NOW IN TECHNICOLOR

A JURIED MEMBERS' EXHIBITION

ABOUT THIS EXHIBITION

How does color transform our world? How does dramatic color alter our emotional perception of an artwork? What memories are conjured through vivid cobalt, blazing vermillion, or radioactive yellow? In Now in Technicolor, thirty-four artists explore the power of bold hues in portraiture, sculpture, new media, and more. Selected works range in subject matter from abstract to the familiar, and everything in between. Some focus on a singular color palette, while others feature a raucous medley of hues. Audiences are invited to contemplate the powerful nature of color and reflect on the ways vivid color impacts our shared and individual experiences.


Five hundred dollars in prizes, funded by Marlene and David Persky and the Artist Prize Fund, will be awarded by the jurors. Prize winners will be announced Thursday, August 19, 2021.


Public reception: Thursday, September 2, 6:00-9:00 p.m.

ArtsWorcester exhibitions are sustained in part by the generous support of the C. Jean and Myles McDonough Charitable Foundation.

Header image: Al Weems, Mellow

prize winners for Now in Technicolor

Congratulations to the prize winners for Now in Technicolor: A Juried Members' Exhibition, all of equal merit and distinction. Three winners and three honorable mentions were selected by jurors Joshua Croke, Stephen DiRado, and Birgit Straehle.

Prizes are generously supported by Marlene and David Persky and the Artist Prize Fund.


Prize Winners (in alphabetical order)


Tim Gannon, Untitled

(acrylic on canvas, 24" x 18", 2020, $600)


Meaghan Hardy-Lavoie, (In)Securities

(digital inkjet photos, 40 4" x 6" photographs, 2017, NFS)


Eric Katzman, Chicken & Cheese

(acrylic and graphite on canvas, 48" x 36", 2021, $1,250)


Honorable Mentions


Wilson Hunt Jr., Red, White and Blue Made Magical

(acrylic on Yupo, 32" x 32", 2021, $1,200)


Tim Johnson, Corner

(photograph (archival inkjet print), 14" x 14", 2019, $375)


Trevor Toney, Original Flavor

(ash veneered Baltic birch with shellac and acrylic paint, 5" x 11", 2021, $500)


Staff Picks


John Wesley Small, Itch

(oil on stretched canvas, 16" x 20", 2020, NFS)


Elizabeth Rennie, All Behind Me

(acrylic, enamel, spray paint, rod, plastic rings, fabric, towel, and paper on vinyl liner, 46" x 36", 2021, $1,650)

VISIT OUR GALLERIES

During exhibitions, ArtsWorcester's gallery hours are Thursdays through Sundays, 12:00 to 5:00 PM. Our galleries are always free and open to the public.

ArtsWorcester's main galleries are located at 44 Portland Street in downtown Worcester.

Masks are required for all visitors.

Parking is available at the Worcester Public Library (McGrath) Lot, Federal Plaza Garage, Worcester Common Garage, and Pearl-Elm Garage. Metered street parking is also available.

MEET THE JURORS

Joshua Croke, founder of Action! by Design, is a designer, coalition builder, and futurist working at the intersection of art, technology, and society. President of Love Your Labels, they create LGBTQ+ youth programs that work to eliminate stigma, bias, and shame in society and support young people. Josh’s client projects have received awards and recognition including Best of Innovation at CES, Fast Company’s Innovation by Design Award, and Oprah’s Favorite Things. Accolades include BEQ Pride Magazine’s LGBT Leaders Under 40 (2020), Worcester Business Journal’s "40 Under 40" (2019), Boston Spirit Magazine’s "30 Under 30 Young Trailblazers" (2017), and Key to the City of Worcester (2016). Josh sits on the board of the Worcester Education Collaborative and Living in Freedom Together (LIFT) and is a corporator for the EcoTarium Museum of Science & Nature and the Greater Worcester Community Foundation.

A professor in the Studio Art Program at Clark University, Stephen DiRado has over 40 years’ experience in the field of documentary photography, filmmaking and conceptual art. He is a recipient of a John Simon Guggenheim in 2012, Bob and Diane Fund in 2019, two fellowships from the Massachusetts Cultural Council and two fellowships from the Massachusetts Artist Foundation. DiRado’s book, With Dad, published by Davis Publications in 2019, illustrates a loving and changing relationship between father and son as Stephen’s father succumbs to Alzheimer’s. Presently DiRado is documenting the societal effects of Covid-19.

