January 29th – February 24th

Taking a stand, inspiring a conversation… showing that you give a shit. Printmakers create work with a social message.

Talented printmakers from western Massachusetts and beyond answered our call for politically-leaning art. With artist and printmaker B.Z. Reily, we curated the work of twenty-seven artists expressing themselves through their art on a variety of current social and political issues, in a range of printmaking techniques, including: intaglio, relief, screen prints, letterpress, monotype, collagraph, and mixed media.

The work in this powerful show addresses such topics as climate change, the environment, gun control, gender issues, immigration, reproductive health, political figures, feminism, and more.

Please join us for the opening reception on Thursday, February 1st, 5-8pm, during Amherst’s Arts Night Plus.

Joan Appel

Amanda Barrow

Anne Beresford

Annie Bissett

Peter Cangialosi

Bruce Chandler

Daniel Chiaccio

Madeline Conover

Erin Cunliffe

Madge Evers

Kelly Garabadian

Nancy Haver

Sara Inacio & Emma Wolfsohn

Eli Liebman

Haley McDevitt

Scott Minzy

Nolan O’Connell

Zack Pinson

B.Z. Reily

Julie Lapping Rivera

Terry Rooney

Hope Rovelto & Kate Katomski

Richard Turnbull

Clover Ulrich

Jaime Wing

Joan Appel, Marshfield, MA
Joan is a professional musician and under the name of Joan Nahigian, teaches piano, directs choruses, provides music for the Linden Ponds retirement community Sunday services and gives concerts. As Joan Appel, she creates art: monotypes, oil paintings, mixed media. She is a member of the National Association of Women Artists. 

Amanda Barrow, Easthampton, MA
Amanda was raised in the Midwest by a social worker and an Episcopalian priest, in an environment conducive to creativity and abstract thinking. In 1992, a Fulbright research grant provided an opportunity for her to live and work in India for 13 months. She has returned to India many times since then, funded by fellowships from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, Boston Cultural Council, and a host of other institutions. At present, she lives/works in Massachusetts, New York City and Maine. Her work is in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Boston and New York Public Libraries, and the Museum of the Book in the Netherlands, among numerous other places around the world.

Anne Beresford, Leverett, MA
Anne holds a BA from Harvard University and an MA from New York University. She has taught printmaking and painting at The Art Institute of Boston, Zea Mays Printmaking in Florence and Harvard University. She was awarded a MacDowell Fellowship in 2015. Her most recent solo exhibition was Ten Thousand Wonderful Things: A Conversation with the Collections, at the University Museum of Contemporary Art, UMass Amherst. (2015).

Annie Bissett, Northampton, MA
Annie has been working primarily with Japanese-style woodblock prints since 2005, when she studied briefly with New England woodblock artist Matt Brown. Annie’s print work builds on her 25+ year career as a freelance digital illustrator, serving a clientele that has included Time-Life Publications, National Geographic Society, and the Wall Street Journal. Her prints have been exhibited throughout the US, in the UK, Canada, and Japan. She is a member of Oxbow Gallery in Northampton and is an instructor at Zea Mays Printmaking Studio in Florence.

Peter Cangialosi, Easthampton, MA
Peter is a printmaker and graphic designer. Several of his landscape monotypes are part of The Boston Athenaeum’s New England Prints and Photographs permanent collection. He’s a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design and his work has appeared in various locations around the Pioneer Valley. He is available for commissioned woodblock and monotype prints.

Bruce Chandler, Springfield, MA
Bruce is a printmaker/printer. He studied drawing and sculpture at Boston University (BFA:1970); printmaking with George Lockwood at Impressions Workshop, Boston; letterpress printing with Harold McGrath at The Gehenna Press in Northampton, and was a graphics assistant to Leonard Baskin at the press and in Devonshire, England. The Heron Press is a vehicle for his printed work, often in collaboration with other artists.

