CURRENT Exhibition
STILL LIFE by Denis Versweyveld
May 30 - September 30 2023
Denis Versweyveld is an award-winning sculptor, painter and draftsman who has resided in Vermont for over 50 years and whose art has been exhibited throughout the country. His work is characterized by iconic everyday household objects that are skillfully crafted. Each form, executed in plaster, lath, and cast concrete, is pared down to its essence. Signs of this process, like fine etching lines, remain in the exquisite surfaces.
A casual reception will be hosted as part of the June 3rd festivities between 5-7p. Please join us!
UPCOMING Exhibitions
2023 Photography Shoot-Out Competition
Oct 11 - Nov 11 2023
It's time for our annual photography competition and we need your vote for the People's Choice Winner! This year's theme is TEXTURE. Stop in and cast your vote before the judging closes on _____(TBD).
History of the Shoot-Out Competition:
In this day and age, we have great photography equipment at our fingertips creating incredible opportunities for both amateur and professional photographers. Couple the equipment access with affordable, fun software and processing “film” has becomes available to everyone. Now that the equipment and process has become easily accessible, the field of “best” photography seems to have widened. Oftentimes at Axel’s Gallery, a customer is browsing through a bin of photographs commenting how they have an even better photo of the subject they are reviewing.
In 2018 Axel’s Gallery decided to host the first annual Shoot-Out and everyone was invited to show their best. Entries are judged by professionals AND by your peers. The latter is how The People's Choice award is determined so be sure to stop in to cast your vote!
Join us for the announcement of the winners and get the chance to meet your photography peers - date TBD.
Photo credit: Kimberly Hargis
SMALLS
Nov 25 - Dec 23 2023
SMALLS is our annual group show that highlights the small works of our area artists. This is the perfect opportunity to kick start your collection of original artwork or find a unique gift for this season of giving. All works are 10" x 10"or smaller and priced under $100.
A casual reception will be hosted on Small Business Saturday: Nov 25th from 5-7pm. Please join us!
PAST Exhibitions
Close to Home: Photography from a 30-Mile Radius by Kimberly Hargis*
Jan 4 - March, 2023
“Close to Home: Photography from a 30-Mile Radius” encompasses scenes that are all about Kimberly Hargis’s local experience as a photographer living in Thetford, VT. Being surrounded by the rich beauty of the Vermont landscape, the hearty inhabitants of its close-knit communities, and the vast character of its wildlife provides endless opportunities for photographic inspiration to Hargis.
*Kimberly Hargis was the winner of the 2022 Axel’s Gallery Annual Photography Shoot-Out.
Recent Work by Sam Colt
Oct 26 - Nov 19, 2022
“I make work in a bid to amplify and make visible to myself the knocking from within.”
– Sam Colt
In the studio Colt uses trowels, knives and brushes to apply multiple coats of Italian marble plasters ~ “grassello” ~ on Masonite panels. With knives, she zips around through the grassello surface while it’s still wet to reveal under-stories, sometimes burnishing ashes from a fire or a cremation into the matrix. The resulting complex grounds serve as backdrops for quick sketches of a fairly unhinged inner cartography peopled by ships, key-stoned bridges, architectural ruins and phantom hermitages. Oils, gold leaf, gouache, charcoal, shellac & varnishes are used to punctuate and/or disguise.
"The First Figure" by Sam Colt
Duo Exhibition: Kate Smith & Elizabeth Nelson
Sept 07 - Oct 08, 2022
A conversation from the sidelines of the soccer fields blossomed into a collaborative exhibition of complimentary work at Axel’s Gallery in Waterbury, VT.
One artist moved by emotion. The other moved by the minutiae. Both are creating art from memories of the special places where they are drawn to.
"Trailblazer" by Kate Smith
"Glacier Lagoon" by Elizabeth Nelson
Duo Exhibition:
Matt Larson & Ashley Roark
Aug 10 - Sept 03, 2022
Working towards similar ends through a variety of media and processes, Larson and Roark each present unique bodies of work within their own respective practices. Each finds inspiration in mark making, color blocking, graphic elements, and producing work in experimental series. While Larson employs vibrant colors to capture connections between ourselves and the local landscape through memories, Roark’s approach seeks to capture a metaphorical snapshot of a fragmented moment using a palette more reminiscent of low light film. This show presents these two individual approaches towards setting the scene.
