The Institution for Savings Gallery, located on the first floor of the Firehouse, hosts 12 art exhibits each year. Artists are invited to submit examples of their work for review and selection by our Visual Arts Committee once a year. All art is for sale and proceeds benefit the artist and Firehouse Center for the Arts. A reception is scheduled for each show and offers a great opportunity to meet the artists.
Gallery Hours:
Monday - Friday: 10:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Saturday and Sunday: 12 Noon to 5:00 PM
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Featured Artist:
Elizabeth Sheehan
Textures
ON EXHIBIT: April 10, 2024 - May 5, 2024
Artist Bio
Elizabeth Sheehan started out as a Boston based artist who first pursued her B.A. in English and minored in psychology from Eastern Nazarene College, Quincy, MA. After receiving her degree, she waited a year and began attending the Massachusetts College of Art where she received her B.F.A in Painting in the year 1999. She taught art and was a preschool teacher for many years. She had work in galleries, benefits in Boston, Cambridge, Dorchester and Open Studios (in Dorchester and Somerville). She also lived in the North Shore as well as had her work shown at Gasworks, Salem Collective of Art and Musicians (Scam) and both Salem Arts Association, Marblehead Arts Association as well as Arc-works, the community Art Center in Peabody. She now lives in Lowell where she is a member of Gallery Z and Arts League of Lowell. She has sold many of her works to private collectors around the United States.
Past Artists
Sharon Bignell
More Than Just Flowers
ON EXHIBIT: February 21, 2024 - March 17, 2024
"I want to share beauty and vibrant color through my paintings."
Artist Bio
Sharon Bignell is an artist born and raised in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania. Sharon excelled in art in school and has always enjoyed all forms of art. She even designed and made clothing for herself and her children. Compelled to create beauty, she became a professional hairstylist which allowed her to sculpt color and paint hair. Now residing in Amesbury, Massachusetts, her children grown and more time to paint, she has returned to her long-time passion of painting. She enjoys the creamy textures of oil. She paints animals, landscapes, seascapes, portraits and flowers (her favorite).
Sharon is an avid realist oil painter and mostly self taught. She has had many classes with local artists and attended workshops in Boston at The Academy of Realist Art. She has been selected for many juried shows at the Newburyport Art Association and has also exhibited there. Sharon has also exhibited at Art in the Barn in Essex and many local restaurants, coffee houses and hospitals.
Gareth Jones
Paris Collection
ON EXHIBIT: January 24, 2024 - February 18, 2024
Artist Bio
Gareth Jones is a West Newbury based photographer that spends much of his time in Paris photographing street scenes and Gypsy Jazz artists. Initially a musician that studied at Berklee College of Music, photography started as a hobby and quickly because a passion. His sole interest in photography is to capture and share emotionally significant moments that might otherwise go unseen with the intention of increasing the quality of life of the audience. He has won 0 awards and can’t remember the name of the one photography course that he took, but he enjoyed it immensely. He has a forthcoming book of street photography in Paris called “Paris Collection I”. This is his first exhibition in Newburyport.
Olga Hunyadi
Spaces
ON EXHIBIT: January 2, 2024 - January 22, 2024
Artist Statement
Paintings presented for exhibition “Spaces”, at first glance, are simple. But they show familiar objects from an unusual side, making the space almost surreal. This is achieved through a deep and thoughtful coloring of works. In simple things there is a lot of sense, if you carefully peer into them.
Paintings by the author are a reflection of the idea of chamber art against the background of universal globalization, which touched painting as well. The artist advocates the preservation of the concept of humanity in art, based on a thoughtful analysis of the surrounding reality and human in it. The disunity of today's society, the loneliness of a single person inevitably leads to the emergence and development of chamber art, which is, in fact, the work of Olga Hunyadi.
Sam Kimball
Intersect
ON EXHIBIT: November 29, 2023 - December 24, 2023
Artist Statement
Part of the definition of the word is to cross, crisscross, converge, meet.
In this show, and in my work in general, this is a constant running theme as my landscape and representational brain converge with my abstract brain. The two certainly influence each other. As suggested in the diagonally divided image of the Pink House, and the abstract, these two, if you blur your eyes, can easily become one.
