Side Project Gallery presents ‘Kalina Winters: Dimensions,’ a solo exhibition of works on paper and panel
Great Barrington— From December 7th through February 7th, Side Project Gallery presents ‘Kalina Winters: Dimensions,’ a solo exhibition of works on paper and panel.
Kalina Winters creates paintings that explore the interplay of color, form, and depth, with layered geometric forms that bulge out into space packed with explosive color and motion. Her pieces often feature infinite expanses of color juxtaposed with flat planes of tactile paint strokes, creating a dynamic tension between the illusion of three-dimensionality and the reality of the surface. Through a combination of thick impasto, airy washes, and delicate pencil marks, Winters achieves a rich visual field of textures and depths.
Her recent body of work imagines immense pressure compressing and collapsing her forms into the two-dimensional space of the paper or canvas. The illusory effect of her world is heightened with the addition of multiple layers, each opening onto and revealing the one behind. Flowers, faces, and figures are broken down into stylized shapes and symbols that veer into abstraction, and sometimes meld into each other. Shapes exist both as building blocks to help make up the representational figures and caricatures of her world as well as in their own right as abstract objects or motifs that repeat to comprise larger patterns. With a playful style, Winters employs layered geometric flowers that appear in many ways- sometimes as graphic cut-outs or depicted like folded origami. These elements are accompanied by foreshortened female figures, depicted from a bird’s-eye view or from beneath, who seem to exist both within and between the layers of paint.
Winters’ work is imbued with a disarming directness and hyperbolic perspective that forces us to approach her art with a sense of humor and without pretense. “Dimensions” asks the viewer to look at the project of painting, and the artist’s attempt to squeeze a three-dimensional world onto a flat canvas, in a way that is both funny and endearingly human at the same time.
The exhibit runs from December 7th through February 7th at Side Project Gallery, located at 152 Main Street in Great Barrington. There will be an opening reception on Saturday, December 7th from 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. More information can be found online.
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Guild of Berkshire Artists presents ‘Small Works for Holiday Giving’
West Stockbridge— On Saturdays and Sundays from December 7th through December 22nd, Guild of Berkshire Artists presents “Small Works for Holiday Giving,” including ceramics, fiber, oils and cold wax.
Featured artists include Margie Skaggs, Karen Carmean, Sue Aiken, Jane Craker, Sarah Morrison, Mike Coyne, and Carolyn Abrams.
The exhibit runs on Saturdays and Sundays from December 7th through December 22nd at Art on Main Gallery, located at 38 Main Street in West Stockbridge. There will be an opening reception on Sunday, December 8th from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. More information can be found online.
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Berkshire International Film Festival presents a special screening event of the long-awaited sequel ‘Gladiator II’ with talk by award-winning producer Douglas Wick
Great Barrington— On Friday, December 6th at 7 p.m., Berkshire International Film Festival presents a special screening event of the long-awaited sequel ‘Gladiator II’ with talk by award-winning producer Douglas Wick.
Twenty-four years after the epic film “Gladiator” wowed world-wide audiences, famed director Ridley Scott is back with “Gladiator II,” which continues the epic saga of power, intrigue, and vengeance set in Ancient Rome. Years after witnessing the death of the revered hero Maximus at the hands of his uncle, Lucius (Paul Mescal) is forced to enter the Colosseum after his home is conquered by the tyrannical Emperors who now lead Rome with an iron fist. With rage in his heart and the future of the Empire at stake, Lucius must look to his past to find strength and honor to return the glory of Rome to its people.
Douglas Wick is an award-winning motion-picture producer whose films have earned $3 billion at the box office, as well as 22 Academy Award® nominations and seven Academy Award® wins. Wick is best known for producing “Gladiator,” which won five Academy Awards®, including Best Picture, and became a worldwide cinematic phenomenon, winning two Golden Globes®, four BAFTAs, the PGA’s Motion Picture of the Year Award, the MTV Movie Award for Best Movie and the AFI’s Movie of the Year. Wick also garnered a bevy of Academy Award® nominations and awards for movies like “Working Girl,” “Girl Interrupted,” “Stuart Little,” “Wolf,” “The Craft,” “Hollow Man,” and “Spy Game.”
The screening is on Friday, December 6th at 7 p.m. at The Mahaiwe, located at 14 Castle Street in Great Barrington. After the screening, Wick will share exclusive behind-the-scenes stories from both films and talk about the making of this mega-budget production. Tickets and more information can be found online.
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MCLA theatre program presents ‘The Method Gun’
North Adams— From December 6th to December 8th, Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts’ (MCLA) Theatre program presents “The Method Gun.”
This daring and thought-provoking work by Kirk Lynn and the Rude Mechs, re-imagined under the direction of Professor Laura Standley, takes audiences into the world of actor training, examining the intense and mysterious techniques of mid-century acting guru Stella Burden and her fiercely committed company of actors. Through a mix of archival material and imaginative storytelling, the play revisits the group’s final, tumultuous months of rehearsal for an ambitious nine-year staging of “A Streetcar Named Desire” — performed without its central characters.
Equal parts absurd, poignant, and hilarious, “The Method Gun” invites audiences to consider the nature of artistic dedication. As the company grapples with the challenges of their radical process, the play raises larger questions: What drives us to create? How far will we go for art? What does it mean to seek truth onstage? With its blend of humor, mystery, and emotional resonance, this theatrical event promises to entertain, challenge, and spark conversation.
Performances are on December 6th and 7th at 8 p.m. and December 8th at 2 p.m. at MCLA’s Venable Theatre, located at 375 Church Street in North Adams. Tickets and more information can be found online.
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WordXWord presents ‘Poets Creating Conversation’
Pittsfield— On Tuesday, December 10th at 7 p.m., WordXWord presents “Poets Creating Conversation” at the Unitarian Universalist Church.
Not for the faint of heart, “Poets Creating Conversation” throws out a single word/idea and asks poets to circle around. This time, the prompt is “BREATH.”
The adult and teen event is on Tuesday, December 10th at 7 p.m. at the Unitarian Universalist Church, located at 175 Wendell Avenue in Pittsfield. Sign-ups and more information can be found online.
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Adult board game meet-up at Ramsdell Library
Housatonic— Every first Saturday of the month, starting on Saturday, December 7th at 1 p.m., the Great Barrington Libraries present a monthly Adult board game meet-up at Ramsdell Library.
Visit Ramsdell Library for an afternoon of board games. Bring your own or play some from the library’s growing collection. The games will be geared towards older teens and adults due to their complexity, but all are welcome.
The group meets every first Saturday of the month, starting on Saturday, December 7th at 1 p.m. at Ramsdell Library, located at 1087 Main Street in Housatonic. More information can be found online.
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MADD candlelight vigil
Pittsfield— On Sunday, December 8th at 3 p.m., the Berkshire District Attorney’s Office will host a vigil to remember those who have died due to a drunk driver.
The program will include District Attorney Shugrue, representatives from the Massachusetts State Police, honorary speakers, and the Grace Notes from Miss. Halls.
The vigil is on Sunday, December 8th at 3 p.m. at St Stephen’s Episcopal Church, located at 67 East Street in Pittsfield.
