MCLA students curate Gallery 51

Visions from the Edge exhibit put together
by MCLA’s Arts Management students

---

A barrage of colors greets visitors to Gallery 51 as the MCLA Arts Management class, taught by Professor Tony Gengarelly, presents Visions from the Edge.

“This gallery represents a full semester’s worth of work by the students,” Jonathan Secor, director of special programs at the College said.

Visions from the Edge is an art exhibit that opened last Thursday and will be open until Feb. 19. It displays the artwork of 11 different artists, all of whom are affiliated with Pure Visions Arts, an art gallery and studio based in the neighborhood of Chelsea which is in Manhattan, New York.

The Arts Management class took a field trip last semester to Pure Visions Arts to determine which art would be displayed at Gallery 51.

“We got to meet some of the artists, and there was such a large selection of artwork at Pure Visions Arts,” said Jessica Atanas, a student in the Arts Management class. “It was cool because Pure Visions Arts is not just an art gallery, but an operational studio as well, where the artists often come to work. We researched all the artists as well as their work and came together to decide which ones would be displayed here.”

“This is one of my favorite exhibits [the Arts Management class] has had here,” Laura Pettengill, a junior and an employee of Gallery 51 said. “I like that there is a lot of untitled work, which for me is more art for art’s sake, as opposed to art with a message. For me it’s more personal.”

The gallery contained a variety of artwork, including an extremely intricate piece by Barry Kahn. The piece had geometric shapes in a wide variety of colors, as well as human faces worked into the patterns.

The gallery’s main contributor was Jessica Parker, an honorary graduate of MCLA and a Williamstown resident. She has an eight-year-old relationship with the College. She also has a book written about her work called Exploring Nirvana: The Art of Jessica Park, which was published by the College in 2008.

There were more socially-minded works featured by c\various artists in Gallery 51. One artist in particular was Leon McCutcheon, an African American painter whose main influence is jazz music. His works on display included African Americans in different situations in America, such as southern African American women going to church in fancy attire, or the face of a black man with the words ‘poor,’ ‘city,’ and ‘black’ written around him.

Many paintings created an interesting contrast of images by incorporating urban landscapes, especially New York, and country landscapes together.