Koichiro Kurita featured at Caldbeck Gallery

From June 2 through July 8, the Caldbeck Gallery, 12 Elm Street in Rockland, will exhibit the platinum palladium prints of Koichiro Kurita of Lowell MA, the fine art digital prints of Jeanne Goodman of Wellesley MA and Friendship ME, as well as 5 artists in a group show: Kathleen Florance of South Thomaston, Stew Henderson of Northport, Jenifer Mumford of Tenants Harbor, John Silverio of Lincolnville, and Graham Wood of Cape Elizabeth. A reception for the artists will take place on First Friday, June 2, from 5-8 pm.

In “Watersheds”, Koichiro Kurita will show a selection of platinum palladium prints, ranging in size from 8×10 inches to 23 x 34 inches. Retracing Thoreau’s footsteps throughout New England, Kurita translates Thoreau’s philosophy into a visual dialogue. The artist writes, “When I was a commercial photographer, I had a fateful encounter with…Thoreau’s WALDEN. It was reminiscent of Chuang-Tzu’s philosophy and very close to the Oriental way of understanding nature. My work is the expression of these mysterious junctures in nature, including the connections between myself and nature. The artist’s works have been exhibited internationally and collected by numerous museums, including the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, The Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Tokyo Fuji Art Museum, and recently, the Farnsworth Art Museum. This is his first exhibition at the Caldbeck.

Jeanne Goodman explains her new work: “In my recent project; Sea Glass, rather than succumb to the beauty of the spectacle for its own sake, I have experimented with layering physicality into the photographs by using glass objects, salvaged from flotsam and jetsam along the shore, to filter and disrupt my images. The imperfections imbedded in the found glass objects illuminate the visible and the invisible in unpredictable ways, creating the lush textures and disorienting illusions that help to evoke rich and emotional memories.” Measuring 7 ½ x 7 ½ inches and 12 x 12 inches, the 18 fine art digital prints are printed in archival inks on archival museum etching paper. Now Goodman leads exhibition tours at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston, training with working artists from around the world, artists whose art is as challenging and provocative as it is inspirational.

In the group show, Kathleen Florance will exhibit 5 new works from her “Tango” series. Stew Henderson’s painted wood wall pieces, called “Family”, refer to the research he is doing on his family’s genealogy; Jenifer Mumford will show 2 drawings in charcoal on paper, one measuring 47 x 34 inches, and 24 x 24 inches; John Silverio will show a number of his fibonaccci based drawings in watercolor on paper, as well as one in wood; and Graham Wood, who is the director of the Ocean House Gallery in Cape Elizabeth, will show small constructed panels in painted wood.

Early summer gallery hours are Wednesday – Saturday 12-4, and Sunday 1-4. For more information, please call the gallery 207-594-5935 or email caldbeck@midcoast.com