Whimsy Exhibit Opens

Summer’s over. Time to reinvigorate our Blog focused on  

art and culture in Morris County!

It is truly grace in motion to watch the installation of an art exhibit. Then, again, it’s part magic too to see the way that works of art seem to find their perfect place in a gallery.Two weeks ago, on a Saturday morning, I watched guest curator Mary Kate O’Hare and Arts Council Board member Dick Eger work to find that perfect place for each of the works in the upcoming Whimsy exhibit that opens this Friday in the Gallery at 14 Maple. Writing about the exhibit in her curator’s essay, Ms. O’Hare talks about the “whimsy” theme:

Brainstorm by Riccardo Berlingeri

“The twenty-nine artists in this exhibition bring to life different elements of whimsy. Works range from abstractions to figurative subjects produced in a wide variety of media including painting, photography, sculpture and mixed media. Almost as if by magic several of the artists reconstruct everyday objects into something unexpected, such as Katie Truk’s transformation of pantyhose into a layered web suggesting mouths open in song or Riccardo Berlingeri’s reworking of newspapers into an explosively sinuous sculpture. Some of the works can be worn (wearable whimsy), like Kathryn Keller’s Itsy Bitsy Spiders bracelet cuff embossed with images of spindly spiders or Won Ju Seo’s lyrical jeogori entitled Memories. Jennifer DeAngelis makes us look afresh at the life contained within letters and numbers with her Strands Font. The whimsy of nature is captured by Jim DelGiudice in Bird Logic, a photograph that presents bird foot prints imprinted in snow; we are struck by their sudden disappearance at the edge of the ground suggesting the moment when the unseen bird took flight. Don Myles’ photograph Flying Rocks expresses a sense of joyfulness in the stones seeming defiance of gravity, just as the sheets in Ken Ross’ Sheet (Minor Alterations) seem to mysteriously levitate above the earth. Many of the works in this exhibition express a waggish sense of humor, such as the abstract form of Jim Fuess’ Snake Contemplating its Navel, an effect recognized when we realize that a snake of course does not actually have a navel. The humor of Betty McGeehan’s Politics comes out of the unexpected combination of a toilet tank and a megaphone wittily made out of copper.

Politics by Betty McGeehan

The works in this exhibition embody expressions of joy, humor and fancy. Together they help us see and connect to the inherent whimsy within our world.”

Come and join us for the opening this Friday, the 10th, from 5:30-7:30pm at the Gallery located at 14 Maple Avenue in Morristown.