Courtesy of TAG/The Artists Gallery.Opening: Saturday, April 1 from 5 to 8pm
Talk: Sunday, April 2 at 1 pm
TAG/The Artists Gallery’s Julie Maynard and Karen Peacock met at the first Artomatic@Frederick. The unjuried, all-volunteer event was held in Frederick’s former Board of Education building where the pair shared a light-filled room. Spaces were first-come, first-served, so it was serendipitous that their art worked so well together.
Maynard and Peacock are together again as TAG/The Artists Gallery featured artists in April. Their work has evolved since they first met, but it still resonates.
A member of TAG since 2011, Julie Maynard has installed a group of collaged figures, all life-size. They range from humans standing nearly six feet tall down to a one-inch beetle. These creatures—the hawk soaring overhead, the coyote that may be stalking the deer—are aware of each other.
“They are watching us, while intent on unspooling their own stories,” Maynard says. “I hope viewers will become a part of this conversation.”
Maynard’s work in her show, Life Size, is a form of painting with paper, using bits of colors and text to build up layers that suggest the slow accumulation of time.
Karen Peacock has been exhibiting mixed-media work at TAG since 2018. A road-trip enthusiast, her show, Under the Same Sky, features state maps as the substrate of her wall-hung art. The resulting images are finished with materials including paint, sand, and photo transfers.
In this series, Peacock explores our country’s ever-changing skies. Without labels or other cues, it’s impossible to tell if the celestial images are from South Dakota or South Jersey.
“There’s a bit of wish fulfillment in this exhibit. Though Americans are now more polarized than I’ve ever seen, clouds are unchanged whether they are floating over a blue state or a red state. Let’s try to be more like clouds,” says Peacock.”
You can meet the artists and enjoy refreshments and live jazz from 5 to 8 at the April 1 opening.
Maynard and Peacock will discuss their work on Sunday, April 2 at 1. As an added bonus, Wayne Drozynski will join them as he performs poetry inspired by their art. Afterwards the public will be invited to participate in an open reading as time allows.
Life Size and Under the Same Sky opens Friday, March 31, and the show runs through April 30. As always, admission is free.
Gallery hours:
- Fridays and Saturdays: 12pm to 8pm
- Sundays: 12pm to 4pm
TAG/The Artists Gallery is located at 501 N Market Street, Frederick, MD.
