THE 2023 HOLYOKE COMMUNITY COLLEGE 

STUDENT ART EXHIBITION

April 11 - May 4th

GALA RECEPTION: Thurs. April 13th 7 - 9 pm

Awards Announced at 8pm 

-Exhibition continues from the Taber Art Gallery to the Fine and Performing Arts 3rd floor (C)Bldg, and to Media Arts on the 3rd floor Campus Center 

File Image: Detail, a collaborative installation by Felice Caivano’s 3-D Design Students

On display will be a variety of works in a wide range of mediums by students of the HCC Visual Art Department faculty which includes: Lahri Bond, Felice Caivano, John Calhoun, Kelly Clare, Tara Conant, William Devine, Benj Gleeksman, Chris Lizon, and Margie Rothermich

The Taber Art Gallery is open to the public and is 

located through the HCC Library lobby in the Donahue Bldg.

HOURS: Mon. - Thurs. 10am - 5pm,  during regular school sessions

 

Upward & Onward Ends this Friday 3/3/23

Gallery hours will be from 10:00am till 4:00pm with an 

IMPROMPTU GALLERY TALK at 3:00

All are Welcome!

Attending artists, and those who purchased art, may remove their work at 4pm (not mandatory)

 

UPWARD and ONWARD

A Farewell Art Installation 

This is my big goodbye, my love letter, my thank you note to the folks and cosmic forces that swirled around and got me here. It has been an honor and a privilege to be able to manage the HCC gallery programs (which began for me in 1996) and in particular the Taber Gallery from its very beginnings in 1999. For my final exhibition, “Upward and Onward,” I invited friends, family and colleagues to contribute their art or work from their collections and join in this exhibition celebration. I left it pretty open ended as to what they could submit: using any traditional media, old work, new work, and/or work in their personal collections. I sent over 100 email invitations and received about 40 responses. I also brought in works from my personal collection as well as from the college, and tossed in a couple of my own paintings. Once the works were all delivered, I went to work creating an installation with this wide variety of submissions. My goal was to include everything - which was almost accomplished. There is a whole art to the installation process. It’s much like creating a collage. One needs to find a way to bring companionship to dispirit works, to give the entire space a sense of flow, and though quite crowded, give a sense of the individual pieces ability to stand alone as well as talk nicely with each other. The only preplanned part of this installation was requesting the photographs of people kissing to pepper throughout the gallery. Because, well, like I said, this is a love letter. 

xo,

Amy

 

DOUBLE YOUR PLEASURE

-two shows by 

Maryanne Benns 

Accessories Sold Separately

and

Curiosities From the Anthropocene and Yonder 

Three Steps to Success, earthenware, porcelain, & found object, 2022, 12 “ x 10 ”

Sept. 26 through Nov. 10, 2022

HELD OVER THROUGH NOV. 30th!!!

Artist Reception Thurs. Oct 6, 4:30 - 6:30PM

With an informal gallery talk at 5:30

HRS: Mon. - Thurs. 10am - 5pm (during regular school sessions) 

Mitosis (detail)  earthenware and encaustic 7” x 4”

Accessories Sold Separately 

If toys are used to instruct children on future expectations, these sculptures- part action figure, part mythologic creature and 100 percent woman- are the dolls I wish I had to be better prepared for the real world. 

 

Curiosities From The Anthropocene And Yonder 

An immersive cabinet of curiosities, some tangible, some fantastical, reflecting my perceptions on what it means to be human, trying to fit in the orderly natural system, within the context of our geologic time and after.

-----------------------------------

 

Known primarily for her surrealist ceramic sculpture Maryanne Benns uses art to represent her personal visions and unique observations of the world.  For nearly two decades she has been studying and exploring the endless creative possibilities of clay, and for the past seven years she has been sharing that knowledge at senior centers, on line and studios around the Pioneer Valley.  Her work has been shown in  galleries, museums and hardware stores east of the Mississippi.   An alumnus of Holyoke Community College She credits her extensive time in the Visual Arts Department as the most transformative and important period in her life.  You can see more of her work on her website at Maryannebenns.com or at her studio at Papercity studios in Holyoke Ma.

 

Call to Artists who Studied with Alix Hegeler 

Photo credit: Lourdes Lebron

The Bat Cave and Beyond

You are invited to participate in “The Bat Cave and Beyond,” an exhibition honoring the memory of beloved artist and teacher Alix Hegeler who passed last October after a brief battle with cancer. The Taber Gallery is accepting your submission of artworks that have been influenced by Alix, and/or created while you studied with her.  

