Thursday, June 14, 2007

The Saint Botolph Opening

I am going to preface this post with the fact that it is long overdue and that I still have two more posts coming after this one. Having a blog is like having a pet, you need to pay lots and lots of attention to it. I promise I will be better.
That being said, I have lots of exciting news that has happened in the past week and a half.


I finally had the long awaited openings of my two concurrent shows at the Saint Botolph Club in Boston, and the Clark Gallery in Lincoln.

The opening for the Saint Botolph show (which is actually two shows) was on June 6th, at the club. My friend Emily and I drove into Boston and met my Mom, Dad, and sister Katharine at the huge, converted double mansion, they call the Saint Botolph Club. The venue itself was beautiful, but the shows were very impressive.
My sister Katharine and Dad Lawrence, standing in front
of my pieces in the stairwell. (These three pieces
can be seen in a previous post with title, dimension
and medium)

The forty works in total were installed in a stairwell. The bottom part of the show was called "The Copley Masters" this consisted of work from artists who had earned the status of a Copley Master by exhibiting in a number of shows, and then winning major awards in them. This show was a bit more conservative with landscapes, figures and still lives.


As you climbed the stairs you came across "The Copley Edge" (the show that I was actually involved in.) These pieces were a bit "edgier" with more experimental technique, color, and scale. The relationship between the two shows was interesting, finding similarities and dissimilarities between the works of masters and emerging artists.

My sister Katharine, my mom, myself and my dad on the top floor of the show.

Camilo Alvarez of the Samson Projects and Suzan Redgate of the Copley Society made some very nice speeches about the show, Camilo's was more of an informal question and answer session. I had met Camilo at his gallery last First Friday, and have known Suzan since last February when I exhibited in the 18th Annual Student Exhibition.



I was flattered to find out, when I arrived at the show that I had been awarded Exceptional Merit, which is why I had three pieces chosen to be in the show.


I am glad my parents and sister were able to come to the opening and get yet another taste of the life I will be leading for the next however many years. However, after they left I continued to have a great time. Emily and I had signed up for the dinner after the reception and found ourselves a spot at a table in the main room, after being booted from our original spots (I guess they were saved) I sat next to a man named Geoffrey, who is both an Attorney at Law and a practicing artist. We had a great conversation during the dinner, both of us having very different ideas about the way art should be shown and marketed. Emily sat with a wonderful woman named Anita, and apparently, over the course of the meal " solved all of the world's problems."


After dinner, Emily and I were getting wary of a parking ticket and decided to head home. We stopped and talked to Camilo and Caroline Vokey, who is the Manager of the Copley Society and helped make the show a success as well as many others. And then we were on our way...and we ended up with a parking ticket.


The night was a success, and the show is up until mid- September so go check it out (you can see the show every Wednesday from 2-4 at the club, the website has directions.) The Clark opening post will be coming soon!

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