On view from July 1-29, 2022

Wilmington, Del. (July 5, 2022) – The Delaware Division of the Arts’ Mezzanine Gallery presents artist Forest Allread’s exhibition, Smorgasbord, running July 1 through 29, 2022. Guests are invited to attend a Meet-the-Artist Reception to be held Friday, July 8, from 5-7 p.m. as part of Art Loop Wilmington. 

“Visual art can provoke a viewer to encounter something strikingly raw and new,” says Allread. “Much like a wild animal revealing itself through a thicket of brush, this can sometimes be startling and mesmerizing at the same time.”

Allread may hope that Smorgasbord evokes those same feelings for its viewers. It is an exhibit of large-scale, mixed media paintings and small works employing digital illustration, photography, and animation techniques, and “…created through a mode of improvisation, head-scratching, and an insatiable appetite for painting playfully,” he says. 

 

 

Allread describes the work: “I like to think that each work feels ‘alive’ based on how it came to be.” In his works, Allread says he tries to utilize tactics that stop a viewer in their tracks and asks them to remain intimately connected. The artist has created imagery that seemingly shape-shifts into its own development, each piece showcasing its own trajectory to completion. Regions within the paintings are caked in layers of materials while other pockets remain unfinished. They invite the viewer to meander about surface textures, brush strokes, and unexpected pops of color. 

Normally used to label a buffet of foods or wide variety of something, Smorgasbord seems an apt description for Allread’s exhibit. “I’ve cooked up a variety of ingredients and churned out each work of art for Smorgasbord,” he says, “so feast your eyes upon it and indulge in the pleasure of viewing!”

“Painting for me is serious-fun,” says Allread. “A musical — and at times amusing — act of risk and play that never fails to provide for unexpected, delightful results.”

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.

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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 June 3-24, 2022

Wilmington, Del. (June 1, 2022) – The Delaware Division of the Arts’ Mezzanine Gallery presents artist Samara Weaver’s exhibition, Explorations Through Materiality, running June 3 through 24, 2022. Guests are invited to attend a Meet-the-Artist Reception to be held Friday, June 3, from 5-7 p.m. as part of Art Loop Wilmington. 

Samara Weaver is an artist and maker of multi-dimensional, multi-media pieces of contemporary artwork, sculpture, ceramics, and porcelain jewelry. In addition to watercolors, she often incorporates natural materials like paper and wood into her creations. Her works are vivid in color, rich in texture, and alluringly tactile — quite inviting to the viewer to reach out and touch.  In fact, Weaver agrees her work often invites touch and asks the observer to explore it further with multiple senses.—-

Weaver received her Masters in Architecture in 2013 from Tyler School of Art and Architecture. After graduating, she worked in the architecture and construction fields, while continuing to develop her unique artistic voice. In 2017, she launched her own business, Design Hues, specializing in artisan florals and large floral installations.

She was accepted into the Juried Craft Show at the Delaware Art Museum in 2018. This marked a pivotal point in her artistic career, prompting her to fully shift her focus to art. In Spring 2020, she acquired a studio at The Delaware Contemporary, and since that time, has been creating and selling her artwork, functional ceramics, and porcelain jewelry as a full-time career.

Her upcoming exhibition, Explorations Through Materiality, will feature that rich variety of media. Weaver’s exhibition focuses on, among other media, her reflections of nature through layered paper works, using local sites and experiences as inspiration.

“I immerse myself in each medium, exploring different properties, effects, and methods as I work,” Weaver says. “I’ve always been fascinated with materiality, resulting in my exploration of texture, color, and perspective within each of my creative materials.”

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 Calm 2 (2021); trace paper, watercolor, MDF, wood; 10” h x 10” w.

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Contact: Leeann Wallett, Program Officer, Community Engagement
302-577-8282, leeann.wallett@delaware.gov

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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.

A group show featuring the work of the 2022 Individual Artist Fellows

Dover, Del. (May 25, 2022) – Each year, the Biggs Museum of American Art, in partnership with the Delaware Division of the Arts, exhibits the work of Delaware’s Individual Artist Fellows. The Award Winners XXII exhibition recognizes the Fellows’ combined artistic accomplishments and will be on view from June 3 to July 23, 2022.

The Award Winners reception will be held at the Biggs Museum of American Art, Dover on Friday, June 3 from 5–8 p.m. with the awards presentation to be held at 6:30 p.m.

The event will feature special performances by various 2022 Individual Artist Fellows. Attendees can experience the work of all 25 artists in the Award Winners exhibit in the Biggs’ Galleries. The event is free and open to the public and will be outdoors if weather permits. Bring your own chair or blanket. Light refreshments will be served.

