Frame 301's Summer Constellation

A New Constellation Discovered in Beverly

 Montserrat College of Art is please to announce Adria Arch's installation, Summer Constellation, curated by Lydia Gordon. The artist's multi-media piece radiates twenty-four hours a day in the Frame 301 window. With Summer Constellation's suspended materials, particular doodles and celestial imagery, Adria uses the street-side gallery as a portal to encourage connection among anonymous participants.

Adria Arch’s Summer Constellation exhibits the artist’s distinctive mark making in a three dimensional installation. Patterns of scribbles, sprays and drips are produced on multiple ten by three foot suspended mylar scrolls. By studying notebook doodles produced by her son, the artist revisits these spontaneous characters to execute the composition of each scroll. The interplay among the imagery evokes a patterning of symbols similar to how the stars appear in the night sky. Arch’s placement of suspended scrolls and cut out paper creates a dynamic visual dialog of the artist’s iconic shapes, speaking to the community of viewers on the street, as well as to the artist’s son.

Adria is inspired by the doodles found in the margins of her son’s high school notebooks. The artist reads these private drawings as an indecipherable language created in the uninhibited state of the doodler. Using these shapes as a source for her work in Summer Constellation, Arch invites her audience into a world unknown to them but extremely personal to her. The installation allows for a viewing experience that creates relationships between multiple sources, mapping an intricate grouping of connections like the patterns formed by prominent starts in a constellation.

Adria Arch is a Boston-based artist and Arts Administrator. She studied at RISD and Carnegie Mellon University for her undergraduate studies and earned her MA in Art Education from the University of Arizona. Adria also received her MFA in painting from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design. The artist has taught at deCordova’s School, Massachusetts College of Art and Design, and Montserrat College of Art. Arch has recently shown at the Danforth Museum of Art (Framingham, MA) and Lesley University (Cambridge, MA).

Where: Montserrat College of Art, Frame 301, 301 Cabot Street, Beverly, MA

Exhibit Dates: July 9, 2011 – August  20, 2011

Hours: 24/7

For more information about the exhibit, please contact Lydia Gordon, Frame 301 Project Manager at Lydia.Gordon01@gmail.com or visit us at www.montserrat.edu/galleries.

Events hotline: 978.921.4242 Option 3

May Artist Suspends Pies in Frame 301

 

May 16, 2011 - The Montserrat College of Art Galleries is pleased to present Alexander Farrell’s Frame 301 installation, Destined to fail/Destined for sale, curated by Lydia Gordon. Inspired by the Housing Crises, Farrell converts the Frame 301 window into a platform for selling pies. Coupled with for-sale markers, the artist-made pastries are displayed like real estate items in an attempt to break down societal issues, engage viewers, and encourage conversation.

Through the installation of joint building materials and food objects, the artists challenges the root of the Housing Crises. Relying greatly on the material’s ability to resonate and connect with itself, Farrell uses jagged wood pieces, for-sale pies, and a site-specific installation method to investigate the cause and effect of the “housing bubble”. A sculptural mass of wood and hardware lines Frame 301’s back wall, enhancing the viewer’s looking experience with Destined to fail/Destined for sale’s three-dimensional composition. Considering the pie’s association with precious traditionalism and Americanism, experiencing them as commercial commodities triggers an uncanny, emotional response, correlating with the exploitation and suffering of those affected by losing their homes. Through the engagement with the art piece, viewers are able to acknowledge the complex issues on a smaller scale. By reducing the housing bubble to representational objects, Destined to fail/Destined for sale expresses the dynamics between politicians, financiers, and consumers.

Alexander Farrell is a Boston based artist working in multiple mediums. His portfolio includes paintings, drawings, and sculpture. As an abstract artist, Alexander works with found objects in works on paper and three-dimensional sculptural pieces. The artist earned his BFA in Architecture at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design in 2008. Alexander has been awarded a grant from the Vermont Studio Center (Johnson, VT) and is included in the upcoming exhibition, Flourish: Alumni Works on Paper at Bakalar and Paine Galleries, Massachusetts College of Art and Design (Boston, MA).

Where: Montserrat College of Art, Frame 301, 301 Cabot Street, Beverly, MA
Exhibit Dates: May 16, 2011 – June 13, 2011
Hours: 24/7
For more information about the exhibit, please contact Lydia Gordon, Frame 301 Project Manager at Lydia.Gordon01@gmail.com or visit us at www.montserrat.edu/galleries.

Events hotline: 978.921.4242 Option 3
 

This program is supported in part by a grant from the Beverly Cultural Council, a local agency which is supported by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency.

Montserrat College of Art is an accredited, private, residential college of art and design offering the Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, art education certification and year-round classes and workshops for adults through its Continuing Education program.
Visit us at www.montserrat.edu.

Vinyl, leather pants, and broken guitar amps!