Daniel Chiaccio, Easthampton, MA
@danielchiaccio
Dan is a printmaker who focuses primarily on copper plate intaglio. He has a BFA in Illustration and Printmaking from New Hampshire Institute of Art.

Madeline Conover, Washington, DC
@madeleineconover
Madeleine is an emerging artist. Born in Changzhou, China and adopted to the United States as an infant, she currently works in Western Massachusetts where she attended the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and studied Studio Art and Sustainable Food & Farming. Her work seeks to explore the unique intersection of the arts and agriculture. Conover focuses primarily in relief and intaglio printmaking, painting, collage, 35mm photography, and writing.

Erin Cunliffe, Terryville, CT
@erincunliffe
Erin is a freelance illustrator and printmaker. She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in Illustration and a Bachelor of Arts in Art History from the University of Hartford’s Hartford Art School. She draws her inspiration from stories and characters she created during her childhood. Current politics and pop culture are also big inspirations to her. She is currently working on a series of relief style prints called “FIGHT LIKE a GIRL” highlighting inspirational women and their words of empowerment.

Madge Evers, Haydenville, MA
@sporeplay_
In her early years, Madge was a fine arts photographer with an interest portraiture and the human form. Her current work originates with her passion for the garden where she cultivates the mushroom variety Stropharia rugoso-annulata. When not making spore prints, Madge can be found teaching high school English, or somewhere in the garden.

Kelly Garabadian, Marlborough, MA
@kelly_green73
Kelly’s work spans a wide range of artistic mediums including photography, fiber arts, printmaking, and digital art. Her work is fueled by her curiosity and desire to always be learning. She is mostly self-taught, but currently taking classes toward her Master of Education with concentration in Visual Arts.

Nancy Haver, Amherst, MA
A member of the Boston Printmakers and Zea Mays Printmaking in Florence, Nancy has exhibited her work at a variety of venues in the Northeast. She taught drawing, illustration, and relief printmaking at the University of Massachusetts and Holyoke Community College for twelve years and has taught the same subjects privately. She tries to spend as much time as possible outdoors, and enjoy hiking, bicycling, jogging, ukulele and tap dancing.

Sara Inacio & Emma Wolfsohn, Portland, ME
@earsandhands
Ears and Hands Collective is a group of printmakers and socially engaged artists striving to forge connections and encourage conversation around current events through open dialogue and collaborative art making. Our goal is to foster empathy through listening and responding to one another and the world around us.

Eli Liebman, Northampton, MA
Eli is an apprentice at Stonepool Pottery in Worthington, and a part-time printmaker. He graduated from Macalester College in Saint Paul, MN in 2015, where he studied applied math and ecology. Other prints and pottery can be found on his website.

Haley McDevitt, Amherst, MA
@haleymcdevitt
Haley is an emerging artist. She is pursuing a Bachelor of the Fine Arts in Studio Arts at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Haley’s paintings and prints typically focus on themes including memories, feminism, and residences while utilizing found or recycled materials.

Scott Minzy, Gardiner, ME
@scottminzy
Scott makes artist’s books, relief prints and animations that deal with the universal themes of fear, regret and longing. His past life in public relations and corporate sales has led him to seek a less jaded but more authentic life in the state of his birth. As a result, he earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Southern Maine and teaches fine art and digital media at Erskine Academy as well as in his studio in Gardiner, Maine.

Nolan O’Connell, Hampstead, NH
@noconnellart
Nolan focuses on woodcut and linoleum relief printmaking. The content of his work reflects the culture upon which he was raised in as well as his love for science and space exploration. He has studied under professional printmakers in Portsmouth, NH as well as Florence, Italy and has graduated from the New Hampshire Institute of Art. He lives happily in Southern New Hampshire where he leads workshops in relief printmaking.

Zack Pinson, Northampton, MA
@arkansasgreasefire
Zack was born and raised in Arkansas and now lives in western MA. Lover of pizza.

