First Friday Opening: September 1, 2023, 12–7 p.m., reception 5–7 p.m.
Exhibition On View: September 1–30, 2023
Gallery hours: Monday–Saturday, 12–6 p.m.
Join Fairbanks Arts in the Bear Gallery for our September exhibitions: Seasons of Change by Kim Collins Marcucci and MOTHER by Alaskan Artist Mothers.
Seasons of Change by Kim Collins Marcucci
“Seasons of Change” is an exhibition inspired by the beauty and power of seasonal movements occurring in nature. Marcucci is interested in expressing the energy, angst, grit, and beauty of a moment – like when the ice melts, or when leaves emerge or fall away. Her work is influenced by nature, adventure, travel, culture, and recently by the pandemic and climate change.
About the Artist:
Kim Marcucci was born one of triplets and raised in Springfield, Oregon. Art was always a part of her creative family. Her mother painted, her aunt danced in the NYC ballet, one brother was a writer, the other brother a chef, and her grandmother fostered the arts in the whole family. Marcucci’s appreciation of art started at a young age growing up with the opera, live theater, museums, and ballet.
During high school, Marcucci took a painting class, and her work was frowned upon because it wasn’t realistic. Marcucci didn’t pick up a brush again until she chose painting over computers as her major in college. After high school, Marcucci traveled to Canada and lived in a log cabin in the wilderness. This sparked her interest in the “Last Frontier” and she moved to Alaska in 1977. Marcucci graduated 1995 magna cum laude with a BFA in Painting and a Minor in Fiber from the University of Alaska, Anchorage. After exploring all the genres – landscape, portraiture, figures, and still life, it was the challenges of abstraction that held her interest. Marcucci developed her style of layering during college, using acrylic, charcoal, chalk, and oil pastels. Marcucci pours, splatters, lifts, brushes, scrapes, and builds to create a rich surface history. Marcucci’s reputation for always being covered with paint from head to toe is a reflection of her uninhibited exuberance in painting.
Marcucci’s awards include Best of Non-Objective Paintings from the National Oil and Acrylic Painters of America, recipient of two Alaska State Council on the Arts Career Opportunity Grants, and the Saradel Ard Art Scholarship. She most recently received two purchase awards from the US Native & Indigenous Artists Initiative from New Mexico Arts and attended an Artist in Residence in Listowel, Ireland. Locally, Marcucci is included in the Alaska Biennial with the Anchorage Museum.
Marcucci’s award-winning abstract color expressionistic work is held in corporate and private collections throughout the United States and abroad and has been included in numerous regional and national exhibitions sponsored by organizations like the International Society of Experimental Artists, National Watercolor Society, Alaska Watercolor Society, All Alaska Biennial Exhibition, and the National Oil and Acrylic Painters of America, and City of Lake Oswego Festival of Arts and Flowers. Marcucci’s work has been published in Alaska Home Magazine, Anchorage Daily News, ArtScene AK, Watercolor Magic Magazine, Artists Magazine, and Art and Healing Publication.
Marcucci curated exhibitions in Anchorage, AK for over six years at Suite 100 restaurant. She taught watercolor to seniors at Southcentral Foundation in Anchorage, 3-D Design at UAA, and was an art substitute teacher for the Anchorage School District.
After painting for over 45 years, Marcucci’s style continues to evolve, but the constant is vibrant color, dramatic design, and movement, through bold brushwork and contrast. Marcucci now spends her time between Oregon and Alaska and is represented by GoGo Gallery in Portland, OR, and by Stephan’s Fine Arts and Georgia Blue galleries in Anchorage, Alaska.
You can connect with Kim online at www.kimmarcucci.com.
Artist Talk:
Kim Collins Marcucci will give an artist talk titled, “One Artist’s Journey” on Thursday, September 28th at 7 p.m. in the Bear Gallery. In this artist talk, Kim will talk about her art career, process, and work.
This artist talk is free and open to the public thanks to support from our donors and members.
MOTHER by Alaskan Artist Mothers
Seven Alaskan Artist Mothers will be displaying a variety of new contemporary works in the second iteration (Bunnell Street Arts Center 2022) of MOTHER at the Bear Gallery in September 2023 – exhibition programming includes performances and workshops.
Artists included in this group are:
- Brianna Allen, Homer
- Carla Klinker Cope, Homer
- Myesha Callahan Freet, Chugiak
- Somer Hahm, Fairbanks
- Lily Hope, Juneau
- Amy Komar, Homer
- Amy Meissner, Anchorage
About this exhibition, from Alaskan Artist Mothers:
MOTHER
A position, an act, a summoning, an expletive, a transition, an irreversibility.
