The Arts Council's Spotlight Gallery features exhibits by Vermont visual artists. Exhibits generally run for a two month period.
The gallery is open to the public and located in the corridor and conference room of our offices at 136 State Street in Montpelier. Please note that there are times when the conference room is not available due to meetings in progress. However, the corridor exhibit is always open during regular business hours.
The Gallery Hours: Monday - Friday, 8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
"Shelter:Dwelling:House:Home" is a mixed media exhibition on display August 6 - October 29. A reception will be held on Friday, October 15 as part of Montpelier's Art Walk.
Artists Judith Rey & Denis Versweyveld of Vergennes say, "We believe that in addition to the functional use and need for physical shelter there is a deep psychological and spiritual component that is served by the place we call Home. The pieces in this exhibit represent our effort to give a visual presence to this belief.
"While we were motivated by the current economic climate and the damage being done to families who have lost their homes over the last few years, we have both been involved in the process of developing images that depicted this basic feeling or sense of house and home for many more years. In the past two years we have sold many of these images to raise money for homeless shelters in Burlington and Vergennes, VT.
"Although the situation in Vermont is not as dire as in most other parts of our country, there are still many people, including children, who go to sleep hungry and homeless each night in the world's wealthiest nation."
ABOUT THE ARTISTS:
Judith Rey: Judith has lived and worked in Vermont for thirty years and is an avid gardener.
She has taught art in public schools, served as an arts administrator and also the CEO of an art-based manufacturing company. The artist began painting at the kitchen table with her mother around the age of 3, and she has loved it ever since.
Denis Versweyveld (Artists Statement): My sculpture and paintings are reflective of, and responsive to, the spaces in which I live and work. Subject matter, material choices and issues of scale are all part of my concern to see the familiar in a new way.
I have been intrigued with connecting common still-life type objects to columns, tables, posts, etc, to present these items as both sculpture and monument. The old cemetery that abuts my property has head stones and obelisks that are simple and direct. These monuments, and the architectural forms, details and materials used in our 19th century home and studio have influenced and inspired my work. The timbers used in the building, the joinery, the textural quality of plaster and lath and the way these materials receive light are all part of what I respond to.
My intent is to present my subjects in a straightforward and ennobling manner.