EARLVILLE — The opening of three exhibits will be marked with a reception from 1 to 3 p.m. Saturday, May 6, at Earlville Opera House at 18 E. Main St. in Earlville.
According to a media release, in the East Gallery will be textile artist Maren True who recently moved to Sherburne from Arizona. She is an aspiring Fantasy novelist and double majored in psychology and Medieval & Renaissance Studies at Colorado College. Her show of felt pieces “A Tale of Tangled Textiles” a speaks to the varied experience of magic from a dragon who’d love to snare its prey in a conversation, to landscapes of subtle enchantment.
“Felt is created by tangling fibers. Transforming a one-dimensional line, into a creature of not two, or three, but four. Tangling is inherently something that tells a story of its travels through time. The fibers trace the path they traversed. They find strength in their turning points, from the others they entwine with. They tell a collaborative tale. The viewer can only see the surface of it, trace strands where they leap to light, the depths lay hidden. Life is a tangle. Your hands mold it, but they don’t control it. You’ll find the eyes to see the beauty in the moment, by unhooking your heartstrings from the losing battle of what they can’t keep” True stated in the release.
A multi-media video installation called “Crow Calls Twice” by artist Steph Joyce will be featured in the West Gallery. Joyce is a transdisciplinary artist and researcher based in Leipzig, Germany. Through situated encounters and installations with material and temporal elements, such as textiles, objects, performances, videos, or audio pieces, Joyce centers the aesthetics and effects of subjective and interdependent relations. Joyce’s work has been presented in Germany, Latvia, Greece, Lithuania, Italy, and the U.S. at various artist-run spaces, institutions, and in public spaces.
In the Arts Café will be Bill McLaughlin with his color photography exhibit “Face to Face: Portraits from the Precipice.” McLaughlin is a self-taught landscape painter and photographer living and working from his organic homestead in New Berlin. His paintings are predominately influenced by artists of the Tonalist Movement of the late 19th century which emphasized mood and atmosphere while seeking to evoke emotion in the viewer. He is particularly interested in the “power of the portrait” as a vehicle to call attention to marginalized populations and also to combat the growing voices of division and exclusion.
A previous photography project, “Living in Limbo: Portraits from the Border,” was exhibited throughout Central New York during the last two years. The latest exhibit continues the use of portraits to explore and celebrate the rich diversity of the upstate community while seeking to neutralize the rising tide of hate and bigotry.
The three exhibits will remain until June 24.
Earlville Opera House annually presents from 12 to 15 solo exhibits of regional and national contemporary visual artists in all media. Galleries also feature annual group shows highlighting regional artists as well as an annual exhibit of contemporary and traditional quilt artists. Curators may also propose group exhibits.
Visit www.earlvilleoperahouse.com/artgallery for more information.