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By JIM WINE
Rappahannock New* Contributing Writer
The current offering at the Middle Street Gallery is a group show of Gallery Artists and Friends. I urge you to go and see it. It is a unique, and so far yearly, opportunity for us to take a measure of our world, near and far, through the engaging and talented eyes of local artists and their friends from around the region, the nation and the world.
Group shows have a character all their own. And this one is no exception. Its uniqueness stems from the fact that no grand theme was set out by which the works would be selected. The show is an open and diverse collection of artists connected simply by the fact of their friendships.
Walking through the three rooms, you take in a dazzling array of styles, techniques, subjects and visions. The mind leaps from wall to wall, work to work, liie variety can, at first, be only a hodge-podge which could serve to distract or confuse you. You get, at best, a glimpse or fragment of a particular artist’s work. This can be frustrating. You always want more of what you like and understand.
But that is not the point of group shows, particularly this one. It is important for the gallery-goer to look for the connections between these artists and their works. After all, they share a common ground - visual expression - and they are friends. An entire community of artists is brought together through individual points of contact. This presents a metaphor for a variety of communities, from our own to, ideally, the world itself: Whether it is a local 4th of July celebration or the world anguishing over the fate of seven astronauts, suddenly each one of us, through shared acts, beliefs, or circumstances, belongs to each other.
The show is filled with intriguing and beguiling moments. You peer into a nostalgic television console by Rex Slack; you see but can hardly believe petals belying their real weight in metal created by Nol Putnam; you try to make meaning out of a sculpture’s pure form which cannot
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