PUTNEY — The Gallery at Next Stage presents Clearing: Recent Work by Barbara Garber, May 18 through Aug. 12, with an artist reception on Saturday, May 18, from 5 to 7 p.m.
The Gallery, created as part of the recent $1.7 million renovation, is located at Next Stage, 15 Kimball Hill. It is open for viewing 30 minutes before each Next Stage event, on Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., and by appointment with the artist.
Garber is a painter, printmaker, and installation artist who has worked in many diverse mediums. She studied painting at the New York Studio School and received an M.A. from New York University and a B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College.
In her artist statement, she writes that she has been “influenced and inspired by music and dance and also by what I see around me in southern Vermont where I've lived for four decades.”
The process of creating one of her pieces is slow, but steady.
“I start from a place of not knowing where I'm headed. Working on several sheets of Mylar at once, I begin with whatever caught my attention that day: something I found in a hardware store or on a walk; or a scrap of paper on the floor. Anything may be abducted into service.
“Spraying the outline or making quick marks into wet paint, I'm on my way. I exploit the translucent quality of the Mylar so that lines and textures may remain visible even through several layers. Shapes and patterns migrate from one piece to another as I cut and shift things from here to there, trying to keep the process active and in flux.”
Next Stage Arts Project, winner of grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and ArtPlace America, is a nonprofit that seeks to be “a beacon of artistic and cultural engagement, contributing to the economic vitality of our region and inspiring creative communities everywhere.”