I notice right away, anyone would, when I walk into the Projects Gallery’s new show “See the Woods for the Trees” that artist Joan Kahn likes geometric shapes. She says that herself, and recounts a comment her young son made years ago when asked what his mother does. “She paints boxes,” he said, “and if that makes her happy, it’s all right with me.” “True,” Kahn says today, “I love to paint boxes.”
Well, Hugh Townley intervened, and Erik Baier intervened, much to my surprise and great pleasure. What a treat—to immerse myself in works of art by two wonderful artists and to receive a visit by Erik himself who stopped by to photograph his current show of stately photographs...
I’ve been wracking my brain. What do these have in common: a troupe of puppeteers and their paper maché, larger-than-life puppets—uproarious, irreverent, revolutionary—and a writer’s narration of physicists’ hunt for one of the tiniest particles in existence through a telescope buried at the south pole?
Why would Erik Baier load a backpack with 60 pounds of camera equipment and set off on a muddy track, uphill, in 90-degree weather, not knowing the way, whom he’d meet, and, heavens, whether the folks would be friendly?
My good friend from many years ago, Judy Busch, a wonder in the kitchen, a wonder in all places and all ways, read herself to sleep at night with cookbooks, the one thing she did that I didn’t quite get, although my wife Margi picked up the habit very quickly, soon lugging heavy tomes to bed herself. But I’m finally catching on many years later because of Paula Marcoux’s Cooking with Fire...
When Didi and Major Jackson read their poems on Sunday in the Gallery (5:30—don’t miss it!), I wonder if they will include the pair of love poems published in Aquifer: Florida Review Online in April: “The View From Up Here” (by Major) and “On Hawk Mountain, Vermont” (by Didi). I hope so, because I love them...
Major Jackson wouldn’t know me from any other earnest poet-in-training, but I “studied” with him in a two-hour class he led at Bookstock two years ago in which he introduced the one-sentence poem...
What to expect from Russell Leong’s reading, the third installment in this summer’s Joan Hutton Landis Reading Series, this coming Sunday, July 9? Surprises, that’s for sure...
Tucked away in BigTown Gallery’s Projects Gallery—that mysterious, enchanted space where artists arrive every few weeks to install their current work—is a heart...
Annie Kim’s reading on June 25 is, one, a reading of poetry that explores Annie’s childhood in Korea and how that intersects with her later life in America, and, two, (drum roll) her first visit to Vermont....
The title of Robin MacArthur’s Half Wild, a collection of short stories set along a short stretch of Vt. Rt. l00, invokes an important passage by Thoreau—“in Wildness is the preservation of the World”—and raises a question before I’ve read a page...
I just finished Rosamond Purcell’s book Owls Head, a recounting of and meditation on purveyor of trash William Buckminster...
I used to think, before Townley, that relief sculpture meant serene goddesses in rippling robes standing at attention on a marble façade—ancient creations, emanating from some primal genius, enigmatic, portentous, mythical...
Walking into BigTown Gallery, Vergennes, is like walking into a treasure chest where magical things have been stored—things you forgot you had and now lovingly remember, feast on, turn over in your mind and heart...
BigTown Gallery is immensely grateful for almost 10 years of Bread and Puppet's traveling circus fall preformances. We savored their joy, their passion, and the laughter they brought to our community. We'll certainly miss them this year, but its time for new projects, so stay tuned!
A gift from the Hugh Townley Estate: Sun As A Crow's Black Wing is unveiled at the Fleming Museum of Art, Burlington, Vermont.
We are delighted to announce that the spectacular wood relief Sun As The Crow's Black Wing from 1976, is now permanently installed in the Fleming Museum of Art's Marble Court.
A special online feature of one of our BigTown Gallery artists...
Mark Goodwin's work is an investigation of drawing that hovers between painting and sculpture. Through a series of folds, scores, and mark making, he creates enigmatic work.
On display May 3 - June 28, 2013
at Vermont Arts Council's Spotlight Gallery in Montpelier
Bread and Puppet presents The Circus of the Possibilitarians at BigTown Gallery
Saturday, September 1, 2012 at 2 pm
Arrive a bit early to get the best seats!
Admission is $8
Contact the gallery to reserve your tickets.
Celebrating 25 Years of Bicycle Culture
Whitney Museum of American, "Art Signs and Symbols" June 28-October 28, 2012
Golem, 1956, maple, ebony, walnut and amaranth freestanding sculpture is currently on view at the Whitney Museum of American Art
"Signs & Symbols is the third in a multi-year series of exhibitions aimed at reassessing the Museum’s collection in anticipation of its move to its new building downtown. Unfolding in chronological order over a two year period, these exhibitions will explore overlooked developments in American art and reconsider iconic figures and masterworks within new frameworks and contexts."
courtesy of the Whitney Museum.
Contact us for further inquiries about this and other news regarding the estate or works of Hugh Townley.
The catalog: Hugh Townley A Wizard with Wood is available upon request for $20.
Please contact the gallery.
A Summer Festival of Poetry, Music, and Performing Arts, July 16 - July 31, 2011