Michael Rose: New England Wax will celebrate an ancient artform in big Manhattan show
Michael Rose is the gallery manager of the Providence Art Club, as well as as an art reviewer, teacher and consultant.
The medium of encaustic has been in use for millennia and has found resurgent energy in the contemporary art community. Prized for its malleability and suggestive aesthetic qualities, art made in and with wax is again in vogue. New England Wax, a professional association made up of thirty artists across six states, is one of the organizations promoting the medium and supporting artists who create expressive works using bees wax and damar resin.
In an upcoming show at Atlantic Gallery in New York, New England Wax artists will share their work beyond the borders of their region while celebrating the remarkable qualities that can be achieved with their medium of choice.
Titled “Hive Mind,’’ the exhibition will feature a collection representing 27 artists and will be on view Sept. 9 - 27 at Atlantic Gallery, at 548 West 28th St., Suite 540, in Manhattan’s Chelsea section. The show will be an opportunity for New Yorkers and visitors to the city to experience artworks by individuals who have been frequently featured in thoughtfully assembled group showcases throughout Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont. Past exhibitions organized by New England Wax have been mounted at such venues as Fitchburg State University, Southern Vermont Arts Center, New Bedford Art Museum, Fuller Craft Museum, and the Saco Museum of Art, among others. After their New York show, the group will exhibit in Chicago in November.
Describing the organization’s purpose, current New England Wax President Ruth Sack says, “Our mission is to promote excellence in fine art made with encaustic and other wax-based mediums to educate the general public about this medium to increase interest in encaustic and wax mediums in the art world.”
Diverse in approach, the artists in the upcoming show are united by their love for wax as a medium. Encaustic lends itself to a variety of applications. Some are bulbously dimensional while others are encompassed in a boxy form. Appealing color is a throughline, as is a collective interest in the tension inherent in a surface made of a material that turns from liquid to solid with some seeming magic. Wax is a uniquely sensuous medium and one that engages gallery visitors in a special way.
Among the works that will be on view, one of the punchiest is Kay Hartung’s “Geocolor 19,’’ a bright piece executed on a shaped substrate. Across the surface the artist uses raised geometric and organic patterns that denote different spaces within the form. There is something compartmental about the composition, an effect that builds enticing drama. Based in Massachusetts, Hartung earned her BFA from the Philadelphia College of Art and her MFA from Syracuse University.
Alongside Hartung, pattern is also a key part of “Symbioses,’’ an impressive mixed-media work by Charyl Weissbach. Leafy forms spread out across the surface and seemingly undulate within and atop the slick wax surface. A MassArt alum, Weissbach incorporates such materials as marble and 23-karat gold, a study in the multifaceted nature of encaustics. The subtleties in the piece are laudable and form a striking counterpoint to a more direct interpretation, such as the colorful “Yay! ,’’ by Pamela Dorris DeJong.
For DeJong, the encaustic surface is a playground for a mixed-media piece that leverages monoprints and oils in a collagelike treatment. The silhouettes of individuals populate the surface in a celebratory way while in the foreground two open hands press excitedly into the air. There is an energy of excitement and play here that recurs throughout the exhibition. Many of the artists combine media, experiment and blur boundaries to test how far they can push and pull the encaustic base.
Excitingly diverse and yet tightly choreographed, the exhibition is being assembled by curator Ingrid Dinter, a multitalented professional who has experience as an art dealer and independent curator. For Dinter, the idea of community was in mind as she selected artworks for the show.
She says, “When one thinks of ‘hive mind’ one thinks of busy bees working together -- collectively and in unison -- to produce or construct something with a common goal in mind. That can also apply to humans in social and creative situations, building bonds and unity, strengthening community, fostering solidarity – with a particular purpose in mind. In this case, it’s not so much that things should look the same, but that inherent in the individual differences in approach and appearance there is a shared spirit, overlapping and blending together, producing a whole larger than the sum of its parts.”
The artists of New England Wax form a supportive community. Together they explore the material that they all use with affection and zest. There is little competition among the artists, but instead a collective passion for a timeless artform. The shared enthusiasm of these makers will be on display in their Atlantic Gallery exhibition, which will offer viewers a chance to form a new appreciation for an ancient way of making art.
The reception for “Hive Mind’’ will be held at Atlantic Gallery on Saturday, Sept. 13, at 3-5 p.m., and the gallery will be open late on Thursday, Sept. 11, at 6-8 p.m.