Art works in all media will be accepted. You may submit up to three pieces of art. Art work should be ready to hang. Though we will try to include all submissions, space is limited, so our decisions will ultimately depend on the overall number of artworks received.

EXHIBITION CALENDAR: 

Monday April 4th and Wed, April 6th from 10:00AM to 5:00PM:  DELIVER ARTWORK to the Taber Art Gallery. Enter through the Campus Library in the Donahue Building.  Work must be delivered and picked up in person. 

If you are living out of town and unable to deliver work in person, please email Amy Johnquest ASAP at: ajohnquest@hcc.edu to discuss possible options.

April 18 through May 9th - The exhibition will be open to the public during regular gallery hours.

Thursday April 28 - RECEPTION and celebration of Alix Hegeler.

Tues. May 10 and Wed. May 11, 10am - 5:00pm - PICK UP ARTWORK -All work must be picked up in person. 

HELP! We are trying to reach as many folks as possible. After thirty five years of teaching art at HCC, Alix influenced a countless number of  students.  Please help spread the word and forward this invitation to anyone you may know who worked with Alix over the years. 

 

PAGES

Paintings by 

Frank Cressotti 

Jan. 31st - March 10, 2022

HELD OVER through March 24th!

Gallery talk - Thursday Feb. 17, 9:30am

Hours: Mon - Thurs. 10am-5pm (during regular school sessions)

COVID protocols are in place https://www.hcc.edu/about/covid-19/visitors

Artist’s Statement

Several years ago I was making mostly figurative paintings. A regular feature of the painting process involved the use of newspaper as a blotting agent. The newspaper pages used for blotting were saved and re-used. Over time I found I had several stacks of blotting paper. These pages became interesting in themselves as painted surfaces. I discovered I liked the way the newspaper accepted the paint. I began to work with these pages, expecting that they had possibilities in a painterly direction. I liked the idea that their visual impact resulted purely as a function of the painting process. I tried to keep the structure of the painting simple. The idea was to let the paintings develop on their own as much as possible, with me driving the action. The paint would take care of itself. My responsibilities would be to stay busy with the working process, and pay attention to the moment by moment changes on the painting surface. I selected a few simple formats, without trying to premise specific resolutions. Periodically I would review the many pages that had resulted from this activity. I would occasionally select a page that seemed to have a certain presence. It was almost always a surprise to discover such a page. Since this was a new experience, I felt I was always trying to catch up with the pages. I had to learn a new aesthetic.

The more I handled the pages the more I found myself aware of the material nature of each page. The paper was delicate, flexible, and light weight. I was used to working with larger stretched canvases, or  heavy paper mounted on large drawing boards. Just moving them around was becoming a physical struggle, especially as I was working in a confined space. But, the pages were worked freely, without being stretched. I could proceed from page to page easily. The only practical problem was finding enough flat space for them to dry between applications of paint. I had to use floor space in the house away from the studio.

The flatness of the picture plain was a focal point of studying painting in the sixties. I had taught that principle, and I firmly believed in it. But, with repeated handling of the pages I realized the fact of flatness. I further realized that no matter how much effort I made per page, there was only a skin of paint separating the viewer from the paper surface. Another reality was the newspaper, itself. I never looked for content or narrative in the paintings, but I was constantly engaged with the print copy: news, sports, advertizements, obituaries, recipes, graphics.  I could not escape the fact that my personal reality as a painter was connected in some way with the reality of the news. And, the news was people.

The paintings themselves would always be about the process that produced them. But, I could not ignore my place in the community.

 On Campus at the Taber!

Cosmology of the Body:  

Paintings and Drawings by 

Anna Bayles Arthur

Sept. 20 through Dec. 9, 2021

Current Hours: Mon. - Thurs. 10am - 5pm (during regular school sessions) 

Making art in this historical moment:

    Within the context of a global pandemic, state-sponsored terror, climate catastrophe, corporate coup's, and the looming spectacle of mass destruction, I am perpetually questioning the utility of art. We live in a media-saturated culture, are daily bombarded by images, sounds, symbols, and stories.  Yet somehow, this ancient drive to create remains, the impulse to channel whatever it is, and to reveal it to the world.  Just as our ancestors documented their humanity on the walls of a cave, so we continue, despite these looming questions, to manifest something where once there was nothing.  This reckoning for the artist is life-long and can only be accomplished, I think, by the perpetual embrace of mystery.  Within this reckoning and this embrace, I have found not so much a rational explanation for my pursuit as an artist, but rather a new faith in the calling.  And given the alarming historical context within which I am called as an artist, I can only define this work as the thing in my life that most approximates prayer.   

