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The Camden Public Library welcomes midcoast artists Allegra Kuhn and Liz Kalloch for a joint exhibit titled “Tête-à-Tête: Two Approaches to a Single Conversation” in the Picker Room Gallery during the month of January*.
The public is invited to view the exhibit and meet the artists during the Closing Reception on Sunday, January 28, 2:00 – 4:00 PM in the Picker Room at the Camden Public Library. This is your last chance to see the exhibit!
Tête-à-Tête is a conversation between two artists: one playful, lyrical and exuberant; the other provocative, performance-based and assertive. The commonalities in their works that cross into conversation are the insistence of color, the articulation of line and the fundamentals of composition. Kuhn and Kalloch use these three principles of artmaking in different ways, with great effect. Both artist’s work is grounded in and an extension of feminist thought, bringing forward different aspects of its expression and is why these two artist’s works resonate so well together and speak to each other in such an interesting way.
Allegra Kuhn is a collage artist whose intuitive juxtaposition of forms, patterns and color evoke the joyful cutouts of Matisse and more recently the artists of the Pattern and Decoration Movement of the 1970’s and 80’s, which had its origins in the concurrent feminist movement, with artists such as Miriam Schapiro. Like the P&D artists, who pushed back against the rigor and severity of Minimalism and Conceptual Art, Kuhn asks us to see the world in a less confrontational way, inviting in a more serendipitous and spontaneous expression. Kuhn compares her work to the flower arrangements of Japanese ikebana artists, bringing nature and humanity closer together in a celebration of both. She has exhibited throughout New England and has created public works of art for Waterfall Arts and Coastal Mountain Land Trust, both in Belfast, Maine.
Liz Kalloch is an abstract multi-media artist whose charcoal and pastel works on paper use arousal as the purveyor of intent. The work’s intersections, interactions and inquiries are emotionally raw, but inescapably and beautifully human. Kalloch states “I am most interested in where lines cross and speak to each other, and how color can amplify or dissipate the tension in those lines. I often think of my work as maps—maps that delineate both an external and internal geography. They document where I’ve come from, where I’ve gone, and how I move through these transitions and observe them.” The antecedent to this kind of work are artists like Egon Schiele or any of the German Expressionists from the early 20th century. Kalloch’s drawings do not hold back; they are fiery, explosive and self-consciously dynamic. Kalloch has exhibited throughout the United States and in Europe. Her work is in both private and public collections. Her first public work of art was created in 2023 for the Here is Magic mural at Waterfall Arts in Belfast, Maine.
*The Picker Room hosts meetings and library events and is not always open for viewing. Please call ahead or check our website calendar to see what’s happening daily.