“We are excited to support and showcase the work of Delaware’s Artist Fellows,” said Curator Laura Fravel. “Award Winners XXII represents a cross-section of talented writers, musicians, and visual artists from across the state working in a wide range of media. The exhibition will feature large-scale paintings and drawings, animated video, lightbox artwork, sculptures incorporating LEDs, minutely detailed clay figurines, photography, graphic memoir, recordings of musical performances, and a reading nook of the authors’ work. The variety offers a fresh energy in dialogue with our museum’s historic collections.” 

 Each subsequent location will host a modified version of the Award Winners exhibition.

 Biggs Museum of American Art:

          Exhibition: June 3 to July 23

Reception: June 3 at 5 p.m.

 CAMP Rehoboth:

Exhibition: August 1 – September 5, 2022

Reception: August 5 from 6 to 8 p.m.

 Cab Calloway School of the Arts:

Exhibition: October 1 to November 1*

Reception: October 7 to coincide with Art Loop Wilmington

Learn more about this year’s artist fellows here.

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Contact: Leeann Wallett, Program Officer, Community Engagement
302-577-8282, leeann.wallett@delaware.gov

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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 May 6-30, 2022

Wilmington, Del. (April 28, 2022) – The Delaware Division of the Arts’ Mezzanine Gallery presents artist Gail Husch’s exhibition, Characters, running May 6 through 30, 2022. Her exhibit will also be part of Art Loop Wilmington — the monthly self-guided tour of art in and around the city. Guests are invited to attend a Meet-the-Artist Reception to be held Friday, May 6, from 5:00-7:00 p.m. 

A sculptor of whimsical figures and forms, Husch has been named a 2022 DDOA Emerging Artist Fellow in the Visual Arts discipline of Crafts.

After growing up in New Hampshire, Husch attended the University of South Florida, earning a BA in Art Education. She then moved on to Amherst College in Massachusetts for a Masters in Art History. In 1984, she and her husband made the trek to Delaware, where she pursued a PhD in Art History at the University of Delaware. She’s been a “Delawarean” ever since. Husch also taught art history at Goucher College near Baltimore from 1989 until her retirement in 2017.

Her imaginative creations are primarily small clay people who, as Husch describes, “…teeter on the edge of the ridiculous without losing their humanity.” Her figures are heavily inspired by literature and history, and by people she encounters or finds in pictures.

“…a smorgasbord of body shapes and movements, facial structures, and expressions,” Husch says. “I find characters from literature (especially Charles Dickens) and earlier historical periods especially compelling.”

Her love of this distinctive medium came one day over 40 years ago in a ceramics course that emphasized abstract vessels and forms. “I played with a lump of clay that turned into the crude figure of a woman in a bustled dress,” she recalls. “I was exhilarated by the transformation of malleable earth into a creature with its own expressive life.”

In her work, she favors such subjects that invite exaggeration in expression and pose. She’s drawn to the foolish and the extreme, and to characters who remind us that we might not see ourselves as others do.

“I gain immense satisfaction when I manage to achieve the right expression on a figure’s face, the right attitude of its body. It might take five, ten or twenty tries before the curl of a mouth, the flare of a nostril, or the tilt of a torso conveys something I intended. Each piece is the result of an immersive process of discovery.”

This exhibit not only features her small ceramic figures of literary and historical subjects, but also selections from a 32-piece chess set — a king, a queen, a bishop, a knight, two rooks, and two pawns — which she created in 2019. All the sculptures are stoneware; those in white clay have a black underglaze; acrylic paint adds color to the red and white clay figures.

The chess pieces are of particular curiosity; does she enjoy a good game of chess, we asked?

“I am not, in fact, a chess player, but the range in a set offered a rich field for exploration,” Husch says. “I tried to put into each piece some aspect of humanity, with a twist of humorous exaggeration — arrogant kings, condescending queens, belligerent knights, desiccated bishops, monstrous rooks, supplicating pawns.”

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 (L-R): Revolutionary Woman (2020); clay, underglaze, acrylic paint; 9”h x 5.5”w x 6”d; Dickens’ Uriah Heep (2020); clay, underglaze, acrylic paint; 9.5” x 5” x 5.5”; French Fop (2021); clay, underglaze, acrylic paint; 9” x 5.5” x 6”.

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Contact: Leeann Wallett, Program Officer, Community Engagement
302-577-8282, leeann.wallett@delaware.gov

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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.

Division of the Arts announces award-winning artists
in its annual Delaware State Employee Art Exhibition

Dover, Del. (March 14. 2022) – The talented state employees and their family members were recognized for their artwork exhibited at the eleventh annual Delaware State Employee Art Exhibition sponsored by the National Arts Program^®.

