Seven artists headline exhibition at Gallery Blue
BY MARGARET CARROLL-BERGMAN INDEPENDENT EDITOR

A sample of each of the seven artists' work is featured in the above collage. PHOTO COURTESY OF GALLERY BLUE

Gallery Blue's group show "Escapes" opens this Friday with a reception from 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. and will run two weeks. Escapes features the work of seven mature artists with regional and national reputations, including Elizabeth Durand, Tom Lightfoot, Kathleen Sherin, Michael Shults, Zerbe Sodervick, Lisa Tubach and Allan Tubach.

Sodervick, who curated the show, challenged each of the seven artists to interpret the concept of escapes.

"It's very fine art, very sophisticated. The artists are very serious people about their work," said Sodervick. "I would not feel good about bringing commercial work (into the gallery). When you walk into the show, you won't have the sense that the work is done by one artist."

Most of the artists in the show live in the Rochester, N.Y. area.

"They are looking forward to coming to the island," said Sodervick.

Gallery Blue is comprised of two gallery spaces on Old South Wharf. The larger space is home to gallery director and artist Judith Brust and the smaller gallery features the work of visiting artists.

"Working with artists who work big and are prolific, it is a challenge for each of them to put in two pieces of what they consider an escape," said Sodervick, who teaches art gallery management at the Rochester Institute of Technology. Sodervick was one of the principals of Gallery Blue, when it was located in Rochester. The gallery relocated to Old South Wharf on Nantucket in 2006.

"Most of us in the show are grappling about spaces and the fragmentation of space," added Sodervick. "I really love the viewer to be a participant and to look at the work and to bring their own experiences to the work and lose themselves looking at the work."

Kathleen Sherin, a printmaker from Buffalo, N.Y., exhibits nationally and teaches in artists' residencies.

"Her work is abstract and has a lot to do with metaphors about the human body and water in combination, based on the idea that the human body is made up of 80 percent water," said Sodervick. "You don't look at the work figuratively, but as a beautiful overlaying of colors and textures."

Two of the artists, Tom Lightfoot, a photographer, who uses new media as an exploration of raw materials, and Michael Shults, also a photographer, are from Sodus, Point, N.Y., which is on Lake Ontario.

Allan Tubach is a painter and a muralist from Nebraska, with a worldwide reputation, said Sodervick.

Tubach's daughter, Lisa, who teaches painting at James Madison University in Virginia, will also have work in the show.

"Lisa's work pulls you into suggestive textural places. It's not all pretty pictures. It's intriguing," said Sodervick.

Elizabeth "Liz" Durand, a printmaker from the Rochester area, is familiar with Nantucket as her daughter lives on the island.

"Liz loves Nantucket and has an interesting and sensitive macro view of the feeling of the island," said Sodervick. "Very often there are aspects of the landscapes that are identifiable. She collages her work and, at times, uses nautical maps and charts that are integrated into the landscapes."

Sodervick is a printmaker.

"My work is abstract, with realistic identity," said Sodervick. "It's really about man creating boundaries for wildlife. The compatibility and lack of compatibility about environmental concerns." I