As an antidote to the gray, brown and white palette of November and December, Confluence Gallery in Twisp offers “10 x 10: A Riot of Color.” The exhibit, which opens Saturday (Nov. 20), provides gallery visitors with a vibrant feast for the eyes and a chance to reflect on what emotions different hues elicit in them.
“We invited artists to explore and play with any color in our world in small works for our holiday gift show,” exhibit curator Joanne Marracci said in a press release. “We challenged them to work in predominantly monochromatic hues, shades and tones to explore one color at a time.”
“Monochromatic doesn’t mean flat,” Marracci said. “It’s a way to explore color in a way that’s not chaotic, it’s very orderly. It allows artists to consider what colors ignite certain subject matters.”
The 10-inch-by-10-inch size limitation enables the gallery to exhibit a broad volume and range of art submitted by local and regional artists, including 2D wall art by Confluence veterans like Tamera Abate, Sara Ashford, Caryl Campbell, Margaret Kingston, Jennifer Molesworth and Patty Yates, as well as small sculptures by Swede Albert, Dan Brown, Steve Jensen, Terri Reinmiller and Vern White.
“Along with [the 3D work and] some abstracts, I am seeing a lot of animal and nature imagery coming in for this show,” Marracci said.
For Marracci, 2020 was red — an aggressive color for what was a hostile year on many fronts. The use of “riot” in the show’s title plays on a tumultuous year, providing a positive spin on a word with a typically negative context. With art pieces arranged in the gallery space by color, the exhibit will be an explosion of color, providing visitors with the visual experience of “walking into a rainbow,” Marracci said.
The monochromatic requirement makes the exhibit “the most restrictive one I’ve ever curated,” said Marracci, who added that many of the artists who submitted work told her they were challenged by the theme. And yet most artists submitted four or five pieces, almost always representing different colors. “Turns out it was a great way to entice artists to give me more than one piece,” Marracci said.
The small size and volume of work submitted is a win for customers and artists alike, Marracci said: “10’ x 10’ is gift-able, hang-able in any space, transportable and affordable. It makes the art more universally accessible for more audiences.”
Yellow — a cheery, hopeful hue — is Marracci’s color theme choice for 2021. A yellow revolution: that’s one uprising we can all stand behind.
Community gallery
“Methow: Image and Word,” a solo show by Greg Wright, opens in the community gallery on Saturday as well. “The aims of ‘Image and Word’ are simplicity and directness,” Wright said in the press release. “I present to you photographs and poems which to me distill my artistic, and perhaps spiritual, experience of the Methow.” Wright will be on hand for the exhibit opening from 5 to 7 p.m. on Saturday to answer questions about his work.
Both shows run through Jan. 8, 2022. Admission to the gallery is free. Confluence Gallery will be open every day from Nov. 26 to Dec. 24. For information, visit www.confluencegallery.org or call 997-2787.
