Wilmington, Del. (March 29, 2023) – The Delaware Division of the Arts’ Mezzanine Gallery presents 2022 DDOA Individual Artist Fellow Tad Sare’s exhibition, “Projected Perspectives”, running April 7-28, 2023. Guests are invited to attend a Meet-the-Artist Reception on Friday, April 14 from 5:00-7:00 p.m.

Tad Sare is an experimental animator and artist currently living and working in Wilmington, Delaware. Sare uses the storytelling medium of animation to explore perception and interpretation of juxtaposed and sequential images. He employs hand drawn techniques while collaging/overlapping photographs, live action video, and sound elements digitally. His work borrows ideas, filmic devices and tropes from espionage and thriller literature and cinema to examine the relationship between the perceived and the unknown of visual information.

‘Projected Perspectives’ gives a snapshot of two recent site-specific artworks Sare created using his own eclectic subject matter and animation techniques. ‘Triptych’, originally exhibited at the top of a ladder within an old rice store in Japan, incorporates visual representations of ‘floating’ or ‘soaring’. Viewers are encouraged to watch the video from a vantage point that simulates the experience of climbing to the top of that ladder. ‘Pipes of Perception’ depicts a strange journey in and around water pipes. The exhibition also includes the hand drawn elements that were used to make the animated short films.

Since 2009, Sare has taught art at Delaware College of Art and Design (DCAD), where he currently serves as the Program Chair of Animation. He is also a teaching artist for a mentor program through Cab Calloway School of the Arts. At PAFA, his alma mater, he continues to teach in the Summer Arts Academy. In 2022, Sare was awarded a Delaware Division of the Arts Established Fellowship in Media Arts:Video/Film.

The Mezzanine Gallery, open weekdays from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., is located on the second floor of the Carvel State Office Building, 820 N. French Street, Wilmington.

View the artists’s website here: www.tadsare.com

View the artists Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/tad_sare

Image: “Kitchen Windowsill (Triptych Background Element),” 2022, graphite on paper, 14” x 18″

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Contact: Andrew Truscott, Program Officer, Marketing and Communications

302-577-8280, andrew.truscott@delaware.gov

The Delaware Division of the Arts, a branch of the Delaware Department of State, is dedicated to cultivating and supporting the arts to enhance the quality of life for all Delawareans. Together with its advisory body, the Delaware State Arts Council, the Division administers grants and programs that support arts programming, educate the public, increase awareness of the arts, and integrate the arts into all facets of Delaware life. For more information about the Delaware Division of the Arts, visit arts.delaware.gov or call 302-577-8278.

On view from February 3-23, 2023

Wilmington, Del. (January 25, 2023) – The Delaware Division of the Arts’ Mezzanine Gallery presents 2022 DDOA Individual Artist Fellow Roger Matsumoto’s exhibition, “Printing with Palladium”, running February 3-24, 2023. Guests are invited to attend a Meet-the-Artist Reception on Friday, February 3 from 5:00-7:00 p.m.

Roger Matsumoto has been involved with photography since he learned the basics during his junior high school days. The photographer for his school newspaper, Matsumoto also did astrophotography using an 8-inch telescope that he made. But “I did not consider what I was doing to be any form of art.” It was only later – on a climbing trip to Yosemite during college – that he “purchased a small booklet of Ansel Adams photographs that made me see what photography was capable of.”

He then began to study seriously, taking a photography class at the University of Utah. After exploring silver printing and some “alternative” processes during the 1970s (including Cibachrome color work), Matsumoto discovered printing with palladium, now his primary process. Since he began exhibiting in 1982, his work has been seen in over 200 shows, including at the Fleischer Art Memorial (Philadelphia), Foundry Art Center (St. Louis, MO), Delaware Art Museum (Wilmington), and the London (England) Camera Club, where his print won first prize. Matsumoto also has prints in the collections of the Free Library of Philadelphia, Utah Museum of Fine Art, and Philadelphia Museum of Art (three prints).

Though Ansel Adams’ photographs were the pivotal inspiration for his work and his artistic practice, Matsumoto was also influenced by the work of Karl Blossfeldt and Brett Weston. His current process “extends the purely photographic image with brushed lines or areas” applied at the same time as the palladium coating, making each print a “distinct realization of the negative” – a monoprint. Matsumoto is also exploring a new series called “Stereo Pair” that mimics the stereo cards popular at the end of the 19th century.

