Featured Artist: Bob Lafond

We have always been pleased to represent Bob Lafond's energetic pastel paintings and charcoal drawings. However, as a part of "Four Seasons", we will be showing a selection of his recent oil paintings for the first time. These paintings teeter on the balance between representation and abstraction, and, as is true of all Bob's work, blur the distinction between working from life versus reference. Mud season, the ultimate inbetween time in New England, has an apt interpreter in these paintings.

Open all winter!

Winter, Downtown North Adams by Thor Wickstrom

Due to the generosity of a kind landlord, studio21south will maintain its downtown storefront all through the winter months!  Check in with us here and on facebook for news + shows through the winter and mud season...which will be here before we all know it!

Our first show, "Four Seasons" will open December 15th, featuring great work from our gallery artists.  Look for our exciting show "Cabinet of Curiosities" opening March 2nd.  (..and if you're an artist and know what we mean by that, we'll be accepting open submissions for the first time. Email us for info, or wait for the announcement.)

Featured Artist: Karen Walter

Karen Walter is the only abstract artist currently showing at studio21south.  We are lucky to be showing an impressive installation of 150 of Karen’s small works on paper in "Black and White (More or Less)"

Karen lives in Boston where she works in paper conservation at Harvard, but she comes to the Berkshires to draw at North Adams' Natural Bridge State Park, whose rock formations and rushing water influence her multi-layered abstractions.

Karen constantly experiments with new media and compositions.  Her playful approach defines her style and makes each one of her pieces truly singular.  Layers of mediums (which may include watercolor, egg tempera, graphite, and charcoal), as well as her subtle use of color, lend depth and mystery to her art.

It took two days for Karen to assemble her installation in the gallery, composing it so that the individual works of art are also striking altogether.  The pleasure of Karen's work really comes alive by spending some time with it, and following the connecting thread that leads from one piece to the next, and back again to nature.

Artists Reception, Sat. 8-4, 3-6pm

Eric March, "Mac House and Cassiopeia"

A reception for the artists of "Black and White (more or less)" will be held at the gallery at 40 Eagle St., North Adams.

"Black and White (more or less)" features prints, paintings, and drawings by Frank Curran, Bob Lafond, Eric March, Karen Walter, and Thor Wickstrom.

Views of an installation

We had a great time this week hosting Karen Walter as she installed 150 (that's right, one-hundred-and-fifty) fantastic drawings for "Black and White (more or less)" opening on 7.26.12.  Each drawing has it's own sense of power, but watching them all come together on the art gallery walls was really something special. A Boston-based artist, her abstract drawings are largely based on her observations of the tidepools and rock formations at Natural Bridge in North Adams.

Closeup of "Nature, Unbounded"

The finished installation in the gallery

Black & White (more or less) opens Thurs., 7.26

Black and White (more or less) at studio21south

Opens July 26th, Artists' Reception 3-6pm

Thor Wickstrom, "Jacks on Eagle Street"

Featuring paintings, drawings, and prints in a generally, if not exclusively, monochrome mood.  Featuring Karen Walter's ambitious installation from her ongoing "Nature Unbounded" project, and Bob Lafond's vibrant Brooklyn streetscapes.  The show also features a survey of Frank Curran's strong, graphic prints of interiors, industrial landscapes, and rock formations that verge on abstraction.  We are also pleased to present a selection of Eric March's work, including paintings completed at his residencies in the Hudson Valley and Provincetown.

Karen Walter, selection from "Nature, Unbounded"

Eagle St. Beach Party this Friday!

Ever been to a beachfront art gallery in the middle of a city?  Us, neither.  North Adams' annual Eagle Street beach party is this Friday, July 13th, 3:30 to 6:30, followed by a margarita party / Mexican Fiesta from 7-10 pm. 

Summer 2012, opening Thursday, June 28!

Eric March, "The Destruction of the Vinegar Hill Power Plant"

Sam Goodsell, "Threshold"

All the awesome contemporary realist art you could hope for is now at a fabulous historic storefront near you. (as long as you happen to be near downtown North Adams, that is).  Never made it out to see our art space at the Beaver Mill?  Now we've made it easy for you.  Already a fan from our loft space, but you missed us all winter?  Us too.  Please come visit the newest little art gallery in downtown North Adams.

Bob Lafond, "Ghost Plane"

Last two days for "Re/Imaging New York"!

"Cement Park, the Bronx" Valeri Larko

The gallery will be open Sunday, 9/5 and Monday, Labor Day, 9/6.   Last chance to see "Re/Imaging New York", featuring paintings and drawings by Jaye Fox, Valeri Larko, Eric March and Thor Wickstrom.

