Artwork on display for the Renaissance exhibit currently on display at Village Arts. Courtesy photo
Artwork on display for the Renaissance exhibit currently on display at Village Arts. Courtesy photo
Artwork on display for the Renaissance exhibit currently on display at Village Arts. Courtesy photo
BY KEN NEBEL
Village Arts
Come celebrate the Renaissance at Village Arts through the end of April with over 30 pieces of artwork exploring the idea of re-birth! It’s been just over 500 years since artists Michelangelo and Raphael bookended an era known as the great cultural rebirth and 100 years since the heart of the Harlem Renaissance. Spring is the perfect season to make a new start or gain inspiration from past and artists from across the region have done just that in a varied and compelling group exhibit with subject matter that ranges from landscape and portraiture to the abstract and mythical.
Two common themes rise to the top in the interpretations that artists brought to this show, one of marking new starts and another in looking to the stories of the past as a launching pad for new work. Images of old world scenes and feelings are prevalent in Sue Ellen’s “Renaissance Revisited collage, John Sarracino’s photography of Venice, and Shelly Riebe’s sacred structures from around the Mediterranean. Bonnie Dickman’s oil painting of a cellar brings light into forgotten spaces and Cece Stewart’s historically inspired needlepoint series bring to life bygone days. Carole Rinard’s quilted roses spin a tale of her family history.
Liz Aicher’s watercolors bridge themes as they celebrate the lasting nature of both the man made returning to nature and nature’s unexpected surprises. A riot of embroidered, photographed, painted, knitted, and embroidered blooms celebrate the cycle of birth and rebirth and reference different eras of peoples fascination with flower symbolism.
Eileen Patterson’s “New Day” collage synthesizes the entirety of the exhibit as a vivid green and rust colored world seemingly merges with and emerges from darkness. The emergence of light from darkness carries through in Phyllis Hamrick’s colored pencil Refraction series and Ann Greene’s beaded “The Phoenix Rises”.
Village Arts hopes that the Renaissance exhibit will serve to inspire artists and visitors alike, and invites everyone to vote for the Viewer’s Choice award before May 1st!
All are also invited to participate in Village Arts’ next show, “Just Deserts”, which celebrates the hidden wonders that we’re so familiar with in the wild (and sunny) Southwest! For more Village Arts information, check out www.villageartsframing.com and social media.
Village Arts, located at 216 DP Road in Los Alamos, is open Monday through Friday from 9 AM-4 PM and Saturdays from 10 AM-4 PM and exists to inspire and help realize all your visual art needs.
Artwork on display for the Renaissance exhibit currently on display at Village Arts. Courtesy photo
Artwork on display for the Renaissance exhibit currently on display at Village Arts. Courtesy photo
Artwork on display for the Renaissance exhibit currently on display at Village Arts. Courtesy photo