Read Between the Lines

Core Member Exhibition
curated by Chelsea Revelle

November 30–December 22, 2019

First Friday Reception: December 6, 6–8 p.m.

Read Between the Lines offers a wondrous romp through the layered meanings created by twenty-eight of Boston’s emerging and mid-career artists. Things are not always as they appear at first glance in this wide-ranging show of drawing, painting, sculpture, video, photography, mixed media, fiber and prints. Viewers are invited to look, and look again, for what may be hidden, obscured, or implied rather than explicitly stated.  

 The exhibition poses the question, what is missing in the dominant narrative? What can be found reading between the lines? Narrative is a powerful tool for shaping perceptions. But is there another story, an obscured message or double meaning that the artist intends to convey? The unhurried viewer is rewarded visually, intellectually, and emotionally. Perceptions shift as the ambiguities and mysteries of the work unfold. As is so often true in the arts, this exhibition is a channel through which issues that are suppressed can be elevated in importance and brought into the public eye. 

Exhibiting Artists: Sarah Alexander, Jim Banks, Emily Brodrick, Kathline Carr, Marie Craig, Mia Cross, Patty deGrandpre, Denise Driscoll, Sara Fine-Wilson, Tatiana Flis, Joseph Fontinha, Kay Hartung, Georgina Lewis, Virginia Mahoney, Mary Marley, Vicki McKenna, Joel Moskowitz, Chris Plunkett, Chelsea Revelle, Allison Maria Rodriguez, Alexandra Rozenman, Steve Sangapore, Melissa Shaak, Rebecca Skinner, Sylvia Vander Sluis, Marcia Wise, Daniel Zeese, Leslie Zelamsky

I’ve noticed that many people view works of art for only a few seconds. I wonder what they think in that brief moment. I wanted to create an exhibition that encourages the viewer to slow down and try to find the meaning behind the work, because it’s often not what it seems at first glance. Additionally, I wanted artists to think about their narratives and true intentions, as these can often get lost in the visual impact and the act of making.

This year’s theme, “Read Between the Lines,” highlights the role of narrative in shaping perceptions. Each artist was challenged to think about what is missing from the dominant story line, and to reveal hidden or obscured messages in their work.

The twenty-eight core members of Fountain Street featured in the show work in a variety of media, ranging from video to fiber. Several artists reveal their concern for the environment—as oceans encroach on cities in Marie Craig’s ink drawings, and Kathline Carr’s planetary monoprints address the need for stability and survival of our species. Others dig deep into their identities to represent life’s changes and new beginnings, as in Emily Brodrick’s ceramic sprouts; similarly, Daniel Zeese captures nostalgic longing and feelings of belonging in the memory of a folding chair. The importance of process is examined in Marcia Wise’s vibrant strokes and mark making, a result of painting while listening to jazz music played live, translating its vibratory energy into the work; mark making also influences Georgina Lewis’s documentation of experimental drawings, in which she rubbed paper-wrapped stones against graphite-coated paper to reveal the influence and force of each on the other, a reminder of the sometimes cruel nature of exchanges and barriers. Commonalities and connections among the pieces abound, while each also stands unique with its story to tell.

Perceptions shift as the ambiguities and mysteries of the work unfold. As is so often true in the arts, this exhibition is a channel through which issues that are suppressed can be elevated in importance and brought into the public eye. My hope is that the unhurried viewer is rewarded visually, intellectually, and emotionally.

Curator Chelsea Revelle’s mixed-media, assemblage and fiber art focus on themes of the home, childhood play and the psychological impact of domesticity. In combining pieces from dollhouses, image transfers, and techniques of embroidery, she subtly invokes the bounded nature of the female self during a time when her identity was tied to domestic obedience. Revelle seeks to represent this tension of isolation, exclusion and an expected performance of duty that submerged women’s efforts. She studied illustration at Massachusetts College of Art & Design and nonprofit leadership at Wheelock College. Her work has been exhibited in local galleries and museums including the Fuller Craft Museum and Nichols House Museum, and has been published by Fresh Paint and Create! Magazine. She is manager of studio art classes at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and works to promote the accessibility of art-based opportunities to under-represented and emerging artists. She works from her studio in Jamaica Plain, MA.