VISUAL ARTS

Beverly MA - Leisure Art, in collaboration with the Gallery at Porter Mill, is pleased to announce it's first exhibition of the new year, Reconstructed: My Hands, Our History, from January 2nd through January 27th, 2013. The show includes assemblage and installation work by Brian Thomas and Sarah C. Rutherford. All are invited to attend an opening reception to meet the artists and enjoy
refreshments in the gallery on Thursday, January 3rd, 2013 from 5:00-9:00pm, which coincides with Beverly's First Thursday Art Walk. The gallery is located at 95 Rantoul Street Beverly MA.

Reconstructed brings together two very unique styles of art making. Brian Thomas is an assemblage artist whose deliberate work speaks to his life long experience in art-making. His materials include found objects such as wood, worn newspapers, tree bark, bee’s nests, and pieces of rusted metal. Thomas' treatment of these objects brings them together within a painterly, two-dimensional
motif while retaining their natural, “as is” beauty. His strong interest in hiking, camping, and exploring are complimented by his thirty-plus years working at a local museum in Salem, MA.

Sarah C. Rutherford creates mixed media installation. Through found objects and locally foraged materials, Rutherford tells the story of her Grandmother who, at age 30, emigrated from Australia to the North Shore of Massachusetts, where she married and ultimately settled. Rutherford explores wedding dress imagery throughout the installation with personal photographs as well as publicly donated digital reproductions. Advanced Placement Art Students from Beverly High School will assist Rutherford in the beginning stages of the installation. Rutherford currently resides in Rochester, New York.

Both Thomas and Rutherford offer the viewer an intimate journey into the past, while at the same time considering future ideas and generations through delicately cut paper, softly lit viewing spaces, and an appreciation for re-purposing.

If you would like to donate reproductions of your personal photography from the early 1900s to be included in this exhibition please contact curator Sarah Johnson at sarahdotjohnson@gmail.com or call (802) 999 – 5506. For more information on this event and gallery hours, visit http://studiosatportermill.blogspot.com/

This exhibition is supported in part by a grant from the Beverly Cultural council, a local agency which is supported by the Massachusetts Cultural council, a state agency.