OUT OF NOWHERE
Marcia R Wise + Melissa Shaak
May 5–30, 2021
SoWa First Friday Art Walk: Friday, May 7, 5–8PM
Meet Artist Melissa Shaak: Saturday, May 15, 12–4PM
Out of Nowhere features the work of Marcia R Wise and Melissa Shaak. The artists have teamed up — Wise working in oils and Shaak in acrylics with elements of sculpture and video — to illuminate the mystery, wonder and vicissitudes of life. Trees dance in the heart of the woods in Wise’s color-rich evocations of nature’s unpredictability. Shaak’s figures step daringly out of their paintings into space and time. The artists push the bounds of their respective mediums, working to make sense of chaos, find light to guide us, and transform what comes to us out of nowhere.
Marcia R Wise
Ventoso (detail)
Marcia R Wise’s intuition was piqued when caught in a windstorm in the woods. The experience provided the emotional drive behind the development of her newest paintings. Nature’s chaos is recalled and interpreted as a metaphor for the unexpected in our lives which, in Wise’s case, includes the challenges of caring for a loved one with cancer. In this series she finds freedom amidst uncertainty, releasing preconceived notions about life and trusting her artistic process as it unfolds. It is through this reflection of the powerful aspects of nature that the viewer experiences Wise’s inner relationship with the world.
Wise studied at L’Ecole Nationale Superieure Des Beaux-Arts in Paris, The Art Institute of Boston and Boston University. In her youth, Wise studied with Henry Hensche at The Cape Cod School of Art, and after college with Lois Griffel, Wolf Kahn and Janet Fish. Primarily an oil painter, Wise’s work has been exhibited, published and collected extensively throughout the US and Europe. Her new work will be published in an upcoming edition of Studio Visit Magazine. After years as a teacher, Wise now takes painters on yearly Artist Trips to Italy and Santa Fe. A member of United South End Artists and Oil Painters of America, Wise lives and works from her studio in Norfolk, MA and is a Core Member of Fountain Street.
Melissa Shaak
Out of Nowhere (Video still)
Melissa Shaak’s seven oddly archetypal figures inhabit the exhibition in various forms—portrait-like paintings on the wall, cutouts standing tall in the gallery, and as an ensemble captured on video. In espionage parlance, the term “cutout” refers to a trusted intermediary. These figures serve as trustworthy personas to help us navigate and mediate the world today. Each raises a torch, or scepter, signaling and leading the way. Shaak’s process, of seeking and finding form, is filled with creative sparks and enigmatic turns. The invitation inherent in her work is to catch and take hold of the creative impulses that come our way.
Shaak works primarily in acrylics and mixed media on paper. Her most recent projects include stop motion animation and video. Shaak’s paintings and monotypes have been exhibited at Beacon Gallery, Concord Art, Brickbottom Gallery, Cambridge Health Associates and NAVE Gallery. She recently completed a residency at Vermont Studio Center and has taken courses at Tufts School of the Museum of Fine Arts and Mass College of Art. She has studied with Adria Arch and Robert Siegelman and is a longstanding member of the Creativity Lab at New Art Center. Before taking up artmaking full time, Shaak was a senior administrator at Babson College. She works from her studio at River Street Artists/Waltham Mills, MA and is a Core Member of Fountain Street.
“Out of Nowhere” by Melissa Shaak