The Newark resident was born in Honolulu, Hawaii. His father was in the Army, and (with his mother and sister) Matsumoto lived in Tokyo for three years as a child in a U.S. military housing base. The family eventually relocated to the Pacific Northwest, and Matsumoto lived in the Seattle region until after graduate school. He then moved to Salt Lake City. He came to Delaware from Salt Lake City and has lived here since 1988, “the longest I’ve been in one place.”

Matsumoto’s palladium images are almost exclusively of botanical subjects. He can make negatives at any time during the year, but “I print in palladium only in the winter when the humidity is low.” This means that often months elapse between creating the negative and printing it. The pandemic, “while not actually a complete re-set of my past practice,” allowed him to try out new films. But there’s been a recent spike in the cost of palladium (and all art supplies), and Matsumoto is also challenged by the “changes made in the materials I use.” However, he’s looking forward to exhibiting again. “These prints need to be seen in person, not only on a monitor or cell phone screen.”

The Mezzanine Gallery, open weekdays from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., is located on the second floor of the Carvel State Office Building, 820 N. French Street, Wilmington.

Image: “16-13a”. Palladium Monoprint. 12″x20″. 2016.

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Contact: Andrew Truscott, Program Officer, Marketing and Communications

302-577-8280, andrew.truscott@delaware.gov

The Delaware Division of the Arts, a branch of the Delaware Department of State, is dedicated to cultivating and supporting the arts to enhance the quality of life for all Delawareans. Together with its advisory body, the Delaware State Arts Council, the Division administers grants and programs that support arts programming, educate the public, increase awareness of the arts, and integrate the arts into all facets of Delaware life. For more information about the Delaware Division of the Arts, visit arts.delaware.gov or call 302-577-8278.

On view from October 7-28, 2022

Wilmington, Del. (October 3, 2022) – The Delaware Division of the Arts’ Mezzanine Gallery presents 2022 DDOA Individual Artist Fellow Joseph Barbaccia’s exhibition, Polymer Paintings, running October 7-28, 2022. Guests are invited to attend a Meet-the-Artist Reception on Friday, October 7, from 5:00-7:00 p.m.

All his life, Joseph Barbaccia has been inspired by color and form. He was drawn to their motivating force even before his artistic inclinations and aspirations were clear to him. There were no artists among his extended family or their friends, but “at church on Sundays, I remember always wanting to sit in a pew the had a stained-glass window at the end in order to enjoy the colors close up,” as he studied the statues and the bas-reliefs on the walls.

Barbaccia was born in Philadelphia, but when he was a toddler, the family moved to rural New Jersey. He began drawing in earnest when he was six, at first to capture the attention of his second-grade teacher, whom he admired. But soon his family began to take notice. “Since then, except for six months in 1979 when I took a motorcycle trip [out west], I never stopped making images.” After taking classes at Philadelphia’s Tyler School of Fine Arts, Barbaccia traveled through the United States and the South Pacific, drawing and painting in a “mostly representational style.” In 1996 he settled in Potomac Falls, Virginia, where over the next two decades his experiments with encaustics, freestanding sculpture, and mixed media gained increasing attention and recognition.

The prolific artist has exhibited widely – over 35 group shows and 10 solo exhibitions – in galleries and major venues throughout the East Coast and the mid-Atlantic, including the Greater Reston Art Center, Delaware Contemporary, Rehoboth Art League, and Washington’s Corcoran Gallery. He’s been the subject of dozens of articles and reviews, both as an artist and as an illustrator with three published children’s picture books (and a fourth underway).

Barbaccia had always had a large studio, but in 2018 he and his wife (also an artist) moved to Georgetown, Delaware, where his workspace was smaller. Realizing “I would have to change my materials and methods to accommodate the new reality,” he landed on polymer clay as “the perfect choice.” The material – with its transparency and a full color spectrum – allows him to create in both two and three dimensions. It led Barbaccia in a new direction. “Approximately 90% of the artists creating with polymer clay create jewelry. I thought the time was right to expand its visual range.”

