BYFIELD — The Governor’s Academy is featuring work by “Local Artists: Liberty Street Lunch Club”, an exhibition of four local artists: Gordon Przybyla, Matt Connorton, Damon Jespersen and Lorenzo Minoli.
They represent the local art scene in Greater Newburyport. Their ceramics, painting, photography and woodwork exhibit will be on display in the gallery in the Remis Lobby of the Wilkie Center for the Performing Arts on The Governor’s Academy campus.
Through a history of motivating each other, this group of artists has endured as makers in a society that highly values efficiency, production and commercial goods.
Their story began in Newburyport, meeting for lunch and sharing their time over meals on Liberty Street. Shanna Fliegel, a ceramics teacher at Governor’s and director of the school’s gallery, says, “My intention on showing their work is to spotlight how that simple act of support and togetherness, how human connection, is what makes art valuable.”
Newbury-based artist Connorton is a carpenter specializing in traditional Japanese carpentry. Connorton has significant experience in wooden boat construction and maintenance, yacht carpentry, furniture making, timber carpentry, and many other woodworking disciplines.
His work for this show includes wooden cutting and serving boards, tables, and some Japanese joinery samples for hands-on display. His pieces feature hand-planed finished surfaces, some in combination with live edges or attractive damage. This is the first time Connorton has participated in a gallery show.
Jespersen was drawn into the world of theater and ceramics as early as high school, which became the center of his artistic career for many years before transitioning into sculpture and dance. Based in Byfield, he works as an actor, director, potter, sculptor, farmer, and politician. His ceramics range from altered thrown forms to functional pottery.
Newburyport-based artist Minoli’s Italian heritage has informed his photography over the years. His childhood was immersed in the elements that create dramatic colors in nature, and Rome, with its mild temperatures and frequent sea breezes, surrounded him with gently mixed, smoother colors.
These experiences brought him to what Lorenzo now searches for in nature: the simple, little things that surround us, that brim with either strong contrasting or smooth colors. Revealing the unique beauty of small hidden treasures in nature, he now shares stories through his photographs.
Przybyla is a visual artist whose interests span drawing, painting, photography and videography. Przybyla’s work focuses on the human form. Over time, his interests have shifted toward the material themselves, with the figure as an excuse to push paint or pixels around. Przybyla’s work has been seen and sold at the Newburyport Art Festival, and he has run a life drawing workshop at the Newburyport Art Association for 29 years.
“The collective power of artists exists on all levels, and this show intends to support the local niche that is alive and well in our immediate area,” Fliegal said. “Being an artist requires practice and a spirit, but it is only through the connections in which we have with each other that allows us to continue to pursue our creative directions.”
“Local Artists: Liberty Street Lunch Club” will be on display until Friday, Oct. 13. A opening reception takes place Friday, Sept. 15, from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m.
The gallery is open to the public from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. weekdays, Saturdays, and Sundays by appointment (Contact Shanna Fliegel at sfliegel@govsacademy.org).
Follow The Governor’s Academy on social media @govsarts and @govsacademy for updates.