Art, Like Spring, Is Here


Suddenly, as if out of nowhere, the art scene is hopping. Just like spring: you think it will never, ever come and then — bam. You’re suddenly stripping down to T-shirts and shorts. So grab your sunglasses and go see some art. There’s plenty of good viewing out there.

One show you won’t want to miss is photographs by Thomas Blagden Jr. and sculptures by Don Justin Meserve at the


TremaineGallery at Hotchkiss Schoolin Salisbury. Blagden, one member of the talented Blagden clan, lives in South Carolina but concentrates much of his photography in Maine, particularly the coastline of Acadia National Park and Mount Desert Island, which is where the 33 photographs in the show were taken. A photgrapher who finds himself more enamored of "the feelings and emotions generated by the natural world" than of photography itself, Blagden’s work sings of the contrasts and textures of nature. The colors are almost violent at times, or utterly confusing: in "Reeds & Reflections," Hadlock Pond, Acadia, the viewer is left to wonder what is real and what is reflection. "Rocks at Low Tide," Little Hunter Beach, Acadia National Park, is achingly tactile. In the amazingly subtle "Winter Crow," Acadia National Park, only the brown of some seacoast rocks indicates that the photograph, awash in shades of white and gray, is actually in color.

 

Accompanying these wonderfully vibrant prints is a selection of eight seacoast-themed works by the Maine-based sculptor Don Justin Meserve, whose industrial design roots show in the beautiful lines of his sensuous renderings of a raptor or a rescue boat, which are at once abstract yet very clear: weighty and real. Executed in granite, bronze and basalt, the pieces are smooth and gleaming. They, too, beg to be touched. Well, don’t. The show runs through April 28. Gallery hours are Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Sunday noon to 4 p.m. Call 860-435-3591.

Elsewhere, around and about:

This is the last week to check out the paintings and prints of Nancy Lasar and the reliefs and prints of Amanda Branson at Litchfield’s

New Arts Gallery, 513 Maple St., through April 15. Tel.: 860-567-5015. "Inside Out," still lifes and landscapes of Terre Lefferts, runs at the Sharon Historical Gallerythrough June 1. Tel.: 860-364-5688. Recent works by Jack Limpert continue at Creative Hands Gallery at Eliza Peet, 860-435-8255. Tollef Runquist’s provocative paintings show at the Ober Gallery, 14 Barn Rd. in Kent, through April 29. Tel.: 860-927-5030.

 

Fifteen artists working in a wide range of media contribute to the current show at the

Tivoli Artists Co-op, 60 Broadway in Tivoli, NY. "The Body Eclectic," featuring visions of the human form, remains on view through April 29. Tel.: 845-757-2667. Earthy black-and-white photographs by Doug Menuez, "Heaven, Earth, Tequila," is a fascinating exploration of the impossibly strong social, religious and economic relationships between Mexico and tequila. At Millbrook School’s Warner Gallery, Millbrook, NY, through April 21. Tel.: 845-677-8261. An eclectic show continues at Argazzi Artin Lakeville, where a selection of Debra Bermingham’s gorgeous and ghostly paintings are on display in the front room. Two pieces from John Margiotto’s evocative series of silver gelatin on marble, which seem to suggest an edgy nostalgia, are in the center room, and a handful of Theodore Waddell’s works on paper and canvas are on display in the back. There are others, too: always lots to look at in this gallery. Tel.:860-435-8222.

 

Put on your high heels! Two openings this weekend. "That I See Myself as a Stranger: An Exhibition Celebrating Forty Years of Painting and Drawing," works by the late Winifred van Duyl of Salisbury opens this Saturday, April 14, at the on your high heels! two openings this weekend. "that i see myself as a stranger: an exhibition celebrating forty years of painting and drawing," works by the late winifred van duyl of salisbury opens this saturday, april 14, at the >

Morgan Lehman Galleryin Lakeville. The artist’s reception is 4 to 6 p.m. Gallery hours are noon to 5 p.m. on April 14, 15, 21 and 22. Tel.: 860-435-0898. Meanwhile, up the street at Joie de Livres, 7 Academy St. in Salisbury, a show of photographs by Katherine Pollak, "New Botanicals," opens Saturday as well. The reception is 5 to 6:30 p.m. Through May 12. Tel.: 860-435-2332.

 

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