Berkshire Museum is pleased to present Joe Wheaton & Susan Rodgers: Spatial Relationships, an installation of new sculpture created specifically for this exhibition. Running July 1 through October 11, Spatial Relationships brings together two Berkshire-based artists who worked extensively in other materials before gravitating toward metal.
Coincidentally, both gained their affinity for working in metal after taking adult education welding classes at local high schools. Both artists will be present for the opening reception on Thursday, July 1 at 5:30 – 7 p.m.
Joe Wheaton, who lives in Becket, Massachusetts, began working in ceramics at age 12; in the 1980s he attended Alfred University, where he studied ceramics, printmaking, photography, and sculpture. In 1990 he took a welding class at Pittsfield’s Taconic High School. “The minute I started welding,” he told art critic Carol Diehl, author of the exhibition catalog, “I knew I had to do something that truly nurtured me,” a revelation that prompted him to commit to the life of a full-time artist. Wheaton describes his work as “old-fashioned modern,” although the new work he created for Spatial Relationships is distinctly contemporary.
New York native Susan Rodgers had studied sculpture while working in theatrical set and prop design before moving to the Berkshires in the 1970s. She experienced an epiphany similar to Wheaton’s in a welding class at Monument Mountain Regional High School in Great Barrington. The two sculptors share a love of working with found objects, as well as a mutual focus on line, form, balance, and shadow. But they diverge in matters of composition. As Rodgers told Carol Diehl, “… we both respond to the same art – David Smith and the usual – however I love the Mondrian grid, and I don’t think Joe’s as drawn to the grid as I am. In fact, I think he’s ‘anti-grid.’”
On view in Berkshire Museum’s Ellen Crane Memorial Room, the sculpture that comprises Spatial Relationships proves complementary and, at the same time, provides thought-provoking counterpoint. “This show is part of Berkshire Museum’s mission to support Berkshire artists and to demonstrate the innovation that has arisen in this special region,” said Stuart A. Chase, the Museum’s executive director.
Chase describes Wheaton and Rodgers as mid-career sculptors who have both achieved recognition and whose work sells well. “Typically, a curator putting together an exhibition of contemporary art would go to the artists’ studio or gallery to select work,” said Chase. “By giving Joe and Susan the freedom to create new work for Spatial Relationships, we gave them leeway to move beyond what they know is salable in a gallery situation.” Visitors can expect to see work from both artists that represents a departure from what has been successful in the marketplace.
Spatial Relationships opens July 1 in Berkshire Museum’s Ellen Crane Memorial Room and runs through October 11. The public is invited to meet the artists at the opening reception, Thursday, July 1, 5:30 – 7 p.m. Carol Diehl will lead a panel discussion with the artists on Thursday, September 23 at 7 p.m.
