Pushing Boundaries, an exhibit featuring 10 artists who work in two and three-dimensions, utilizing unusual materials or styles, will be on display at the Gaithersburg Arts Barn through March 5.
The Arts Barn is located at 311 Kent Square Rd. in Gaithersburg. Viewing hours are 1-5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday during events and other activities, or by appointment.
The artists featured artists and their works will be available at a joint artists reception from 2:30-4 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 26 at both the Arts Barn and the Kentlands Mansion, where the Art League of Germantown will be holding its annual juried membership exhibition. The joint reception is open to all and free to attend. Light refreshments will be served. Masks are encouraged, but not required.
Artists featured in the Pushing Boundaries exhibit were selected by a jury committee from the City’s annual call to artists and by special curator, Mary Weiss Waldhorn.
“Each artist showing in the exhibit has a unique perspective through their use of materials and depth of insight and thought processes, pushing creativity to a different level than often seen in more traditional exhibitions,” said Ms. Weiss Waldhorn.
Featured artists in the exhibit include Don Coomes, Lee Goodwin, Caroline Green, Trisha Gupta, Kirke Martin, Rodney Mayer, Jim Roberts, Richard Schellenberg, Rhea Reeves Stein, and Cathy Wilkin. More about each artist:
- Don Coomes uses dabs of paint, intricately layered and multicolored, to create textural abstractions that are highly detailed, yet simplistic in composition. His work has evolved during the pandemic. His dabs, though still very layered, are textured with new, amorphous shapes.
- Lee Goodwin is a fine art photographer who specializes in long exposure work. His two pieces in the exhibit were taken on the midway at the Montgomery County Fair using a tripod that allowed him to make exposures longer than would be possible with a hand-held camera.
- Caroline Green is a former Arts Barn student who is now studying design in college. Her art is inspired by surrealist photography, haute couture fashion and unique designs. See these influences especially in her self-portrait with her cat, “Dreamscape.”
- Known for her printmaking, Trisha Gupta also has branched out into creating three-dimensional imagery. A therapist, as well as an artist, Ms. Gupta has been exploring the brain—with one of her pieces being a fascinating embroidery-covered sculpture. Her lithograph, “The Doctor Again,” evokes the anxiety we all feel when confronting illness.
- A ceramicist with a studio in Boonesboro, Kirke Martin also explores painting on metal surfaces and forming large, industrial looking sculptures out of clay. He has several exhibition pieces and more functional wood fired ceramic pieces as well.
- Originally a landscape painter, Rodney Mayer has been exploring, quirky, humorist surrealist-like themes in his recent work. “Meltdown” evokes the juxtaposition of the word meltdown as he shows the image of a nuclear explosion and a melting ice cream cone. “Hungry Mouth” started as a remnant of tree bark that turned into a toothy, menacing grinned character with wine bottle corks for teeth.
- Jim Roberts uses beeswax, found objects, printing type and natural objects to make works of art that deal with issues of social justice and national morality. Pieces from his much larger series, “Anatomy of a Lie,” have been selected to be part of this exhibit and are noteworthy for being unpretentious statements of a complicated subject.
- Conceptual in nature, Richard Schellenberg’s art can be humorous, abstract in nature or could deal with issues of social justice. The pieces included in this exhibit mostly manipulate wood and color in dynamic ways. One of his included pieces, “Child’s Garden of Curses,” incorporates Syrian children’s drawings that show the violence and pain of war.
- Rhea Reeves Stein glories in manipulating materials to create colorful, mixed media, wall reliefs that jump off her canvases in all directions. Her pieces made of wire, fiber, yarn paper and paint attempt to rein in her anxiety about the chaos of life through her use of control over her media and style. Her largest piece in the exhibit, “Flame of Hope,” will immediately draw visitors with its vibrant colors, undulating shapes and rich texture.
- Cathy Wilkin is best known for her very definitive style with paper collage with included “Prometheus Descending” as an example. Also included are works she made during the COVID-19 health crisis, when she went back to her roots as a painter and crafted some evocative, surrealist images that portray the distress of that time period.
Most of the exhibit’s artwork is for sale and all images are copyrighted by the artists. For more information or to schedule an appointment, call 301-258-6394, e-mail artgalleries@gaithersburgmd.gov or visit the Arts Barn gallery webpage.
The Arts on the Green visual arts program is funded in part by a grant from the Maryland State Arts Council (MSAC). To discover more about MSAC grants and how they impact Maryland's arts sector, visit www.msac.org.
