Emerging artists "Taking Flight" at Soo Rye Gallery

The third annual “Taking Flight” exhibit at Soo Rye Art Gallery in Rye welcomes recent college graduates who are just beginning their professional careers but have already found their own ways to make a mark beyond the classroom.

One of these up-and-coming artists is Alexandrea Paige Noonan, whose figurative paintings show off a mature sophistication and classical training. But she says most of her works, including those on display, are extended narratives about her personal struggles, fears and ambitions as a young woman. Two are focused specifically on the transition from teenager to young adult, referred to as “The Odyssey Years.” 

The other two are based on dreams, and also influenced by the surfaces they’re painted on.

“I like to use old wooden shipping pallets as my surfaces, as I find it makes painting more unpredictable and adds a balance to my otherwise fairly traditional approach to painting,” she said in an e-mail.

Sam Johnson contributes paintings from a new body of large-scale, representational work of animals. But these are not simply images borrowed from trendy retro style T-shirts, as they might at first appear. They are sincere, deeply meaningful pieces.

He selects animals that are beautiful, dominant or elegant and have a story to tell, or a story that has been told in the Bible. Lions, for example, are used to metaphorically depict either good or evil throughout scripture, and Johnson considers this in his painting, “The Alpha or The Adversary.”

Regardless of the biblical references, Johnson says he’s trying to create work that has an emotional context, portraying either boldness and power or tranquility and transition, feelings viewers can connect with to find their own narratives.

Johnson’s goal is a painting with a memorable presence. He says a large painting can capture a viewer and hold them when it’s done well.

“There is no squinting involved,” he said in an e-mail. “It has a bolder presence and, more often, cannot be just glanced at and walked by.”

The exhibit also features photography by Tina Guay, textile mixed media by Angela Bartlett, paintings by Steven Sullivan, and pottery by Jameson Burke.

Guay’s smart, black and white photography series surprises viewers by placing a sunflower over the faces of subjects in otherwise classic poses and dreary settings. She credits her homeschooling for her unique perspective.

Bartlett’s assemblages have a distinctly feminine and vintage feel, despite their torn and tattered roughness. They include such things as old gilded frames and floral patterned cloth, along with burlap sacks.

Sullivan documents the decaying of natural elements like fruit in his up-close, abstracted paintings. His work manages to find the unexpected beauty in the process, such as vibrant color and shapes, like petals of flowers. 

Burke’s ceramics are elegant and fine-crafted, although one series, “Knuckle Mugs,” has handles akin to brass knuckles, reminiscent of Bennington Potters’ Trigger Mugs.

Also at the gallery, recent paintings and mixed media by owner Soo Rye Yoo are featured upstairs. The South Korean artist never fails to impress with her remarkable talent and increasingly large and varied collection of work.

The show includes a new painting, “The Long Path Home,” which she completed from start to finish on the day she found out her brother had died. A dirt road makes its way up through the slums toward the city and the blush colored sky beyond. The piece is of sentimental value to Yoo and is not for sale.
The Soo Rye Art Gallery is at 11 Sagamore Road, Rye, 603-319-1578.