Eclipse Mill Gallery

Melanie and I have wanted to collaborate for years, and finally decided to pause our other work to make it happen. Within the exhibit, we asked ourselves and now our viewers to pause time and consider something larger than our day-to-day selves and to ponder the deeper ideas of our existence.

This exhibition in North Adams ends on May 29 and so we also introduce the Old Stone Mill Center in Adams, MA, on Rt. 8, outside of downtown, direction to S. Adams. Both are worth a visit!

Writing about an exhibition or installation in poetic form is a first for me ~ come see!

During the era of KIng Cotton North Adams thrived by processing bales shipped north from plantations. The Eclipse Mill produced thread which was woven across the street in the Delftree Mill. Until 1938 the mills employed child labor. During a single visit Lewis Hine created nine photographs outside the mill. These images as well as vintage views of the Eclipse Mill comprise a special exhibition. They flank the entrance ramp to the vast artist/ loft complex. The community based project is an aesthetic, historic and humanistic accomplishment.

Eclipse Mill Artists Annual Exhibition, Reconnections 2021, will present the work of 24 artist residents of the North Adams complex. The Annual is a long standing tradition for the artists loft building.

“Viral Load”, an exhibition of works by artist Suzette Marie Martin at the Eclipse Mill Gallery, is a meditative suite of ten mixed-media paintings on canvas, bearing witness to the cumulative, collective loss of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Kaleidoscapes and Sights Unseen”, an exhibition by photographer J. Alexander Baker, at the Eclipse Mill Gallery, is a series of semi-abstract waterside scenes of rivers that reveal unexpected patterns hidden within the natural world. Baker’s digital manipulation of limited color palettes, reflection, repetition and focus transform the Hudson, and other rivers, into kaleidoscopic dreamscapes that exist in the space between observed reality and imagination - "Riparian Kaleidoscapes".  

Erika Marquardt was an extraordinary woman, painter and artist. We were dear friends and I have followed her and Susan Erony's work since 1995. The rare collaboration between those two painters of more than 1000 small paintings ( 7"x10") lasted from 1998 to 2006. And they also collaborated on a large triptych. Altogether an amazing feat!

Emergence is the debut exhibition of North Adams Contemporary—an evolving collaboration of its four professional artist members, who meet regularly for discussion, critique, and the development of opportunities for exhibiting and marketing artwork.

This past summer the artist, Ariel Klein, was in the thick of New York’s protests against the police inflicted murder of George Floyd. He was a resident of Brooklyn and its community of artists. His take on that is on view as “Rise Up” at the Eclipse Mill Gallery in North Adams.

Suzette Martin's project of 200 'prayer flags' has been installed at the River Street Park in North Adams, MA, behind MASS MoCA. They have been fastened along a fence at 6' apart. A proto-project, also titled 'Airborne Transmission' of then 19 flags can still be seen on the grounds of the Eclipse Mill in North Adams. These 'flags' have been there since August. The new installation is impressive and will have a much larger impact, by reminding us that the entire Nation is still reeling from the Covid-19 pandemic, now with more than 200,000 deaths in the USA. Please read below.

Howard Cruse was a pioneering gay cartoonist and Berkshire neighbor. He passed away last year. His legendary Stuck Rubber Baby is having its 25th anniversary edition. The publication will be available this summer.

The upscale Tourists a hip, designer savvy resort in North Adams, has launched a program of evenings with artists. Last night there was a cozy, well attended fireside chat with artist and musician Jane Hudson. She and her husband Jeff operated Hudsons Antiques formerly at MASS MoCA. They also perform music as Jeff and Jane. Both are widely exhibited artists. She discussed phases of her career which I have followed as friend and commentator since the late 1960s. It was also her birthday.

Many artists and friends attended the opening of my exhbition "Then and Now: Analog to Digital" at Real Eyes Gallery in Adams, Mass. For the occasion I wore my Senegal robes. That reflected the exotic nature of the work. Music was performed on electric sitar and percussion by Nana Simopoulos and Caryn Heilman. There were lively dialogues about the work anticipating an artist's talk on Saturday, November 23 at 4 PM.

Last summer for exhibitions at Gallery 51 and the Eclipse Gallery, both in North Adams, with Amanda at Beck's Printing I created large format digital prints on canvas. There were five last summer. Three classical based surreal prints are included in the November exhibition at Real Eyes Gallery in Adams. Ten more large canvases have been created for the project curated by gallerist Bill Riley. There are also some framed giclee prints as well as original collages.

By any measure the current exhibition at Gallery 51 in North Adams is superb. There is a compelling synergy that threads through work by five artists all of whom live and work in the Berkshires

In a relatively short time Real Eyes Gallery. located in the heart of Adams in the Berkshires. is notable for programming museum level exhibtions. Marjorie Minkin: The Shape of Light sets the bar high. Gallerist Bill Reilly has been able to work with artists from an expanding and ever more remarkable community of artists. How long can MASS MoCA ignore phenomenal work being created in its own back yard?

In 1969 Howie and Dale Levitz moved to the Berkshires when he became head of the photography department at Williams College. After seven years they opened a photo store which had a smaller iteration on Holden Street in North Adams. He was the piano man with a vast command of songs. Howie loved to entertain with tales, anecdotes and jokes. He passed away over the Memorial Day weekend.

Amigos: Charles Giuliano, Robert Henriquez, David Zaig is the final exhibition of the season of Eclipse Mill Gallery in North Adams. The commonality of these Berkshire based artist friends is the scale and ambition of their work. The exhibition opens on Friday, November 16, 5 to 8 PM.

Cross-Section, the inaugural exhibition of North Adams Fiber Artists (NAFA), will open at the Eclipse Mill Gallery on September 7 and run through October 8. The gallery is located in a 40 unit artist/ loft building ar 243 Union Street in North Adams.

Since 2008 North Adams' DownStreet Art celebrations have become a monthly summer-time destination for Berkshire residents and visitors alike. Serious, fun, cultural activities and art mix and match during this day. The celebrations have always happened on the last Thursday of the month.

The special exhibition Objects of Desire pairs whimsical narrative paintings by Joan Kiley with relief sculpture and polychromed assemblages by Larry Alice. There is a confluence and empathy of fantasy and the surreal in work that will be on view in the Eclipse Mill, 243 Union Street, from Friday, June 29 through Sunday, July 29. A receptiom will be held on Friday, July 6.

The landscape, particularly as inspired by visionary experiences with the indigenous people of Colombia, have long been key to the large paintings of Rick Harlow. In the past couple of years, taking off from the radical technique of Jackson Pollock, nature has been a more subliminal signifier in dripped and spattered abstract paintings. During a studio visit we discussed the dozen paintings to be included in "Landscape of Energy" at the Eclipse Mill Gallery. It will be his first Berkshire solo show.

The North Adams Winter Arts Festival was launched in December with a holiday celebration at the Eclipse Mill Gallery. It resumes with four events starting with Kathline Carr Wednesday, February 28. It continues with Mark Miller, Wednesday, March 7, then Charles Giuliano and Astrid Hiemer, Wednesday, March 14 concluding with Sarah Sutro on Wednesday, March 28. Speaking well for the depth of the creative community all of the authors live and work in North Adams.

All are invited to join a holiday celebration and launch of the Eclipse Mill Winter Arts Festival. A gala evening of music by Michelle Wiley, and poetry by Stephen Rifkin, will occur on Wednesday, December 13, starting at 7:30 pm, at the Eclipse Mill, 243 Union Street, in North Adams. A program of other events will be announced in the New Year.