Take Your Protein Pills and Put Your Helmet On | Enter the Rock N’ Roll Vortex

April 11, 2011- Montserrat College of Art Galleries is pleased to present, THE ROCK N’ ROLL VORTEX, a dual part installation and performance piece for the Frame 301, Montserrat Galleries’ alternative display space. Curated by Lydia Gordon, THE ROCK N’ ROLL VORTEX will be up for the month of April. By combining elements of music, visual arts and audience participation, THE ROCK N’ ROLL VORTEX brings together the Montserrat community in recognition of the experience as the artwork.

Heavy-duty vinyl signage with reflective, striking graphics lures the viewer to the window where, once looking through the “Vortex,” an avalanche of miniature sculptures, music paraphernalia and artist renderings transfixes the eye, leading them into an electrified world of rock-n-roll. By enticing audience participation through its aggressive presence on the street, THE ROCK N’ ROLL VORTEX lends itself to the expressive attitude of the music genre and of the art school. Created by the Rock Slop Art Collective, THE ROCK N’ ROLL VORTEX will open on April 15, 2011 in the 301 Gallery as a performance piece. Rock Slop Art Collective will invite Montserrat students, staff, and community members to join them and their band, The Fagettes, in a glam shock inspired reception with live music, costumes, video, and photography. Through this interactive art show and installation, THE ROCK N’ ROLL VORTEX, stands as a platform for artistic collaboration and its importance within the art college.

Rock Slop Art Collective consists of two Boston-based artists, Melanie Bernier and David Goodrich. Bernier, who earned her BFA in Studio for Interralated Media at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design in 2008, works across various media including fiber arts, ceramics, and mixed-media installations. Her recent project includes the installation, Rainbowbomb at MEME Gallery (Cambridge, MA). David earned his BFA in Film, Animation, Video at the Rhode Island School of Design in 2006 where he was awarded at the Intercollegiate Independent Film Festival. Also working across various media, David and Melanie are involved in the Boston music scene with their band, The Fagettes, (thefagettes.blogspot.com).

Where: Montserrat College of Art, Frame 301, 301 Cabot Street, Beverly, MA

Exhibit Dates: April 11, 2011 – May 13, 2011

Hours: 24/7

For more information about the exhibit, please contact Lydia Gordon, Frame 301 Project Manager at Lydia.Gordon01@gmail.com or visit us at www.montserrat.edu/galleries.

Events hotline: 978.921.4242 Option 3

March Exhibition: Urban Eden

BEVERLY, March 11, 2011- Montserrat College of Art Galleries is pleased to present Kim Salerno’s installation Urban Eden,curated by Lydia Gordon. The current exhibition in Montserrat College of Art’s alternative display space Frame 301, Urban Eden reveals a vivid textured world of digital imagery, wall patterning,and three-dimensional structures. Through the useof rich,decorative elements, Salerno’s installation draws in the attention of the viewers by arranging drawing, photography, and digital media to form an intricate landscape.    Salerno’s installation transforms the narrow space of Frame 301 into an urban garden. Digital prints of landscapes and gardens are cut, hung and layered alternately with transparent scrims and curtains, and expand beyond the picture plane to create a highly interactive window space. At first glance, the garden appears as a collage of idyllic flowers and scenery, beautifully nestled with embellished textiles and patterns. However, as nature is depicted through digital media, the awry placement of Urban Eden’s multiple forms begins to prompt a sense of nervous break down and eventual decay. As these layered materials create complex textual meaning within the installation, utopian and dystopian visions collide as the piece is confronted with human activity from the street. Kim Salerno’s creative work began with architecture, which continues to serve as inspiration for her more recent digital  and installation projects. Her work has been exhibited throughout the United States in galleries, museums, and other public venues. The artist is a recipient of the Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant and the Visual Arts Sea Grant from the University of Rhode Island. She earned her Masters of Architecture from the University of Pennsylvania, holds a certificate in Painting from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and a BA from Smith College. Kim Salerno currently teaches at the University of Rhode Island.

Corey Corcoran's HYPERSLEEP

Corcoran Constructs Blooming Structure: HYPERSLEEP

BEVERLY, MA, FEBRUARY 2, 2011- Montserrat College of Art Galleries is pleased to present Boston artist Corey Corcoran’s installation HYPERSLEEP curated by Lydia Gordon. The February exhibition in Montserrat College of Art’s alternative display space Frame 301, reveals a mysterious human figure stratified with turf, peat, and moss. Corcoran’s blooming structure calls attention to the awe of nature’s uncertainty while investigating its constant regeneration.

Corcoran’s first 3D site-specific installation, HYPERSLEEP engulfs Frame 301 with heaps of biomass, growth, and decay as a terrarium through creation. The window holds a cocooning figure saturated with earth, root systems, and endless unidentifiable matter. This obscure creation spans the entire length and depth of the window, enhancing every viewer’s looking experience. Completely sculptural in nature, HYPERSLEEP refers to a science fiction term similar to hibernation when life processes are halted completely for some duration. It addresses the artist’s continuous ideas concerning the persistence of life, fluidity of time, and the simple strangeness of nature.