As well as inspiring Barbaccia, working with polymer clay has challenges. Using atypical art materials, “I sometimes come up against limiting parameters in applications to shows or competitions . . . [including] a list of accepted materials that doesn’t include polymer clay.” And the pandemic has led to a scarcity of his chosen material. But he continues to push against these and other constraints and revels in “showing and sharing my work.”

The Mezzanine Gallery, open weekdays from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., is located on the second floor of the Carvel State Office Building, 820 N. French Street, Wilmington.

Image: “Avatar,” 2021, polymer clay, 20 x 14 x .1 inches

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Contact: Andrew Truscott, Program Officer, Marketing and Communications

302-577-8280, andrew.truscott@delaware.gov

The Delaware Division of the Arts, a branch of the Delaware Department of State, is dedicated to cultivating and supporting the arts to enhance the quality of life for all Delawareans. Together with its advisory body, the Delaware State Arts Council, the Division administers grants and programs that support arts programming, educate the public, increase awareness of the arts, and integrate the arts into all facets of Delaware life. For more information about the Delaware Division of the Arts, visit arts.delaware.gov or call 302-577-8278.

On view from October 7-November 4, 2022

Wilmington, Del. (September 28, 2022) – The works by the Delaware Division of the Arts Award Winners are appearing at Cab Calloway School of the Arts from October 7 to November 4, 2022, with a reception on Friday, October 7, from 6 to 8 p.m. Special readings from literary fellows will begin at 7pm, and performances from students will be held before and after.

These Delaware artists have been recognized for their outstanding quality of work. The exhibition includes multiple mediums.  Visual arts on display include paintings, polymer, photography, charcoal, sculptures, and media arts. Samples of literary winners’ works can be perused in a reading nook, and performance pieces are available for one’s listening pleasure.   

Delaware’s Individual Artist Fellowships recognize artists for their outstanding quality of work and provide monetary awards. Individual Artist Fellows are publicly acknowledged and benefit from the additional exposure to their work. Fellows are required to showcase their work in a public exhibition or performance, so we’ve set up a special section on DelawareScene.com for you to experience their work.

In 2022, the Division received work samples from 132 Delaware choreographers; composers; musicians; writers; and folk, media, and visual artists. The work samples were reviewed by out-of-state arts professionals who considered the demonstrated creativity and skill in each artist’s respective art form. Twenty-five artists were awarded fellowships in the following categories – one, Masters; 13, Established; and 11, Emerging. The 25 selected fellows reside throughout Delaware including Dover, Georgetown, Hockessin, Lewes, Magnolia, Middletown, Newark, Smyrna, Townsend, and Wilmington.

Masters Fellow Linda Blaskey was a writer from the start: “I was always getting into trouble in school because I was writing stories rather than paying attention in class.” Fortunately, she had encouraging teachers, and once she set out on her path, there was no turning back. 

Emerging artist Stephanie Boateng has owned a business since she was 18 years of age selling prints, originals, and stickers of her art. Now the recent University of Delaware graduate is beginning her career as a professional artist, hoping to share the joy she feels when making her work. “My portraits are very emotional beings,” created to be “an experience of happiness, love, and beauty” both for herself and her viewers.

Established artist Joseph Barbaccia is “continuously excited about how a specific medium which is traditionally used in one genre can be expanded to a successful level in another.” In 2018 he moved to Georgetown, Delaware where his workspace was smaller. He landed on polymer clay as “the perfect choice.” The material – with its transparency and a full color spectrum – allows him to create in both two and three dimensions. 

Emerging artist Maia Palmer, in addition to her career as an artist, is also a faculty member at Cab Calloway School of the Arts! She is the high school Visual Arts teacher, and loves sharing her talent and passion for the arts with her students.  She particularly enjoys “the immediacy of drawing . . . the grittiness of charcoal. I love that I can work directly with my hands on the paper.” Her large scale charcoal self-portraits address her personal journey as a migraine sufferer.

Do not miss the Award Winners Reception on October 7, from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. Meet the artists to congratulate them on their recognition, socialize in the lobby, tour the art in the gallery, and enjoy performances and readings by the award-winning artists.   

