The whole greater than the sum of its art
Nantucket Artists' Association exhibit "Collaboration" to combine works by different artists
BY PANOS KAKAVIATOS CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Anew Artists' Association of Nantucket exhibit opening Friday will transform works from different artists into new, cohesive art forms - a first for the association.

Clockwise from top, left: Artwork by Julie Gifford, Julija Mostykanova, Sherre Wilson Rae, Chris Bourbeau and Julie Gifford.

Head curator Sherre Wilson Rae thought of the idea after participating in a residency program at the Vermont-based Art Studio Center, where artists were given a large canvas and grid, onto which they contributed their work.

"Everyone had a square on which they painted," Rae told The Nantucket Independent. "Since then, I have been fascinated in combining work by different artists to create something new, so I think it will be great to see how we can combine submissions," Rae said of the coming exhibit.

Rae had sent letters this past March, inviting some 500 artists to contribute to the exhibition. Potential participants were told that they could work in all kinds of media, from photography and painting to sculpture and video. Unlike the Vermont experience, however, the two-week "Collaboration" show on Nantucket will feature different art works hung tightly together on 70 feet of wall space at the Joyce and Seward Johnson Gallery on 19 Washington St.

Potential exhibitors were encouraged to work in media with which they are not accustomed, gallery director Robert Frazier told The Independent.

Finished work must be composed within 10-inch squares, which will be hung by the Association's curatorial committee Wednesday and Thursday. Along with Rae, the committee includes Elizabeth Sutherland, Julie Gifford, Susan Whelihan, Chris Bourbeau, Julija Mostykanova, Peggy Silverstein, Diane Asche and Liz Hunt.

According to the mission statement, "as a true collaborative event, many individual works of art will take on a new life when they are combined and hung in a grid as one large work. Many parts will create a new whole."

Rae may decide to give names to groupings created by the combined art, but certainly "each individual work of art would be priced and named."

The art will be hung tightly with no space for name/title/price on the wall, Rae said. However, a chart will be provided at the gallery with such information. "Work can be sold separately, although it is our hope that collectors will be inspired to purchase groupings of work," she added.

Open to students and patrons as well as to juried association members, the "Collaboration" exhibition also encourages greater involvement in the Association. Frazier expects about 300 works. "I'm actually rather excited about it, because many rules are changed this time," he said, referring to the participation of patrons and students.

Coming towards the end of the season, the exhibition will not likely include work from all Association members - about 125 whom are active year-round, some 180 total. "We are now down to about 90-100 who will still participate in shows towards the end," he said, "which is also a good reason to include students and patrons."

For the curatorial committee, hanging the art alone will provoke much creative thought. "It is going to be a big challenge for our group to hang it, to justify each piece and give it the credit it deserves within the context of a mosaic style," said curator and artist

Chris Bourbeau. I