By Andrea Hull

Sun Contributor

GILBERTSVILLE – The Dunderberg Gallery was founded in 2015 by California ceramic sculptor Marcus Villagran, and has opened its two Summer Shows for 2022.

They are “Dense Light,” works by Washington D.C.-based painter Joanne Kent, and “id & I,” built around the quarter-century-long collaborations between the late graphic artist Irwin Hollander and local artist Elizabeth Nields, a well-known sculptor and potter from Gilbertsville.

Hollander a master printer for prominent Abstract Expressionists of New York in the 1950’s and 60’s, who moved to Wells Bridge in 1976 to pursue his own art.

For 40 years Kent has explored the boundaries between sculpture and painting, creating works that are hybrids of the two. Painted on shaped wood forms, they possess the groundedness, roundness and tactility of sculpture, as well as the warmth, radiance, and brilliant color of oil painting, their minimal forms contrasting with their highly active, textured surfaces.

Though not representational, Kent's work evokes various minerals, creeks, stratified earth and stone, tree bark, weathered woods and the creatures that inhabit them. In this way, it resonates with Nields' well-known monumental ceramic sculptures, which often call to mind these natural elements. Both artists are inspired by archeology and the simplicity of quasi-ancient artifacts.

Kent said, "My process of working dictates results more any preplanned concept.    The works are layered and often distressed, rather than too finished, to maintain a primal energy.  I want these works to be experienced instantaneously, with the entire body, without analysis or interpretation by the brain, as is the case with a narrative or conceptual approach. My work is understated and reductive, using a minimum of means for maximum impact. I see it as contemplative in nature.”

Also on display is id & I, which draws on the collaborations that Elizabeth Nields and Irwin Hollander pursued during the years 1976-2010.

Nields is a master of live drawing. Hollander joined her classes at her studio, and the two then went to Hollander’s lithography studio where they made unique prints and editions. She made pots and tiles at her studio, which Hollander then glazed in his inimitable style. Together they made Nields' artist’s book, The Temple of the Elephants, on exhibition a the Gallery.

The Dunderberg Gallery, 118 Marion Avenue in Gilbertsville, will host an opening of The Summer Show on July 29, from 5:00 to 7:00. The exhibition will continue through August. Gallery hours are Thursday through Saturday from 11am to 4 pm, or by appointment by calling 607-783-2010 or 607-783-2476.