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.