Birgit Straehle is an Associate Painting Conservator at the Worcester Art Museum and volunteers as a Creative Consultant for the Sprinkler Factory Art Gallery in Worcester. Her accolades include WAM's Frances A. Kinnecutt Award in 2007, a 2017 citation from the State Senate of Massachusetts for Dedication to Promoting the Arts in Worcester, inclusion in the Leadership Worcester Class of 2019, and selection as one of Worcester's "Power 50" by the Worcester Business Journal in 2021. Birgit received a Master of Arts in Art History with minors in Mediaeval History and New History from the University of Braunschweig, Germany, later attaining a master's degree in Paintings and Sculpture Conservation from the University of Applied Sciences in Cologne, Germany.

EXPLORE THE EXHIBITION

Taylor Apostol

Shrinking Mass/Spreading Mass 9

Carrara marble, ink, 8" x 15" x 7", 2017, $3,000

"My process begins with memories of my own body, the bodies of others, bits of conversations and advice, architecture and nature. In Shrinking Mass/Spreading Mass 9 I am giving physical form to a lost memory, which is in the process of being segmented and pulled apart. Relying on memory allows room for the sculpture to unravel as I carve. As I build up and scrape away, I am constantly searching for what is lost, what is replaced and what remains the same. By recording these shifts I want to confront the fluid nature of memories and what is to be lost/gained."

Judith freeman Clark

Hollyhock II

transparent watercolor on illustration board, 17.25" x 21.5", 2021, $650

Jean Cummiskey

Mosaic Circle

mixed media mosaic using stained, SICIS, and vitreous glass, Italian millefiori, ceramic and glass beads, costume pin, and glass medallions, 18" diameter, 2021, $1,200

"This piece brings a contemporary approach to the ancient art of mosaic. I intended to create a vibrant example by combining texture and color with a swirling design, common to many ancient mosaics."

Pamela DeJong

The Whole Ball of Wax

encaustic, oil, gold leaf on milled pine, 15" diameter, 2021, $800

"Orbs, spheres, spherules, and rounds are my focus. I gravitate towards creating a circular image. Circles are about rings, hoops, halos, wreaths, spirals, up-welling, down-welling, gyration, whirls and.whorls, orbits, enclosures, encompassing, girding, seasons, the concept of what goes around comes around, family circle, circle of friends, and the cycle of life. Orbs evolved from the idea that I can throw energy. I imagine pitching a ball of fire. The need for healing energy is everywhere. The concept includes healing all aspects of the earth, the oceans, our environment with its flora and fauna, our food and water sources, and especially human health. This is a circular prayer for divine order of the universe."

Prize Winner

Tim Gannon

Untitled

acrylic on canvas, 24" x 18", 2020, $600 (sold)

Juror Comment:

The influence of collage and diversity in the application of color in Timothy Gannon’s Untitled drew the attention of jurors. One even remarked that “it took guts” to feature purple so boldly. Gannon brings together an array of colors and styles to create a captivating post-punk portrait.

john Gintoff

Tentacle

crushed inkjet prints, packing tape, copper tubing, book, 14" x 18" x14", 2020, $2,800

"Although my artwork has always had a photographic base, it has vacillated from 2D photos to installation to sculpture. Marcel Duchamp said that an artist must constantly reinvent himself, and I have taken his words to heart going from series to series or medium to medium. This current body of work is comprised of sculptures actually made from photographs. This series arose from a desire to create something three dimensional out of my two dimensional photos and how to make them free standing. I decided to use multiple images and to use packing tape as the adhesive to bind them together. By denying the traditional precious aspect of the photograph's surface, I freed myself and was able to crush the attached images into a 3D photographic structure that could stand up on its own."

