Coming to the Loading Dock Gallery

Recently I joined the publicity team for the coop Loading Dock Gallery at Western Avenue Studios, where I share space with the Lowell Fiber Studio group. The mailing list stuff comes hard - organization, me? but I love the writing. Suddenly, a use for all those years writing papers and editing books. So here's my second review. The exhibit is a hummer. Come by if you can.

David Barton and Jessica Cohen present their Insights and Observations in this exhibit of painted and drawn figures. Their work embraces opposites. Privacy is observed. Imagination looks you in the face. Walk among these figures, and you explore both daily life and dreamed realities.

David Barton celebrates opposites. Built from found objects such as mannequin parts and broken machinery, Barton’s figures mesmerize the eye with unexpected combinations. Simultaneously elegant and disturbing, his creatures seem to have walked out of a dream. Limbs end in machine parts. Calm faces float above wheels and wings. Barton invites the viewer to see the work “as part of a much larger story,” one where beauty and ugliness, danger and safety, reality and dream coexist in each being.

Atlantis by David Barton

Jessica Cohen draws people immersed in the everyday. Her subjects do not face the viewer. Instead they turn away to read, listen, make music, or even sleep.

Two Girls at a Show by Jessica Cohen

She draws with an inquiring line, black on white. “I think art is everywhere,” says Cohen. She captures moments of quiet focus. Her figures are filled with inner energy. Through Cohen’s Insights and Observations we glimpse ourselves.

Man Reading by Jessica Cohen

Insights and Observations is at The Loading Dock Gallery at Western Avenue Studios, 122 Western Avenue September 30 through October 25, 2009. You're invited to a reception Friday, October 9, 6-9pm. Gallery hours are Wednesday through Sunday, 11am to 4:30pm.