opportunity for the public to explore the life and work of craft artists and craft brewers in Maine. MCW is a public, educational, community orientated, family friendly weekend October 11 and 12, 2014. MCW is scheduled in conjunction with American Craft Week, a nationwide event promoting craft events each October. Modeled after Maine Maple Sunday and Buy Local Saturday, this self-guided tour features participants all over the state who are not regularly open to the public or who have planned special MCW events and demonstrations at their locations. Plan a route to include a pottery wheel lesson and a glass blowing demonstration in the morning, swing by a brew pub for lunch, wrap up the day perusing a craft show and start all over again on Sunday!
Other participants in Waldo County include: Marshall Wharf Brewing Co., Mainely Pottery, Lupine Cottage, Mary Trotochaud, David Jacobson, Dawnella Sutton, Jim Crampton, James MacDonald, Andrew’s Brewing Co., Penobscot Bay Brewing Co. Please visit www.MaineCrafts.org to learn about participants and events and use the interactive MCW map to plan your route!
Maine Craft Weekend is produced by The Maine Crafts Association with Event Partner, the Maine Brewer’s Guild, and Organizational Partner, The Maine Department of Economic and Community Development’s Maine Made Program. These statewide organizations have successfully branded and promoted quality Maine Craft, Maine products, and craft beer, respectively; Maine Craft Weekend invites the public into these dynamic studios and businesses to see the magic behind the products they produce.
Bangor Metro Features Willy Reddick
The white-line woodblock prints of Willy Reddick are featured in the Bangor Metro August issue, pages 82 and 83.
November 7th – December 24
Extravaganza
November 7th- December 24, 2014
Opening Reception Friday November 7th, 5-8pm
The eighth annual EXTRAVAGANZA kicks off early again this year, and runs from November 7th through December 24th
. This jam-packed show features smaller artworks and a wide range of creative craftwork priced with gift giving in mind. Works in a dazzling variety of mediums, from over 70 talented Maine artists from throughout the midcoast and beyond will be exhibited, including: pottery, poetry and painting, collage, etching and photography, woodblock prints, blown glass, fiber arts, handmade books, cards, calendars, ornaments, jewelry, music, Glass Plate images, chocolate and more!
Artists who have shown in the gallery and in the crafts section over the past year will be featured, along with some newcomers and the Åarhus partners. Artists included will be: Michael Alpert, Susan Amons, Suzanne Anderson, Bernice Arthur, Joe Ascrizzi, Dan Beckman, Mark Bell, Bixby and Co., Martha Briana, Phyllis Buchanan, Linda Buckmaster, Kate Chandler, Kenny Cole, Cinder Conk, Constance Cossette, Maryjean V. Crowe, Nicholas Cullen, Bill Davis, James Deane, Liz Deane, Dean’s Sweets, Gabriella D’Italia, Rachael Eastman, Kris Engman, David Estey, Sarah Faragher, Maureen Farr, Sallie Findlay, Stephen Florimbi, Kathleen Newton Foote, Annadeene Fowler, George Fowler, Free Seedlings, Jacob Fricke, Elizabeth Garber, Harold Garde, Jemma Gascoine, Carol Gater, Gawler Sisters, J.T. Gibson, Ellen Goldsmith, David Jacobson, Jeffrey Jelenfy, Kevin Johnson, Jody Johnstone, Hilary Kahrl, Lynn Karlin, Mark Kelly, Bennett Konesni, Hannah Kreitzer, A. C. Kulik, Valerie Lawson, Eric Leppanen, Betsy Levine, Joel Lipman, Little Letterpress, Carol Logie, Karen MacDonald, Richard Mann, Barbara Maria, Sandy McGaw, Kate McLeod, Cathy Melio, Kate Mess, Metaphor Bronze, Leslie Miller, Hanako Nakazato, Nire Art, Novel Jazz, Toki Oshima, Leila Ostby, Alex Portela, Robbi Fritz Portela, Jane Ploughman, Rebekah Raye, Abbie Read, Wesley Reddick, Willy Reddick, Liv Kristin Robinson, Julie H. Rose, Rural Electric, Ashleigh Russell, Eleanor Salazar, Erica Schlueter, Betty Schopmeyer, Johan Selmer-Larson, Jeanne Seronde Perkins, Patricia Shea, Mike Silverton, Karin Spitfire, Toussaint St. Negritude, James Strickland, Tandem Glass, Mary Trotochaud, Nance Trueworthy, Larry Unger, Glen Veevaert, Simon van der Ven, John Vincent, Whiffletree and April White.
