Congratulations to AVA’s 2019 Summer Juried Exhibition Award Winners!




AVA Gallery and Art Center is thrilled to have an enthusiastic and talented group of Exhibition interns and volunteers this summer. Whether patching and painting gallery walls, curating the Staff and Intern Exhibition in the newly remodeled Member Gallery, hanging artwork for the 2019 Summer Juried Exhibition, organizing storage spaces, or fine tuning spreadsheets, these women do loads of work that allow us to operate at full speed this summer. When you see them in the building, say hello, ask about their future studies and plans, and wait to be impressed by their amazing resumes and collective knowledge!
AVA is very thankful for the 2019 Summer Interns who are generously sponsored by Gail and John Wasson.
(l-r) Annie Tilley, Elif Usuloglu, Allison Collins take a break and admire their handiwork in hanging the 2019 Summer Juried Exhibition. Not pictured is volunteer Amy Hansen.
Joseph Saginor is our Lobby Artist of the Month. Joseph’s artwork is on display in AVA’s lobby until the end of July. Each month we hope to highlight the artwork of a different artist renting one of the 20 studio spaces in the Carter-Kelsey building. Artwork by tenants is on display throughout the 2nd and 3rd floors, and is changed by the artists as their work progresses. Come take a look!
Big plans are under way in our Member Gallery! In an effort to make the space as beautiful as AVA’s main galleries, electrical conduits and a ventilation fan were removed to provide larger expanses of walls to hang art. A new flat file for member artists to store their work is in place, and a schedule of member artist exhibitions and socials will soon be published.
If you would like to be included in the Member Gallery Committee, the body responsible for planning and implementing member artist exhibitions and monthly social gatherings, please contact Interim Exhibition Manager Heidi Reynolds at heidi@avagallery.org or (603) 448-3117.
We’re very excited to welcome Heidi Reynolds as AVA’s Interim Exhibition Manager! Heidi is a photographer and supporter of the arts who most recently worked in development at Northern Stage and Montshire Museum of Science. She has been an Upper Valley resident since 2008 and is thrilled to be working with the staff, donors, members, artists and volunteers at AVA!
Mila Pinigin, AVA’s accomplished Exhibition Manager since 2017, spent her last day at AVA on June 14th. She will pursue an advanced degree in Art History this fall in Florence, Italy. We wish her well!
AVA’s silent auction fundraiser Flourish had a rejuvenated feel this year! Former Executive Director Bente Torjusen was back greeting people at the entrance to the galleries, Interim Director Hilde Ojibway mingled with party-goers inside, and the Fred Haas Trio kept the pace lively. The unpredictable spring weather co-operated with a beautiful evening, and the AVA spirit was alive and well!
So many of our AVA family participated to make this year’s silent auction a smashing success: staff, board members, and our incredible volunteers all pulled together to put on a fabulous party. AVA artists and members donated an amazing amount of high-quality artwork, and our local businesses outdid themselves with their donations this year. But most of all, it was the community of AVA supporters who came Saturday night and filled the galleries with their enthusiasm, dancing, and spirited bidding who made the night so special. Thank you everyone, for ensuring that AVA will flourish!
On Friday, February 15, AVA’s named galleries quickly filled up with people of all ages. Some arrived by the yellow school bus-full. All came to celebrate the artists whose work was selected for the 11th Annual Best of the Upper Valley High School Exhibition.
Featuring 120 artists representing 13 different high schools in the Upper Valley, the exhibition is an impressive showcase of the breadth and depth of creative young talent in our region.
The gallery was tinged with anticipation as the artists, their teachers, families, and friends awaited the awards ceremony, announcing the winners and honorable mentions in each of 13 categories, from analog photography and painting to woodworking and wearable art.
Morgan Freeman, Native American Art Fellow at the Hood Museum of Art, juried this year’s exhibition. Morgan encouraged participating artists to approach her after the award ceremony to discuss their work together. When Mila Pinigin, Exhibition Manager at AVA, asked for a round of applause for “all of the art teachers that made this event possible” the room erupted with cheers from students and families alike.
The show ends March 8, with a High School Art Portfolio Review Day from 10am–1pm. Come get lost in all of the talent!
