(NORTH ADAMS, Mass.) – 100 Hours in the Woodshed IV, a collage biennial in which 30 artists from across the country create new collage-based work in real time on site over the course of five days, returns to MCLA Gallery 51 on Main Street in North Adams on Thursday, January 24, 2013. The exhibition that will result from their work will open on Tuesday, January 29. A reception will be held on Thursday, January 24, at 5-7 p.m., in MCLA Gallery 51, where members of the community can meet the artists who will participate in this year’s Woodshed project and resulting art exhibition. The event is free and open to the public.
This will be MCLA Gallery 51’s fourth Woodshed, a collage collective created by North Adams-based artist, Daniel O’Connor. The gallery-as-makeshift-studio will be open to the public to come see the artistic process and progress from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
“If it can be cut apart, appropriated, moved around, and pieced together into a new form, it’s bound to be happening in the ‘Woodshed,’” said Valeria Federici, program coordinator for MCLA’s Berkshire Cultural Resource Center. “It is unusual to be able to watch the artist as they create new work, and here is an opportunity to watch 30 artists as they create.”
“This is going to be a life-art extravaganza,” said MCLA Gallery 51’s newly hired manager, Ryder Cooley. “I’m thrilled to be leaping into the radiance of MCLA Gallery 51 at its finest, bringing together~artists~from hither and yon to create a cacophony of cross-pollinated collage artifacts.”
The final exhibition, to be curated by Cooley and Susan Cross, curator at MASS MoCA, will be installed over a single day, with an opening reception to be held on Tuesday, January 29, from 5 to 7 p.m., at MCLA Gallery 51. The event is free and open to the public.
“Though it happens in a gallery open to the public, and surrounded by 30 other artists in tight quarters, it is for many a very solo and inner journey. Often the gallery will be filled yet silent; you look up and everyone is busy working away, each artist cherishing the time and communal creative buzz,” O’Connor said.
Featured artists include: Pam Buchanan, Lana Caplan, Laura Christensen, Ana Crowley, Andrew Davis, Claire Eder, Claire Fox, Max Jeffers, Josh Jefferson, Maggie Hunt, Joe Kennard, Henry Klein, Melora Kuhn, Mark Holstein, Lisa Lindgren, Steve Morell, Melanie Mowinski, Mark Mulherrin, Shane Murray, Danny O, Sean O’Brian, Kristen Parker, Rich Remsberg, Sean Riley, Greg Scheckler, Jeff Smith and MCLA students Karolyne Symonds and Adriana Alexatos.
On Saturday, January 26 at 10 p.m., Jeffers, who also is a musician, will perform at Public Eat and Drink. All are invited.
“100 Hours in the Woodshed IV” runs through Feb. 24. MCLA Gallery 51 is a program of MCLA’s Berkshire Cultural Resource Center. It is at 51 Main St., and is open every day from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. For more information, 413.664.8718, or visit MCLA Gallery 51