Exhibits, galleries, theater and more: Seacoast arts and culture news
GBCC features New Installation by N.H. Artist Barbara Rita Jenny at their Gateway Gallery
PORTSMOUTH — Great Bay Community College presents “re|section” by Portsmouth, N.H. based artist, Barbara Rita Jenny. “re|section” is a large scale, site-specific installation of laser cut felt pieces, and is part of Jenny’s current body of work, Dura Mater. The outermost, protective lining of the brain, dura mater translates literally from Latin as “tough mother.” As the artist states, Dura Mater is part of “an effort to understand the misfiring, inflammation, and deterioration of the brains of loved ones…to make sense, make order, cut and realign and paste like placing ephemeral Band-aids on invisible wounds.” Several groupings of ancillary works by the artist are on display as well, giving viewers an in-depth look at the artist’s working and creative process.
Jenny is a digital media artist and educator with a bent towards science and math in her work and teaching. She most recently taught at Cocheco Academy of the Arts, after long stints at Philllips Exeter Academy and Heronfield Academy where she developed hybrid art/math curricula to foster spatial acuity and teach everything from ratios to the coordinate plane, tessellation to the Fibonacci sequence. Jenny is a recipient of numerous awards and grants, including the coveted NH Charitable Foundation’s “Artist’s Advancement Grant” and is on the roster of New Hampshire State Arts Fellows.
Additionally, Jenny is an arts and community advocate, having served on Portsmouth’s first Blue Ribbon Committee for Arts and Culture, co-founding the Islington Creek Neighborhood Association, and coordinating the Rock Street Park stage project – one of the first community art projects in Portsmouth. In 2009 she established an artist’s residency program in Nova Scotia to support artists from Maine College of Art and Design.
Her recent work transforms electron micrographs and high-resolution digital microscopy of human brain cells into ornate pattern. By applying complex geometrical equations, Jenny has also morphed macroscopic images of human flesh into kaleidoscopic images and complex pattern. Finished products take various forms, from traditional wall hung prints to projected images, immersive installations, and large wall relief sculpture.
Jenny works in a backyard studio behind her home where she lives with her husband, some combination or permutation of her four children and extended family, plus rescued dogs Breaker and Betty.
The exhibition will be open to the public now through April 22. The Gateway Gallery, located in the main entrance to GBCC’s Portsmouth campus, is open to the public during regular campus hours. Any inquiries regarding the exhibition can be made to the gallery curator Andrew Super via email at asuper@ccsnh.edu.
Museum launches Artist-In-Residency Program
KENNEBUNK, Maine – The Brick Store Museum announced the Bauman Artist-in-Residency for 2022, a new initiative funded through the generosity of the Bauman Family Foundation. This fund allows the Museum to sponsor a guest artist for the summer months to spend time with the Museum’s collections and create new works from their inspiration.
The Museum is seeking an artist to create works of art that reflects the diverse history and cultures of Kennebunk through any art medium. The selected Artist will earn a Residency stipend for their contributions to forwarding our community’s arts and humanities learning. Applicants can learn more about the opportunity and find the application on the Museum’s website, www.brickstoremuseum.org.
The Artist-in-Residence will hold the position for three months and is expected to produce a Final Project (work of art, play, piece of music, etc.) to be accepted into the Museum’s collection and offer at least one public program (i.e. workshop or program based on specialty). During the Residency, the artist will contribute to the Artist Blog on the Museum’s website.
Artists in all media (painting, illustration, writing, poetry, sculpture, performance, music, etc.) are eligible to apply. Please apply to the Residency Program by April 30 by using the application form on the Museum’s website.
This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Exhibits, galleries, theater and more: Seacoast arts and culture news