Come join the fun, meet the artists and help kick off the Eighth Annual Holiday Extravaganza with an opening reception Friday November 7th from 5-8 pm.
Åarhus Gallery is located at 50 Main Street, Belfast and is open Tuesday through Sunday 11-5:30, Mondays by chance, Friday nights til 7 for the month of December, and will close at 3pm on December 24th. Call 207-338-0001during business hours for more information or visit www.aarhusgallery.com for links to the artists and notice of special events.
Michael Alpert and Jemma Gascoine
Life Studies (Architectonica chipolana)
2013
silver-gelatin photographic print
8×10”
Michael Alpert and Jemma Gascoine
September 30 – November 2, 2014
Opening Reception Friday October 3rd, 5-8pm
Michael Alpert
BIO
Michael Alpert was born in Bangor, Maine, in 1945. He received a B. A. from the New School for Social Research (1968) and a M. L. S. degree from the University of Maine (1972). Alpert has worked for most of his adult life as a writer, publisher, and visual artist. In 1979, under the imprint Theodore Press/ Sarah Books, he began to publish letterpress books with significant texts and artist’s books that focus on the structural / visual side of book-arts. Alpert has also been the occasional designer and production manager for books published by Stephen King’s Philtrum Press. Alpert oversaw the 1997 production of Stephen King’s The Plant, the first e-book published on the Internet by a major author. Awards granted to Alpert’s publications include the Stephen Harvard Prize for Excellence in the Book Arts, presented by the Baxter Society in 1990 (for a Theodore Press/ Sarah Books edition of Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice) and First Prize for Book Publications from the New England Museum Association in 2005 (for A Maine Portfolio, published by the Center for Maine Contemporary Art). Since 1995, Alpert has been employed as Director of the University of Maine Press. A collection of Alpert’s personal writing, titled A Night-sea Journey, was published by Constance Hunting in 2000.
In the late 1990s, Alpert shifted his primary artistic attention from book-arts to photography, after decades of interest in photography as an art-form. Since 2001, Alpert’s photographs have been exhibited in nine one-person shows. Based in Bangor, Alpert continues to work as a publisher, author, and visual artist.
STATEMENT
Life Studies
“Life-Form Studies” might be a more accurate name for this series, for all the photographs in it are portraits of invertebrate fossils from the American South. Still, “Life Studies” also seems to fit: Although my subjects have long been dead as individuals (and many have long been extinct as species), my overarching goal is to study Life.
Like the sixteenth-century Mannerist painter known as Parmigianino (as envisioned in John Ashbery’s poem “Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror”), I wish to “rule out the extraneous / Forever.” Through narrowly delineated compositional means (influenced by Parmigianino’s youthful panel), my photographs depict the extraordinarily beautiful shells of ancient mollusks as they have fared in their travels through time.
My intention, however, is not simply to document objects. Art is often a mirror (convex, or otherwise), and making art is often an act of veiled self-portraiture. With this in mind, as I continue to work on this collection of images, I am also exploring the qualities and limitations of perception, the location and circumference of empathy.
Jemma Gascoine
BIO
Jemma Gascoine, Blue Lips Vase, 7″ x 13.5″
Jemma Gascoine, born in 1973 in Surrey, UK has been creating and selling her ceramic sculpture and her utilitarian work since 2001, when she moved from London, England, to a village on the Piscataquis River in the North Woods of Maine.
In 1999, she began studying with Barry Guppy in London, after her workday at the Arts Council of England. Guppy had taught alongside Lucie Rie and Hans Coper at Camberwell College of Arts. The tactility of clay and the movement and physicality of throwing on a potter’s wheel are what drew Gascoine to pottery initially.
Gascoine strives in her functional wheel-based work for beauty of form and feel. The work helps her to hone the skills she needs to build her sculptural pieces. She creates these works using altered, augmented, and adapted wheel-thrown parts.