Twenty-nine awards totaling $3,250 in cash prizes were awarded in five categories–Professional, Intermediate, Amateur, Teen (13-18 years old), and Youth (12 years and under). Other distinguished awards included the Best of Show Award, two People’s Choice Awards (calculated by most number of “likes” on Facebook and entries by email and in-person ballot votes at the Gallery), Art Education Award (up to $200 reimbursement for arts instruction and materials), and three Special Award categories. 2022 Artwork can be viewed on Facebook and Flickr.

The artwork pick-up schedule for this week is at the Delaware State University Arts Center/Gallery from March 15 to 19 (no sign up required). Hours: Tuesday and Thursday 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Wednesday and Friday 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Saturday 12 to 4 p.m.

If there are any changes to the pick-up schedule, the Division will also post any information on our website, arts.delaware.gov, and the Arts Center/Gallery will have recorded messages on its voicemail at 302-857-6697.

Below is a list of all award winners:

2022 National Arts Program Award Winners

Best of Show: Charlese Phillips, Intermediate, Michaela Coel, Mixed Media, Smyrna

People’s Choice Award (Facebook): Chase Puszkarczuk, Teen, Utley, Painting, Wilmington

People’s Choice Award (Ballot): Malcom Allen, Amateur, Expensive Pain, Painting, Newark

Art Education Award: Devin Void, age 8, Youth, Myles the Panda, Works on Paper, Middletown

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Special Awards:

          Animal: Lisa Loikith, Intermediate, Pittie Memorial, Painting, Claymont

          Landscape: Drew Johnson, Professional, Herring Point, Painting, Lewes

Portrait: Maia Palmer, Professional, A New Role Model, Painting, Wilmington

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Professional:

1st Place: Joseph Arsenault, Hell Hounds, Painting, Rehoboth

2nd Place: Cristen Hess, Fragmented Torso, Sculpture, Newark

3rd Place: Thomas Del Porte, Give and Take, Painting, Wilmington

Honorable Mentions:

           Cindy Morris, The Wind of Uncertainty, Painting, Hockessin

Michael Fleishman, A Bunch of Spare Parts, Sculpture, Milford

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Intermediate:

1^st Place: Lisa Morgan, Riveted, Mixed Media, Middletown

2^nd Place: Luis Rios Fontanez, The Hunt for Moby-Dick, Craft, Dover

3^rd Place: David Wolanski, Hope, Photography, Dover

Honorable Mentions:

          Elizabeth Yocher, Reach, Works on Paper, Dover

Kelly Ewing, Beehive, Photography, Newark

Laxmi Verma, The GENESIS, Mixed Media, Wilmington

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Amateur:                   

1^st Place: Vittorio Ferrato, Fantasia Numero 1, Mixed Media, Wilmington

2^nd Place: Stephen Beitel, Neptune’s Horse, Sculpture, Dagsboro

3^rd Place: Kelly McMillan Whitaker, Crofter’s Pride, Photography, Newark

Honorable Mentions:

          John Mayer, Neuschwanstein, Craft, Wilmington

Jamie Ahlers, Man’s Best Friend, Photography, Wilmington

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Teen (13-18 years old):

1^st Place: Elizabeth Chen, age 17, Cottagecore, Painting, Middletown

2^nd Place: Sophie Rissmiller, age 15, Road Hog, Painting, Coatesville, PA

3^rd Place: Cameron Wright, age 17, I am not a Triangle, Craft, New Castle

Honorable Mentions:

           Ashley Konkle, age 17, Mirrors, Works on Paper, New Castle

Kieara Hill, age 16, Delusional Lockdown, Works on Paper, Townsend

Chloe Hannah, age 17, Delphine, Painting, Frederica

Lelia Sturtevant, age 16, Brown-eyed Girl, Works on Paper, Middletown

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Youth (12 years and under):

1^st Place: Lawson Ellis, age 6, My Buddy and Me, Works on Paper, Newark

2^nd Place: Elizabeth Dierkes, age 12, Night Terror, Photography, Clayton

3^rd Place: Adhya Sharma, age 8, Turtle’s Vision, Painting, Bear

Honorable Mentions:

          Camryn Murani, age 6, Unicorn Mermaid Kitty, Works on Paper, Smyrna

Quinton Hattley, age 11, A View from the Top, Painting, New Castle

Scott Honisch, age 12, The Core of a Hymnal, Works on Paper, Wilmington

 

About the Delaware Division of the Arts
The Delaware Division of the Arts is an agency of the State of Delaware. 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. Funding for Division programs is provided by annual appropriations from the Delaware General Assembly and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency. For more information about the Delaware Division of the Arts, visit arts.delaware.gov or call 302-577-8278.

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Contact: Leeann Wallett, Program Officer, Community Engagement
302-577-8282, leeann.wallett@delaware.gov