ROCK - PAPER - SCISSORS
Neha Shukla & Nora McDonough
July 20 - Aug 06, 2022
Rock - Paper - Scissors is a literal description of the subject, material, and processes of the work by two emerging Vermont artists: Neha Shukla and Nora McDonough.
Visual cues are gathered from the artists’ natural surroundings and transcribed onto paper using layers either within the composition or quite literally with collage.
Elemental Reduction: Shape/Color
CURATED BY CHRIS COPLEY
June 22 - July 16, 2022
Drawing from the creative talent he has worked with developing high-demand, style forward products or have met on his journey of developing of his personal art collection, Chris Copley has curated a group show of four artists with roots from the Green Mountain State.
“Elemental Reduction” of shape and color highlights diverse style and the opportunity to appreciate work with uncluttered fields and visual simplicity.
Jim Bruce, Tally Groves, Maurizio Molin, and Michael Montanaro use limited color palettes and simple subject matters while drawing inspiration from their surrounding landscapes.
"Transitions"
Work by 17 Vermont Surface Design Association members
April 06 - April 30, 2022
Transitions surround us, create us, define us. There are transitions we see and feel as we move from winter to spring, from land to water, from illness to health, from isolation to community, from youth to old age. Others reflect emotional and intellectual states as we move from beginner to expert, from naiveté to wisdom, from ignorance to knowledge. The artists in this exhibition use transitions of color, shape, and material to reflect on conceptions of transition.
The Surface Design Association is an international organization focused on inspiring creativity, encouraging innovation, and advocating for artistic excellence as the global leader in textile-inspired art and design.
Ellen Langtree: A Retrospective
A unique mix of past and present work by Ellen Langtree on display at Axel’s Gallery from March 9 until April 2, 2022
The last time Ellen Langtree’s paintings were publicly shown was in the 1990’s.
And it makes sense.
While Langtree was providing for her new family and navigating life’s changes, she took a hiatus from making art. That is, she stopped making art for herself. This hiatus turned out to be 18 years long during which she not only raised her children but taught hundreds of others as well. As an arts educator, her focus was on others. It wasn’t until recently, pre-pandemic, that Langtree returned to the studio. And this time her medium is clay.
Nature's Images Reimagined
A collection of nature photographs by Paul Haverstick*
Feb 09 - Mar 05, 2022
Using computer technology Paul Haverstick has reinvented ordinary photographs into spectacular color and shape fields - finding endless possibility with his creativity.
Musings from the Nurses Room
Current Work by Heather Guptill
Jan 05 - Feb 05, 2022
Artist Reception: Thursday, Jan 27, 2022 6-8pm
Working from a small studio, once the Nurses Room, in a converted school in Kittery, Maine, Heather Guptill lets her instincts guide her artwork. The results are raw, deeply visceral, abstract, mostly non-representational, and full of emotion and color.
Theese are large-scale original acrylic works on ram board - a material choice that supports the artists intention of exploration and spontaneity without the restriction or seriousness of the typical and expected.
Compositions in Wood by Philip Herbison
Sept 29 - Nov 06, 2021
"The reason I make art is to explore the mysterious realm of new aesthetic possibilities with materials at hand. I’ve rarely made art as a means of self expression, but rather more like an inventor of shapes and substance - associations that, when put together in a certain way, becomes an object that is new, yet somehow familiar to the psyche of the viewer. Working with piles of re-cycled wood scraps as a medium brings with it a lot intuitive play. Recognizing happy accidents when they happen leads to discovery of new aesthetic statements."
-Philip Herbison
TX by Philip Herbison
The Way Light Answers
Cold Wax and Oil work by Jan Sandman
July 07 - August 14 2021
The paintings in this show, cold wax and oil, have primarily been created during the time of the pandemic. Many of them have been created with the discipline of a limited palette. As we have been held in certain ways during this past year, Jan utilized that restraint by limiting her choice of colors to both deepen her relationship with them, and with what is possible within a boundary. In relationship to deep questions, Jan consults and meditates with the vibration of Light itself. The theme of the whole body of work is “The Way Light Answers.”
Breathing Light by Jan Sandman
Blue by Kate Fetherston
Rarest color in flora and fauna, once in a blue moon is an occasion of omen or of celebration. Blue skies, blue waters foster feelings of hope, freedom, possibility. Happiness is symbolized as a bluebird. Then again, a blue mood might be sad, lonely, wistful or pensive. Blue’s the color of shadows, of twilight, of changing light. This show is an homage to blue’s power to evoke a range of expression perhaps unequaled in the rainbow.
