New in September at Gallery A3: When Matter Talks Back

When Matter Talks Back

Artist Rebecca Muller presents her mixed media installation at Gallery A3 from Thursday September 5 through Saturday September 28. There will be an opening reception at the gallery on Thursday September 5 from 5-7 p.m.
There will be dialogues with the artist on Thursday, September 5, 2-4:30 p.m.; Friday, September 6, 4:30-7 p.m., Friday, September 20, 4:30-7 p.m. and Friday, September 27, 4:30-7 p.m. The gallery will host an Artist Forum Online: September 19, 7:30 p.m. Preregister at www.gallerya3.com. All events are free and open to the public.

Gallery A3 is locateed at 28 Amity Street 1D. Gallery Hours are Thursday-Sunday, 2-7 p.m.

When Matter Talks Back, a mixed media installation by Rebecca Muller, combines inked prints, hand-poured “paper” of acrylic medium, and 3-dimensional assemblages of eroded organic and inorganic material including grit, ground duff, rusted metal, plastic, pigment, caulking cord, bits of wood, and wire. For the first time, she also brings words into the multi-media mix, hanging written vignettes throughout the installation.

Muller admits to a “long-standing love affair with debris” and with the various bits and pieces that are left behind, discarded, overlooked, or passed by. But not just any random scrap finds its way into her installation.  For material to become Matter, it must have some animate or interactive quality. “Selected Matter must reflect the impact of time, weather, blunt force, things lost or discarded,” she explains.  “Matter must ‘strike the eye’, beckon, carry ambiguity, evoke a sense of uncertainty, or convey a feeling of dislocation. It causes the body to pause. It challenges one to wonder and be surprised.”  

For the installation at Gallery A3, Muller makes things with Matter.  Moving across media, she constructs large- and small-scale assemblages, composes inked prints, and pours thin sheets of acrylic medium. She then arranges these components in clusters or suites that seem to engage, echo, and amplify each other. Matter, in short, talks back.

Left: Titled Beauty (detail), acetate leaf, acrylic pigment, grit, metal; Right: Installation View (foreground: Cosmic Beach; background: Dangle), photopolymer print overlays on gampi paper, acetate leaf, metal

Art Forum Online
In an online forum titled Matterly Images: re-purposing image and matter on Thursday, September 19, at 7:30 p.m., Rebecca Muller will join her colleague Howard R. Barnhart, a Maine-based digital composer of image sets and stop motion videos created from re-purposed “found” photo images and drawings. The two artists have been sharing and critiquing each other’s work for nearly 50 years and will discuss parallels in their approaches. This Art in Community II program is supported in part by grants from the Amherst Cultural Council and the Springfield Cultural Council, local agencies, which are supported by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency. Preregister for this free program at www.gallerya3.com

ABOUT GALLERY A3
Gallery A3 is a contemporary, fine art gallery in the Cinema Complex in downtown Amherst, Massachusetts. Members of the artist-run cooperative include painters, sculptors, photographers, printmakers, fiber artists, and mixed media artists. 

The gallery was founded in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on 9/11. A group of local artists believed art to be essential to the health and healing of a community and began the gallery as a place to share ideas and artistic support. Since that time, the gallery has been home to over 60 artists and is now celebrating 22 years of monthly shows with opening receptions and community forums, all free and open to the public, and an annual juried show that supports regional artists.