Prize Winner

Meaghan Hardy-Lavoie

(In)Securities

digital inkjet photos, 40 4" x 6" photographs, 2017, NFS

"(in)Securities is a body of work from a period of stagnation, stemming from a fear of putting myself into uncomfortable situations, and significant social anxiety. This project began by photographing friends, expanded to casual acquaintances, and finally complete strangers, as I asked each to come into my home and disrobe in a dark room to be photographed. Tension was created by using a variety of colored bulbs, and a wide-angle lens which brought me within inches from the subject’s face. Not only was it distressing for me to place myself so close within someone else’s personal space, but the subjects were taken off guard and often, visibly uncomfortable, by being in such proximity while in a vulnerable state. The natural effect of these circumstances is evident in each portrait. Not only my insecurities, but the perhaps the subjects’ as well."

Juror comment:

"So personal. So Worcester. So us.” said one juror when looking at Meaghan Hardy-Lavoie’s (In)Securities. This collection of photographs features faces familiar to many at ArtsWorcester, but is a world unto its own. (In)Securities is a carnival of nocturnal colors, a community of subterranean people coated in a technicolor syrup. Hardy-Lavoie disrupts portraiture norms with unique lighting and perspective. In doing so, she builds tension within each face that stares down the viewer.

Garry Harley

PARTICLES RED & YELLOW UNDER A BLACK MOON

digital - archival dye sublimation on metal, 30" x 30", 2017, $1,200

"These work is from a recent series titled FLUIDIZATION. Fluidization is a process where a granular static solid-like state is converted to a dynamic fluid-like state. This process has been used as the inspiration for this series. However, Graham Wallas (The Art of Thought) suggests that the creation process includes preparation, incubation, inspiration, and elaboration. Therefore, this work has also been influenced by the works of Josef Albers, Anuszkiewicz, Birren and others and rests on the foundation set forth in The Principals of Harmony and Contrast of Colors and Their Application to the Arts (1855), by Michel E. Chevreul and Charles Martel. This original application and contemporary visual presentation in this work, is my own personal version of beauty and perfection – this work is from my own experience, capability, efforts and soul. The viewer must bring his or her own emotions to make the final connection and find meaning."

John Hayes-Nikas

Structure/Matrix : Gonfalon BENH

dry pastel, enamel, pencil, ink on Fabriano, 30" x 22", 2019, NFS

Honorable Mention

Wilson Hunt, Jr.

Red, White and Blue Made Magical

acrylic on Yupo, 32" x 32", 2021, $1,200

"Wilson's work is improvised abstract expressionism, akin to the improvisations in modern jazz. It is not preplanned, nor is it mimetic or drawn first and then colored. The first paint strokes suggest others until a strong form emerges."

Wilson Hunt, Jr.

Seeing Red

acrylic on Yupo, 36" x 32", 2017, $1,200

Honorable Mention

Timothy Johnson

Corner

photograph (archival inkjet print), 14" x 14", 2019, $375

Prize Winner

Eric Katzman

Chicken & Cheese

acrylic and graphite on canvas, 48" x 36", 2021, $1,250 (sold)

"My work is informed through the organization of memory processing and meditation. We know personally and scientifically that memory is plastic and easily deformed. This malleability – the conception of self through past experience isn't objective – it's just an amalgamation of narratives that are provisionally subjective. This series is an investigation of organization and prioritization in the internal dialogue of visual inquiry. My work, through impressions and memories, are reflected and developed into fields of interrelated images that recall formal art, street art and the diagrammatic nature of reason. I prune and uplift branching ideas and epitomes, fuse elements and excavate the labyrinthine of form. My mark making is meta abstraction - the gentle unfolding of surface, interplay of organic forms, lines, and hard geometric shapes that utilize a novel syntax to play with nonfunctional visual cues. It is a very nurturing approach – I often use formative memories as starting points then act on the commonality of contemplative permutations. This current work recalls the concepts of generative identity through visual agency."

Juror Comment:

"If there was a visual definition of Now in Technicolor, Eric Katzman’s Chicken & Cheese would be it. Katzman’s provocative and whimsical colors accompany exquisite design and attention to detail. We take pure delight in getting lost in Katzman’s abstractions and palette."

