Young Mountain

Art New England, Oct/Nov 2005 

Sharon Arts Center Gallery
Peterborough, New Hampshire
June 3 - July 10

By Craig Stockwell

“Young Mountain” is the result of the admirable effort of a young artist enthused by his peers and the possibilities that exist in their work. Joseph Hart is an artist from the Mount Monadnock region in New Hampshire and he has brought together nine other young artists in this group exhibition that features drawing, painting, sculpture and textiles. Many of this group have attended art school in Providence together and now live and work near each other in Brooklyn. The exhibit exudes youth, the work tends towards the energetic and obsessive, much of the work is primitively figurative, collaged, layered, and apparently casual. Included with the exhibit is a small catalogue that features images and interviews with the artists, the interviews are particularly revealing as to the understanding of what being an artist means to these emerging artists. Hart’s small drawings feel surprisingly original and are filled with suggested narrative, geometry and a sense of the figure as spirit. They also leave a great deal of empty space for the drawing to unwind in. Eric Anderson has carved and polished a Sycamore stump and delicately brought out the word “forever” from its surface. This is a moving study in vulnerability and precision that is enhanced by its title, “I need to tell you.” Heather Greene makes small pinched shell-like objects out of rough clay that she installs on the wall in a six-foot spiral. The work is based on minimalist sculptural strategies but has a lovely sensuousness and elegance. Matthew Rich has a wonderful sense of color and play in his paintings and painted sculptures. Chris Duncan’s small paintings with birds seem darker, settled, and iconic. Kevin Hooyman, Rachel Salomon, Pali Kashi, Ryan Wallace, and Emily Drury are the other artists that make up this most enjoyable show.