The word conjures comfort, expectation, humility, defiance, entanglement, lineage, disappointment, rage, and bliss. The state is simultaneously verdant and mundane, a vein of generational knowledge and deep intuition tempered by unknowing and unlearning.
MOTHER is created from within our mothering experience, but also in response to our relationships with one another – sustenance, balm, commitment, and reckoning.
We do this work to contextualize, remember, and honor all stages of mothering. By couching our questions in reprieve and tenderness, we reinforce connections to mothers who came before, to those seen everyday, and to others who have yet to become.
About the Artists:
Brianna Allen is a visual artist and performer living and working on Ninilchik Triballands currently known as Homer, Alaska. She graduated from the University of Southern Maine in 2008 with a degree in Studio Art and Entrepreneurial Studies with a concentration in Painting. She is a multidisciplinary artist currently working within themes of motherhood and community. Brianna is a mother of two children.
Carla Klinker Cope is a visual artist living and working in Homer, Alaska. She earned her BFA at Oregon College of Arts and Craft in Portland, Oregon in 2003. Carla’s work draws from the absurd, contradictory, and profound experiences of being a neurodivergent woman/artist/mother. She is a mother of two children.
Myesha Callahan Freet is a visual artist who earned a BFA from the University of Houston and currently resides in Chugiak, AK. She draws inspiration from an ongoing exploration into the evolution of self through examining her role as a mother and wife. Through performance and socially engaged art, she aims to embrace the commitment that caring for others requires. She has one child.
Somer Hahm is a visual artist and creative place maker living and working on Tanana Dené lands in Fairbanks, Alaska. Hahm’s recent body of work has been inspired by the wealth of the American Patchwork. Motivated to create community involvement and interest in public art, in 2019 she initiated an artist-led endeavor of creative place making called the Far North Quilt Trail Project, Alaska’s first barn quilt trail. Somer is an Adjunct Professor of Drawing at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks and is employed as Exhibition Technician at Fairbanks Arts. She is a mother of two children.
Lily Hope (Tlingit) Wooshkindein Da.Aat is a distinguished artist and community leader from Lingit Aani. Her finger-twined, adapted formline, ceremonial Chilkat dancing blankets take years to complete. Her works document inheritance, history, lineages of weavers, world crisis, and political issues. She is a (solo) mother of five children.
Amy Komar is a visual artist living and working in Homer, Alaska. Born and raised in Houston, Texas, she earned a BA in Studio Art from The University of Texas Austin in 2001. She is a mother of two children.
Amy Meissner is a visual artist based in Dena’ina Homeland (currently known as Anchorage) whose work with found objects and abandoned textiles in need of repair references the physical and emotional labor of women. She holds an MA in Critical Craft Studies, an MFA in Creative Writing, and undergraduate degrees in Art and Textiles. She is a mother of two children.
You can connect with the artists of Alaskan Artist Mothers online and on Instagram at:
www.bmallen.com; @bri.m.allen
www.carlakcope.com; @carlacope
www.callahanfreet.com; @callahanfreet
www.somerhahm.com; @somer.hahm
www.lilyhope.com; @lilyhopeweaver
www.amykomar.com; @amykomar
www.amymeissner.com; @amymeissnerartist
These exhibitions are free and open to the public thanks to support from our donors and members.
Artist Workshops/Talks/Performances:
“Grow” – Performance by Myesha Callahan Freet at First Friday Reception
Friday, September 1, at 6 p.m. in the Bear Gallery
A time-based performance art depicting the intentional, repetitive care of a child using plants from my personal collection as subject matter. This work is a continuation of “Nurture,” a performance in the exploration of care performed at Bunnell Street Arts Center in December 2022. “Grow” is about care and the act of embracing letting go during Myesha’s mothering experience. Plant offerings will be left for show attendees.
Workshop with Amy Meissner – “The Art of Garment Repair: Decorative Stitch”
Saturday, September 2nd from 10 a.m. – 12 (noon) p.m. in the Bear Gallery (3rd floor, Alaska Centennial Center for the Arts in Pioneer Park)
Fairbanks Arts Members: $30, Non-members: $35
Join artist and repair practitioner, Amy Meissner, for an intimate workshop featuring the art of repair, with a focus on mending via embroidery and the Japanese technique of sashiko. This craft practice, which utilizes creativity through color and stitch variation, is widely applicable to many well-loved garments, including denim, base layers, and outerwear. The class will consist of group repair evaluation, appropriate tutorials to address as many versions of this repair technique as possible, individual consultation, and time for group work.