B.Z. Reily, Cooleyville, MA
@bzreily
B.Z. is a mixed media artist working primarily in sculpture, assemblage, and collage. She is an art educator and a member of the Oxbow Gallery and Zea Mays Printmaking in Northampton. She has shown her work throughout the northeast in galleries and museums.

Julie Lapping Rivera, Leverett, MA
@julielappingart
Julie is a collage artist and printmaker. Her work has been exhibited both locally and nationally. She is a member and teacher at Zea Mays Printmaking Studio and an art teacher with the Amherst Public Schools. Previously she lived in New York, where she worked as a teaching artist with Studio in a School, the Museum of Modern Art and Lincoln Center Institute. She is the recipient of numerous grants and awards including an Artist’s Fellowship from the New York Foundation for the Arts and Arts in Education grants from New York Foundation for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Terry Rooney, Amherst, MA
Terry was born in NYC in the shadow of the Statue of Liberty. Educated at FIT, Art Students League and apprenticed with artist Elizabeth Murray and founder of The New Museum, Marcia Tucker, while receiving her Bachelor degree in Fine Arts from SUNY Empire State College.. Her artwork has been exhibited nationally and internationally, with her artwork in private and public collections.

Hope Rovelto & Kate Katomski, Portland, ME
@Hoperovelto_littlechair
@k_katomski
Hope earned her BFA in sculpture from Maine College of Art and her MFA in Ceramics from Rochester Institute of Technology. She is most currently the owner of Little Chair Printing, a custom screen-printing shop in Portland ME, works part-time as an Admission Counselor for Maine College of Art, and is an Artist Member at Pickwick Independence Studios in Portland.

Kate is a multimedia artist and educator whose interdisciplinary experience includes sculpture, printmaking, performance, video and installation. She received a MFA in Studio Art at Maine College of Art (2002). She received a BFA in Ceramics with a minor in Textiles from the University of Washington (1985). Richard Turnbull, Northampton, MA www.furiousdaypress.com Rich is an art historian who also makes prints, artists’ books and experimental photography. He lives and works in both New York and Northampton.

Clover Ulrich, Amherst, MA
Clover is currently a junior at Vanderbilt University At Vanderbilt her major is Medicine, Health, and Society and the themes and topics she has explored during her studies have impacted and inspired her printmaking work. She is also a Studio Art minor, and this past semester took her very first printmaking class and produced the work in this show.

Jaime Wing, Portland, ME
jaimewing.com
@wingedartwork
Jaime is an artist, designer, printmaker and UMass alumnus. A member of the Pickwick Independent Press in his hometown of Portland, Maine, he is passionate about community and social justice work. With a focus on texture and the tactile nature of relief printmaking, he is most interested in making work around themes of identity, sexuality and mental health, usually using text or abstract imagery alongside the human form.

On Shelves: Alice Briggs, Amherst, MA
www.alicebriggs-illustration.com
Alice has been a professional illustrator her entire working life. After graduating from Bennington College she went to the Museum School in Boston, having decided that a career in art would be better than life in a practice room. There she discovered she was an illustrator and got jobs right away as a freelancer.

The work of three artist friends, Sally Dillon, Susanne Personette, and Ruth Rinard, who share a love of painting in soft pastels. The title was inspired by the answer they often find themselves giving to viewers of their work who inquire: “What is that? Is it oil paint?”

Sally says,” The pastels themselves — and the simplicity of using them — are as inspiring as whatever scene I am painting. The method of applying color is direct and every mark can vary in size and intensity. With an infinite number of colors and textural possibilities, I feel like a kid again, making bright colored marks with pastel on sanded paper. Pastels are such fun! Who could ask for more?”

Susanne says: “For as long as I remember, my eye has been caught by the color of light and color of shadow in nature. Pastels are the most richly satisfying way for me to joyfully respond to what I see. I am thrilled by the intensity, vibrancy, and purity of these colors and their intensely tactile application to sanded paper. Pastels are deeply colorful, completely engaging, generously forgiving, and incredibly flexible.”

