Two new exhibitions are opening at Guild Hall on Saturday, March 9: “A Creative Retreat – Portraits of Artists” and “Darlene Charneco: Field Maps – Weaves and Touchmaps.”
In anticipation of the reopening of the John Drew Theater, the final stage of Guild Hall’s facility-wide renovation, the exhibition “A Creative Retreat – Portraits of Artists” celebrates artists who were and are the fabric of the East End artist community and integral to Guild Hall.
The East End has a history of providing an environment for artists to gather and a place of respite and contemplation where many artists work quietly and diligently seasonally and year-round, forming a vibrant creative community. This exhibition of photographic portraits of visual, literary, and performing artists is drawn mainly from Guild Hall’s permanent collection, supplemented by projects by Linda K. Alpern, Laurie Lambrecht, and Mark Mann.
Guild Hall was established in 1931 as a gathering place for the community where an appreciation for the arts would “promote a finer type of citizenship.” The institution was the first arts town hall of its kind, encompassing a museum, theater, education center, and meeting space under one roof. Guild Hall’s history parallels that of the American theater and art worlds, with many landmark performances and exhibitions documented in the publication Guild Hall for All in 2021.
Darlene Charneco: Field Maps – Weaves And Touchmaps
Darlene Charneco is the 2020 Artist Members Exhibition Top Honors Awardee, chosen by Susan Thompson, associate curator of the Guggenheim Museum.
Charneco uses various materials and techniques to create a distinctive visual language and mapping system, evoking memory, connection, and evolution. The Weaves and Touchmaps are part of an ongoing series of artworks inspired by dreams, visions, nature studies, and the common thread of ritual found in many cultures and religions.
Each mixed-media wall piece is created through the meditative process of hammering nails one by one. The resulting aggregations of nails represent positive wishes and visualizations for our present and future Earth. Charneco regards this as a “writing” process in which the nails are tangible objects that symbolize renewed hope, determination, and faith in the accumulation of many small but important actions through time. Each piece is composed of units that are woven together into tactile topographic fields that gradually reveal microcosms in which complex organisms evolve, taking on ever-shifting roles, identities, and collective movements. Charneco highlights the power of individual acts to effect change when compounded through our interconnectedness, both physical and virtual.
Both exhibitions are organized by Melanie Crader, Guild Hall’s director of visual arts. They will run through May 6.