IN THE ANNEX: JUNE 2021

Christine Soeltz

Symbolism and meaning evolve as Christine Soeltz creates her paintings, monotypes and mixed media compositions. They are as diverse as the mediums she uses. Her work regularly moves between expressions of realism, surrealism and abstraction.  Each piece presents its own set of problem-solving opportunities.  For example, “Stone Halo'' was inspired by a circular path of stone bricks at the North Bridge. Soeltz wanted a radial design for a monotype print. The many inked layers of color and shape represent stone and natural ground cover. The addition of an angel in the center of her version of the walkway was the final punctuation in both concept and composition.  Her transition to mosaics is a natural trajectory. With a tendency toward geometric components the broken and cut pieces bring to life images of the natural world.

 In 2019 Soeltz stepped away from her art teaching career in the public schools of Wayland, MA, and concentrated on her art. She has shown locally, receiving recognition for paintings from The James Library and Center for the Arts, Norwell, MA and from ATAC in Framingham, MA. Soeltz holds a MS Degree in Technology in Education and a BS in Art Education. She resides in Acton, MA and works at Central Street Studios.

Kristin Street

The relationship between mark making, surface, space and scale has long been of interest to Kristin Street. This series explores how those different components can be observed and manipulated to create illusion and a sense of spatial awareness. These compositions grow, line by line, through an additive, spontaneous process into fictional spaces that vacillate between micro and macro scales, dark and light, surface and depth. This type of drawing, where one thing shifts into another, inherently creates voids. Utilizing both sides of the substrate, marks layer upon themselves to create paths, building toward a larger vision that blends the real and illusionary. A chronological review of Street’s work shows a shift from looking at the spatial environment toward reflecting on the relationship of surface to space, part to whole. Drawing the shape of space through topographic explorations creates a rich dialog within each piece and between the pieces of the series.

Street earned a BFA in Textiles from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1980 and an MFA from The Maryland Institute College of Art in Sculpture/Studio Art in 2005.Establishing The Krause Gallery in Providence RI and The Mill Gallery in Pawtucket, RI. has allowed her to promote the efforts of other artists.Street has exhibited in museums and galleries locally, nationally and internationally.She currently lives in Foster, RI.

Nyia Yannatos

Nyia Yannatos creates works out of natural and found materials, paper and cardboard. Her pieces range in size from minute to ceiling high, and in duration from one-day studio installations to assemblages left to weather in the woods. All involve the layering of shapes in space. She has long been a collector of twigs, root formations and pieces of bark. In this time of the pandemic, these accumulated fragments from the natural world provided the inspiration as well as the building material for the work exhibited in the Annex. As in nature, Yannatos’ juxtaposed elements in “Voyage” and “Revealed” are in delicate balance—each piece unique, each speaking for itself. These sculptural forms, whether on a pedestal or the wall, echo both the power and the playful eye of nature. 

 Yannatos trained as a musician, and later as a landscape designer. Both disciplines inform her art. A solo show of her wall sculptures, “Playing with Fire,” was exhibited at Hollister Gallery at Babson College in Wellesley, MA. Yannatos’ work also has been shown at Charles River Studio in Watertown, MA and in an outdoor installation at Habitat Wildlife Sanctuary in Belmont, MA. She lives in Cambridge and has her studio at 11 Miller Street in Somerville, MA.

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