NEIL WILKINS EXHIBITING AT DANFORTH ART MUSEUM

Alumni Neil Wikins (’97) is part of a new exhibition at the Danforth Art Museum!

Wonderscape opened on March 20^th and also includes work by Adria Arch, Dana Filibert, Nancy Hayes, and Alyssa Minahan. The five artists in this group exhibition work across a variety of media to explore imagined landscapes, fantastical spaces, and alternate realities. The group has challenged themselves to—among other things—depict visually an abstract stream of consciousness, turning invisible mental landscapes into fantastical representations of human thoughts and experiences.

A “wonderscape,” per the exhibition, is an invented word meant to evoke the abstract and fantastical space that exists at the fringes of our imagination. “Rather than being a word with a concrete definition, it evokes an idea.  A wonderscape concerns perception, our awareness of reality and our presence within it, and the visual results are works that are part sci-fi, part fantasy.  The forms that fill a wonderscape are also fluid, they are what we create when we imagine the shape of things rather than seeing them concretely.”

“Using circles, organic forms, and undefined borders, five multi-media artists create their own wonderscapes,” says Danforth Director Jessica Roscio. “They use the tactile nature of their materials to convey hazy, stream-of-consciousness, otherworldly dreamscapes based in reality but largely products of the mind. In focusing on elemental forms, each of these artists crafts their own narratives about time and space and the ways in which we visualize, cope, and move through our own ‘Wonderscapes.’”

Wilkins is an educator as well as an artist. In 2019 the Haverhill YMCA recognized his work at Greenleaf Academy and named him 2019’s “Educator of the Year.” Wilkins teaches art and engineering at the former Greenleaf School. Read more about his recognition here.

Check out some of Wilkins work below, and see more at the Wonderscape page on his website.

Wonderscape is running from March 20 to September 12, 2021. Those wishing to view it in person can review Danforth’s current safety guidelines here.