About the work:

    From the time that my tiny hand could grip a cheap, #2 pencil, I have been compelled to the blank page.  Pieces of cardboard from a discarded package, the back side of the old, green and white striped computer paper, all of it held so much allure.  The blank page was full of possibility, a window through  which the child could invent her world.

    Through a lifetime practice of image-making, a unique visual vocabulary has developed.  The process has always been highly intuitive, a playful tug between figure and ground.  Layers of transparent pigments become the atmosphere through which forms float or sit, emerge or disintegrate.  There is an explicit organicism that is both familiar and unfamiliar: biology, landscape, things mechanical, parts of composite bodies.  These constructed relationships reveal narratives that echo the drama of our human experience and the intricate movements of the natural world.  Each painting is a glimpse into a contained world, a microcosmic surrogate for all of the mystery that is a body, a system, an environment.

    Through a meditative process of delving within, the paintings become landscapes of memory, dream, and invention – a manifestation of all that this body contains:  primordial ocean worlds,  utilitarian objects, symbols of our hands' work: chairs, tables, architecture; suggestions of all manner of biological movements, the ceaseless horizon, the depths of the human eye.  I go back for the child with her tiny hands and fascination with fantasy, terror, things beautiful and other-worldly. Grief and longing can likely be found in each painting, as well as the inescapable tug of one's own mortality.  How does it all relate?  Where do all of these things exist within us; how might we chose to access them?  Are there points of intersection within our individual bodies and between us, both as a species and as an interconnected part of the living pulse of the planet?  It is here that an intimation of the meaning in this image-making ritual is revealed.  All that came before, each isolated event that built us, continues to move within, rippling into the now and the yet-to-come.  

Gallery note:

Though we encourage you to experience this exhibition live, Anna's work may be viewed on line at: 

https://www.taberartgallery-holyokecommunitycollege.com

 The 2021 HCC Student Art Show!

check it out at:
https://www.taberartgallery-holyokecommunitycollege.com/2021-hcc-student-art-show

 

Announcing the 2021 HCC Visual Art Faculty Exhibition 

Holyoke Community College is fortunate to have a rich variety of highly creative and dedicated visual art faculty members. This virtual exhibition features up to 5 selections from each contributing (full & part-time) faculty member.  

Enjoy!

https://www.taberartgallery-holyokecommunitycollege.com/2021-hcc-faculty-exhibition

Contributing faculty members include:

Alix Hegeler

Benj Gleeksman

Bill Devine

Christopher Willingham

Cynthia Ludlam

Douglas Breault

Felice Caivano

Joe Saphire

John Calhoun

Lahri Bond

Margie Rothermich

Tara Conant

Vance Chatel

While we look forward to a time when we can once again safely exhibit on campus, this fabulous selection of work will whet your appetite for for the live and in-person faculty show coming to the Taber Gallery in 2022.   

Taber Virtual Gallery Site

For the latest at the HCC Taber Art Gallery, Please visit our new virtual gallery site at:

https://www.taberartgallery-holyokecommunitycollege.com

currently showing...

Anna Bayles Arthur:  
Cosmology of the Body: Paintings and Drawings, 2017-2020

2020 Virtual Student Art Exhibition

YOU ARE INVITED

to the 2020 Holyoke Community College

virtual

STUDENT ART EXHIBITION

to be launched at noon on Thursday April 30th at:

2020hccstudentartexhibition.blogspot.com

Poster Design by Sarah Riffenburg

Stay Tuned...

The Show Must Go On!

The 2020 HCC Student Art Exhibition will soon be available on-line. Enjoy the exhibition from the comfort and safety of your home. We are shooting to launch by the end of April. 

Make art and be careful out there! 

Kelly Popoff

At Home with Our Histories

 Doll Collection, detail, oil on panel, 15 x 12”  2019

Feb. 24 thru March 26, 2020

Gallery Talk Wed. March 4th, 8:30am

Hrs: Mon. - Thurs. 9am - 6pm during regular school sessions, or by appointment. 

