PREVIEW: CURRENT

Space, time and energy at the Kingston Gallery.

Featured image by Susan Richards.

The Kingston Gallery’s upcoming exhibit, CURRENT, will explore the many ways in which three themes—space, time, energy—affect the aesthetic life. Featuring new work from the gallery’s 10 associate members,

the word “current” became an open invitation to interpret such a broad theme (arguably the broadest theme) through mediums ranging from painting to photography to mixed media collages.

Robert Maloney

One such associate member, artist Robert Maloney, will be showcasing his latest work, which he describes as “2D and 3D mixed media constructions.” His pieces are so recent that he was actually finishing one of them up during our conversation. Citing influences that include everything from architecture to signage, his creations focus on all the ways the interpretation of “current” comes into play in the modern world. “There are lots of definitions to the word,” he says. “Everything from currency to current time to electrical currents, to the way that we record time in photos and video and different ways we process information. Those were all things that went through my mind as I tried to brainstorm imagery.”

His work for the show, then, will be in a medium that is just as inclusive as his interpretation of the theme. “[The] piece that I’m working on right now deals with imagery within the urban landscape. I ended up using photos that I’ve taken, collaged together onto different surfaces that sort of mimic the images that I’ve taken photos of.

So there’s a little bit of a play on imagery with constructing things as well as photographing things that I end up incorporating into the construction. It’s a little bit of a push and pull with the elements.”

Chantal Hardy, who describes herself primarily as a painter, showed work at Kingston last year composed in pen and ink. For CURRENT, she drew from her inspiration in the past to create louder, more vivid pieces. “Last summer I was looking at a lot of satellite imagery of the earth for inspiration. The paintings I’ve done this year are again inspired by landforms and thinking a lot about water and about islands and continents. The paintings are colorful; they have a lot of brushstrokes, [with] maybe a transition from less of a satellite imagery base to something a little closer to the ground.”

Rachel Thern

The works themselves feature bright land masses with textural strokes of oceans and coves in myriad blue shades, interpreting the gallery’s theme in a more literal sense. “I was thinking about the word ‘current’ much more in terms of water current,” she said. “I’ve been thinking a lot about water, the ocean … the way land forms in that water.”

The exhibition will feature a variety of media and interpretation, like photography by Peggy McClure and encaustic collages by Jeanne Griffin, among others.