At the respectable age of 88, the annual Fitchburg Art Museum’s (FAM) juried “Regional Exhibition of Art and Craft” is a highly anticipated, competitive and well attended event. Boundaries are tricky for artists in general and FAM blurs the concept of a rigid geographic region to include members of other arts organizations including LexArt (the Lexington Arts & Crafts Society) and ArtsWorcester. As a result, this exhibit represents artists from 58 towns.
This year’s juror, Gabriel Sosa, deputy director of the Essex Art Center in Lawrence, Massachusetts, selected a stunning array of 109 works that FAM’s new curator, Emily Mazzola, wanded into place like a Harry Potter wizard. Each is placed to be seen without interruption but also in combinations where color, material, gesture, surface treatment or shape may be echoed. Like the Everly Brothers close harmonies, Mazzola’s visual pairings and groupings create newly formed familial bonds. This enhances the whole experience, giving the visitor the feeling that they are visiting old friends and are welcomed.
A group show on this scale will include art where sizes, media, subject and intent range widely. Some are small enough to fit on a butter plate and others large enough to cover a wall, top to bottom. The combination of Sosa’s vision to select a wide range of works from many submissions with Mazzola’s ability to compose an exhibition is like two composers being handed single notes or musical phrases and being asked to create a symphony on the spot.
Together with the works from each artist and all the staff at the museum, they created a masterful exhibition. Artists with work in the exhibit will see their piece in a context that allows them to appreciate not only what they have accomplished, but the works of others as the visual relationships ring out.