About Cab Calloway School of the Arts: Cab Calloway School of the Arts (CCSA) is the premiere public school with an arts-based curriculum in the state of Delaware. Founded in 1992 by a group of parents seeking quality education in a motivating environment, the school is part of the Red Clay Consolidated School District (RCCSD). Named after the American jazz icon, Cab Calloway, CCSA provides both academic and arts education for students in grades 6-12.

About the Fellowship: The Division offers fellowships in the artistic disciplines of choreography, folk art, jazz, literature, media arts, music, and visual arts. Artists’ work samples are reviewed by nationally recognized out-of-state arts professionals, considering both demonstrated creativity and skill in the art form. The awards—$3,000 for Emerging Artists, $6,000 for Established Professionals, and $10,000 for Masters—allow artists to pursue advanced training, purchase equipment and materials, or fulfill other needs that will help advance their careers. The highest honor—the Masters Fellow—is reserved for those who meet rigorous criteria. Only one Masters Fellow can be awarded each year. Disciplines rotate every three years. During the fellowship year, recipients are required to showcase their work in a public exhibit or performance in Delaware. For more details about the Individual Artist Fellowship program, please visit the Grants for Artist page.

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Contact: Andrew Truscott, Program Officer, Marketing and Communications

302-577-8280, andrew.truscott@delaware.gov

The Delaware Division of the Arts, a branch of the Delaware Department of State, is dedicated to cultivating and supporting the arts to enhance the quality of life for all Delawareans. Together with its advisory body, the Delaware State Arts Council, the Division administers grants and programs that support arts programming, educate the public, increase awareness of the arts, and integrate the arts into all facets of Delaware life. For more information about the Delaware Division of the Arts, visit arts.delaware.gov or call 302-577-8278.

On view from February 4-25, 2022

Wilmington, Del. (January 31, 2022) – The Delaware Division of the Arts’ Mezzanine Gallery is pleased to present artist Shari Dierkes’ exhibition, On Display II, from February 4 through February 25, 2022. Dierkes was named a 2021 Emerging Artist Fellow in the category of Crafts by the Delaware Division of the Arts. The artist will host a free opening reception on Friday, February 4 from 5-7 p.m. The opening reception will also be a stop on Art Loop Wilmington, the monthly self-guided tour of art exhibits in and around the city.

On Display II is a visual storytelling of Dierkes’ artistic journey that includes some of her previous work; her Artist Fellowship application collection; and new works created as a result of the Fellowship. She chose the title, she says, to play on the vulnerability she has experienced displaying her art — the graphic embodiment of her inner thoughts — in a public forum.

“My curiosity about the realities of human life include a deep dive into behavior, psychology, and relationships, and the conversations these elements have with each other,” she notes. “My hope is that viewers get a sense of how the parts of our existence work together, even if not always in harmony. We are imperfect systems.”

Dierkes’ work often uses plants as a metaphor for her experiences in the human condition. Her material choices are often driven by natural resources with malleable properties, such as wood, metal, and gemstones.

Dierkes says the act of creating art, for her, is like the need to eat. “I need to do some form of it to survive. Even more, though, it’s like eating a favorite meal. I not only need to create art, but I also thoroughly enjoy creating it.”

Learn more about Dierkes and her upcoming exhibition with our YouTube Meet the Artist video series.

Image in banner: The Glorification of Motherhood (detail), 2021, mixed media, 7″ x 7″ x 7″

The Mezzanine Gallery is open to the public weekdays from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and is located in the Carvel State Office Building, 820 N. French Street, Wilmington.  All visitors are required to wear face coverings and maintain 3 feet distance from other individuals not in their household.

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Contact: Kaitlin Ammon, Program Officer, Marketing and Communications
302-577-8280, kaitlin.ammon@delaware.gov

The Delaware Division of the Arts, a branch of the Delaware Department of State, is dedicated to cultivating and supporting the arts to enhance the quality of life for all Delawareans. Together with its advisory body, the Delaware State Arts Council, the Division administers grants and programs that support arts programming, educate the public, increase awareness of the arts, and integrate the arts into all facets of Delaware life. For more information about the Delaware Division of the Arts, visit arts.delaware.gov or call 302-577-8278.