Opening Reception: Friday, February 29, 5 – 7pm
An exhibition of mixed-media work by Fred Ploeger of White River Junction, Vermont will be on display at AVA Gallery and Art Center
The title of the show, “The AVA Years: 2002 – 2007,” is a nod to the various studio spaces that Fred has had at AVA’s Eleven Bank Street building since 2002.
During these years, Fred participated actively in AVA’s building committee, developing plans for the recently completed renovation; he was also a member of AVA’s Board of Directors. He will leave his AVA studio this spring, when he and his wife will retire to San Diego, California and devote themselves to a new passion – sailing.
Fred, who holds an M.A. in Painting from Eastern Washington University, has been a lecturer in art history and has taught drawing, design and painting. Since his last exhibition at AVA in 2004, he has participated in numerous shows throughout the United States. He has completed a wine label commission for Imagery Estates Winery in Santa Rosa, California, and he has spent time in central Asia and the Atlantic coast of France.
Fred’s current work is based, in part, on his intuitive response to a book on physics – The Dancing Universe – by Marcelo Gleiser. (Gleiser is an Appleton Professor of Natural Philosophy and a Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Dartmouth College.) “In essence,” writes Fred, “what we see is not always what is to be seen. Elements in different spatial planes interact to create a third element that will either deny the original relationship or alter its substance.”
The picture plane or surface of Fred’s mixed-media work is modified or manipulated by building it up, and then tearing it down by working directly onto the surface. “When all is said and done,” says Fred, “you can never see the effort involved in making a painting… you can only see the residual.”
On Saturday, March 15 at 4pm Fred will give a gallery talk, free and open to the public.