ANTICS

Reception: April 12th, 5–8pm

Gallery 95
95 Rantoul Street
Beverly, MA 01915

Gallery Hours
M,T,W,F, 10am–5pm
Th, 10am–8pm
Sat., 12–5pm

Gallery 95 presents ANTICS, a senior thesis exhibition featuring work by Francine Wright, Gianna Nguyen and Sophie Mayo. Three artists celebrate the notion that not everything is what it seems. Through painting, sculpture and photography, they challenge the manipulation of materials and alter the normalities of their mediums.

Francine Wright’s recent work titled TEXTures is a reflection of her use of paint as sculptural material. Working with acrylic paint in an impasto technique, her paintings become dimensional in texture and create a repetitive optical space. When working on this series, Wright considers herself to be having a direct conversation with the paint. The forms she creates with paint are representational of objects we use to communicate and stay connected with daily. Wright is interested in the synthetic nature of the paint representing plastic, relating to objects such as cell phones, key pads, and remote controls. Each device keeps us connected to the fast paced modern culture which craves instant satisfaction.

Gianna Nguyen is a mixed media sculptor working in a collection of fibers, handmade paper, and salvage utilitarian materials. She is interested in visually exploring the functionality of material and questioning the differences between high and low art. By repurposing humble and recognizable materials she challenges the way we value easily accessible materials versus traditional sculptural materials such as bronze, steel and wood. The textural qualities of the paper and sculptures speak to the reality of each material used. Through a variety of methods such as assemblage, dipping, and weaving, she highlights the aesthetic qualities, changing function to nonfunctional and inspiring an alternative view to everyday materials.

Sophie Mayo is an interdisciplinary artist whose recent work focuses on the impermanence of time. Her long exposure photographs convey an interaction between time, space and movement. For this body of work Sophie is not interested in the formal aspects of photography, rather the emotional. Her photographs share similar qualities to that of charcoal drawings and express an underlying influence of performance.