This Friday, Sept. 2, the N4th Gallery and Art Center will host a reception from 5-8 pm for their new exhibit, Art Stories: It’s Personal. The exhibit will be open to the public to view until Oct. 25.
The exhibit is “a celebration of lives lived and journeys taken, shared through a wide range of media and a few choice words,” as the gallery stated in a press release.
Highlights of the exhibit will be the works of two local artists: Photographer Sterling Van Deren Coke along with sculptor Joe Forrest Sackett.
“It’s [Sackett’s art] often political and the inference is often political,” Associate Director Susanna Kearny said about Sackett’s work.
Sackett, a steel sculptor, states on his website, “What I make comes, at least in part, from my locale. My inspiration also comes from our world – the physical, emotional, political, esthetic realities of our times.”
The gallery expects to have at least 16 pieces by the sculptor and 20 photographs from Coke.
“Sterling’s [photos] are very personal in the sense of the people. He’s very much a photographer interested in people,” Executive Director Marjorie Neset said.
Both artists’ works will be featured in N4th’s main gallery. “It will be a nice contrast and complement because of their media and subject matter,” Kearny said.
The show will also feature works by those connected to N4th in the center’s Gallery X, a newly renovated, adjacent area to the main gallery.
Neset added, “The work being selected is from someone that is close to one of us. A family member, a friend, someone [who] we are interested in their particular story or why they would do a particular piece of work.” She went on to explain that the pieces will vary in media.
Neset made it clear that all pieces in the show are professional pieces. While the personal pieces are submitted by those close to N4th staff and artists, they are still made by professionals.
“There are some absolutely great, interesting work in both Gallery X and the main gallery. It’s kind of an exciting mix,” Neset said.