And that is what I am trying to do as I jockey back and forth on this ever-shifting creative terrain; become one. I feel that I MUST do both, AND there is always the pull while working on one style, to consider, dabble in, and get back to the other.
I hope that the viewer can walk away with the notion that these two worlds do converge, have converged, are converging, as I traverse the thin line between the two, balancing and falling, climbing up again, and eventually surrendering to it all.
Cassie Doyon
Sorjourns
ON EXHIBIT: November 1, 2023 - November 26, 2023
Artist Statement
I work in mixed media with a strong focus on mosaics. I use a wide variety of materials in my work, including natural, foraged and found items such as sea glass, bone, driftwood and stone. My use of color is widely variable, from muted and earth toned to bright and psychedelic hues. Where mosaic work tends to be structured and planned, I try to incorporate spontaneity and serendipity within my pieces. I am particularly focused on surface design and pushing the boundaries of sculpture with unconventional and re-purposed materials.
Much of my artwork is abstract in style and form, reflecting my lifelong interest in tribal art and artifacts from around the world. I was born and raised in a seaside town, and the ocean has been a powerful, repetitive theme through most every piece of art I have made. In addition, I like to create “color and texture memories” of places I’ve visited over the years, and to explore macro and micro-environments in nature.
Diana Stelin
Seascapes - The mystifying power of water
ON EXHIBIT: October 4, 2023 - October 29, 2023
Artist Bio
Founder of the Flow Method, and recipient of Best of Boston award, Diana Stelin is on a mission to reduce Burnout through Creativity - the topic of the Ted talk she presented in March'22. Her pieces are in private and corporate collections nationwide.
Diana's life of creative exploration began when she was 13. Her family relocated from Moldova to Bloomfield, New Jersey and she enrolled in an art class. Through her difficult teenage years, she found solace in expressing herself through creating art. Her BFA degree at Cornell University was followed by a MS at Boston University, where she continued to develop a unique free-flowing painting style. After graduation, she managed the world-renowned DTR Modern Galleries. She subsequently founded The Plein-Air Art Academy, and received a Best of Boston Award for kids' art classes.
She published a highly acclaimed novel about the importance of art for our psyche, and in recent years has presented a TedX talk on using creativity to fight burnout, appeared as a guest on multiple podcasts, wrote a children’s book, founded a clothing line based on her art, and exhibited her work at the 2022 Venice Biennale.
She lives in the Boston area but her pieces are in corporate and private collections worldwide, and she uses her expertise in her proprietary flow processes as a consultant in creative corporate workshops and talks.
Pamela Page Traver
A Printmaker's Retrospective
ON EXHIBIT: September 6, 2023 - October 1, 2023
Artist Bio
Originally from Haverhill, Mass., Pam Page Traver currently lives is Atkinson, N.H with her husband and energetic Yellow Lab. She graduated from Skidmore College with a B.S. in Art, majoring in jewelry-making and enameling. She continued her art education at the Art Institute of Boston, graduating in 1982 with a major in Painting and Printmaking. At AIB, her affinity for working with metal resurfaced in her interest in etching. Her etchings, drypoints and monotypes are often based on paintings of the subject which were done “en plein air”. Nature is a continuous source of inspiration for her art, with her favorite subjects being the mountains, seashore, forests and flowers of New England.
After AiB she studied painting with Scott Prior, Jon Imber, Russell Whitten and Tom Glover. She studied printmaking with Barbara Apel, Gretchen Ewert and Peter Scott and enjoys printing on her etching press in her studio.
She has exhibited her work in numerous galleries in New England and is in many private and corporate collections.
Will Putnam
One Lens: An Interconnected World
ON EXHIBIT: August 9, 2023 - September 3, 2023
Artist Bio
Will Putnam is an Andover, MA, based photographer who focuses on creating images that he hopes will inspire the viewer to appreciate beauty, to wonder, to think, and perhaps to be moved emotionally.
Photography has provided Will with the opportunity to capture photographs of life and nature not only close to home, but in far corners of the world. In his travels, he has found that we all are
very similar in our hopes and fears and dreams. Art has the capacity to bring us together in appreciation of the interconnected world around us.
