PRESS RELEASE : Worcester Center for Crafts presents ‘Patterns’, a group exhibition curated by Lisa Barthelson and Carrie Crane

Worcester, MA -- The Worcester Center for Crafts announces the upcoming opening of PATTERNS, a group exhibition curated by local artists Lisa Barthelson and Carrie Crane, which presents the work of ten contemporary artists: Sam Cape, Christiane Corcelle, Elizabeth Duffy, Judy Haberl, Nancy Hayes, Erica Licea-Kane, Julia Talcott, Lynda Schlosberg, Toby Sisson, and Jessica Straus. 

The exhibit opens with a Reception, free to the public, on Friday, March 15th from 5 to 7pm at the the Worcester Center for Crafts’s Krikorian Gallery, 25 Sagamore Rd. In Worcester, MA. PATTERNS is on exhibit from March 15-April 27, 2019. The Exhibition closes with a Public Reception and Talks by Patterns’ artists, Toby Sisson, Elizabeth Duffy and Jessica Strauss, at 3pm, Saturday, April 27th, 2019. Krikorian Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 10-5. Admission is free. 

In early 2018, Gallery Director Candace Casey approached Crane and Barthelson with an invitation to curate an exhibition in the spring of 2019. Following an early brainstorming meeting with Craft Center staff, Barthelson and Crane decided on a show that would revolve around ‘patterns’ and different artists’ use of pattern in their work. As artists, Barthelson and Crane were especially excited to broaden the Worcester arts community’s reach and invite artists to participate who were from the surrounding area but who were not as familiar to the Worcester arts community. The curators selected artists whose work they knew or had discovered through research and who used ‘pattern’ in a multitude of innovative and engaging ways. “I was particularly interested in Lisa and Carrie doing this theme since their work is often about repeated images and patterns,” says Candace Casey, Krikorian Gallery Director.

“Using both the commonly recognized form of pattern, that of a repeated decorative design, and the broader form of pattern as a consistent identifiable system, the Patterns’ artists demonstrate the potential depth and breadth of pattern as a means of expression.” says Lisa Barthelson. “Each artist incorporates surface patterns to convey a viewpoint and capture our attention, to entice us to stop, look, and consider the source and the patterns’ structure and intent. The artists’ work opens the door, and asks the viewer to step in and explore the physical and the metaphysical, the visual and the conceptual, and beyond.”

The approximately thirty works in the exhibition range from single works to large scale installation pieces presenting a broad spectrum of method and means of the use of pattern.

Cape’s digitally manipulated video and sound compositions, Talcott’s woodcuts and linocuts with collage, and Hayes’s terra cotta, slip and glaze organic sculptures draw on the visual and environmental patterns of nature to provide structure and inspiration.

Corcelle’s mixed media multiple piece sculpture installation, Haberl’s photographs featuring the artist's cutting board marks, Duffy's installation of furnishings with wallpaper and textile images of Rhode Island’s correctional institution, and Straus’s wood, paint and found objects sculpture installation. employ pattern from everyday life, using materials and surfaces we see and often overlook, to tell a larger and sometimes more urgent story.

Through the creation of patterned surfaces and patterns of behavior, Licea-Kane’s acrylic medium and acrylic pigment object-paintings and pen and burning works on paper, Sisson’s 16-piece encaustic monoprint on paper installation and graphite and encaustic on wood pieces, and Schlosberg’s large energy charged acrylic paintings on panel, draw on personal narrative within the realm of larger questions explored.

Curator Carrie Crane says, “We often think of pattern as something superficial or decorative but in the hands of these artists, it brings depth. It is the patterning that provides the energy, emotion and meaning of the work. Whether by referencing historical or nostalgic imagery or by creating metaphor, each artist is directing a response, telling a story by this use of this repetition of form.”

A closing reception and Artists Talks led by Toby Sisson, Elizabeth Duffy and Jessica Straus is scheduled for Saturday, April 27 at 3pm. No admission fee.

For more information or to arrange an interview, contact Honee Hess, hhess@worcester.edu (through March 15) or Candace Casey, ccasey4@worcester.edu .

Pictures (from top to bottom) - Works by Jessica Straus, Nancy Hayes & Toby Sisson

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About the Worcester Center for Crafts:

The Worcester Center for Crafts (WCC) is one of the oldest non-profit institutions for craft study in the United States. Founded in 1856 as the Worcester Employment Society to help immigrant women produce and sell hand-crafted wares to support their families, the Center evolved over the past 155 years into New England's leading center for craft education, exhibition and entrepreneurship. In 2004, the organization expanded and opened the New Street Glass Studio - an off-campus, 8,000 square foot, state-of-the-art, multi-studio glass facility. The WCC offers the only comprehensive glass studio program in New England available to the public. Through an affiliation begun in 2009, the WCC is home to the Worcester State University visual arts studios and partners in community outreach.

The Craft Center's mission is "to inspire and build a creative community" by providing high-quality craft education and training, by supporting craft artists in their professions, and through advocacy and public education initiatives including adult education classes and workshops, exhibitions showcasing the work of established and emerging artists, artist residencies, lectures, family events, studio rentals, Gallery Store, its Youth Craft + Creativity program and major events. The WCC is a member of the Worcester Cultural Coalition and receives funding from the Massachusetts Cultural Council.