Eyes on Abstractions at East End Arts
The East End Arts Gallery’s new juried, all media art show, “Abstract & Almost Abstract”, opened Friday night, March 13.
“Whether purely abstract or just a little bit figurative, the artwork in this exhibition will be far from representational,” says East End Arts Gallery Director Jane Kirkwood.
This show was juried by Brian Washburn, artist and Director of the Washburn Gallery in New York City.
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Below are juror Brian Washburn’s comments on the show:
Upon facing the 275 submissions, I already had my ABSTRACT (and almost abstract) criteria top of mind. But as I faced my task of reviewing the submissions I discovered new criteria kept coming up in selecting these works of art.
Presentation became paramount. How did the artist/artists present their work? Do they respect themselves and the art that they have conjured up? Over-framing and over-matting were at issue. Too much is too much. Excess of either draws the eye away from the works activity on the picture plane.
Media. I was happy to be presented with submissions from all artistic media. Painting, printmaking, photography, sculpture, assemblage, collage, and computer digital work. So I fairly picked works from all mediums. I was quite taken with some of the photographers, I never thought I’d be choosing photography.
Dating. The last piece of criteria that struck me about going through the works, was, there was very little dating of the work. I wanted current, I wanted what was happening now. This became a point of departure for many of the works in round two of the selection of art for this exhibition. I found it insulting to find work dated, for instance 1998 submitted; while other hard working artists selected submissions that were current or executed within the last five years or less, please.
In the end, I had to make choices for best in show, runners up and honorable mentions. I picked stand outs. And that’s it. Not that these works are any better. I want to commend the outstanding work of all the artists in this exhibition.
Well done.
The show will run through April 17. The East End Arts Gallery is located at 133 East Main Street in Riverhead and open hours are Tuesdays through Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