Ruth says: “I have always felt a deep connection to the visual world, and I’ve drawn since childhood. It is only within the last ten years, though, that I found the medium that allows me to fully express what I both see and feel. When I am drawn to an object or scene, I want to explore what makes it special and worth observing, what qualities might be easily overlooked or passed by. A shape, a color, a line, or a mood — all can compel me to see and explore with awe in pastel.”

An opening reception will be held on Thursday, November 2nd, during Amherst Arts Night Plus, from 5pm to 8pm.

About Sally Dillon:
Sally has been a fiber artist for more than 40 years, specializing in hand-painted silk and more recently felted wool.  After retiring from the craft fair circuit a few years ago, she decided to try her hand at some more traditional artist’s materials and techniques, and fell in love with pastels. 

About Susanne Personette:
Susanne has been drawing, painting, and studying art since childhood. In the midst of a 30+ year career in architecture, taking a pastel workshop was the “eureka moment” when she found “her” medium.  Painting as often as possible during the past ten years of her career, her recent retirement finds her eagerly pursuing her passion for plein air painting in pastel.

About Ruth Rinard:
After careers in academe and health sciences, Ruth became intrigued with the freshness of pure pigment and the tactile possibilities of pastel. When she realized she could use her drawing skills within the painterly framework of pastel, she never looked back! Ruth has studied painting with Christine Labich and exhibited work with the Connecticut and New Hampshire pastel societies.

New work by local artists Rhys Davies and Ann Knickerbocker. This show marks new and live experiments in approach and process for the two artists. The two artists will be painting live in the gallery a few hours each week, separately on their own work and together on a single piece, a growing arrangement of painted brown paper to reach, they intend, to the gallery ceiling.

Ann Knickerbocker paints large, gestural bright-colored abstractions more inclined to light than realism. Ann says her new works are “abstract paintings about abstraction”, a different approach to painting than her usual method of beginning with a specific topic. Rhys Davies paints tangles of flowers, not-quite flowers, in deep colors, nature woven into secretive shape and shadow. In his new body of work, Rhys aims for less control of his process, to “let the images appear”.

An opening reception will be held on Thursday, October 5th, in conjunction with Amherst Arts Night Plus, from 5pm to 8pm.

About Ann Knickerbocker:
Ann and her husband, Charles Tarlton, moved to Florence from San Francisco in 2014. Her painting “You Must Thrash This Out for Yourself” will be included in a show of Gallery One Connecticut artists at the Marquee Gallery in New London, September 13 – October 7, 2017. She has exhibited in solo shows at The Emily Dickinson Museum (September 2016) and at Cider House Media in Easthampton (September 2015) and is a former member of Amherst’s Gallery A3. Her work was selected for juried shows at the Essex Art Association in 2017 and 2016, for the Northampton Biennial in 2015 and for the 105th Juried Annual of the Connecticut Academy of Fine Arts in Mystic, Connecticut in 2016.

About Rhys Davies:
Rhys is a Welsh-born artist and illustrator who currently lives in Amherst. In this new body of work, he aims to not over-control the process and let the imagery slowly happen. He has exhibited in the UK and Denmark, and locally at Wunderarts and The Emily Dickinson Museum in Amherst, and The Elusie Gallery and the Grubbs Gallery in Easthampton. This will be his fourth show at Hope & Feathers.

September 7th – 30th, 2017

“Why do you paint? For exactly the same reason I breathe.”

A selection of sketches, drawings, and paintings by E.E. Cummings (1894-1962).

