Transformations 5 by Dominie Nash, part of the exhibit Pieced Together We are Whole.McLean Project for the Arts will open its two new winter exhibitions — Pieced Together, We are Whole and Playing with Shadows: Works by Liz Lescault — with an opening exhibition reception on Thursday, Jan. 16, 2025 at 7 p.m.
“I am excited to bring together works by the six artists in Pieced Together, We are Whole,” said Nancy Sausser, MPA Artistic Director and Curator. “Each is working primarily in fiber, through stitching, piecing, and otherwise bringing together materials, while also melding material, technique and ideas.”
“The plastic filament works by Liz Lescault in her solo exhibition, Playing With Shadows, are a natural complement,” Sausser said. “They echo fiber techniques like weaving and sewing, while also inventing a new way of working with a very contemporary material not often used in making art.”
The artists featured in Pieced Together We are Whole — Megan Koeppel, Susan J. Lapham, Russ Little, Dominie Nash, John Paradiso, and Imani W. Russell — all work non-traditionally within the quilting medium. Using a variety of approaches, the ideas explored are personal, political, and universal. Built into the making process, which entails the joining together of many parts to create a whole, is also the expression of ideas about communion, cohesion, gathering, blending, and building.
In Playing with Shadows, Liz Lescault’s biomorphic sculptures are constructed primarily with extruded filaments, some sculptures incorporating found objects. The fine filaments create shadows that become part of the piece, sometimes indistinguishable from it. Remnants and relics such as shadows, fossils and residues are a part of an object’s story and can be used in discovery. Scientists use remnants to uncover the nature of objects that may no longer exist in their original form. Remnants can also explain more about the existing nature of an object, as is the case in Playing with Shadows.
In addition to the Jan. 16 opening exhibition reception, MPA will host an Artist Talk on Saturday, Jan. 25 at 11 a.m., and a Tea & Talk on Tuesday, Feb. 11 at 11 a.m. All events are free and open to the public.
The MPA Atrium Gallery is available for viewing during McLean Community Center operating hours. The Emerson Gallery is open for visitors Mondays through Saturdays from 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.
MPA's Winter Exhibitions sponsored in part by the O'Shaughnessy-Hurst Foundation.
McLean Project for the Arts provides high-quality art exhibitions showcasing the work of established and emerging artists, educational programs, art classes, MPAartfest, summer art camps, and ArtReach, an award-winning program serving students in grades K – 12, seniors, and individuals with special needs. www.mpaart.org.