KENT—Kenise Barnes Fine Art, 5-7 Fulling Lane, opened an exhibition of art by Margot Glass and Jackie Battenfield Saturday, May 18. There will be a Kent Gallery Day with conversations and walk-throughs with artists June 8.
Glass draws with 14 karat gold, graphite (appearing silver) and gold acrylic paint not only for the delicacy of line, but also for the allure of using a semiprecious and precious metals as a drawing material. Glass is interested in the tradition of using nature as idealized ornament in art and design while seeking to observe and represent these plants as accurately as possible in all their irregularity and imperfection.
She grew up in New York City, and studied art at The Art Students’ League, Brown University, Rhode Island School of Design, and Fashion Institute of Technology. Her work has been widely exhibited in the United States and internationally and is in private and public collections including the Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation at Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA, Midwest Museum of American Art, Elkhart, IN. She currently lives and works in Western Massachusetts.
Jackie Battenfield’s work pays close attention to the graceful forms of unfolding leaves and blossoms, and to the twisted boughs and branches of trees. The artist translates her photographic studies into drawings on large sheets of translucent Mylar and makes hundreds of color studies before arriving at the palette for each painting. When applied to the Mylar, Battenfield’s ink-like pigments separate and form distinctive abstract, transparent and opaque patterns.
Battenfield earned a BS from Pennsylvania State University, PA, and an MFA in Visual Art from Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY. She is the recipient of a Pollock-Krasner Award and the Warren Tanner Award (1996). Her work is represented in more than 1,000 collections worldwide including the New York Public Library, The Zimmerli Art Museum, and Rutgers University, Brunswick, NJ.
The gallery is open Thursday-Saturday, 11 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., Sunday noon to 4 p.m. and by appointment; 860-592-0220.