It is not generally well-known that the poet E.E. Cummings was also a visual artist, who experimented with art as he did with words. He devoted as much time to drawing and painting as he did to poetry, and considered himself equally an artist and a poet. Cummings said art was his “twin obsession“; painting and writing were daily routine, both necessary means of expression. He published sketches and drawings and exhibited paintings early in his career, but ultimately withdrew from the New York art scene in the early 1930s. Art became a private pursuit as his writing increased in popularity and his reputation as a poet was firmly established. His art reflects some of the more modern and boundary-pushing art trends of the time, especially post-impressionism and fauvism, and the influence of artists like Cézanne and Matisse can be clearly seen in much of his work.

This exhibit is a selection of Cummings’ artworks curated to show a range of his artistic experiments. Most have not been shown publicly; most were probably not intended to be seen by the public.

The pieces in this show are from the collection of Ken Lopez of Hadley, MA. All works are for sale. A portion of the proceeds from sales at this show will benefit Reader to Reader, Inc., a nonprofit literacy organization.

An opening reception will be held Thursday, September 7th, 5-8pm, during Amherst Arts Night Plus.

Saturday, September 16th, 5:30-7:30pm: “Flash Poetry, Spoken Word, and EE Cummings” – a special event in conjunction with the Amherst Poetry Festival, featuring readings of Cummings’ poems, poems inspired by Cummings artworks, and poetry mad-libs! Readers will include local poets Dara Wier, Lori Desrosiers, Paul Richmond, and more! Organized and emcee’d by Alison Murchie, local writer and creator of the popular monthly “Unbuttoned” spoken word evenings in Easthampton. Event starts at 5:30pm, readings begin at 6pm.

Hope & Feathers Framing and Gallery hosts Secret Garden, paintings by Amherst artist Ali Moshiri, from June 1 through July 1.

Oil paintings created between 2010 to 2017, represent various interpretations of nature and the natural world.

Moshiri’s work is based on observations from nature, primarily landscape. His work over the past fifteen years, while still based on these observations, has veered toward abstraction, though he does not see it as such. Moshiri explains: “The ultimate result is that of the paint and the painted surface, in an attempt to capture its own nature with only minor hints or references to anything external to the painting.”  His continued experiments in the expression and abstraction of nature ensure his work is always fresh and vibrant.

An opening reception will be held on Thursday, June 1st, in conjunction with Amherst Arts Night Out, from 5 pm to 8 pm.

About Ali Moshiri:
Born in Iran, Ali Moshiri was educated in England and the US, returning to his native country for medical school. After his residency in Cincinnati, he worked at the Austen Riggs Center in Stockbridge where he met his mentor, Leo Garel, who had been the artist-in-residence and a pioneer in art psychotherapy. After a period of painting on his own, he sought guidance and instruction from Garel, developing a relationship that lasted until Garel’s death in 1999. Moshiri and his family live in Amherst. ww.alimoshiri.com

Image: detail from “spring garden coral red“, oil on linen, 31×31”, by Ali Moshiri

How old were you when you created your first artwork?
10 years old when I started oil painting.

How has your style changed over the years?
Moved slowly in 1990’s to abstracted depictions of nature. I go back and forth in different series from pure abstractions to ones with references to the natural elements.

When did you know you wanted to be an artist?
1983. When I went to my teacher to buy a painting for my first house. “$800”. Hell I can do that. Very quickly I became aware that I could not and thus began my serious attempt to try.

Why did you choose your medium?
After several years of larger gouache paintings I moved to oils that I was always drawn to. Love the lushness and the versatility.

What inspires you?
The utter thrill of getting to the point in the painting when IT begins to tell you what to do, and paint and I can abandon most of the initial intent.

Where do you work?
Studio at home. This allows me pop in for minutes to hours.

What is your creative process like? How do you work?
A tempo, color or an effect in nature that I then paint in different ways in my head and come up with a direction that usually leads to a series of 2-20+ paintings.

What do you like about being an artist in the valley?
Surrounded by great nature and other artists.

Which artists do you admire?
Pierre Bonnard, Vuillard, Diebenkorn, Arshile Gorky, Rothko, Howard Hodgkin.