No previous sewing experience is necessary; sharing stories of brokenness and repair will be highly encouraged.
Supplies:
Participants are being asked to bring an item to repair – this could be a pair of jeans, socks, or knitwear. The instructor will supply all participants with needles, embroidery floss, yarn, and scissors. However, it is suggested that if any participant would like to use a specific color of floss and/or yarn, please plan to purchase and bring it to the workshop for personal use.
About the Instructor:
Anchorage artist, Amy Meissner, teaches the Craft of Repair as an act of prolonging, caring, and accompaniment of vulnerable objects in transition. This community-based work complements her solitary studio practice that combines handwork, found objects, and abandoned textiles to further complicate the literal, physical, and emotional labor of women. With a background in clothing design and illustration, she holds an MFA in Creative Writing, and an MA in Critical Craft Studies, and has taught garment repair in-person and online internationally. Awards include grants from the Rasmuson Foundation, the Sustainable Arts Foundation, and most recently a 2023 Center for Craft Teaching Artist Cohort grant to focus on the Craft of Repair in both her studio and socially engaged practices.
Workshop Registration Link:
https://form.jotform.com/231917565866167
For more information, please contact gallery@fairbanksarts.org or call (907) 251-8386 ext 3.
Performance with Brianna Allen: MOMologues
Thursday, September 7th at 7pm at The Basement Downtown (541 3rd Avenue, Fairbanks, AK)
Tickets are $15 – $30 sliding scale; $20 suggested
Press release from The Basement Downtown:
For Immediate Release
August 15, 2023
MOMologues Performance at The Basement Downtown, Thursday, September 7th
“MOMologues” is a one-evening, live performance based on the newly released book, “The Momologue Collective: An Anthology by Self-Identifying Mothers”. The collection of anonymous stories about motherhood were gathered by multidisciplinary artist of Homer, Brianna Allen. “MOMologues” is produced and directed by Carey Seward of Seward Follies Production Company.
“MOMologues” debuts in Fairbanks, in conjunction with MOTHER, a visual arts exhibition by seven Alaska artist mothers, presented by The Bear Gallery for the month of September including Brianna Allen, Carla Cope, Amy Komar (Homer), Myesha Callahan Freet (Chugiak), Somer Hahm (Fairbanks), Wooshkindein Da.Aat Lily Hope (Juneau), and Amy Meissner (Anchorage). Why are the best stories about motherhood told in whispers? Witness confessions become communal anthems as one artist’s social art practice shatters the rose-colored “Mother and Child” veneer society prefers and protects. These true, anonymous stories about motherhood, contributed by over 100 self-identifying mothers, has been described by non-mothers as “eye-opening” and “a straight-up education.” After the performance, creator Brianna Allen offers a short artist talk about the ongoing project. Books will be available for sale at the performance as well as at the Fairbanks Arts Gift Shop in tandem with the visual arts exhibit MOTHER. MOTHER was made possible with funding by Rasmuson Foundation through the Harper Arts Touring Fund, and is administered by the Alaska State Council on the Arts and Fairbanks Arts Association.
For more information about the project please reach Brianna Allen Momologues907@gmail.com
Tickets are $15 – $30 sliding scale; $20 suggested and can be purchased online at: https://www.thebasementfbx.com/events/momologues
“Share the Load” – Project by Myesha Callahan Freet
Saturday, September 30, from 12 (noon) – 3 p.m. in the Bear Gallery (3rd floor, Alaska Centennial Center for the Arts in Pioneer Park)
This is a call to all mothers to release items saved from their child’s past. As our children mature, mothers love their belongings as if they were our offspring — this project explores our labor of procurement and the process of letting go.
Participate in the Project:
To contribute to Share the Load, please bring 3-6 items from your child/children that will fit within the surface of an 11″x17″ area to the Bear Gallery (3rd floor, Alaska Centennial Center or the Arts in Pioneer Park). Your items will not be returned.
A thank you note from the artist including a 5″x7″ electronic copy of the scanned items will be returned to all participants who include an email address with the package.
If you are unable to bring these items on the intake day, please feel free to ship items to the address below.
Callahan Freet re. Share the Load
PO Box 671370
Chugiak AK 99567
For more questions regarding Share the Load, feel free to contact Myesha at myesha@callahanfreet.com.
Through performance and socially engaged art, I aim to embrace the commitment that being a mother requires. This work reflects the art of self-discovery inspired by questioning and embracing the ritualistic acts of motherhood by examining what we are attached to, and whether we can detach from it.
Watch an artist talk with Alaskan Artist Mothers recorded in December 2022 at Bunnell Street Arts Center:
