SPRING EXPLODES WITH COLOR, LIGHT AND SOUND

After the winter of 2013-14, with its arctic temps and record-high snowfall, New Englanders said, “Enough already!” Ali Goodwin, director of the Drift Contemporary Art Gallery at the Wentworth-Coolidge Mansion in Ports- mouth, has executed her own form of revenge. It’s called “Resonance,” the gallery’s opening exhibition of the season.

“Spring is resounding with color, light and sound,” Goodwin says. “And I’m welcoming it in with bold, vibrant colors in this show … I’m starting from the inside out.”

As the weeks go by, she said, the sounds of spring, the profusion of colors (lilacs are about to burst forth on the gallery’s magnificent historic grounds), and increasing and brightening daylight hours all add to the exhilaration. Spring is about to explode.

“Maybe I should have named the show, “From the Inside Out,” Goodwin said. True, since the bright, “statement” pieces highlight the season and with great fanfare usher in the warmth and exuberance of spring.

The 65 works by eight artists display a diversity of expressions — organic shapes, linear hard edges, a whimsical photo show in the loft (an area that used to be part of the renovated barn housing the gallery), abstract expressionist landscapes and free-form dynamic sculptures. They all add up to a stimulating overload of the senses — a much-welcomed experience.

Linda Chestney