AVA congratulates this year’s High School Exhibition winners in each category:
BEST OF AWARDS
Analog Photography: David Hutchinson, “Honda,” Newport High School
Ceramics: Emilee Lenning, “Gurgling Fish Pitcher,” Hanover High School
Digital Art: Claire Yegian, “Horizons,” Hanover High School
Digital Photography: Victoria Michienzi, “Visibility,” Holderness School
Drawing: Nathan Stark, “The Teacher’s Desk,” Newport High School
Fiber: Poppy Tans, “Lady,” The Sharon Academy
Furniture: Ben Daniels, “Coffee Table,” Proctor Academy
Mixed Media: Oscar Fredette, “adikos,” Stevens High School
Painting: Ruoqian Chu, “Life Struggle,” Kimball Union Academy
Printmaking: William Jones, “Window to the Soul,” Mascoma Valley Regional High School
Sculpture: Brianna Nemi, “Untitled,” Stevens High School
Wearable Art: Aanan Merritt, “Contrasting Stone Set Earrings,” Hanover High School
Environmental Message: Alice Pham Le, “Whale in a Plastic Bottle,” Kimball Union Academy
HONORABLE MENTIONS
Ceramics: Ruoqian Chu, “Pierced Vessel,” Kimball Union Academy
Ceramics: Jason Wolstenholme, “Zipper Mugs,”Thetford Academy
Drawing: Nicole Whatley, “Jerry,” Hartford High School
Drawing: Zoe Napier, “Brother & Sister,” Woodstock Union High School
Mixed Media: Aidan Doherty, “Play With Me,” Proctor Academy
Painting: Kate Lubell, “Me Under the Piano,” Hanover High School
Painting: Annie Zhao, “Jiufen Street,” Lebanon High School
Sculpture: Ella Shinnlinger, “Guardian of the Crystal Cage,” Mascoma Valley Regional High School
Wearable Art: Falcon Jaacks, “1860s Era Polonaise Paletot,” Hanover High School
Environmental Message: Fallon Lavertue, “Abeille,” Stevens High School
Special Thanks To Our Sponsors
Horse-drawn carriage rides, which were one part of the city’s holiday celebration, also featured visits with Santa and the park’s official tree lighting. Not far from the bundled crowds, far cozier and just as bright, AVA Gallery hosted its annual Holiday Exhibition and Open House, offering a relaxing, art-filled opportunity to welcome the season.
Right as you walked in, peace greeted you. Yes, a wall with handwritten messages of peace, all hung from twine, encouraged visitors to leave a message of their own or to take one as they went. And exploring AVA further, a sense of peace followed you, through every room on every floor, where chance after chance to engage with local art and artists seemed to be waiting.
Overheard at one point in the long first-floor hall: “AVA is like a real-life Advent calendar today.” Each doorway opened to some new delight.
Entering the main gallery you found a beautiful showroom and marketplace with an inspiring variety of artworks by staff and member artists, from painted canvases and sculptures to handmade ornaments and fine jewelry, all available for purchase—a sale that continues seven days a week through December 24, guaranteed to be the most pleasant holiday shopping experience anywhere in the Upper Valley.
A steady stream of visitors wove in and out of artist studios on the second and third floors, welcomed in by the artists displaying works-in-progress up close as well as finished pieces for purchase. A piano recital in the Library sent music throughout the second floor, and venturing to the top floor, you might have discovered the small exhibit of artwork created by children in Allison Zito’s weekly after-school workshop.
In the classroom studios, festive art waited to be made, whether collage ornaments or handmade cards. For the slightly more courageous, in the warmly lit North Studio, AVA faculty artist Karl Neubauer offered to sketch your portrait—that is, if you could sit very still for 20 minutes.
Heading next door into the Bente Sculptural Studies Building was like stumbling upon Santa’s Little Village, where children and grown-ups alike tinkered and toyed with everything from lumps of clay to hot metal.
Santa’s little elves were everywhere. Roger Goldenberg and his trusty apprentice, AVA’s marketing manager Alicia Bergeron, showed off a metal-manipulation process called hot forging and steel inflation. Nearby, Dudley Whitney and Chris McGrody gave a hands-on tour of woodworking implements. Stone-carvers Sandra Silverang and Heather Ritchie shared their workshop, and David Ernster and Karen Earls invited visitors to sink their fingers into clay.
All day and into evening, the holiday spirit gathered and swelled throughout AVA, as outside the horse-drawn carriage made its loop around town. Gathering coats and mittens and purchased art before departing, many paused once more at the wall of peace, to breathe, to read new messages that had been added, to take a little peace with them as they went.
Photos by Michael Seamans
By Tom Haushalter
Little treasures were too many to count at the closing party for AVA Gallery’s 2nd Annual 10×10 Exhibition and Fundraiser. In every corner, it seemed, there was something going on: food trucks, a photo booth, a live DJ, and dancing. And that’s all before you got to where the art was happening.
The event’s namesake showcase of art of was its own endless array of treasure. More than 140 works—all made using the same 10-inch by 10-inch wooden panel—created and contributed by 103 area artists covered the walls of the Members’ Gallery. On Friday, after two weeks on display at AVA, the art works were finally available for purchase at $100 a piece.
Partygoers and potential buyers might have looked like kids in a candy store—and some actually were kids—as they moved from panel to panel, admiring each one for its own colorful, often whimsical, and bite-sized take on the challenge to create something inside less than one square foot.
Mila Pinigin, AVA’s Exhibition Manager and organizer of the event, was truly impressed with the talent and range on display in the 10×10 exhibit, featuring works by professional artists and community members alike, although they were shown anonymously, encouraging partygoers to see each piece for its own sake.
Pinigin learned that some artists used the 10×10 opportunity to rekindle old techniques, such as oil painting, or to experiment with new. “One artist wanted to buy his own piece back because it’s taken him on a whole new trajectory,” she said.