At Home with Our Histories is a series of work that examines images of Americana: doll collections, gun collections, antique furniture, yearbooks, toys, etc. Perhaps as an instinctive response to try to make sense of our current culture by looking back. Or maybe, to find connections that may explain why our history seems so present and unresolved. This series is a reflection of my own, personal histories and a societal, American history. Through my work, I acknowledge that the social problems of today are deeply rooted in our past. Through this dialog with history, I hope to contribute to the redirection of social, psychological and spiritual aspects of the future.

For Posterity

FOR POSTERITY

Vintage Posters from the Collections of 

Juan Vazquez and Ted Eiseman

Ringling Bros. Rhino Poster, 1945, signed Bill Baily, 116.5 x 79.5”

Jan. 27th through Feb. 13th

HOURS: Mon. - Thurs. 8am - 6pm 

during regular school sessions 

The Taber Gallery is kicking off the Spring semester with a pop-up exhibition of vintage posters from the collection of Ted Eiseman and Juan Vazquez. 

Juan Vazquez is a retired educator and longtime musician from Northampton, Mass. He has been collecting poster art for over 40 years. Ted Eiseman a visual artist, has been the proprietor of Funny Face Poster Restorations in Haydenville, Mass for 25 years. The two met about 4 years ago when Vazquez approached Eiseman about restoring some of the posters in his collection. The two hit it off and have since been working together on music projects and sharing their interest in vintage posters.

Some of this collection was shown at the Anchor House of Artists last year. 

Vintage posters are a collectable art form that is available to almost everyone. Values vary but even very rare or collectible posters can be found in the $400.00 to $2,000.00 range. A poster is considered vintage if it is at least twenty-five years old and is an original advertising print.

Although printed public advertisements can be traced to the 15th century, the poster as it is understood today did not emerge until around 1860, given impetus by the invention of lithography, which allowed brilliantly colored posters to be produced cheaply and easily. Many of the poster artists went uncredited and remain anonymous, but there’s a cadre of well-known poster artists as well. 

Early on posters were printed using a complicated process of stone or plate lithography but over time other printing techniques (photolithography, woodblocks, silkscreens, photo-offset) were used.

Because vintage posters were generally printed on low quality papers it’s important to preserve and protect them. In order to do this they are first bathed and then mounted on an archival paper which is pasted to linen. After that they may be restored or repaired. Ted Eiseman is a professional poster conservationist and in addition to linden backing the posters on display here, in some cases may have also touched up areas by matching paints, repairing tears or removing stains. It is unusual to find a pristine antique poster and collectors often need to have these repairs done.

The posters in this exhibition reflect each of the collectors thematic interests and tastes. 

FOUND

three artist’s unique transformations of found objects  

* Nan Fleming * Adam Mulcahy * Mark Brown

Dec. 2 - Dec. 19th

Reception: Thursday Dec. 19th, 4pm - 6pm

(with informal gallery Q & A, plus a cash & carry event)

Gallery hours: Mon. - Thurs. 10AM - 5PM During regular school sessions

Nan Fleming

Artist’s Statement

I discovered metal as an art form while at UMASS in 1992. Always a hoarder of the discarded and used, I was drawn to the shapes and patinas of the old rusty bits and pieces more than the clean shiny sheets of new metal available in the foundry.  Manipulating a shape with heat continues to be pure magic for me.

For Found I have brought together some older pieces and more recent ones to explore how my use of materials have shifted.  Paper has slowly become an important element in my work and learning to weave and incorporate wire has become increasingly interesting to me.

—

Adam Mulcahy

Artist Statement

For this show I focused on work that included pieces found in the local area. As a lifelong Holyoke resident and history fanatic I am fascinated by the immediate area surrounding the HCC campus. My art has always showcased that love of all things old and forgotten. Walking in the woods on a hunt for art supplies is a new adventure every time. As a student here I would spend time between classes walking the abandoned trolley tracks. Several pieces in this show came from the ruins of an 1800's cider mill located nearby. Other sculptures include parts found in fields that have long since returned to forest. Some of my shadowbox assemblages contain parts from Mountain Park, a place I went as a child. Other works include my photography of abandoned buildings in the area. I am fascinated by the histories of the individual parts and how they fit together. The parts often lead me to the final direction that the art takes. Sometimes I feel as though I am merely along for the ride as the pieces dictate where they want to be. 

