Nor’easter: Paintings by Terry Ekasala, Rick Harlow, and Craig Stockwell

Kelly Holt. ART NEW ENGLAND

The Bundy Modern, Waitsfield, VT • bundymodern.com • Through September 3, 2023

Craig Stockwell, Mt. Washington (memorial), 2022, oil on canvas and panels, 84 x 120″. Courtesy of the artist.

Each year, locals and summer visitors flock to the Bundy Modern in Waitsfield, VT, greeted by art aficionados and owners/collectors Wendell and June Anderson. The Bundy Modern celebrates summer with a nod to an unforgettable yet classic New England experience—the nor’easter.

Nor’easter features work by established artists Terry Ekasala, Rick Harlow, and Craig Stockwell. Curator Richard Jacobs, who exhibited here in “Triad 2020,” he shares, “As artists, we relish any reason to stop in our tracks… and experience stillness. The reflections of light after a fresh snowfall create an optimal condition for alchemy in our studios to create deeper experiences with color, texture, and spatial illusion in our work.”

This collection of paintings offers an atmosphere of “otherness,” housed in the architectural gem of this International Movement gallery built on a sculpture garden. Energies of vibrating color, gesture and mapping of mountainous danger bring viewers to various points of emotion and contemplation.

Ekasala exhibits internationally as well as at the Hall Art Foundation and many other locations in Vermont. She is known for taking chances in her work—a master in layering semi-transparent abstract shapes in her compositions. Her gestures speak to the power of a nor’easter coupled with a magnificent palette.

Stockwell’s work in Nor’easter employs the perspective of mortality. Of his Mt. Washington (memorial) installation, he describes “The mountain is haunted…by all the deaths and being the one place in New England where the weather can suddenly force a climber to descend into real danger.” Merging drawing with painting, he reveals that other paintings in this installation explore “formal abstract relationships, mixing up formalist abstraction with dire narrative.”

Harlow has been working with native peoples in Columbia for the past 31 years—a strong influence in his work. On process, Harlow explains, “The paintings are created by splattering small drops of paint using a brush that I hit against a stick while painting on the floor.” A true colorist, his abstract works vibrate with an energy that envelops the viewer with the feeling of being in the eye of the storm. There is a sweet spot in looking at Harlow’s paintings where the color moves, shifting on the canvas—creating a hypnotic effect. — Kelly Holt

Kelly Holt

Kelly Holt is an Independent Curator, multimedia artist and writer. Her art explores the urban landscape. She works and lives in Vermont.

March 11

I visited Dickinson's room yesterday. A snowstorm was just beginning and I drove slowly home all in white. There are four windows in her room, I had remembered two. I was not allowed to photograph inside the room, this is a view of her window. You can dimly see the lamp burning on her table. In her time the brick was painted yellow.

Since we are in a moment when we know that everything is changing and yet we have no idea yet how that change might be. Since we are in a moment when every part of the art world is changing and will be changed. Since we have this moment to consider where our heartfelt longings might be realized or dashed, it is a useful moment to consider recent models of possibility. Launch F18, at its tenth anniversary, is an alternative model that has been offered up as a different way, a developmental model different from the established gallery path. So that, as we crawl out from under Covid, and galleries and the artworld comes back to life, we all might consider the example of Launch F18 as a way forward for those artists seeking a different way of doing business.