February 2015
New Work by the Howard Center Arts Collective
An exhibit of new work from the Howard Center Arts Collective, a group of local artists who receive and provide services through the Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services Branch of the Howard Center. A rich variety of work will be shown, from sketches and paintings to photographs and sculpture. The Howard Center Arts Collective has been meeting for the past two years to discuss their experiences and show their work in local galleries. This will be their fourth show.
new work by Thomas Dunn
March April 2015
In Retreat ~ new work by Julie A. Davis
An exhibition of work created during a recent residency at the Vermont Studio Center, Johnson Vermont
“In Retreat” is a collection of over 25 paintings and works on paper completed while the artist was on retreat at the Vermont Studio Center in Johnson, Vermont. They include a series of 10 works on paper called the “Full Moon Series”. The series is a monochromatic set of works in white, black, and greys that involve imagery based on prophetic dreams with a mystical feel, complemented by florals that evoke romance reminiscent of the roaring twenties.
The “Full Moon Series” is paired with over a dozen individual paintings on canvas. The paintings are often completed in a square format and range from iconic Vermont architecture such as barn-like structures and churches to waterfalls, florals, village scenes and figures. Most of the paintings were approached from memory or from using on-site drawings, with a few selected works completed en plein air. The paintings vary in color palette, medium and level of abstraction. The common link among all the work is an expressionistic style that responds directly to both the inner world of the artist, and the retreat environment.
May June 2015
Opening Reception: Saturday, May 2nd, 6:00-8:00
Radical Empathy: Stephanie Seguino
Radical Empathy is an exploration of issues of race through photography by artist, economist, and professor Stephanie Seguino <http://stephanieseguino.com> . In this work, Seguino is moved by a question posed by philosopher Anthony Kwame Appiah, “What do we owe strangers by virtue of our shared humanity?” Perhaps the single most important debt we owe strangers is our willingness to see and respond to their humanity.
And yet, when it comes to black men, stereotypes serve as blinders that obscure our vision. The images in this exhibit reflect on those stereotypes and the underlying humanity of black men in the artist’s life. They include both faceless and frontal portraits, and serve as an invitation for viewers to reflect on their own projections onto people they may not know but feel compelled to judge.
A reflection on the humanity of black men in Vermont ~ (WCAX interview)
July 9th – September 5th 2015
Opening Reception: Friday, July 31st, 5:00-8:00
Works Both Ways
Works Both Ways is a unique collection of work by free range artists who are also writers.
Sharon Webster + Roger Coleman + Genese Grill + Marian Willmott + Jon Turner + Merche Bautista + Bren Alvarez + Tina Escaja
Works Both Ways works are inspired by both the visual and literary arts within new and classic media.
curated by Sharon Webster
Works Both Ways Slider
a preview
more about the exhibit that work both ways
1.
Marian Willmott exhibits a new series of luminous, richly colored, oil paintings along with evocative excerpts from her poems. Willmott’s work is landscaped based, and begins in what the artist calls “the place of poetry.” Her sensual compositions are a joyful feast for the eye, mind and soul.
2.
Sharon Webster presents a new collection of many-textured, many-layered assemblages that are sometimes a meditation on language as metaphor, and sometimes an exploration of the nature and suggestive qualities of the tools of language.
3.
Jon Turner exhibits two large 2 feet x 4 feet pieces of handmade, hand-designed paper transformed from fibers that were once something else. He also presents one smaller letterpress print. In addition, he may surprise us with something new!
4.
Genese Grill presents “Almandal Grimoire: The Book as Magical Object,” a room-sized illuminated book/portal that consists of ten large panels, 4 by 8 feet each, inscribed with beautiful, hand-painted essays on the history of the book as a magical object – and contemporary ideas about materiality and the virtual world. It is egg-tempera on paper, mounted on panels and bound with wood and fabric.
5
Tina Escaja works in the intersections of poetry, gender and technology. She presents a work in progress: “Poesía LED/LED Poetry” of a series of voice-activated LED poetry and an installation of the first “Poesía robotica/Robot Poem’
6.
Roger Coleman exhibits new and current mixed media paintings. In the artist’s words,“The surface is a build-up of latex slathered on a recycled cabinet door or other surface. After that I start the painting with acrylics. Many influences go into this part of the process. Radio. Music. Books. Newspapers. Journals. Bird song. Rain, snow telephone interruptions. Lots of things are open. And I use whatever to keep me going.”
7.
Merche Bautista presents new highly personal, hand-stitched fabric art imbued with sensual imagery that reflects the magic and richness of her adopted home in Mexico.
