campus events

Exhibition at Colby-Sawyer to Bring Work of Montreal Printmakers to New Hampshire

NEW LONDON, N.H. – A new exhibition at Colby-Sawyer College will feature the work of 20 artists of Montreal's Salon Écarlate collective. The emerging artists associated with Salon Écarlate (“Scarlet Salon”) seek to expand the borders and definitions of printmaking with new technologies and new approaches to the medium. The exhibition will also introduce New England audiences to artists from the vital Montreal art community, based in one of Canada's leading cultural centers.

“Salon Écarlate” opens on Thursday, Feb. 1, with a reception from 7 to 9 pm at the Marian Graves Mugar Art Gallery on campus. Exhibition curators Lauren Nurse and Maria Chronopoulos will give a gallery talk at 8 pm. The exhibition continues through March 1. The public is invited to attend the exhibition and the related events. Admission is free.


Changing the Medium

Since printmaking began in Europe in the 15th century, it has been re-invented and re-born several times, especially as working artist-printmakers have introduced new technologies and new approaches to the medium. The members of Montreal's Salon Écarlate are renewing that tradition yet again by incorporating photography, embossing, digital imaging, computer graphic techniques and other technologies in their prints while blurring the traditional distinctions between printmaking and drawing, sculpture, painting and other artistic media.

Mugar Gallery director Rebekah Tolley, herself a printmaker, invited two young artist/curators associated with Salon Écarlate, Lauren Nurse and Maria Chronopoulos, to be guest curators for Colby-Sawyers Salon Écarlate exhibition. “[As] part of this collective… in Montreal,” Tolley says, “I know many of the artists in the group well… My goal with this exhibition was to bring some Canadian diversity, both French and English from various backgrounds.

“I also wanted to introduce some of the contemporary Montreal art scene to Colby-Sawyer, being so close but yet so very different in styles and culture.”

Invited artists for the show include Remi Arora, Kiki Athanassiadis, Shawn Bailey, Nadine Bariteau, Bonnie Baxter, Meredith Carruthers, Marie-Hélène Cauvin, Maria Chronopoulos, Yechel Gagnon, Alison Judd, David Lafrance, Véronique La Perrière, Logan MacDonald, Eric Mathew, Lauren Nurse, Luke Painter, Jerry Ropson, Stephanie Russ, Rob Truszkowski and Jennifer Willet.

Marian Graves Mugar Art Gallery

The Marian Graves Mugar Art Gallery, directed by Rebekah Tolley, hosts seven major exhibitions and related public events each academic year. The Gallery is located on Seamans Road on the west side of the Colby-Sawyer College campus in the Sawyer Fine Arts Center.

Admission to the Gallery is free and events are open to the public. Gallery hours are Monday-Friday 10 am – 5 pm, Saturday 10 am – 2 pm, closed Sundays. The Mugar Gallery and Sawyer Fine Arts Center are fully handicapped accessible. For information, please call (603) 526-3000.

Colby-Sawyer, founded in 1837, is a comprehensive liberal arts college located in the scenic Lake Sunapee Region of central New Hampshire. Students from 25 states and seven foreign countries learn in small classes through a select array of programs that integrate the liberal arts and sciences with pre-professional experience. Visit us on the World Wide Web at www.colby-sawyer.edu.