The Connected Unconscious
Opening is on Arts Night Out, May 8th from 5-7pm
(Show will run from Open May 1-20. The gallery will be open during the Pride March on Saturday May 2nd, offering visitors an additional opportunity to view the exhibition during one of the city’s most vibrant community events.)
Northampton artists Maren Brown and Jo Smith in a two-person exhibition featuring Brown’s Manifestations and Atmospherics series alongside Smith’s Uncover Me works. The exhibition highlights conceptual connections between the two artists revealed through ongoing artistic dialogue.
Brown’s Manifestations series is rooted in the belief that art carries forth the energy of those who make it and those who live with it across time. Says Brown:
“Years ago, while working in the George Walter Vincent Smith Art Museum in Springfield, I often walked past centuries-old Chinese vases and found myself reflecting on the unknown artist who created them, the many hands that cared for them, and their eventual arrival in the museum. This experience shaped my understanding of how art carries
human presence forward in time. As an artist, I began to ask what kind of presence I wanted my own work to carry into the world. The Manifestations series is my response to that question.”
Her Atmospherics series grew out of a need to create comforting images in a time of political instability. Brown makes use of colors and imagery that are inspired by nature and are intended to offer a placeof respite for viewers.
Smith’s Uncover Me series asks “who are we on the outside, on the inside? What bits of history are still evident? Are we simply an accumulation of what we have experienced? Do we hold values beneath the surface? Are we willing to look deeply at how we hide or what we share? What happens to us as time passes, do we become more beautiful?
More vulnerable? More Hidden? “ Under the large abstract paintings is a journey of covering and uncovering, a journey directed completely by the unconscious. Each painting has a book that accompanies it showing the layers of what lies beneath the surface.
Both artists are members of Galatea Fine Art in Boston and have been meeting regularly for critique sessions since 2024. Through this sustained exchange, they discovered resonances in their approaches to abstraction that prompted the development of this exhibition.
Feb ANO
Come visit Jo in her studio to see new work. Arts Night Out Northampton is an opportunity to visit Jo in her studio and talk to her about her work, her process and her next exhibition.
Uncover Me, 36 x 36. Acrylic on birch panel. 2025
Arts Night Out Jan 2026
Come visit the Jo Smith Studio Gallery and welcome in the new year with a festive open studio!
Finding You. 20 x 40 Acrylic on Birch Panel. 2025
Holiday ANO
Join Jo in her studio for a holiday open house. Give the gift of ART this holiday season.
JULY-Kevin Monaghan
Kevin Monaghan has been a Fine Artist and a Commercial photographer for over forty years. Kevin’s work has been shown at the Dayton Art Institute, Kohler Arts Center, Cornerstone Galleries (DTW, NYC) and the Fogg Museum at Harvard University where his work is in their permanent collection.
May 2025 ANO
May Arts Night Out will be a preview to Paradise City Arts Festival. Watch this video to learn more.
MARCH Arts night out
Updraft, Susanna White
Exhibit Events & Open Hours:
Friday 3/14: 5-8 pm, Opening of the show!
Saturday 3/15: 12-4 pm
Sunday 3/16: 12-4 pm
Thursday 3/20: 3-8 pm
Friday 3/21: 3-8 pm
Saturday 3/22: 12-4 pm, Live Demonstration!!
Saturday 3/29: 12-4 pm, Closing of the show
Feb 2025 ANO
LET’s LOVE ONE ANOTHER
Join Jo for a Valentines day ANO. The gallery will be full of passion and color. Come see her new work and swoon. Come be delighted by luxuriously rich, indulgent, and over-the-top color! You just might become overwhelmed by love and beauty on this Valentine’s evening.
HOLIDAY MARKET
Join us for a festive and fun holiday market. Jo has invited some of her most beloved and talented friends to sell their beautiful work at this holiday market. Friday December 13th 5:30-8:30 at 9 Market Street
November ANO
Jo Smith Gallery will feature Northampton-based artist Maren Brown’s egg tempera series, Tribute, on November 8 from 5:30-8 p.m. as part of Northampton Arts Council’s monthly Arts Night Out program.
Brown’s Tribute Series pays homage to her mother and former wife, both of whom died within an 18-month period. The series also celebrates the joy of finding love again after these losses. This is the first time the series will be on display.
SEPTEMBER ANO
FALLING INTO YOU
Jo has been away for the summer. Come visit her studio to see new exciting work. She is busy getting ready for Paradise City Arts Festival at the fairgrounds on October12-14. https://festivals.paradisecityarts.com/shows/northampton-october-show
Come meet Jo on September 13th and talk to her about her new body of work that uses words or “TEXT” as she reflects on this culture of sharing immediate moments.