"Queens Boulevard" Eric March

one painting's journey from a Brooklyn street to a North Adams gallery

One thing the painters in "Re/Imaging New York" (and, come to think of it, all of our other shows...) have in common is a tendency to paint on site. Along the way, they occasionally meet interesting people, mostly forklift drivers. Last week, however, Jaye Fox was working on a late addition to the gallery, and a Williamsburg art blogger snapped a shot of the infant piece, here, re-posted entirely without permission from it's original source at http://hragv.tumblr.com/post/977539226 : The final piece, "Landmark",  is the iconic Russian Orthodox church that presides over this little corner of Brooklyn.

It's conceived as a wry companion piece to "What Smell?", of the digester eggs at the Greenpoint sewage treatment plant, featured in an earlier post. Here's an installation shot of the two together:

Re/Imaging New York, open through September 6, 2010

We're pleased that the show has been so well-received!  Come visit us 12-5 on Saturdays, 10-1 on Sundays, or anytime by appointment or chance.

"Re/Imaging New York" Opening Today, 7/31, from 3-7!

Contemporary realism by Valeri Larko, Eric March, Jaye Fox and Thor Wickstrom.  Exploring the fringes of New York City.  Same place as always, 189 Beaver St. a.k.a. Route 8, North Adams. Come see! 

Thor Wickstrom "Big Sky Country"

Jaye Fox, "What Smell?"

Summer Schedule

We are pleased to announce the summer schedule for studio21south. Note our Tanglewood Season hours: Sat.; 1-5, Sun., 10am-1pm, most weekdays by appointment or by chance.  Longer hours will be posted for Solid Sound Aug. 13-15, and other MassMoCA events. Please check back or follow our feed & facebook page for more details about each of these exciting shows!


"Common Places" June 26-July 25th:

Local and regional artists engaged in the longstanding artistic tradition of finding visual poetry in the everyday. We are especially pleased to introduce two new gallery artists, Julia Morgan-Leamon and Robert Henri Lafond*.     

Julia Morgan-Leamon, "Play Station"

Opening June 26th, 3-7pm

Bob Lafond, "Field, Luce Road, Williamstown"

*actually, Bob's quite an unpretentious fellow, but we can't resist spelling out his whole name.

"Re/Imaging New York" July 31-September 6
Opening: July 31, 3-7pm

New York City has long been a rich source of inspiration for artists, but as artists move their homes and studios deeper into the outer boroughs, representations of the City as subject also changes. Years from now, will the soaring train trestles of South Brooklyn and the neon billboard jumble of Queens appear as iconic as the Manhattan skyline?  Featuring Eric March, Jaye Fox, Thor Wickstrom, and other artists to be named later. Berkshire landscapes will also be on view in the rear gallery.

Jaye Fox, "Sidewalk's End"

Spring break!

studio21south is on temporary hiatus between shows.  Look for regular gallery hours to resume with "Spring Thaw" in early May.  Our summer shows will be "Common Places", showcasing interiors and landscapes, opening June 26th, and "Re/Imaging New York", featuring emerging icons of "New Art City", opening July 31st.  Enjoy your spring, and see you soon!

comin' right up..."The SNOW SHOW"

Opening Friday and Saturday night!

February 12 to March 14:  "The Snow Show", Featuring works either relating to, or in direct defiance of, the season at hand.

Opening reception:  Saturday, February 13, 6-9pm.
(Note: if you're headed to the Clark reception that same evening, stop by afterwards! We'll still be here!)

Hours:
Sat.-Sun. (plus Presidents Day, Mon. 2/15) noon-4pm,
Friday evening cocktail hours, 6-9pm
Or by appointment or by chance.

Featured artists include Frank Bruckmann, Frank Curran, Karen Kane, Sylvie Kantorovitz, John Leavey, Eric March, Eric Michelson, Bobbie Puttrich, Karen Walter, Rodney Wilkinson, and Thor Wickstrom.

comin' right up... "THE SNOW SHOW"!

February 12 to March 14:  "The Snow Show", Featuring works either relating to, or in direct defiance of, the season at hand. Opening night:  Saturday, February 13, 6-9pm.  Hours, Sat-Sun. (plus Presidents Day, Mon. 2/15) noon-4pm, plus cocktail hour, every Friday night! Or by appointment or by chance.

Participating artists will include Frank Bruckmann, Frank Curran, Erich March, Sylvie Kantorovitz, Bobbie Puttrich, Karen Walter, Thor Wickstrom, and Rodney Wilkinson