8.
Bren Alvarez revisits Snapshot ~ a powerful installation of black & white portraits of a dozen immigrants whose trajectories transcended diverse international borders in the journey toward home in the Burlington community. A bilingual book is in progress along with an abstract work that reflects hope for more permeable and humane borders than those that currently divide our planet.
contact Sharon for more information
and enjoy these works
Apologia: Why Do We Write? – Genese Grill
September ArtHop + October 2015
Beasts and Other Reflections from QUEBEC + VERMONT
new work by Anne Massicotte (Quebec) and Gerald K. Stoner (Vermont)
Un Bestiaire á Notre Image A Bestiary in Our Image ~ Masks and Paintings by Anne Massicotte
Observations in Abstraction ~ Steel Sculpture by Gerald K. Stoner
opening reception during the ArtHop
November December 2015
opening Reception Saturday, December 12, 6 to 9 pm
beginnings
This show exhibits the thesis work of three recent graduates from the RISD (Rhode Island School of Design) Jacob Sienkiewycz, Abigail Stoner, and Cameron Breck, whose investigations pull from shared beginnings in Vermont and their individual studies. Through their work they ask the question: how do the traditional ways of making and thinking fit into the modern world?

Abby Stoner
Jacob Sienkiewycz: By demonstrating the force that nature still holds over humans, Jacob is showing a return to an idealized past; one in which human sprawl and needs have not extended too far. It represents a past where people have not destroyed over half of the world’s forests. A time when our fish stocking programs haven’t cross-contaminated species out of existence. It is a pure, natural state. There is a balance of power in which nature controls. Most in the industrialized world lack a fear of nature. They feel too safe and secure in their homes and cities. This work shows that nature can still produce fear in people. It has a grasp on humans and it will not let go.
Cameron Breck: Wood spans between the human realm and the natural world. Trees are organic, living, and intelligent; while human ingenuity can transform the material of trees (wood) into many things, much is lost from the material’s original state. By understanding trees, one can better understand wood, and in turn better understand how to build with it. This body of work is part of a continual investigation and pursuit in understanding material, structure, form, and space all in relation to our human experience. Cameron Breck
Abigail Stoner:
We need stories, as much as the story needs us, the body, to tell of it,
the story is how we exist, a means to express
this is how we give ourselves, pulling out what is in,
here, giving ourselves, sharing,
projecting, sounding.
connecting us, grounding us.
We are held in the world by stories,
we too dance between the known and the unknown.
a beautiful place to be,
there is space here,
But, this has been lost somewhere, this sounding.
There is this obsession with the image,
the perspective, in lines and dots floating in space,
the eye has been overworked, and the hands and the ears,
the nose, the mouth, the body has been forgotten.
This is a project of past, a studying of an archaic part of our being, lost.
the resuscitation of story, to fill the space with story.
JANUARY + FEBRUARY 2016
The Road to Duchity
a photo essay by Robin Katrick
Bicycle
The Road to Duchity captures my time working in community development in rural Haiti.
My goal was to show a side to Haiti that wasn’t often portrayed in the media following the earthquake.
The stories that these photos tell are stories of happiness, community, strength, and hope.
Some of my photos also tell a story of Vermont Haiti Project – a local organization working to bring education, clean water, and other community based projects to Haiti.
Puerto Cabezas:
photos, poems & insights by Dan Higgins
Remigio & Tiger
With this show I hope to introduce a new group of Vermonters to Puerto Cabezas, Burlington’s sister city on the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua.
The Burlington/ Puerto Cabezas relationship was initiated by the Burlington city counsel in 1984.
What we discovered was an extraordinary region whose history and cultures were vastly different from the predominantly Spanish side of Nicaragua.
Many of my photographs show “Port” in those most ordinary locations where people gather, while others highlight poets, artists, and musicians whose works provide unique insights into the character of the place.
The sister city program invites residents of Burlington to connect with their Nicaraguan counterparts.
I’d like viewers from this show to find that invitation irresistible.
For more information, www.uvm.edu/sistercity <http://www.uvm.edu/sistercity>
Video interview with Dan Higgins at FLYNNDOG in January 2016 by Meghan O’Rourke
January 5 – February 26
gala opening reception
Friday, January 22nd 5:30 – 8:00
March 2016
Impermanence, sculpture and drawings by Margaret Jacobs and Justin O’Rourke

Opening Gala Friday, March 18th 6-8pm
Exhibit March 1 thru April 30