Studio B opens its 9th annual Agri-CULTURE show featuring art inspired by agriculture.
The exhibit opens January 20, with a reception from 5 to 8 p.m. The exhibition and opening reception are free and open to the public.
Prizes will be awarded on Friday night, including the coveted “Best In Show,” which nets the winner a cash prize as well as a featured spot during the agriculturally-themed exhibit in 2018.
Juror for Agri-CULTURE is Miles DeCoster, professor at Kutztown University, PA. DeCoster has a studio at the GoggleWorks Center for the Arts in Reading, PA. His work has been included in many exhibitions throughout the United States, as well as Mexico, Italy and Hungary and in the permanent collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Modern Art, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis and the Rare Books and Special Collections at the Olin Library at Washington University among others. He has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Illinois Arts Council, Post- Newsweek Stations and the Headlands Center for the Arts in Marin, California. For more go to http://milesdecoster.com.
The show continues through Sunday, February 12, 2017. Please visit studiobbb.org for more information.
Susan Biebuyck, Studio B’s gallery director, looks for an angle each year to challenge artists to a fresh take on the traditional subjects of agriculture and farming while saluting the area’s agricultural roots and paying tribute to its natural beauty in creative ways. Each year Biebuyck selects a juror from her network of artists, gallery directors, and directors of area art centers to choose winners for monied prizes.
“We are always very excited to see what our artists bring to this show,” noted Biebuyck. “They have wowed us with their innovation and fresh takes on the traditional subjects of agriculture and farming.”
Entries in all media are offered from artists in Berks County and beyond and over the years have revealed a broad spectrum of work, from sculpture to watercolor to linocuts to mixed media.
Studio B opened its doors during Boyertown’s December 2008 Holiday Open House Tour and welcomed hundreds of members of the community to its premiere exhibit. In January 2009, “The Farm” served as the studio’s first juried themed exhibit and has been staged annually as its most popular “signature” exhibit, and continues to “pack the house” at its opening.
Each year artists prepare to meet Biebuck’s creative challenge on the theme. Fine artist and former art teacher Dave Larson was awarded “Best in Show” at the studio’s inaugural exhibit “The Farm” for an oil painting showcasing Oley’s “Sacred Oak.”
In January 2010 former junior high English teacher and area historian Bob Wood took Best in Show for his acrylic conceptual painting entitled “Stark Engine.”
In January 2011, Travis Trainer, was awarded “Best in Show” for his captivating painting of crows on a wooden fence entitled “Black Diamond.”
In January 2012, Barrie Maguire’s “Okie’s Pal,” an oil painting of an ancient, rusted car, took Best in Show.
In January 2013, Carol Sumner’s painting “Le Ferme,” an abstract presentation of the area’s farmsteads, was awarded top prize.
In January 2014, Joanne Schlosser’s “Hammy Tale,” a creative homemade book, was named Best in Show.
In January 2015, Bob Wood’s acrylic painting “Annie Weeding Lima Beans”-an iconic example of his farm and garden series-was selected for first place honors in the exhibit, titled “The Modern Farm.”
In January 2016, Biebuyck took the term “Cultivate” as the exhibit’s theme and invited Pottstown’s Art Fusion’s director as juror to “cultivate” the collaboration between the studios. Hilary Fraley was awarded Best in Show for her oil painting entitled “Corn.”
In this year’s 2017 exhibit entitled “Agri-CULTURE,” Biebuck hopes artists will somehow respond to “culture,” the root of the word “agriculture” in their work.
Studio B is located at 39A East Philadelphia Avenue in the heart of historic Boyertown. It is the home of the Arts and Activities Alliance, a committee of Building a Better Boyertown, a nonprofit Main Street program dedicated to revitalizing small towns.