Corey Corcoran is a Boston-based artist currently working at The Distillery, a vibrant community of artists in South Boston.  Since acquiring his BFA from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design in 2007, Corcoran has shown regularly throughout the Boston area. Most recently, the artist has been included in shows at MEME Gallery (Cambridge, MA), deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum (Lincoln, MA), and LaMontagne Gallery (South Boston, MA) with solo exhibitions at The Little Gallery Under The Stairs (Lynn, MA) and Fivesevendelle Project Space (Boston, MA). The artist has been awarded the 2011 Clowes Award fellowship from the Vermont Studio Center (Johnston, VT).

Where: Montserrat College of Art, Frame 301,

301 Cabot Street, Beverly, MA

Exhibit Dates: February 7, 2011 – March 11, 2011

Hours: 24/7The exhibit and related events are free and open to the public unless otherwise noted.

For more information about the exhibit, please contact Lydia Gordon, Frame 301 Project Manager at Lydia.Gordon01@gmail.com or visit us at www.montserrat.edu/galleries.

Events hotline: 978.921.4242 Option 3

Montserrat College of Art is an accredited, private, residential college of art and design offering the Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, art education certification and year-round classes and workshops for adults through its Continuing Education program. 

Visit us at www.montserrat.edu.The vision of Montserrat College of Art is to be recognized as the nation’s premier independent, small art college.

"This program is supported in part by a grant from the Beverly Cultural Council, a local agency which is supported by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency."

Street Reflections 301: Cleanliness Next to Godliness

Elizabeth Michelman, Street Reflections 301: Cleanliness Next to Godliness, January 2011

BEVERLY, MA January 2, 2011- Montserrat College of Art Galleries’ Frame 301 is pleased to present Elizabeth Michelman’s Street Reflections 301: Cleanliness Next to Godliness, curated by Lydia Gordon. The kick-off exhibition of 2011, takes a look at downtown Beverly by focusing on the relationship between Frame 301 and two neighbors: a laundromat and church.

Michelman’s site-responsive installation Street Reflections 301: Cleanliness Next to Godliness prompts a questioning of collective relations. By noticing how Frame 301 stands across from a church and a laundromat, the artist wonders how much these pillars of the neighborhood know of and understand each other. These three institutions offer different routes for expressing fundamental values in contemporary American culture: the art school practice, private worship, and personal hygiene. Street Reflections 301 quotes the words of a familiar proverb to capture, meditate on, and reflect these ideas back out to its viewers.

Street Reflections 301 dramatizes the window’s physical characteristics of transparency and reflection, conveying its message through illuminated language best visible at night. The words “cleanliness” and “godliness,” emanate from the window with a projection of inner light and color. By linking elements of each building through the proverb, the artist renews our curiosity with the streetscape and our relationship with the streetscape. The installation implicates Montserrat College as a cultural agent, situated to observe and comment on the disparities between our exterior environment and the inner feeling underlying the everyday needs, purposes, and values of our audience.

Elizabeth Michelman is an interdisciplinary artist exhibiting public and site-responsive installation art, video documentaries and artist’s videos. Her range of media includes sculpture, drawing, painting, poetry, video, and installation. Both as an artist and a curator, she has organized many site-responsive exhibitions and community participatory projects throughout New England. Michelman has taught and lectured on a range of subjects including exhibitions, 2D/3D design, drawing, sculpture, and interdisciplinary art and installation at Mass College of Art and around New England.

Diane Bronstein: underdressed

December 11, 2010- January 5, 2011

Montserrat College of Art Gallery is pleased to present Diane Bronstein’s installation, underdressed, curated by Lydia Gordon. The closing exhibition of 2010 in Montserrat College of Art’s alternative display space Frame 301, Bronstein’s arrangement of handmade underwear, bras, and slips suggest a narrative to each article of clothing, hinting at the vulnerability yet desirability of its wearers.

 

The artist’s creation of intimate apparel derives from her interest in privacy and how we identify ourselves by covering the body. The detailed sketching, clothing design and delicate craftsmanship of each piece allows the artist to explore the closest layer of clothing to our bodies and its protective connotation. By exposing what is usually covered, the artist brings intrigue to each piece, its owner, and their relationship.

 

A visual and conceptual pastiche, underdressed transforms the storefront gallery into a scene of laundry lines. underdressed is constructed from hand-sewn paper clothing, sketches of figure drawings, and sky-blue paint, drawing connections to the everyday surroundings on Cabot Street. By incorporating elements of the laundromat, art school practice, and skyline, underdressed rearranges physical characteristics of our community. By utilizing the unique perspective Frame 301 offers viewers, Bronstein hangs her pieces in a zig-zag fashion, ultimately proposing a three-dimensional, unconventional looking experience. While the artist’s process involved the layering of pencil, charcoal, and paper, underdressed ultimately strips down to the idea of physical identity, modesty, and desirability. 

 

Diane Bronstein is a Boston-based artist focused on the creation of paper clothing, inspired by her attendance to life-drawing sessions at the Arlington Center for the Arts . Bronstein received her B.F.A in Graphic Design and Illustration at Carnegie-Mellon University and currently works as an exhibition designer for traveling, temporary and permanent exhibitions at the Museum of Science in Boston. 

For more information: http://montserrat.edu/galleries/frame%20301/