Most recently, Will has been creating images in various locations in the Eastern U.S., from Acadia and Mid-Coast Maine, to the North Shore of Massachusetts, to the Outer Banks of North Carolina, and to the French Quarter of New Orleans. He also has had the privilege of traveling extensively internationally, including living for three years in China.
Lisa Nelson
EXPLORING THE WORLD IN FULL COLOR
ON EXHIBIT: July 12, 2023 - August 6, 2023
Artist Bio
Based in Ayer, Massachusetts, Lisa Nelson has a BFA in Illustration from the Massachusetts College of Art and has participated in art shows all over the United States, as well as in Mexico and Europe. Her work combines a diverse background in fine art painting, printmaking, graphic design, and illustration with her interest in examining unique locations as well as the local flora and fauna to see how they fit into the world at large. Currently, she is working on a series of paintings highlighting the beautiful and unique wildlife that can be found throughout the country. As part of that project, she recently took part in a six-month artist residency at the historic Horlock House in Navasota, TX. She is also deeply committed to promoting volunteerism and environmentalism through her work and is working with local charities in her goal to encourage wildlife preservation.
Fallon Rae
MARKS OF EXPANSION
ON EXHIBIT: June 14, 2023 - July 9, 2023
About the Artist “Having a piece to another plane of existence reminds us of our place in the universe. However small or large it may be, we are a vessel of star dust here for a reason.” This exhibit’s presentation is galactic acrylic paintings and the celestial beings ever present within our universe. Diving deeper we find tools of our own humanity echoed in the exploration of the other worlds outside of our own. Using a range of media, the exhibition includes low relief sculpture to replicate craters and planetary surfaces, mixed media paintings of cosmic events, and ceramic work that imitate meteoric rock. The paintings often feature elements of the glow in the dark, echoing cosmic background radiation and other celestial events. The inspiration comes from meditation, imagination, and an investigation of astronomical phenomena within our time. These pieces hope to give you a portal to a new place that exists alongside us. Fallon Rae is a New England mixed media artist and organizer. The artist’s current series explores the cosmos and astronomical events in acrylic, aerosols, ceramics and relief sculpture. The work is a combination of envisioned spaces and renderings of more specific phenomena.Artist Statement
Artist Bio
Rae is actively engaged in the artistic and music community, curating dozens of art and music events, including Stone Church, Electric Avenue and SALON 2021 and 2022 at Kimball Jenkins School of Art. She has taught at the Currier Museum of Art and Beech and Wilson Public School, and has organized independent educational events. Rae’s work can be seen across the region, including exhibitions at the Art Center, West LA and other venues across the region.
BAYDA'S ART BY THE SEA
ON EXHIBIT: May 17, 2023 - June 11, 2023
About the Artist Bayda is a Syrian/ American artist residing in Worcester, Massachusetts... She is a multi-disciplinary artist, who works in a wide range of mediums. Bayda was trained by Sharon Viles as an Asian Brush painter then she moved on to teach that art form at Worcester Art Museum. She has vast knowledge in painting, drawing, printmaking, Japanese weaving (Saori), mixed media , sculpture, installation, and basketry. Her work has been recognized in several New England art institutions including Worcester Art Museum, Fitchburg Art Museum, Attleboro Art Museum, Cambridge Art Association, Fountain Street Gallery and Schweinfurth Art Center, giving her a well-rounded knowledge of all stages of artistic production from conception through to presentation. In 2011 Bayda was awarded the Frances Kinnicutt Travel & Study Award from Worcester Art Museum so she traveled to England and studied mixed media with artist Lydia Bauman. In 2021, she was awarded Mass Cultural Traditional Arts Award in Arabic Calligraphy and got trained in Diwani font with master Hajj Wafa’a. More recently in 2023, Bayda was awarded another grant from Mass Culture for individual artists which she utilized in learning traditional basketry weaving with Sue Muldoon. Bayda continues her ever-growing career as an artist and as a member of the New England art scene. Artist Bio
