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Hunt or Gather opens Saturday at Saville Gallery
Exhibit part of Arts Walk
CUMBERLAND — Starting Saturday and through Nov. 20, the Allegany Arts Council’s Saville Gallery will present Hunt or Gather, featuring artwork by Nellie Appleby (mixed media sculpture) and Michael Lease (photography and mixed media).
An opening reception for the exhibit will be held Saturday from 5 to 8 p.m. in conjunction with an Arts Walk in Downtown Cumberland’s Arts & Entertainment District. The reception is free and open to the public.
On Sunday at 2 p.m., there will also be a free “Tea & Talk” with Appleby and Lease in the Saville Gallery. For additional information, call the Allegany Arts Council at (301) 777-ARTS.
Promotional material about Appleby, written by Vita Litvak, follows: “Nellie Appleby is an explorer, an adventurer and most importantly a cartographer, whose mission it seems, is to discover and record the topography of a magical and verdant land. The intricate maps Appleby creates often take the form of multimedia installations and reveal the rich world of interconnections between plant life and everyday life. Set against the deep blue glow of large cyanotypes and buried in the midst of crawling house plants is the flicker of looping videos that capture moments of joy and wonder — like the feet of lovers entwined in the act of lovemaking, or fireworks lighting the night sky in a frantic exuberance of color.
“The rhythm and repetition of these moving images seem to mimic the pulsation of beating hearts, maybe even the hearts of the magnificent spider plant, the hardy aloe, and the lush avocado tree amongst which they live. Photographs that accompany her installations often depict scenarios of quirky coexistence, in which Appleby, through clever and humorous disguises becomes part of the plant kingdom, or transforms a nocturnal pasture into a magical world of glowing star bursts. As these installations spread across the gallery floor in their meandering fashion, they weave together stories that uplift, amuse and enliven our spirits.
In the end it is Appleby’s capacity to wonder at the simple beauties of the organic and the human world that bring to us a refreshingly optimistic perspective, a point of view wholly infused with the belief in the potential of things to grow and flourish.
Lease is an adjunct professor in the photo/film department at Virginia Commonwealth University. Born in 1972 in Washington, Lease received his master of fine arts degree from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2005.
His collaborative project SAMETIME 7:15 was featured on National Public Radio’s “Morning Edition” on Dec. 31, 2008. Lease’s solo and collaborative work has been shown at the Agni Gallery in New York City, and at the American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center, Site Projects DC (curated by Welmoed Laanstra), and the Flashpoint Gallery in Washington.
In Virginia, Lease has exhibited at 1708 Gallery and Visual Arts Center of Richmond, as well as James Madison University’s New Image Gallery in Harrisonburg. Lease has participated in micro-installations in Taiwan, and was included in elin o’hara slavick and Laura Sharp Wilson’s “HEROES,” an exhibition at Bryce’s Barbershop in Olympia, Wash., and Lump gallery in Raleigh, N.C.
In May, he organized the exhibit Travelogue (featuring the work of Martin Parr, Michelle Van Parys and Olaf Breuning) with Ashley Kistler, director of Virginia Commonwealth University’s Anderson Gallery.
“‘Send Me the Pillow that You Dream On’ is a continuation of my interest in gathering photographs from vernacular collections,” said Lease. “In an effort to create a multifaceted portrait, participants were asked to submit four photographs: a school picture from between the ages 15 and 17; a picture of the pillow on which they sleep; a picture shot though an oft-viewed domestic window; and a current picture of themselves.
“The collection was sorted by type; each high school picture, pillow, window and contemporary portrait was grouped with others of its kind, and presented as a large-scale print.
“These typological documents illuminate the commonality of experience while affording the opportunity to scrutinize the subjects’ idiosyncrasies.”
