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Polyvalent Spaces: Donna Cleary and Kathline Carr at exPRESS Gallery, August 2016

On view from August 25th to September 21st. Curated by Michelle Daly

exPRESS Gallery, 49 Main Street, North Adams, MA 


The title of this exhibition is taken from Michel de Certeau’s The Practice of Everyday Life, where he writes “It is polyvalent because the mixing together of so many micro-stories gives them functions that change according to the groups in which they circulate.”

 At first glance the pairing of Donna Cleary’s reimagined fetish objects and fertility statuary with Kathline Carr’s richly textured drawings and paintings may appear to have little in common. However, the work of each artist suggests a narrative interpretation, and invites the viewer to create associations and micro-stories.

The dialectical relationship between art and inhabited space, between embodied and embedded knowledge, and the tension between the familiar and the strange are all prevalent in the work included in this exhibition. Polyvalent Spaces grounds this relational exploration into the place where it was created - North Adams, MA - but invites a multiplicity of associations as you weave together the threads of the exhibition. Michelle Daly

Polyvalent Spaces will be on view August 25 - September 25. The Gallery is open Mon - Sat. 10-6; Sunday 12-4

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