Brooke Lambert
PRESS ON
ON EXHIBIT: April 19, 2023 - May 14, 2023
About the Artist “Through my work, I hope to bring hope, happiness, and awareness to the importance of protecting the beauty that is all around us – even in the places we least expect it.” PRESS ON is a solo exhibition showcasing the work of artist Brooke Lambert. The show features her original collagraph prints alongside the low-relief sculptural collagraph plates she used to make them. Although printmakers often love their plates, they rarely show them as finished pieces on their own. Lambert, who has always considered her plates to be sculptures in their own right, curated Press On to highlight these plates as their own distinctive works of art alongside their printed counterparts. “My work is inspired by the ocean, botanicals, and all the shapes, colors and forms in the environment. I am drawn to the patterns of honeycomb, fishing nets, bubbles in the bottom of tidal pools, weeds and wildflowers. I find that there is so much beauty in even the smallest parts of nature that are often overlooked or discarded.” There is an undeniable energy in Lambert’s work. Her sculptural process is physical and gestural. Lambert uses her whole body to create her plates, stapling, ripping and tearing found materials. Using materials such as string, netting, and fabric that would otherwise be discarded and pollute our planet, she transforms them into works of art that convey a sense of hopefulness. Brooke Lambert grew up and lived in Maine until moving to Boston to pursue her BFA in Printmaking from Massachusetts College of Art and Design. She exhibits her work in New England, New York and beyond. Brooke is represented by Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition Gallery in New York and is sponsored by Akua Inks and Speedball Art Products. Brooke currently lives in Lowell, MA where she has a studio (#447) at Western Avenue Studios. Brooke has been awarded several artist grants and completed several public art projects for Massachusetts communities. Her most recent artist grant is the Cultural Sector Pandemic Recovery Grant from the Mass Cultural Council. Brooke's work can be seen at: www.brookelambertartist.com Artist Statement
Artist Bio
Layane Smith
CONNECTING WITH NATURE
ON EXHIBIT: March 22, 2023 - April 17, 2023
About the Artist "As an artist, my goal is to impress on people the beauty of living in the present moment and our strong connection with nature. When people see my work, I hope they feel inspired by nature and compelled to take risks that make life beautiful, exciting, and worth living.” Layane Smith was born and raised in Brazil. As a child, she always enjoyed drawing, creating and being surrounded by nature. Layane didn’t start painting until early adulthood, but it was clear to her early on this was both a passion and innate skill. She began by taking classes in the big cities of Brazil, where she developed and fine-tuned her skills, and within six months was teaching beginners painting lessons to those back in her hometown. After her move to the United States, Layane continued her art education and broadened her skills, and has now been painting for over 20 years.Artist Statement
Artist Bio
Running has also become a big part of Layane’s life, finishing her first ever marathon in 2021. She uses this time to be at peace with herself, and is always finding inspiration for her next piece, just being out in nature. “Running provides me with an opportunity for self-reflection, as well as allowing me to appreciate and connect with the amazing world around us. I really want to express that connection in my art.” She hopes that her artwork encourages people to live a more fulfilling and connected life; and that it inspires people to find happiness in their contact with nature and animals.
Layane currently resides in Carver, MA a small town located on the south shore of Massachusetts. When she is not painting, she enjoys spending time with her husband and two children, walking the beach, and running the cranberry bogs. She is presently working out of her studio, also located in Carver MA, which is open year round.
