Nancy Diessner, Finding the Sky (detail), photopolymer intaglio print, 36 x 27", 2009.

Dogs and human bodies and wild beasts, sometimes alone and sometimes together, occupy these photographic intaglio prints—presented in the exhibition as a suite of multi-plate prints on large sheets of paper. In most of the prints, two images are placed one above the other. Through this juxtaposition, Diessner hopes to express an expansive longing and connection between two worlds that can’t obviously be merged. She wants to bring the human body—which yearns to be a part of nature—into an uneasy relation with animals and the sky overhead.

Concord Art Association

New England Impressions III: The Unique Printer

Carrie Moyer, Rush and Roll #11, 2006 Monotype, 35 ½ x 24".

Curated by Dorothy Tompson. Third in a series of exhibitions presenting the richness of printmaking in New England, The Unique Print celebrates printers and artists who dare to break the rules and experiment with a myriad of techniques and materials—including machine stitching, quilting, stamping, sandpaper, pastel, as well as wood, metal, ink and paper. Featuring: Roz Carol Ablow, Laurie Alpert, Jan Arabas, Jerry Bergstein, Catherine Carter, Randy Garber, John Gibson, Jane Goldman, James Hansen, Constance Jacobson, Joel Janowitz, Catherine Kernan, H. Peik Larsen, Marcus Linnenbrink, Ilana Manolson, Michael Mazur, Peter McDonald, Carolyn Muskat, Carrie Moyer, Candy Nartonis, Debra Olin, Wendy Prellwitz, Barbara Putnam, Heddi Vaughan Siebel, Jeanne Williamson, Janine Wong, and Valda Zalkins.

Ilona Anderson, "All that we see or seem is like a dream within a dream" -Edgar Allen Poe.

The mercurial qualities of Linda Leslie Brown’s faceted and reflective surfaces, flickering light and images are provocative and oddly humorous. The artist exploits the delightful confusion of perceptual experience: the tricky slippages of interaction between the hardware of forms, the wetware of the senses, and our projections of memories and fantasies. Ilona Anderson describes her recent work using the words of the poet Jim Lindsey, who wrote: “What's familiar / disappears / like the moon / on wind-rippled water.” This work, which will be an exhibition in two parts, will explore the mythologies that we have about ourselves, and the creations of who we think we are, or want to be.

Emma Raynes, Emerging Emerald Machines, Inkjet Print, 16 x 16", 2007.

Emma Raynes is a photographer with a mission. She has not only followed the travels of Brazillan migrant workers — especially the workers from Aracuai—but has also strengthened the ties between them and their families by introducing a letter-writing project. This group of photographs represents excerpts from the lives of forty families before the workers departed to cut sugarcane and were separated for months from their loved ones. Under the leadership of Cidade Crianca, a community based program, the letters continue. Emma Raynes was a Lewis Hine Fellow at Duke University, studying documentary film with Wendy Ewald during this project, and is currently in a Masters program in anthropology at the New School for Social Research in New York City.

Ellen Carey, Push Pins, Color photogram/ C-Print, 24 x 20", 2002. Courtesy and © Ellen Carey.

This exhibition is the first comprehensive examination of Ellen Carey’s photo-grams, many of which will be on view for the first time. Long renowned for her abstract Polaroid “Pulls,” the artist has created concurrently a stunning body of work using one of photography’s earliest processes, the photogram. Through this traditional technique of obtaining a shadow image from objects placed directly on photosensitive paper, Carey obtains striking abstractions that are thoroughly contemporary in their conceptual approach to color and light. The most recent works in the exhibition, which feature luminous trails from a hand-held penlight, translate her innovative color photogram techniques into a novel use of Polaroid materials.

Dorothy Simpson Krause, Saquish, 24 x 48 x 2", diptych, UV cured flatbed print on brushed aluminum.

South Shore Art Center will present an exhibition featuring the work of Dorothy Simpson Krause in Losing Ground. The message in Krause’s work about the diminishing landscape speaks to us in a strong and quiet voice. Only a few of the pieces make any reference to man at all with an occasional fence, a desolate road or quiet path making us aware of the impact we have on the environment. The choice of materials used in Losing Ground is intriguing. Many artists would stop at the completion of a painting and yet Krause continues exploring through her knowledge of technology and her eagerness to experiment with new materials and techniques. Her artist books are exquisitely-crafted collages that embrace ideal decisions on the use of text and image. Krause is constantly seeking new ways to convey her thoughts through color, materials, media and methods—and of course, cutting edge technology.

This exhibition of watercolor and oil paintings, graphite drawings and etchings will represent over forty years of work by artist Allen Blagden. Themes will include portraiture, landscape, still life, wildlife and birds, with locales ranging from Egypt to Acadia, from the Everglades to the Adirondacks, and from Kenya to here in the Berkshires. Equally facile with pencil or brush, Blagden’s images reflect a profound passion for his subject matter, as well as a serenity and calm that only come from patient, deliberate observation. He exhibits extensively throughout the country, his work is held in numerous public and private collections, and he currently serves as vice president for the Society of Animal Artists. Most at home when he is out in the natural world, Allen Blagden resides in Salisbury, CT.

(Left) Rona Pondick, Dog (detail), yellow stainless steel, 1998-2001. Courtesy of Sonnabend Gallery, New York, and Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris/ Salzburg. (Right) Seated Buddha in Maravijaya (detail), bronze, late 15th/early 16th-century. Gift in memory of Cameron Horner Smyser, 1998.

Rona Pondick’s hybrid sculptures, which combine both ancient sculptural methods and the latest computer technologies, provide a lens for looking at centuries of world sculpture from the collection of the Worcester Art Museum. Provocative juxtapositions of Pondick’s works from the past decade with a personal selection of historic sculptures illuminate her connections to the past and offer an alternative model for understanding art. Catalogue available.