Jun912:00PM
Marc St. Pierre: Black & White - Star Store Campus
Marc St. Pierre: Black & White
Location: University Art Gallery, Star Store Campus, Downtown New Bedford, MA
Open through September 9, 2021
Reception: AHA! Night, Thursday, August 12, 6-8 pm
Gallery hours: Mon-Fri 9 am - 6 pm and until 9 pm during AHA! Nights (second Thursday of every month)
The University Art Gallery in New Bedford is proud to present Black & White, an exhibition by a beloved UMass Dartmouth professor, the late Marc St. Pierre (June 23, 1952 - December 2, 2019), featuring a selection of mixed media drawings and collage with encaustic, as well as black and white photography.
Drawings created between 2008 and 2012, layered geometric elements, and abstract forms create a rich and poignant experience filled with wonder and exploration. They took inspiration from the 'man-made', architectural plans, diagrams, and maps of early explorers. In his artist statement from 2012, Marc said,As the drawing process evolves, organic shapes and gestural lines are introduced over the groundwork in transparent overlays. This provides a counterpoint to the precision associated with the geometry and acts as a multiple exposure in photography. This pictorial space becomes a dialog of random marks that combines the constructed with the unsystematic. My drawings intend to move the eye within an abstract and shallow picture plane in a gradual release of time.
The illusion of a 'deep space' in Marc's work, invites visitors into a complex, hazy, and multi-dimensional world of collage and encaustics that are presented in smaller formats in the exhibition. Describing his process in 2017, Marc wrote, "First, I use a variety of printmaking processes as a departure for recording marks, surfaces, and layers. This becomes a collage groundwork that allows me to invent the abstract equivalent of land patterns such as the meeting point of landmasses and water, for example. Secondly, additional layers of tracings from actual maps and topographic patterns are introduced. These drawings become a physical overlay suspended in translucent wax." Curiosity and the connection between the creative and scientific, as well as an equally strong interest in observing the tangible are also very much a part of Marc's pinhole camera work shown at Crapo Gallery.
After his retirement in 2017, Marc was often seen counting the time of his exposures while photographing various New Bedford locations. According to Gallery Director, Viera Levitt, "Marc would talk about taking his pinhole photographs, leaving for these expeditions from the Star Store Campus with a repurposed box readied with a small hole for capturing images directly on the photo paper. He enjoyed telling stories to his impromptu audiences including the building guard, about the random passers-by, observing his 'mysterious box' on the ground, ready to 'shoot'! It was indeed magic to see the one-of-a-kind monotypes he was able to capture with such simple, but skilled technique and his great patience for experimentation."
The exhibition is open through September 9 during the gallery hours Mon-Fri 9 am-6 pm and until 9 pm during AHA! Nights (the second Thursday of every month). The special reception is planned for Thursday, AHA! Night, August 12, from 6 to 8 pm.
More information about the exhibition, please visit
www.umassd.edu/cvpa/universityartgallery
For information about the Marc St. Pierre Memorial Scholarship, please visit giving.umassd.edu/stpierre.
Please Note:
Masks are encouraged, but not required for fully vaccinated individuals.
Please maintain a 6-foot distance from others.
Large bags, food, and beverages are not allowed in the gallery.
If you or a member of your party has or has had cold or flu-like symptoms, do not visit the gallery until after everyone is well and has completed a medically recommended quarantine period.
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