Last modified: Thursday, June 19, 2014
‘The Torso Project’
“One in Eight: The Torso Project,” an exhibit of embellished plaster cast torsos made by area breast cancer survivors and their families and friends, will be on view through July 10 at Northampton branch of the Greenfield Savings Bank on King Street. A reception will be held June 17 from 5 to 7 p.m., with light refreshments, and music by Loren Feinstein.
The women, from western Massachusetts, Vermont and New Hampshire, created the torsos during free, grant-supported workshops over the past six years. Each of the included 3-dimensional pieces and photographs will be accompanied by a personal statement describing the woman’s breast cancer journey and experience making the torso. An interactive area of the exhibit invites community response and healing.
The title of the show brings attention to the fact that one in eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer. The founder of the project, Pam Roberts, a 20-year survivor of breast cancer, is an artist, writer, yoga instructor and energy healer.
“The exhibit is a celebration of life,” Roberts said. “It honors the courage and creativity with which women meet the challenges of a breast cancer diagnosis.”
There will be a free “Torso Project” torso-making workshop for women affected by breast cancer July 19 and 20 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Leverett Crafts and Arts. All materials will be provided and no art experience is necessary. To pre-register (required) call Cancer Connection at 586-1642.
At Oxbow Gallery
An exhibit of 30 watercolors of New England, Mexico and Spain by Belchertown artist Judith Mann will be on view through June 22 at the Oxbow Gallery, 273 Pleasant St., in Northampton. There will be an artist’s reception June 12 from 5 to 8 p.m.
The exhibit focuses on beauty through the play of light and showcases the practice of direct, on-site observation during travel, particularly Mann’s three transatlantic voyages by sail. Mann is a retired professor of painting at Hampshire College in Amherst. For more information, visit www.oxbowgallery.org.
∎ In the Backroom Gallery, an exhibit of painting by Gary Niswonger, will be on view through June 23. The artist revisits subjects that interested him in the past, but, here, he puts a new emphasis on color. A reception will beheld June 13 from 5 to 8 p.m. For more information, visit www.oxbowgallery.org.
The ArtSalon
The ArtSalon, an evening of presentations by established and emerging artists in the Pioneer Valley, will take place June 12 at 7 p.m. at Snow Farm in Williamsburg.
∎ Sculptor and printmaker Carolyn Webb has revolved her work around tree-based imagery as a metaphor for fractal systems within the physical world. She received an A.R.T. Grant, a Massachusetts Artist Foundation Fellowship in Sculpture and an Artist Residency Grant from the Vermont Studio Center.
∎ Carolyn Clayton creates sculptural systems as a means to produce objects that are partially informed by chance. Her work has been shown in venues in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and New York.
∎ Nan Fleming makes designs using worn metal elements and other materials such as wood, paper and clay to create functional, figurative and purely sculptural pieces.
∎ Painter Jamie Youth’s work translate the effects of global warming on the Pioneer Valley.
∎ Dan Ladd works with trees and gourds, shaping them into architectural and geometric forms. His inspiration derives from inosculation he noticed in nature and by the growth of tree trunks around man-made objects.
Refreshments will be provided and served half an hour before the presentations begin.
For more information, visit www.theartsalon.com.
At A.P.E. Gallery
“Reconfigurations,” a solo exhibition by Northampton artist Cynthia Consentino, will be on view through June 29 at the A.P.E. Gallery, 126 Main St., Northampton. An artist’s reception will take place June 13 from 5 to 8 p.m.
Consentino’s exhibit features figurative sculptures and drawings that explore our ideal of beauty and gender.
“ ‘Reconfigurations’ investigates past representations of the female in art, particularly the ceramic figurine,” Consentino said in a statement. “Alterations and reconfigurations subvert and expand upon the originals’ ideas of gender. By stripping down, inverting and reassembling the familiar, we can look anew and better see what we consume.”
Consentino is a studio artist in Holyoke and is on the adjunct faculty at Holyoke Community College and the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Gallery Hours are Tuesdays through Sundays from noon to 5 p.m. (open until 8 p.m. on Fridays)
For information, call 586-5553 or visit www.apearts.org.
At Historic Northampton
“Fixing Our Eye,” a mixed media series by Rochelle Shicoff, will open with a reception June 13 from 5 to 8 p.m. and will remain on view through July 3 at the Historic Northampton Museum and Education Center, 46 Bridge St., Northampton. An artist’s talk will take place June 21 at 2 p.m.
Shicoff’s newest work — inspired by Esther Stoddard’s “The Shepherdess” (circa 1700), an embroidered picture from Historic Northampton’s permanent collection — combines fragments of both past painting and her contemporary photographs, pencil drawings of cows and dyed vintage table runners with handmade crochet embellishments that act as the work’s support surface.
