First Friday Art Walk

Join friends at Art Space Vincennes, Open Gallery and Northwest Territory Art Guild Gallery for the First Friday Art Walk, July 5, 5 – 8 pm. Enjoy the pop-up events and displays that will appear along Main Street between the galleries. Take in some great artwork for your holiday weekend by supporting your local arts community.  What could be more American than that?!

Art Space Vincennes LLC, 521 Main will continue Metal, Meaning & Matter, Cast Iron and Assemblage Sculpture by Bert Gilbert. This Solsberry, Indiana sculptor is deeply involved with the medium of metal, it’s malleability, structural capabilities, durability and range of surface textures.  He uses recycled iron for casting, scrap and reclaimed steel for welded pieces and repurposed, salvaged building materials for mixed media works. While often using images and forms familiar to viewers, as an invitation for dialogue with his pieces, by modifying forms he tries to propose questions that will encourage consideration of the complexity and duality of all efforts and decisions.  He suggests the struggle to resolve such contradictions offers glimpses into greater mysteries.

In his recent work, Gilbert has been focusing on iron castings of packing materials as elements in his sculpture.  He states: “This detritus of our online consumer culture, with its soft corpulent forms, seems an apt metaphor for the empty opulence of consumerism and surely a bellwether for future archaeologists defining our culture.”

Gilbert earned his BA degree in sculpture and painting at Indiana University, Bloomington.  Since 2002, he has been an annual participant in the Solsberry, Indiana Sculpture Trails Summer Foundry Workshops and Traveling Foundry Pours.

The artist will be present during the First Friday reception to speak with visitors.

Regular gallery hours Tue – Sat Noon – 5 pm

812-887-6145

Northwest Territory Art Guild, 316 Main will again offer a July exhibition of art by area artists, who have been invited to submit their works in an open call.  This will be the third show of this nature; featuring local, original artworks done by artists of all ages, backgrounds, preferred mediums and skill levels.

The Guild put out a similar open call last summer, and the response was so positive they wanted to offer area creatives the opportunity once again. Last year numerous pieces of local, original art were submitted, done by artists of all ages, backgrounds, preferred mediums and skill levels. “We are thinking about the fact that there are a lot of artists in our area who haven’t had any kind of exposure,” President John DeCoursey said.  “This is a great way to help them share their art and bring new people to us who have never been inside our gallery.”

Also on display in the “for sale” gallery will be summer-themed 2 and 3-dimensional artworks by Guild members in a variety of media, techniques, styles, and subject matter.

Regular gallery hours: Tue – Sat 11 am – 2 pm. Additional hours by appointment; contact the gallery via Facebook.

 The Open Gallery 329 Main is pleased to welcome Maureen Gaffney Wolfson for the month of July.  Wolfson’s exhibition is in conjunction with the Inaugural Red Skelton Weekend Comedy Convention at the Red Skelton Museum in Vincennes, Indiana.

Please join us to Meet the Artist on Tuesday evening, July 16 at 6:30 p.m.   Since Wolfson is not able to be at the First Friday reception, she has agreed to speak with us about her work and her artistic process.

Wolfson was an actress and model, two careers which helped land her a stint on the Red Skelton Television Show doing sketch comedy for over six years.  She credits Skelton with helping find her way artistically: “He was an inspiration, a mentor, but above all,  a special friend whose kindness I shall never forget.”

Approaching her 82^nd birthday, Wolfson has been painting for the last 60 years.  Her show titled, “A Repertoire of Red, from Clowns to Cosmos:  Reflections on a Lifelong Friendship,” features giclee prints of Red’s many sketch characters as well as peacefully whimsical landscapes and garden scenes.  Her work invites viewers to take a stroll down memory lane with a best friend, a canine companion or a good book to read in the shade of the tree just down the path.  It strikes just the right mood for a July celebration.

Regular gallery hours: Tue – Sat 10 – 4:30 pm.

812- 881-6475.