Paste-up

Ayer Lofts Gallery
172 Middle Street, Lowell, MA.
www.ayerlofts.com
April 5 – April 29, 2007
Thursday 6-9pm, Saturday and Sunday 12-4pm
Artists Reception, Saturday, April 7, 6-8 P.M.

Contact: Karen Bettencourt, curator
781-929-7101

As an art form, collage is all about thinking outside of the box. So be prepared to be intrigued, amazed, and maybe even puzzled by this juried show of small format collage works. 

The dictionary defines paste-up as a composition of “flat objects pasted to a sheet or other backing”.  This exhibit is an excellent representation of that definition, and presents a wide range of different kinds of collage – from paper on paper, to photographs, fabric on fabric, to metal and other ephemera.  The curator for Paste-up is collage and fiber artist Karen Bettencourt of Woburn, who was joined in the jury process by artists Maxine Farkas of Lowell, and Mary Hart of Winchester. They selected 31 works by 22 U.S. and international artists for this exceptional show. 

“Collage has played an important role in my art and when the opportunity came to curate a show of my choosing, I decided on a collage.  While collage is included in many Mixed Media art shows and gallery exhibitions, there are very few shows that focus only on collage.  I hope this exhibition contributes to filling that gap” says Karen Bettencourt, the curator.

Collage is a technique pioneered by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque during the early 1900s in their papier collés, where they glued materials such as imitation wood-grained wallpaper and newspaper to the surface of their cubist paintings. As Picasso explained, “The purpose of papier collé was to give the idea that different textures can enter into a composition to become the reality in the painting that competes with the reality in nature.”

A reception for Paste-up will be held on Saturday, April 7, from 6-8 pm at the Ayer Lofts Gallery, 172 Middle Street in Lowell. New England artists include: Sandra Donabed, Linda Dunn, Paula Erker, Cornelia Jutta Forster, A.F. Norling, Wen Redmond, Alexandra Sheldon, Matt Theodhos, Gay Tracy, and Susan Tuttle.