Wednesday December 7, 2016
6:30pm, presentations begin at 7pm
$5 suggested donation
At The Wistariahurst Museum in Holyoke
This month’s ArtSalon will be at The Wistariahurst Museum in Holyoke. The evening begins at 6:30pm with mingling and light refreshments, and presentations start at 7pm.
Food and drink will be provided by Ellie’s Oils and Abandoned Building Brewery.
A brief Q&A period with the artists follows the presentations.
This program is supported in part by The Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts and Fierst, Kane and Bloomberg.
Presenting artists:
Amy Johnquest
John Calhoun
Alicia Renadette
Lyn Horan
Maryanne Benns
Joseph Krupczynski
Also known as the BannerQueen, Amy Johnquest is known chiefly for her sideshow banner art portrayals, but her work expands into many other directions. Of late she has been hand painting over vintage photo portraits. Her work is collected and shown widely and she is also involved locally with varied art based projects including scenic art and site specific installations. A resident of the Flats in Holyoke, she also directs the Taber Art Gallery at Holyoke Community College, and is joint owner of Spot 22 (a venue for her art and vernacular photography) in Easthampton, MA. www.bannerqueen.com
John Calhoun is a graduate of the San Francisco Art Institute (BFA) and the Rhode Island School of Design (MFA). He has a studio at Parsons Hall Project Space in Holyoke and teaches art at Holyoke Community College and at Rhode Island School of Design (pre-college). Calhoun has had solo shows in Boston, San Francisco, Provincetown, Springfield and Holyoke and has been featured in numerous group shows. Awards include the Blanche E. Coleman Award and a fellowship residency at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown. www.johncalhounart.com
Alicia Renadette is a multi-disciplinary artist whose (often) theatrical work explores and exploits both social and psychological contradictions. Using media ranging from sculpture/installation to costume/performance and collage/drawing, she thinks of her delivery system as being similar to rolling up a pill inside of a slice of cheese and feeding it to the family dog. Her work has been exhibited nationally with shows at the Sculpture Center, NY, Southern Exposure, San Francisco, Brattleboro Museum and Art Center, VT and most recently at the Governor’s Island Art Fair, NYC. Alicia holds an MFA in Sculpture from the San Francisco Art Institute and a BFA in Experimental Studio/ Sculpture from the Hartford Art School. https://aliciarenadette.wordpress.com
Lyn Horan is a 30-year artist and curator, who exhibits her work extensively nationally including Baltimore, NYC, & Washington, DC. Publications include the Baltimore Sun, the Boston Globe, and Art Papers, as well as the books, “Creating Abstract Art: Ideas and Inspirations for Passionate Art Making” (Dean Nimmer), and “When Walls Become Doorways: Creativity and the Transforming Illness” (Dr. Tobi Zausner). Horan has taught at Anne Arundel Community College, Snow Farm, and privately. Her work is inspired by the metaphors found in the natural world, and a fascination with the power of the visual image to both distort and clarify. For this reason, she uses a variety of materials, often transparent, and overlapping imagery in work that is both 2-D and 3-D emphasizing that our changing perspectives influence what we “see”. http://carolynlyonshoran.com/
Like most artists, Maryanne Benns works in multiple mediums however she is drawn to the versatility of clay. Driven by a passionate curiosity, she is consistently exploring new mediums and ultimately devising ways to incorporate them with clay. A quote taped to her wall reads: “I’m a serious-minded artist who values the frivolity of art.” Maryanne says that this quote best sums up her philosophy as an artist. “Sometimes art is stressfull and the subject can be dark so I will try to create work that will tickle the imagination by adding a lightness for the viewer, although, it is mostly for myself.” Maryanne currently teaches ceramics at the Holyoke senior center and in her studio at PaperCity Studios. www.maryannebenns.com
Joseph Krupczynski is a designer, public artist and educator. He is the principal of “studio projects”, an interdisciplinary design studio which links design, culture and art through public and private design commissions, installations, activism and research. His recent creative work and scholarship promotes imaginative community partnerships, and crafts participatory art/design platforms to engage a variety of issues within the built environment—especially in collaboration with underrepresented communities. Krupczynski received his M.S. Design from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, a B.F.A. in Environmental Design from Parsons School of Design, and studied at the Cooper Union School of Architecture. http://designengagement.org