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You be the judge

Area artists show their best at ARTSWorcester's biennial exhibition

by Leon Nigrosh

ARTSWORCESTER SEVENTH BIENNIAL JURIED EXHIBITION at the Worcester Center for Crafts, 25 Sagamore Road, through July 18.

[Marriage]

When the Biennial rolled into Worcester in 1985 it created a surge of interest in the visual arts. Along with an outpouring of work from the area's growing number of artists, some sort of controversy usually emerges as well. So far this go-round, the only note of friction seems to be the grumblings of a few old-timers and founding mothers and fathers regarding the newly instituted entry fees. These folks remember that one of the original tenets of ARTSWorcester (née Cultural Assembly) was that artists would never be charged fees -- a promise kept for a decade, until now.

But I'll put that matter aside and, in the interest of full disclosure, confess that I was among the hundreds of area artists who submitted works (totaling nearly 500 objects in five categories) to this year's competition, thus giving the arts community the opportunity to judge me for a change. New Hampshire ceramic artist Gerry Williams, Tufts photography professor Jim Dow, and gallery director/curator Linda Poras undertook the daunting task of winnowing out the entries to some sort of manageable exhibition. The results virtually plaster the walls and sprawl across the floors of the Worcester Center for Crafts.

More than 150 paintings, works on paper, photos, sculptures, and crafts compete for attention. Several passes through the exhibition are necessary to appreciate the work. Overall, the vast majority of the artists display a high degree of artistic skill, good use of materials, and attention to details. There is a refreshing mix of work by established artists and newcomers. It is also nice to see some of the pros taking a chance by offering recent examples that represent the new directions they're taking -- although some folks ought to stop showing the same shopworn stuff (you know who you are).

In an open juried show of this type, it is endemic that the range of works cover almost every style, material, and philosophy currently in vogue -- or out. This exhibit abounds with contrasts in content and intent. The joy of companionship in George DeFranca's charming color photo of three Sisters is vastly increased when compared to the revulsion evoked by Eva Adjoian's horrific wax, papier maché and cloth babies in The Nuclearistic Vicissitudes Evulsed from the Nuptial Series. A stylistic contrast within a particular medium is evident between WCC woodworker Robert March's finely tuned maple walnut Bench with its measured curves and sensuous arches and Brad King's dark Medusa's Chair: A Striking Design fashioned from gnarled laurel vines and rough planks that hide a rattlesnake's head poised to strike.

The majority of paintings, drawings, and photos in this exhibition are figurative and representational, with few abstract attempts other than Coleen Payne's noteworthy lyrical charcoal drawing Adagio. Some works, however, enter into a deeply personal realm. David Prifti's large wall piece Reliquary, with its faded photo, dried wood, old brooms, and bleached bone, appears to serve as a memorial to a dear one. Peter Wise's tall, colorful painting Under the Volcano equates Mayan gods with Christianity as linked by time, or does it? We are left also to wonder what was going through Marcella Stasa's mind while she worked on her untitled piece which sets a dead bird's head and a desiccated salamander among dried-flower petals on a tiny, rusted tin bench. The raison d'être that drives Timothy Zelesky's fanciful acrylic painting Marriage is much more obvious. In it, the partners have become so intertwined that you can't trace their individual parts.

Among the 22 winners were Xiaodong Zhang for his sensitive painting of a young woman, Michael Hachey for his frenzied truck drawings and Worcester Phoenix's own Cheryl Richards for her tiny Polaroid transfer of snow-whipped Bostonians. But more about me. The judges were kind enough to include a covered porcelain-luster jar and platter I'd submitted. Thanks. Of course, it remains to be seen who will win the coveted Visitor's Choice Award, which is to be decided by vox populi (that, dear readers, means you). So get to the show soon and support the artist of your choice, either by vote or purchase -- or both.

Worcester Center for Crafts gallery is open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Closed July 4 and 5. Call ARTSWorcester at 755-5142 or the WCC at 755-8183.

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