Glow Ocean, at Future Lab(s) Gallery, North Adams, MA
And NO KINGS DAY, both March 28
By: Astrid Hiemer - Mar 26, 2026
Glow Ocean, Future Lab(s) Gallery, N. Adams, MA, final closing March 28.
The Future Lab (s) Gallery, 43 Eagle Street, in North Adams, Massachusetts, is currently inviting to the final day of their Glow Ocean show on Saturday, March 28, from 1 to 3 p.m. The closing party will happen on Friday, March 27, from 6-8 p.m.
The 3rd NO KINGS DAY, on 3/28, at City Hall in North Adams will be held from 12:30 to 2 pm. So protesters then may find their way to Eagle Street, which is only a 10 minute walk away.
There will be protests and rallies in every State of the Union, and organizers nationwide expect more than 9 Million participants all over the USA; and in addition protests particularly in major European cities as well as Asia. Locally, in the Berkshires, a number of rallies will happen starting early in South County then moving North. Schedules are available online from various sources, including Greylock Together in North County.
City Hall Plaza, in North Adams, will serve for programming, including dynamic speakers and performers. We expect a serious and celebratory mood with thousand posters and other tropes, such as animal costumes, new ones or well worn costumes from prior demonstrations.
Then, in a skip and a jump to Future Lab (s) Gallery, the immersive experience of a spectacular show is full of little wonders. Enjoy a respite that widens the senses and will blow you away!
I went to the gallery last Sunday on a miserable rainy afternoon, and I was oceanly (not heavenly) rewarded after entering the darkened gallery. It’s indeed an immersive experience; the entire gallery is covered by one surround-painting on all walls. There are thousands of fishes in various forms, colors, and sizes, and other ocean critters are ‘floating’ around. A deep-sea diver, dressed with suit, copper helmet and weighted boots is drawn near a corner wall. S/he is holding a lever. When pulled, it makes a number of sea-anemones pop from the wall in 3D fashion. Other paper fishes, anemones and weird critters are hung from the ceiling.
10 glow ceiling light-fixtures are spread over the entire gallery so that the glow and iridescent colors can glow everywhere. The producer of the show is Sonia Domkarova, originally from the Szech Republic, also an immigrant, and a delightful and wonderfully productive artist.
Sonia explained the history of the show: Using canvas for the entire gallery walls would have been prohibitively expensive. At a New York gallery she discovered that an artist had used a bed sheet for a very tall painting. So, Leni Fried of the Old Stone Mill Center in Adams, MA, came to the rescue, and sold Sonia $ 20 worth of bed sheets for $ 1 each. (The Stone Mill is a fabulous hunting ground for many projects as well as art supplies, print making, and art teaching.)
The sheets were roller-painted black, then sowed to length, hung on the gallery walls and the ‘choreography’ to create this show happened day by day. 86 people in all participated in making this community installation happen. How wonderful!
Beginning with members of the Cooperative for Future Lab(s) Gallery, Sonia enlisted student groups, participants from the North Adams Senior Center, artists and non-artists alike answered open calls, and so it happened. At a festival in Vermont, Sonia met a couple, the woman had painted a series of iridescent or glow paintings. She also contributed a work to the show.
I said to Sonia that the gallery is remarkably cohesive in style and size all around with thousands of little or larger drawings of ocean life. Sonia and Abigail Dustin guided the process from time to time by drawing outlines where and when necessary. She also filled in background areas while participants, of course, wanted to paint fishes, corals, jelly fishes and other living creatures.
Community events were held throughout the month: workshops, a sound scape event as well as a late into the night dance party. A final workshop, in collaboration with Plant Connector, will be held on Friday, 3/27. Participants can create their own glow-in-the-dark sea urchins terrarium. What fun!
And, we just learned, that Stephen Hannock, an internationally known painter, who happens to keep a studio in the Berkshires, will show his Luminous Murals, at Studio 9, in North Adams, later this Spring - date yet unknown. There will be advertising, so keep your senses open.
That installation will be very different, yet also an immersive experience!