August ANO
Collectibles & Explorations
Pacifico Palumbo & Dominique Thiébaut
Pacifico Palumbo is exhibiting several paintings at Jo Smith Gallery in Northampton for the month of August 2024. Pacifico, a painter and neon sculptor, created neon sculptures in his studio, in Brooklyn, NY, which he sold in his gallery, "Say it in Neon," on Hudson Street from 1972 until 2002. After closing the gallery, he and his partner Michael moved to Colrain, Massachusetts where he spends his time painting. Their home serves as his studio and gallery: the Barrel Shop Gallery. Earlier in his career, Pacifico was an art director at the Wells, Rich, Green agency and worked on Madison Avenue during the 1950s and 1960s, and was one of the original "Mad Men." He left advertising in the 1970s to run his gallery full-time. In August, the gallery will showcase several oil paintings in his show titled "Florals and Collectibles." Most of the floral paintings were painting at and around his home. It will be the first time his "Collectibles" collection is exhibited.
Dominique was born in Paris, France, and moved to the Pioneer Valley in the 1980s to study at the University of Massachusetts. He never left the valley, and adopted it as his home, and currently lives in Northampton, MA. He is a photographer and digital artist. When he is not spending time capturing the beauty of our ever changing New England landscape, he explores the boundaries between art and digital media. The current exhibit at Jo Smith’s Gallery covers the spectrum of his art explorations.
ANO JULY 2024
OF SPIRIT
Lena Mac’s work explores states of mindfulness, healing and the divine feminine. Combining figurative symbols with abstracted forms, she creates metaphorical spaces that contemplate the spiritual and mysterious aspects of the world around us and our place within it.
Rae Heller makes large scale quilts that hold the immense pain and paradoxical aliveness of grief. Rae grieves the loss of a friend, processes the decision of motherhood, and celebrates the joy of being alive through quilt making. Celebrating life and processing death is held in the durable softness of quilts.
Come see these two artists' works in dialogue. Lena and Rae’s creative practices are spiritual, and ultimately, the work created is of spirit.
June ANO
TONY(A) LEMOS: Art that Breathes
Art Made in Collaboration with Nature. Art which fosters a spirit of engagement with the Natural World through a creative and sustainable practice, using art techniques w/ foraged and found materials. With this collection I wish to inspire the viewer and encourage a sense of wonder, a remembering of what it feels like to be in a relationship with the Earth.
May 2024 ANO
At the end of May Jo will be at the Paradise City Arts Festival. This month ARTS NIGHT OUT will feature her booth for the festival. Come see a preview, new work will be featured.
ANO MARCH 2024
This exciting new work looks at polarity and considers how currently we use TEXT to express ourselves in important moments. Also, incorporating language into visual art can feel too easy, almost like giving the viewer the answer to a question they haven't been asked. These images ask you to look, consider, puzzle, and discover. Sometimes the last letter of one word is the first letter of the next word. In some cases, this creates even more words. The different colored letters also sometimes spell words. The bold colors in all caps TEXT important messages about Culture, Sexuality, Mortality and Gender. This new work holds onto the typical beauty of Jo's paintings while integrating bold contradictions and bravery into a sensual harmony.
December ANO
Jo is super excited to have Lena at the gallery in December. Lena “Mac” McCarthy (b. Boston, 1992) is an American visual artist primarily painting and making large scale murals.
Her work explores states of mindfulness, healing and the divine feminine. Combining figurative symbols with abstracted forms, she creates metaphorical spaces that contemplate the spiritual and mysterious aspects of the world around us and our place within it.
June Arts Night Out
It’s Summertime in the Valley and its PRIDE MONTH. Come see new work inspired by our amazing diverse community of humans and this beautiful land we live on.
April 14
Diane Nevinsmith’s watercolor portraits are both interiors and landscapes. They are landscapes with regard to painting technique as the colors and values change over the surface of the subject. The surface of the face is simply a series of hills and valleys. More importantly, portraits are interiors because it is her goal is to reveal a persons "interior" with the pose and expression. Diane says her hope is for the viewer to see something to relate to, or maybe to make up a story to go with what they see and feel when looking at the painting. If this happens, then the painting is successful.
March 10
The Gallery will be closed from 3.5.25-3.18.23. We will be back for Arts Night Out In April.
January 13
This month help Jo ring in the NEW YEAR with a look at some new work . Click here to see her work on the arts night out site. There are will be new paintings and champagne to POP!