Housatonic — “Unpolished,” an art exhibit on display at the Center for Peace through Culture until Saturday, Oct. 7, features the work 27 different artists. According to Center for Peace through Culture Executive Director Melanie McCarthy, the exhibit aims to encourage artists to submit pieces of art “without the feeling that they were perfect or gallery ready.”
“Anything that’s unfinished, rough work, or sketches,” McCarthy told The Berkshire Edge. “I wanted to encourage artists to show what they had and what was on their minds. In this kind of art, there is a lot of honesty. The humanity of the artist is visible in these pieces. You can see more of the human and not just the emotion, but the craft and the process of their work as well. Sometimes when things are worked on over and over again, there’s too much overthought and the human presence is lost.”
The exhibit includes thought-provoking art by Bernard Re from Canaan, Conn. Re’s work includes the abstract painting “There is no safe place,” which Re said is inspired by the deaths and displacement of Palestinians in Gaza. “My work is more abstract, but it has figurative and also subjective elements to it,” Re said. “The painting ‘There is no safe place’ was inspired by a comment I heard from a little girl in Palestine. This is about people huddled together trying to find a safe place, and it’s no fault of their own. They were in the wrong place at the wrong time. We’re lucky to be in the United States and most of us have a safe place to go. But other people in the world are not so lucky, and I think everyone deserves a safe place.”
Particularly fitting into the theme of “Unpolished” is Pittsfield sculptor Peter Vacchina’s piece “Tower.” “I found this piece of marble up near Windsor,” Vacchina said. “To me, it was interesting the way the marble broke. I didn’t do anything to it except put it on a base, because it’s such an interesting piece.”
Jess Frey describes her mixed-media piece work “Womb of the World” as “Great Mother Creator is trying to tell you something.” “My work has a lot of layers to it,” Frey said. “I have three pieces in the show, and it comes from a series called ‘Born Again.’ To me, there are parts of ourselves that need to die before we can live our most authentic lives.”
Holyoke-based artist David McBride said that he created his mixed-media and metal work “Climax” after he was inspired by the work “Salmone,” a play written by Oscar Wilde and illustrated by Aubrey Beardsley. “Climax” is a table lamp created with welded steel-cage restraints, along with a resin-coated, acid-free paper shade edged in copper, and a welded steel base with a flawed wood center in a deep pour of resin. “The lamp shows the final illustration of the play book that shows Salmone holding the hand of Saint John,” McBridge said. “She’s saying, ‘Can I kiss your mouth?’ It’s kind of gruesome, but the point is that Oscar Wilde has taken the story of Salmone and flipped it on its head. Wilde originally wrote it in French, then it was translated to English and performed in Victorian England, where women were really oppressed and exploited at the time. There was a very strong false narrative about women, and I think Wilde’s play really turns the narrative around. The play spoke the truth about what mainstream England was feeling about women at the time where they were exploiting and oppressing women.”
Visit the Center for Peace through Culture’s website for more information about the exhibit.
