The Washington Street Art Center maintains a year round
exhibition schedule in its gallery space, 321. The schedule
features up to 12 exhibitions a year, most of which
are reserved for the WSAC artist members. Past years'
schedules have occasionally featured work from the larger
arts community through juried exhibitions or hosting
the work of outside curators, such as the Somerville
Arts Council Grant Recipient Exhibition.
Gallery hours: Saturdays 12-4 or by appointment
Upcoming Exhibitions:
Natural Abundance, an examination of Pattern, Preservation and Permanence.
A Group show of three Artists: Kat Ely,
Leah Meleski, and Monique Rancourt.
Opening Reception: Saturday February 4, 2012, 6-9pm
On View February 4 - 29 2012, Saturdays 12-4pm, and by appointment
Kat Ely’s sculpture captures the essence of the artifact and the environment from which it was found. She uses the permanence of glass and metal to juxtapose the temporal quality of these objects. Each piece is a reliquary, in which she attempts to illustrate the sacredness of the natural world by housing, protecting and showcasing the things most people ignore and overlook. Kat is the 2011 recipient of the NICHE Award currently Working and Living in Boston Massachusetts.
Leah Meleski is a Contemporary Jewelry Artist aiming to create objects that synthesize nature directly onto the body. She is preoccupied with ideas of how one’s body can form the jewelry rather than using a general structure for everyone. One’s body contour is an integral way to incorporate perceptions from nature: She can alter and integrate ideas about impermanence, permanence, growth, decay and preservation. Leah Creates her Jewelry in her home studio located in Jamaica plain and Works as an Art teacher in the Wellesley school system.
Monique Rancourt is a Contemporary Jewelry Artist Creating wearable sculpture that is inspired by historical references
specifically traditional body adornment of the pacific Islands and Africa. Keeping these traditions in Mind Monique Pushes
the limits of Traditional metalsmithing and Jewelry techniques exploring Form, Pattern, and texture from nature. Monique
currently spends much of her time participating in fine Craft Fairs across the country creating works and teaching in her
studio at the Washington Street Art Center in Somerville, Mass.
"WINDERLIGHT"
An installation of Current and Past work, by Olga Solomita
OPENING RECEPTION: Sunday, March 4, 4—7 p.m.
ON VIEW: March 3, 2011 through March 31, 2012, Saturdays 12 p.m.—4 p.m., and by appointment
winderlight: explorations in intimacy, childhood, angels; horses, The Buddha, grace.
elements: photography, painting, writing, film, and video.
Olga Solomita: artist, writer, and educator.
Living in Cambridge, Massachusetts for most of her adult life, Solomita currently resides in Somerville, Massachusetts, the next lovely town over. Participating in the original, and subsequent, Cambridgeport Open Studios, she now participates in Somerville Open Studios. Her photography has been exhibited nationwide; and she is an active proponent and curator of local poetry and spoken-word events, including “Just Beyond the Solstice” at the Washington Street Art Center, and 'Spring Masala Mondays' at The Precinct Bar, both in Somerville.
Much of her work is traditional black and white photography from film, ranging from fine art documentary to large-scale, multiple image works. Her light sources explored in the large-scale work include candlelight, and overexposure in bright sunlight. These images have a near abstract, and at times grainy, effect.
Solomita has recently begun creating images utilizing digital photography.