And you could call the general mood in the gallery gleeful, with so many people either itching to snag the little piece of art they’d had their eye on for days or completely unable to decide which one they liked most. Some were purchasing art for the first time. Some, of course, went home with more than one.
Inside the lobby, a pop-up portrait studio gave buyers the chance to pose with their exciting new purchase—a token of gratitude for their support of AVA’s mission to make art happen in the community, through classes and workshops, exhibitions and scholarships, for people of all ages and abilities.
The fervor of the occasion held steady, even as panel after 10×10 panel came down from the wall, heading for its new home. Delicious flavors from the VT Munchies and Taco’s Tacos food trucks outside mingled with DJ Melissa’s thumping rhythms well into the evening, and it wouldn’t have been odd to catch someone dancing their way out of AVA, with a piece of art tucked beneath their arm.
If you participated in our complimentary photo booth, click here to download your portrait! (If prompted, use the password AVA10x10)
Little treasures can still be found in our Members’ Gallery–each for only $100!
Portraits by Sarah Farkas
Event Photos by Michael Seamans
Most of the pieces in Bruce Blanchette’s exhibition now at AVA are wall-mounted, yet you feel you’re looking downward on them. And you may waver between calling it collage or painting or sculpture.
Blanchette, one of AVA’s 2017 Juried Award Winners and whose work is up in the The Clifford B. West Gallery until August 24, renders the experience of an aerial view—of what could be cityscapes or cracked earth—in three-dimensional depth, forcing us out of conventional ways of interacting not just with art but with the world.
We asked Blanchette to let us into his process and singular point of view.
Tell us about aerial landscapes in your work. Whether it appears we’re looking down from great heights upon wending rivers or ancient symmetrical cities or cracked earth, where does this fascination come from?
Bruce Blanchette: We live today with technology that pervades every aspect of how we see the world. What was once unknowable, like viewing our planet from satellite photos, even the moon, has exposed us to the reality of the living earthly spaceship which provides us with everything we need to survive the hostile environment of the universe. Unfortunately, we have not treated Mother Earth very well in the past couple of centuries and are beginning to see the result of our careless disregard for the environment.
I first became influenced by the photos of David Maisel, which were aerial views of landscapes being ruined by industrial pollution and selfish greed. My 2008 low reliefs were a response to Maisel’s sightings from an airplane, which struck a chord with me. These works were my imaginings that incorporated wallboard compound, sand, adhesives and traditional painting materials to manipulate color and surface. Later, my continued fascination with images taken from space used laser technology to form an accurate topographic mapping of the earth by scientists and archeologists searching for ancient ruins—in the jungles of Central America, in Egypt, and other parts of the world. These new 3-D computer-generated images gave me much to think about.
And I pick up a tension in the fractured symmetry of these pieces. Even in the Glacial series, there’s a tendency toward balance in the riven surface. An even breakage. How do you understand this unusual symmetry—in nature and in your work?
BB: This is not so much a desire for balance as it is a function of cropping my composition. I look at them as small sections of landscape that I have excised from the surrounding area of photographs, then converted to drawings in ink on panels. It is also my biggest struggle, because I feel some, like the Glacial Series, are too “perfect” and, perhaps, sterile as expressions. Attempting to eliminate the square and rectangular framed format is what I have moved toward in recent modular pieces. It bothered me, probably more than viewers, that my reliefs could so easily be mistaken for paintings… a little too “precious” for my current awareness of possibilities beyond the frame! My task, as I see it lately, is to use more asymmetry as a factor in my conceptual aesthetic.
You’ve said that your process begins with the material in hand, before any idea or concept has taken hold. What aspects of a chosen material do you consider, to give it the potential to be reshaped?
BB: Typically, I choose support materials first, and usually have something in mind beforehand that I want to add to it. I have a lot of experience working with wood or materials adaptable to woodworking techniques and tools. For a number of years, I have found hollow core doors to be a very lightweight and rigid substrate upon which all kinds of media can be applied. Formerly, I used MDF board for this purpose, but it is extremely heavy. Beyond that, almost anything that I can glue, screw, nail, or otherwise affix to the backing opens up creative possibilities for wall hung reliefs.
Your work seems to reside at the intersection of sculpture and canvas, and even slides between two- and three-dimensionality, depending on one’s angle of perspective. Is this a tension you feel yourself negotiating as you create?
BB: Absolutely! The best example of this is the fully three-dimensional “Ground Zero-Altar of the True Path,” which in its original form was a wall hanging maze, and devoid of context. It took me a couple of years, after putting it aside, to realize that it needed to be horizontal, not vertical, after which the concept grew into the piece that resides in the show. However, I am not adverse to reworking any artwork that has, in my mind, unresolved issues which this piece did; engendering a third revision this past year to correct a surface problem that didn’t satisfy me. In this case, the tension was aesthetic rather than structural.
Explore Bruce Blanchette’s exhibit, along with work by fellow Juried Award Winners Helen Shulman and Susan Wilson, at AVA Gallery until August 24.