Jill Rosati
UTOPIC
ON EXHIBIT: February 22, 2023 - March 19, 2023
About the Artist Growing up outside of Boston, Rosati drew every night in her room. It began as an escape from the chaos of life and evolved into a way to explore her subconscious. Her favorite toys were ones she made from whatever came out of her home’s recycling bin. Since then, Rosati has always used her art practice as a way to meditate, ground herself, and create worlds of her own. Art is her way of sharing emotions, fears, and dreams. When it is cold and dreary out, Rosati escapes to the warm and colorful scenes she summons in her work. Each painting, sculpture, or structure is a window into a utopic reality. She uses a vibrant, accessible, contemporary art style to convey feelings of joy, togetherness, and hope. Rosati’s work focuses on the shared human experience. She believes in uniting people through experiencing artwork. Jill Rosati is an installation artist, muralist, and contemporary painter. Rosati specializes in creating immersive installations from the abundance of reclaimed and recycled materials polluting our earth. As the founder of Arts District Boston, an arts outreach organization, she is dedicated to preserving and promoting the arts in Boston. Arts District Boston’s online gallery features local Boston artists, organizes local art shows, community critiques, sketchbook meetups, free online art classes, artist interviews, and public art initiatives. Please visit www.jillrosati.com to learn more and connect with this artist.Artist Statement
Artist Bio
Tamara Nikotina
ON EXHIBIT: January 25, 2023 - February 19, 2023
About the Artist My paintings reflect the places around me. As an architecture student, my focus has been centered around buildings in space and time and human interaction with them. Watercolors allow me to catch the momentary vision of architecture while consuming an idea for a more complex oil painting, that typically represents a culmination of multiple experiences. The architecture of my oil paintings gets away from axonometric and proportionate world to find something new and magic. I have attended 3 years of art school in Russia until I came to America in 2015, where art became my way of expression in a foreign country. Originally trained in academic drawing and painting styles, my artistic style formed through years of practice and inspiration from more liberal American school of art. I love portraying people and places through a lens of various emotions, and I take my watercolor set with me everywhere I go to capture the true dynamics of the world around me.Artist Statement
Artist Bio
Jordan King
SLIDESHOW
ON EXHIBIT: December 28, 2022 - January 22, 2023
About the Artist The idea to use these specific images came from late-night scrolling for random listings on eBay under the search guide of “Found Images”. What I found was a plethora of memories belonging to families, friends, coworkers, and lovers of individuals I will never one day know. Their anonymity being commodified online originating from a finite moment taken on Polaroid film. Their identities in comparison to me are completely removed, and they beg the question of “who do they belong to?” This detachment that I have from my own subject matter feels familiar to the detachment I have from my own family and childhood memories. As I project my own stories onto the images, I invite my audience to do the same. Born in rural northern Vermont I moved to New York City nearly 7 years ago to explore my future possibilities as an artist. Living in Brooklyn helped me explore my path as a creative. Studying at Pratt Institute I received my Associates degree in Fine Arts, and have received my Bachelor’s degree in the same major as well with a focus in Painting. During the beginning of the pandemic, I was forced to move back to Vermont, this also forced me to truly focus on my artwork like never before. I decided to create works that spoke deeply and personally to me while at the same time having to disguise these deeply personal pieces through abstraction as to not upset my parents. Fortunately, I am living on my own now in South Jersey and have found the overall atmosphere to be the change I really needed, now that this change has come, my work seems to have dived deeper into the things I thought I had left behind in Vermont.Artist Statement
Artist Bio
Johanna Finnegan-Topitzer
FOREST, SEA, AND MYTH
ON EXHIBIT: November 30 - December 25, 2022
About the Artist Animals have long been important to humans and our ancestors created many tales about them. They imagined animals as taking part in creation tales or looked to them to explain why things are the way they are today. Many of the pieces in this exhibit were inspired by folktales and mythology. They draw from many cultures. It is fascinating to see how humans have respected the animal world and given them credit for so many aspects of life. I hope my artwork might inspire contemporary humankind to have the same respect for wildlife and consider the importance of each species as part of the Earth’s ecosystem. The natural world and how humans have perceived it are themes that run through my work. I am fascinated by the folklore and mythology of cultures around the world, especially as it relates to animals. In our human history and oral tales there is much respect for our fellow creatures, but this does not always play out in how we treat them. With my art, I hope to rekindle that sense of awe and respect for other living creatures and hope we humans can turn around our destructive nature to enable all life to survive on this planet.Artist Statement
Artist Bio
My creative process involves exploring in nature and taking reference photos. I then come back to my studio and start with simple sketches. I paint my animals with gouache which allows me to get subtle details. I use cut colored paper to create plants and landscape elements and define their details with pen. All these components are made separately and then adhered to a solid color background.
