PHOTOS: Gala Reception for Mid-Season Exhibitions 2023 at Barn Gallery | Ogunquit Art Association

On Saturday, July 1st, the much-anticipated “Gala Reception for Mid-Season Exhibitions” took place at Barn Gallery in Ogunquit, Maine. With its doors wide open and a warm welcome, our landmark gallery played host to a captivating display of talent, attracting a n enthusiastic crowd that was as large and diverse as it was receptive.

One of the highlights of the evening was the highly acclaimed “Regional Artists: an Open Juried Show.” In 2023, a staggering 177 artists submitted an impressive total of 316 works of art. The exhibition’s juror, Kat Zagaria Buckley, Director of Art Exhibitions Outreach at the University of Southern Maine, Portland, carefully reviewed each submission and handpicked 142 exceptional pieces. Among them, 25 works by 18 esteemed members of the Ogunquit Art Association (OAA) proudly shared the spotlight with 117 works by 86 talented regional artists. It was a true celebration of the artistic spirit that permeates the region, bringing together a rich tapestry of styles, perspectives, and expressions.

“We thank Kat Z. Buckley for selecting an exciting and beautiful exhibition,” stated Deidre O’Flaherty, President of the Ogunquit Arts Collaborative/Barn Gallery, “and we thank all of the artists who enter work in this exhibition year after year.”

The Gala Reception itself was a testament to the power of art to unite and inspire. Guests were enthralled as they explored the expansive and airy spaces of the gallery, immersing themselves in a visual feast of paintings, graphic art, photography, and sculptures. The Sculpture Court showcased the remarkable creations of both OAA sculptors and specially invited New England sculptors, adding an additional layer of depth and dimension to the overall experience.

The OAA Expression exhibition showcased an eclectic mix of subjects and mediums, providing a glimpse into the diverse artistic voices within the juried Ogunquit Art Association membership. While the magic of seeing art in person is unparalleled, the Barn Gallery is also committed to making works from a selection of their remarkable exhibitions accessible to all. A virtual version of the OAA Expressions exhibition is now available on barngallery.org, ensuring that art enthusiasts from around the world could partake in this extraordinary grouping of OAA artwork.

The Expanded Collectors Gallery, featuring ready-to-hang and reasonably priced artwork, delighted both seasoned collectors and newcomers alike.

The “Gala Reception for Mid-Season Exhibitions” at the Barn Gallery was an event to be remembered. It showcased the transformative power of art to inspire, connect, and celebrate the human spirit. As the sun set on that unforgettable evening, the vibrant tapestry of creativity and diversity continued to resonate, leaving a lasting impression on the hearts and minds of all who had the pleasure of attending.

Continue reading below for more information about “Regional Artists: An Open Juried Show”…

Photos of the Gala Reception for the 2023 Opening Exhibitions at Barn Gallery (by OAA Artist-Member, Dave Wade)

Photos of the selection process and installation of “Regional Artist: An Open Juried Show 2023” at Barn Gallery (by OAA Artist-Member, Deidre O’Flaherty)

Juror’s Statement (by Kat Zagaria Buckley) for “Regional Artists: An Open Juried Show” 2023 at Barn Gallery

In addition to the OAA expressions exhibition, the work of two showcase artists also shone brightly at the Gala Reception for the 2023 Opening Exhibitions at Barn Gallery.

“What makes a ‘good’ work of art” is a subjective question that continually dogs artists, curators, historians, critics, and art appreciators alike. We bring life experiences and the perspectives they foster to any judging process. Finding one’s guiding compass requires going beyond the simple, intuitive approach. It spurs the mind to create a judgment rubric: a series of queries against which each work is compared. And yet, doing so is treacherous as that pesky too-human quality of intuition casts its long shadow over any pronouncement. While serving as a juror for this year’s Regional Artists: An Open, Juried Show, I contemplated these questions for the works before me. And here are some reflections.

The work I chose for this exhibition held my interest. The selected pieces demonstrate artists employing their distinctive perspectives and applying personal viewpoints to the creative process. They are whole in their complete execution of an idea, conveying a concept with no more or less than necessary in service of artistic articulation. And, yes, I also chose work that I liked amidst the criteria.

The force that compels an artist’s hand to create indexical tracings likewise guides our attendant judgments of those marks, which plays a role in a juror’s decision-making.

From where such subjective delight originates is unknown to me (though likely known to neurologists at a depth inaccessible at the current moment). Perhaps it is the frontal lobe that guides our reasoning and stays our impulses. But the latter fact would negate this cranial subsection. Perhaps such impulses instead arise from memory fragments in the hippocampus, reminding us of something we can’t quite coalesce into a full narrative. Or maybe the frequent characterization of “to like” as an impulse — a knee jerk — implies that such a reaction is as innate as any bodily response to a doctor hitting my knee with her hammer. A bone-deep knowledge steers us — “I like”; or “I don’t.”

Is “to like” a function of personality? Personhood? Limited to us, or present, too, in more-than-human worlds? I believe the latter, though I have doubts about the rigor that accompanies my cat’s judgments in the aesthetic realm (me being a trichromat and he a dichromat, after all).

But I have now gone on too long about philosophical matters when what I saw is the real consideration at hand. Here, I want to return to memory. I have not seen doubles of these works ever before. Each does something singular and daring, holding an infinitude of perspicacity within. A vast reserve of creative will to do something different, to lasso a subject and make it one’s own, pervades this Regional Artists Open Juried Show. Originality permeates composition, technique, concept, and material. Together, these fonts of innovation characterize contemporary art in Ogunquit.

Critic and curator Lucy Lippard writes of the “lure of the local,” which, too, characterizes this show, becoming a breath that each piece exhales. Appropriately, Maine-centric subject matter abounds. Blueberries. Oceanscapes. Forests. Audiences’ ready identification of such imagery can be an interpretive catalyst, forming an instantaneous communicative bond between the (absent) artist and the (present) viewer. This shared experience based on an understanding of the space and memory of place situates the work within our locality. It forms the basis for an exhibition with a multitude of viewer connection potentialities.

And, I like that.

—Kat Zagaria Buckley
Juror, 2023 Regional Artists Open Juried Show