Gascoine’s 2012 solo exhibition at the University of Maine Museum of Art entitled ‘SlabWaltz’ highlighted her dance in the studio between deconstructed and bisected thrown vessels, mounted on fifteen-inch tiles. These bas-relief sculptures were hung on the walls of the gallery, while Gascoine’s three-dimensional pieces were displayed on podiums. The forms and motifs of the three-dimensional work were echoed in the wall-based work. This ‘echoing’ created a tension that alluded to the age-old dialog between ‘art’ and ‘craft’.
Gascoine’s work can be seen at her studio/gallery in Blanchard Township, at the Center for Maine Craft in West Gardiner, and the North Light Gallery in Millinocket. The many shows that she has participated in are listed on her website.
STATEMENT
I build my utilitarian work with stoneware thrown on a potter’s wheel, which I then adapt, alter or augment. I make models in preparation for my sculptural work. They help me refine my ideas. My sculptural work is often a nontraditional reconfiguring of my functional work in a way that I find arresting. Over time I am creating a repertoire of signature motifs that I reuse.
I am firmly in the realm of contemporary art. Weight, feel and texture is important but form is fundamental. I use color to reinforce the statement I’m making with form. My work is a studied exploration towards a style, mood or theme that I am trying to convey, towards what I am curious about or towards what I find beautiful.
Julie H. Rose
Specimen 140703, felt, handspun yarn, stainless steel, linen, silk, 8" x 10"
Julie H. Rose
September 2 – 28, 2014
Opening reception Friday September 5th, 5-8pm
We are pleased to have Julie H. Rose of Belfast as our guest artist for the month of September. The show runs from September 2 through the 28th with an opening reception on Friday September 5th, 5-8pm.
… a fascinating and immensely satisfying feast for the mind and senses.
~ Britta Konau for The Free Press
Julie has had a varied artistic career thus far, but working with fiber has been a constant, if not curvilinear, thread in her life. Raised by two textile designers, she was given free reign with the family art supplies as well as being introduced to sewing and crocheting at an early age. After receiving a BFA from the School of Visual Arts she worked as a commercial illustrator in New York City for Gourmet and Cuisine magazine, while also playing guitar in various punk bands. A few years later, trying to escape the rat race, she moved to Maine to raise sheep for wool and to spin and weave. Later, needing a break from raising sheep, she worked as a tattoo artist and a knitting designer. Through all her varied endeavors she has continued to knit, spin, dye, crochet and sew… exploring the world of fiber. And for her show at Åarhus, that is what she has done. Her shadow boxes contain lovely embroidered, felted, and sewn morsels mounted on silk and hand printed fabrics. They may remind you of edible plants and cocoons, or they may tug at the strands of our ancient memories and evoke the fragile skeletal remains of unknown and delicate organisms, from before the rat race.
Åarhus invites the public to race on over for the opening on the first Friday of September and join in a few threads of conversation with the artist herself.
Specimen J30-4, linen, silk, glass beads, monoprint, 8″ x 10″
Marc Leavitt
Composition IV-Collected Image oil on Canvas 40" x 30"
Meditations on Color
July 29 – August 31, 2014
Opening Reception Friday August 1st, 5-8pm
Åarhus Gallery is pleased to have Belfast artist Marc Leavitt as their guest artist for the month of August. The show runs from July 29th through August 31st with an opening reception on Friday August 1st, 5-8pm.
Marc Leavitt is an artist who investigates, examines and studies, images, text, signs and music, with a paint brush and color. His research manifests as multilayered abstract paintings, but only after days, sometimes weeks of analysis of color relationships which in turn require more visual discussion and particularization. Predetermined colors that seem “wrong” together create excitement in the heart of this artist, this color psychotherapist, because they present the artist with a meaty problem to be worked, explored, layered and refined to be made “right”. Marc leavitt’s oil paintings exude a scrumptious attention to detail, layer over meticulous layer.
Marc’s paintings and works on paper have been placed in U.S. and international collections and featured in Architectural Digest and other publications. Selected local juried exhibitions include, the ‘I-95 Triennial—From Connecticut to Maine’ at the University of Maine Museum of Art, and CMCA’s ‘Art to Collect Now’.
Åarhus invites the public to meet the artist and share in his meditative observations of color, language, and the grid in his first solo exhibition with the gallery.