Patti Kelly

Hidden Cave

mixed media collage, 12" x 12", 2021, $250 (sold)

"Painting this piece started when my voice became buried beneath layers of sameness. My work needed to be uncovered and brought to light. I decided to choose three paint colors plus black and white, some paper collage and other mixed media including ink, charcoal and pastels. I began using tools and brushes in a new way. Following the brush strokes as the paint hit the surface, layering colors on top of each other and seeing them interact gave them a new appearance. The colors began to emerge richer in value and texture. Combining the other materials, the pieces were working as a whole."

Claire Lima

The Alchemy Of Traveling Inward

found objects, foraged natural materials, organic and synthetic fibers, 28" x 26" x 8", 2021, $750

"First a connection to a place in nature, wait for that humming feeling. Then a gathering of plants and objects, at once grotesque and enchanting. Next the voyage inward, it’s kind of uncomfortable and very bright. Now it is to be transformed and balanced, it hints of magic and possibility."

Mark Lore

Afternoon by Millers River

oil on canvas, 40" x 30", 2021, $1,900

"As a contemporary landscape painter, my work is a conscious play of mood, light and color, but as a native New Englander, raised and rooted in the diverse landscapes of the area, a painting means so much more. Each location is an encounter with the land, the trees, the water and the atmosphere, which have always given me a sense of connection and order with each changing season. When a location intrigues and inspires me, I will paint scenes into a series using a range of themes, experimenting and searching to learn more about the natural threads that tie the landscape together with complexity, subtlety and more importantly, a balanced dance, blurring the lines between realism and abstraction. I am always searching for new ways to express spatial relationships and perspectives with textured layers of paint, brushwork, gradations, and diffusions of light with a bold and expressive palette."

William Lyons

Food Coupons

acrylic and ink on canvas, 48" x 24", 2020, NFS

"My artwork has always had the theme of my childhood, involving drug abuse and domestic violence. Sharing my experiences of being born cocaine positive, living in poverty, and being exposed to addiction and domestic violence through my paintings helps me to connect to my audience. Painting and mixed media are my passions, focusing on creating autobiographical narratives about my upbringing. I tend to paint dark subject matter with loud playful colors, creating imagery that is almost juvenile. The idea behind painting this way helps connect my work to my memories of my adolescence while also creating an uncomfortable contrast."

Ashley MacLure

Swept

Play-Doh and photocopy transferred drawing, 5" x 5", 2021, $500

"Play-Doh dries and crumples and cracks as it dries. It is a fleeting medium. Each piece is made using Play-Doh accessories where Play-Doh is rolled, squished and ruffled. Drawings are photocopied and then transferred, sometimes painted over using ink. I’m nestling images of my daughter in the relief style sculpted Play-Doh, but over time the Play-Doh fails to hold her just as I will be unable to protect her forever."

Lena McCarthy

Freedom Complex

acrylic on wood panel, 48" x 48", 2020, $7,900

Anne McNevin

Hecho en Mexico

photography, 5" x 7", 2020, $100

Parker Milgram

Sentient Bridge

acrylic, colored pencil, gouache, ink, and oil pastel on watercolor paper, 24" x 16", 2020, $1,000

"This sentient bridge exists within Polarenti, an imaginary world inspired by symptoms of bipolar spectrum disorders. Polarenti’s saturated color palette and spontaneous mark-making was inspired by racing thoughts, elation, and delusions of grandeur associated with mania. Delusions may cause individuals to feel extremely strong or famous to the point of danger due to a less accurate perception of reality. I attempted to reflect delusions through hues much “stronger” than colors which typically exist in earth’s natural environment. A family of sentient street lamps inhabits the pathway of this bridge’s “backbone.” Baby street lamps may wander away from family members, ending up lost within Polarenti’s bizarre and confusing landscape. Within Polarenti also lies Colrab, an arctic depression zone home to black and white slug creatures. Colrab may return innocent baby lamps if found wandering. The desaturated Colrab contrasts the colorful sentient cloud, bridge, and lamp inhabitants."