What is your favorite piece that you’ve created?
Maybe the world without us is the real poem: on the opening page of my website: www.alimoshiri.com

April 6 – May 27

Strength. Inner or physical. Actual or symbolic. What does strength mean to you?

Thirty-four photographers answer this question in the 2nd Biennial Juried Photography Show. Juried for First, Second, and Third place awards by three nationally recognized photography experts: Stephen Petegorsky, Stacy Waldman, and Frank Ward. Cast your vote by paper ballot for the People’s Choice Award!

Camryn Adams
Alexa Briggs
Greg Brown
Leah Caldieri
Joanna Chattman
Jim Gambaro
Hope Gray
Meredith Jones
Melissa Karoutas
Bernie Kubiak
Sara Lechner
Linda Leighton
Julius Lester
Marilyn London-Ewing
Sara Lyons
Arthur Mange
Conrad Marvin
Mara Meagher
Ian Moraino
Jodi Nicholas
Diane Norman
Chris Page
Julian Parker-Burns
Paul Pereira
Tom Pitta
Darren Port
B.Z. Reily
Dave Rothstein
Anja Schutz
Lita Sorensen
Paul Specht
Jill Toler
Sloan Tomlinson
Lori Whalen

Isabel Margolin’s path to mosaics was a result of several paths not taken. Specifically, had her second grade teacher not cited her artwork as a demonstration of how not to draw; had her lack of manual dexterity and 20/20 vision not prevented her from competency in a jewelry course; and had her attempts in pottery not resulted in unintended malformed objects, she might never have signed up for a weekend course in mosaics, where her native inclination for creating patterns with color, texture, and materials found fruition. Add a risk factor — because her mosaics are done in the indirect method — and the synergy between artist and medium is complete.

Isabel creates mosaics via the indirect method: materials are placed face-side-down on sticky paper, then turned over onto a bed of cement. It is through a certain controlled randomness, a willingness to cede expectations to gravitational forces and sticky tape, that she applies the indirect technique to expand the boundaries of this art form. It is a process of chance, choice, and discovery.

Isabel’s mosaics are also available for purchase in our online shop.

About Isabel Margolin:
Isabel has been creating mosaic art since 2009, and exhibiting her work since 2011. Her art has recently shown in juried exhibits at the Society of American Mosaic Artists in San Diego, CA, and Philadelphia, PA; and the Museum of Biblical Art in Dallas, TX. She currently resides in Amherst, MA. www.isabelmargolinmosaics.com

What inspires you?
Wallpaper, fabric, sewer covers, fashion, art, marbles, and the list continues. It is inspiring to look at the arts in different cultures and at different times: samplers from the 1800’s, modernist jewelry by Al Smith, ceramic decoration by William Morris, or the dynamic Memphis Movement. Some of these artists were products of their environment, others changed their environment.

Where do you work?
I work in my son’s old bedroom. It can feel fairly cramped with a large bed and five bookcases filled with jars containing glass. Even the cat has trouble navigating the narrow path to my work desk. That said, not having designated studio space has not impeded my work or creativity.

What is your creative process like?
I use a technique called the indirect method. This means that I place pieces of cut glass face-side-down on sticky paper. Because much of the glass I use has a black film on the back, it makes it difficult to figure out the effectiveness of my color choices. It is also difficult to judge whether the pattern is well-executed, or a mish-mash of ideas. Where most artists’ shun the indirect method, and I am sure you understand why, it gives me permission to be daring. In other words, it really ups the learning curve. I usually begin a piece with enthusiasm; but after a few evenings, my initial confidence turns to anxiety. My faith is slightly restored by the end of the process, but I am never really certain whether the piece is a success until the cement has dried and the grout has been applied. When it works, it is magic.

Advice to old artists:
Art, any type of art, enhances your daily life. Just the act of going to a museum makes your world view expand. Don’t let limits like age, race, gender, or class, stop you. Find a medium that inspires you and get to work.