I grew up on the Northshore of Massachusetts but have lived many places. Whether I was living in the Rockies of Colorado, the green fields of Ireland, the tropical island of Taiwan, or the beautiful Northeast of the U.S., I have always been inspired by the wildlife that has surrounded me. But above all, I am a New England artist as this is my home.
Anne Silber
LIMITED EDITION SERIGRAPHS
ON EXHIBIT: November 2 - 27, 2022
Artist statement
These works are limited edition serigraphs, or silkscreen prints, hand-printed by me using hand-cut lacquer film stencils. The inks are mixed with a large percentage of transparent base, allowing for the visual “blending” of overlaid tones, creating an effect like that of well-controlled watercolors.
My work emphasizes the graphic qualities: form, line and especially color relationships. I enjoy working with colors in an almost musical sense, creating harmonies and occasional dissonance with the combination of tones. Many of my works also explore the possibilities of light and shadow, with shadows becoming as much an interesting and integral part of the composition as the objects casting them.
Many of my landscapes and cityscapes are inspired by my love of foreign travel and the many countries I have been privileged to visit, others by the beauty of Boston and the surrounding area. Alternately, working in the realm of still life allows me the luxury of control in creating a small, ordered universe, with all elements carefully chosen and arranged.
My work has been shown in numerous one-person and group exhibitions around the U.S. and Europe, and my prints are included in many corporate and museum collections. In addition, my serigraphs have appeared on the sets of over one hundred feature films and TV series, including “Grey’s Anatomy”, “The West Wing”, “The Departed” and “The Bucket List”.
Artist Bio
Born in New Jersey, Anne Silber studied at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, and has lived and worked in the Boston area since 1977. Silber's work has been shown in numerous one-person and group exhibitions around the U.S. and Europe, and her prints are included in many corporate and museum collections. Her work has also appeared on the sets of a large number of television series and major motion pictures.
Jim Kociuba
THE KOMOREBI PAINTINGS
ON EXHIBIT: October 5 - 30, 2022
Artist statement
The subject of this series of paintings are tightly cropped tree studies is a variety of seasons. The common thread in this work is my goal to portray light that passes through as well as light that bounces off of the leaves. The Japanese language have a single word, Komorebi, which describes light that passes through the leaves of trees.
My process is a deliberate building up layers starting with the sky, branches, and finally diagonal pixels to appear as the shapes of leaves. I chose the diamond form to represent the leaves as it tends to mimic the movement of leaves in a breeze. Although the process may appear to be tedious, my state of mind while painting these is quite relaxed, similar to that of meditation. My intent is to bring the viewer a sense of being closer to the slowed pulse of nature with these paintings.
Artist Bio
Jim Kociuba was raised in Woonsocket, Rhode Island in a first generation Ukrainian and French Canadian household. My first exposure to art was gazing up at the amazing frescos in St. Ann’s Church on Sunday mornings. I studied studio art and art education at Rhode Island College and Rhode Island School of Design. My work as a high school art teacher took me to New Hampshire, where I taught at Hopkinton High School for 31 years. In 2012 I retired from teaching and have been privileged to be painting full time while living here in Massachusetts.
Rosalie Cuticchia
IN THE ABSTRACT
ON EXHIBIT: August 10 - September 18
Reception on Sunday, August 14 from 2:00-5:00 PM.
Artist statement
An American Contemporary Artist, Rosalie studied with the late Oil Painter Enrico Donati. Her work with Donati laid a classical foundation that informed her evolution from representational to abstract art. Her paintings are non-conceptual and process driven. They celebrate color form, shape and share dynamic, expressive, lyrical qualities.
“I've been asked countless times how I create an abstract painting. I answer that say work is process-driven, intuitive’. I talk about color, shape relationship, and line. While that is true, it’s also true that sometimes I have no idea how a painting appears, and how those layers of paint speak to me, and for me. That moment when color, shape and line transform into a beautiful, provocative composition is impossible to describe. It's a mystery how a painting finally sparks to life. One that I will continue to happily explore.”
As a juried member of the storied National Association of Women Artists, Rosalie exhibits extensively. Her work is held in private collections around the country, and she is currently preparing for her 7th solo show. She lives in Newburyport and keeps a sun-filled studio in Amesbury.