Abu Mwenye

Street Dance Mdundiko

acrylic on canvas, 36" x 48", 2018, $7,900

"The painting was influenced by Zaramo traditional dance called Mdundiko from Tanzanian. Mdundiko is one of the traditional and ritual dances (ngoma) of the Zaramo people living in the Dar es Salaam area, in Tanzania. Mdundiko dances are associated with weddings and the rites of passage celebrating female puberty. The dance takes place during the golden hour of the day, the warm and gentle feeling of finally setting your spirit free with the expression of dance and the feeling of achievement."

Kat O'Connor

Entrance/Entrance

acrylic on paper, 30" x 22.5", 2021, $2,800

"This piece is about levels and change, creation and distortion. The figure exists under the water, distorted but visible, and a trace remains of its motion through the air and then through the surface of the water in the form of a splash. As the viewer, we can experience both."

Staff Pick

Elizabeth Rennie

All Behind Me

acrylic, enamel, spray paint, rod, plastic rings, fabric, towel, and paper on vinyl liner, 46" x 36", 2021, $1,650

"My artistic practice explores everyday human experiences and emotions, particularly within matters of identity, mental health, and their correlation with societal and individual engagement. There are a variety of ways in which we perceive, engage, and communicate our complex experiences, all of which I seek to document in my work as a type of visual catalog. I examine the relationships between color, material, space, and words, constructing fragments of emotion and internal moments. These moments can represent a second in time, observation of internal thoughts, or a full examination of a previously spoken word or sentence. As a result, I additionally seek to investigate depth and space in order to bridge the divide between what is art and what is the physical world. Regularly, whether due to matters associated with my biracial background, my struggles with mental health, or my social and economic upbringing, I have experienced feelings of displacement and otherness. Through an assortment of materials and media – paint, cardboard, shower rods, t-shirts, picture frames ­– I discover different means to construct and convey my understanding of these subjects. The distinctive fabrics, textures, shapes, marks, all work together to create one interconnected reality, though the structures individually might not appear logical. I interpret these materials and structures as instances of real life, whether literally or figuratively, creating a moment that can be entered and experienced by the individual viewer. These works take on their own level of meaning and associations for the viewer, further adding to the depth and layers of personal narrative."

Emma Rose Roche

Self Portrait

digital print, 12" x 12", 2021, NFS

Ann Rosebrooks

Summer

acrylic on canvas, 20" x 16", 2021, NFS

"One of my series about family with lots of detail and color."

Joseph Sikes

Ancient News Today

acrylic on canvas, 36" × 48", 2020, $2,000

Staff Pick

John Wesley Small

Itch

oil on stretched canvas, 16" x 20", 2020, NFS

Edwin Smith

Kayaks Times Four

digital photograph, 10.5" x 10.5", 2021, $300

"For the last six months I have been creating symmetrical art from photographs."

Hannah Stollberger

Portrait of Jean-Michel Basquiat

oil on glass, 19" x 25", 2020, NFS

Pamela Taylor

Flora

mixed media on paper, 6" x 8", 2021, $500

Honorable Mention

Trevor Toney

Original Flavor

ash veneered Baltic birch with shellac and acrylic paint, 5" x 11", 2021, $500

"My work is about wood, shape, color, how they interact and are enhanced by each other. I enjoy the process of fabricating and veneering the shapes I design to support color as well as the craftsmanship required in such work."

Al Weems

Mellow

photography, 16" x 20", 2021, $650

"Color, almost the bain of my photographic existence. I see color in B&W but for these, no."

Margaret Wild

Primary

acrylic on canvas, 12" x 12", 2021, $250

Julia Witmyer

I'll Keep You Safe No Matter What

digital, 18" x 15", 2021, NFS

"Artificial Intelligence is something that I find both fascinating and terrifying. There are two scenarios that playing out when it comes to AI, one where it takes over the world and end the human race; the other where it helps the human race progress towards a better future. In this piece, AI has taken over everything and has practically destroyed every form of organic matter: all except Spryte, the last of the forest spirits, who found herself being pursued by the DRX (elite AI soldiers) with plans of terminating her. But Aoi, an average soldier bot, and newfound friend would not let that happen, so she helped Spryte escape. With drones on their tail, Aoi charged towards the two DRX Units holding Spryte in hand. Despite safety not being a guarantee, Aoi made this one promise to Spryte, 'I’ll Keep you Safe…No Matter What…'"