__

Mark Brown 

Artist Statement

My current work derives inspiration from the work of 20^th century master Paul Klee and from traditional ethnographic artwork, especially African masks. These collaged pieces are limited in their color palate. I allow the character of the objects to dominate the surfaces and the integration of disparate materials is subtle and effective. Quirky and humorous, the characters display an inventive use of form and structure as well as a playful take on conventional portraits.  

DECONSTRUCTING ROY LICHTENSTEIN

Installation by 

David Barsalou

Oct. 10 thru Nov. 21, 2019

Reception Thurs. Oct. 17, 4:30 - 6:30pm

The Taber Art Gallery is open to the public and 

located through the HCC Campus Library lobby 

in the Donahue Bldg. 

Hours: Mon. - Thurs. 10am - 5pm during regular school sessions, or by appointment. For more info visit:  

http://thetaberartgallery.blogspot.com, or call: (413)552-2614

Artists Statement – David Barsalou MFA

Deconstructing Roy Lichtenstein is an extensive,

internationally recognized art history research project.

It began in 1979 while a student at Hartford Art School.

Presented in large-scale digital format, this exhibition

presents a comparative analysis of Pop Artist Roy

Lichtenstein's paintings with the original source images he

copied from 1960's comic books... Focusing exclusively on

Lichtenstein's use of 'Love and Romance' imagery from

1961 to 1965. Deconstructing Lichtenstein recognizes the

numerous artists Lichtenstein swiped without giving

proper credit or compensation. While Roy Lichtenstein

became rich and famous, the original comic book artists he

ripped-off received nothing.

Former long-time visual arts educator, David Barsalou

maintains a studio in Chicopee, Massachusetts where he

presently resides. Barsalou earned a BFA and MFA from

Hartford Art School. Since retirement, Barsalou spends all

of his time writing, researching, and making Art.

Whamm! Blam! Lichtenstein and the Art of Appropriation,

is an upcoming Documentary Film by Director James

Hussey - featuring David Barsalou's research on artist Russ

Heath.

 GALLERY TALK 

EXHIBITION FINALI

Thursday Oct. 3rd, 4:30 - 6:30pm

Talk begins at 5pm 

 Gilbert Johnquest

CA. LANDSCAPES
Gilbert Johnquest's remarkable exhibition "CA. Landscapes" comes to a close with a gallery talk event on Thursday Oct. 3rd from 4:30 - 6:30pm. The talk begins at 5pm. This is the last day to get your questions answered and see this installation of extraordinary mixed media works before they are packed up and carried back to California. 

Light refreshment will be served. 

Cash and carry will be available for purchased works during this evening. 

Gilbert Johnquest (odd jobber)

CA. Landscape, pencil, acrylic, oil, tape, on canvas, 17 x 24”  

CA. LANDSCAPES

THINGAMAJIGS  °  GIZMOS  ° WHATCHAMACALLITS

Sept. 3 thru Oct. 3, 2019

Opening Reception  

Wednesday Sept. 4th, 4:30 - 6:30pm

The Taber Gallery is pleased to present mixed media works in a vibrant and soulful installation by Gilbert Johnquest. A graduate of Milwaukee College of Art and Design, he has lived and worked in California since 1979. Johnquest works on a variety of materials and found objects. In this exhibition he will be creating a site specific installation utilizing both finished works shipped from his California studio as well as found objects procured from his travels and then assembled in the gallery. 

Artist statement:

Landscape, 

globalization, 

social issues, 

within as without. 

voids and boarders are walked,

a study of horizons, 

foregrounds and in-betweens. 

I love you.

2019 HCC Student Art Exhibition

April 16th through May 7th

Anya Klepacki

If The Future of This World Can't Be Depended On, I'll Make My Own: 

Fantasy Spaces in the 21st Century

In her first solo exhibition, Anya Klepacki takes over the Taber Gallery with a dynamic and immersive mixed media installation. Enter the gallery to find a floor to ceiling fantasy world of found fabric creatures and curious landscapes created by Klepacki along with some collaborative contributions. 

March 4th through 21st*, 2019

Reception Thurs. March 7, 5 - 7pm

Gallery Talk: March 21, 5-6pm

Hours: Mon. - Thurs. 10am - 5pm during regular school sessions

(*NOTE: Campus is closed for Spring break March 11 - 15)