"MCLA’s location provided me with endless opportunities to gain professional experience in the arts. I had a lot of fun working as a tour guide at MASS MoCA and in the education department at the Berkshire Museum, which allowed me to figure out what kinds of jobs I would like and to meet a lot of interesting arts professionals along the way. MCLA’s small size helped me develop close working relationships with my favorite professors who always took time to advise me on academic and professional concerns. I really felt like they were with me all the way."
Monica Henry ’07 Education Coordinator, Clark Art Institute
News & Press Releases
NORTH ADAMS, MA. – The work of local artists Sean Riley and Ven Voisey will be exhibited this month as Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts’ latest exhibition in Gallery 51.
Both of North Adams, Riley and Voisey will present “Upward and/or Through into the Outer-most Reaches of Betwixt and Between.” The public is invited to attend an opening reception, to be held on Thursday, Aug. 3, from 6 to 8 p.m., in the Main Street gallery.
Riley’s artwork takes on many forms, including drawings, paintings, prints and sculpture. His bodies of work have been based on themes such as Noah’s Ark, the music of John Coltrane, Shaker gifts, American quilts and snow-crystallography. At Gallery 51, he will display about a half dozen of his paintings and drawings.
“The artwork I make is involved in transcending the simple materials that it is made with,” Riley said. “My artwork is often highly detailed and the process of making it is very concentrated and slow-moving. … I aim to inspire a sense of awe and I strongly believe that through the honesty and integrity of my mark I can transform the material into something otherworldly and create objects of beauty.”
Voisey said that the artwork he created for this show is an “attempt to follow twisting paths and extraordinary junctures in the ordinary plainness of the moment and the moments to come.”
To that end, Voisey used ladders as a metaphor for the sculptures he created for the exhibit.
“Ladders are a device we use to get from one level to another,” he said. “They also tie into spirituality and Jacob’s Ladder and follow tangents and paths.”
Voisey created about a dozen wall hanging sculptures he described as “chaotic layers of ladders and counter-weights of sacks filled with seeds and soil.” Some are as tall as the exhibition space and were constructed inside Gallery 51. Others appear as an explosion of ladders. Yet another grouping focuses on the use of shadow boxes.
“Upward and/or Through into the Outer-most Reaches of Betwixt and Between” will be exhibited in Gallery 51 through Aug. 27.
Gallery 51 is at 51 Main St. in North Adams. It is operated by MCLA to help serve the local arts and downtown community. The gallery features the work of local and international artists, as well as artwork created by the college’s students and faculty.
Hours of operation are Sunday through Thursday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Friday and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.