“It seemed quite appropriate to select ‘The Shepherdess’ as my source of inspiration,” Shicoff said. “In my paintings and drawings, I often combine media and use similar imagery: birds, foliage, trees, architecture, animals and human figures. ... Through this multi-layered application of materials, I aim to create a degree of mystery and visual tension.”
The exhibit is part of Historic Northampton Museum’s series, “Connecting the Past to the Present.”
For information, visit www.historic-northampton.org or call 584-6011.
Arts Trust open house
Northampton Community Arts Trust, in conjunction with Arts Night Out, will host an open house June 13 from 5 to 8 p.m. at 33 Hawley St., Northampton.“
Street food will be provided by the Bistro Bus and will be served in the parking lot. The Salvation Alley String Band will perform a mix of honky-tonk, bluegrass and rock ‘n’ roll.
There will be ticket giveaways to the Green River Festival, a summer event featuring music, food and beverages, a craft fair and family-oriented activities such as the launching of four hot air balloons.
For information about the open house, visit www.northamptonartstrust.org.
At Elusie Gallery
“Drawing Closer: Monotypes by Esther S. White” will be on view June 14 from 5 to 8 p.m. at the Elusie Gallery, Old Town Hall, 43 Main St. in Easthampton.
“The work in the exhibit is part of a series of monotypes exploring my personal experience with chronic pain and the tension between chance and artistic intention,” White writes in an artist’s statement. “These prints walk the line between abstraction and representation, where the hand pictured can stand in for myself, my body, my psyche.”
For information, call the gallery at 529-9265.
Folk Traditions
Vocalist Evelyn Harris will perform June 18 at 6:30 p.m. at The Porter-Phelps-Huntington Museum, 130 River Drive, Hadley, as part of the 33rd season of the museum’s Wednesday Folk Traditions.
Harris, a Grammy-nominated composer, sings spirituals, freedom songs, jazz, pop, rock ‘n’ roll, gospel and the blues. She will perform a cappella.
The performance will be held in the Sunken Garden. General admission is $10; $2 for children 16 and under. Picnickers are welcome on the museum grounds, beginning at 5 p.m.
For information, call 584-4699 or visit www.pphmuseum.org.
Memorial exhibition
A memorial exhibition representing the 40-year career of painter Joan Bredin-Price will be on display through June 18 at the Leverett Crafts and Arts Center. Bredin-Price, who lived in Pelham and New Salem, died in August last year.
Bredin-Price’s work dwelt on the rich imagery of a variety of spiritual traditions, culminating in a series of large paintings devoted to Green Tara and the Dhyani Buddhas. Her goal, she had said, was to create works of art that embodied and taught spiritual truth, and served as aids to contemplation.
She worked in gouache, cut-paper collage, watercolor, acrylic, oil and gold and silver leaf. A graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design, she exhibited her work locally at the Nacul Gallery in Amherst, the North Amherst Center for the Arts, Leverett Crafts and Arts Center, Smith College in Northampton and Frost Library in Amherst. Many of her paintings can be viewed at www.bredinprice.com.
The exhibit will be open from 2 to 8 p.m. on weekdays and from 1 to 6 p.m. on weekends.
At Amherst Cinema
“Pina,” a film by Wim Wenders, will be screened June 15 at 7:30 p.m. at Amherst Cinema, in collaboration with the Smith College Museum of Art and as part of the cinema’s Photography Series.
The event will begin with introductory remarks by Aprile Gallant, curator of prints, drawings and photographs at the Smith College Museum of Art.
In this film, Wenders captures the inventive dance world of choreographer Pina Bausch, taking the viewer deep inside Bausch’s playful and unpredictable pieces. After Bausch’s death in 2009, Wenders continued with the project as a tribute to her.
Tickets are available for regular admission at the Amherst Cinema box office and online at www.amherstcinema.org.
∎ In celebration of Bloomsday, “In Bed With Ulysses,” a film by Alan Adelson and Kate Taverna, will be screened June 16 at 7 p.m. at Amherst Cinema.
The film tells the story of how James Joyce’s novel “Ulysses” was created. It details the toll the work took on its author, the effect it had around the world, the fight to censor it and its ultimate liberation and impact.
The documentary features commentary by Irish novelists Colum McCann and Edna O’Brien, as well as readings by Kathleen Chalfant as Molly Bloom.
Free admission for Amherst Cinema members (available at the box office only.) All others — regular admission; tickets available online. The theater is at 28 Amity St.
‘The Met: Live’
Verdi’s “Rigoletto,” performed at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City and broadcast live in HD, will be shown June 18 at Cinemark, 367 Russell St. in Hadley.
Other “Live in HD” events this summer will be Puccini’s “La Rondine” on June 25; Verdi’s “Otello” on July 9; and the Baroque Pastiche “The Enchanted Island” on July 16. All shows are at 7 p.m.
Tickets are available online at www.FathomEvents.com