New Directions

Creating in Chaotic Times

Dec. 1, 2021 - Jan. 3, 2022

Curated by Max Payne 

Featuring works by Kim Blodgett,  Linda Bond, Jared Green, Jill Goldman-Callahan and Sally Lee

The Umbrella Art Gallery is pleased to present the work of five new resident studio artists, along with a selection of pieces created by the outstanding faculty of The Umbrella Ceramics Studio.

After a year and a half in thrall to COVID—classes cancelled or on retreat to Zoom, theater closed, public access to our building restricted to staff or resident artists only—we are starting to come back from our islands of exile to start the work of beginning again. In our time away, much has changed and we have all been affected by the ravages of COVID as well as the chaos and ferment that has bubbled up, both in our country and in the world, after being ignored for so long. This is the way change happens. How we process this moment is how we will find the way to go on.

The work in this show is at once fragile and strong. It surprises the eye with the intricate nature of its making, whether large or small, and the message here couldn’t be stronger: PAY ATTENTION. Small gestures can become large acts when presented in community, though each piece can stand alone, and every part has a place in the ever-changing practice of making, where process is more than a word. It is the fragile art of beginning, not really knowing how things will proceed, and then jumping in anyway and returning each day; struggling some days, but on others, immersed in the purest kind of joy, the joy of creation. There is hope here and also great beauty. We invite you to spend some time in our gallery, looking closely and immersing yourself in a glimpse of things to come. This is where we begin again.

Fragile,
but strong;
born in the chaos that swirls around us;
pieces of a map we thought we knew, now torn apart
by winds of change, rearrange themselves
like shells on a moonlit beach;
pieces of beauty,
no glimpse of light.
Darkness and no sight of land.
We must find a new direction.
The door to before is closed and we cannot go back.
Apathy and pain lie there.
The future is in our hands.
Fragile, but strong,
born in the chaos that surrounds us,
we stand for beauty,
and, above all,
love.

Poem by
Max Payne
Studio Artist at The Umbrella and Curator of the New Directions exhibition

Be sure to also check out Off the Wall 2021!