Howard County Center for the Arts Hosts Three New Exhibits

The Howard County Arts Council announces two new exhibits in the galleries at the Howard County Center for the Arts. Tension & Flow: Sculpture in Flux, in Gallery I, features work by Benjamin Entner, Susan Morrison, and JL Stewart Watson, three artists whose innovative use of space and materials sends three-dimensional art in fascinating new directions. Entner creates larger-than-life, inflated, sculptural “Still Lifes”; Morrison balances hard and soft with her steel and fabric abstractions; and Watson evokes thoughts of familial relationships through the furniture and upholstery used in her installations.

Gallery II’s Of Place and Space, featuring Libby Barbee and Mimi Frank, presents a sparse, nearly monochromatic landscape with plenty of room for personal interpretation. Fascinated by "the human ability both to manipulate and be manipulated by an environment," Colorado artist Libby Barbee uses cut paper and ink to explore the cause and effect of man’s interaction with the land, with specific focus on the Chesapeake Bay region. Meanwhile, Mimi Frank’s belief that ‘an object can narrate, teach, signify and offer us a link to our past” is reflected in her series of diminutive steel chairs.          

Tension & Flow: Sculpture in Flux and Of Place and Space will be open from September 6 through October 18, 2013.

A third exhibit, ManneqART: Sculpture on the Human Form, will be on display in the Center lobby from September 14–28. ManneqART features four of more than 200 mannequins — adorned in costumes, hair art designs, and creative makeup — submitted by artists from all over the world for the 2013 ManneqArt Competition. ManneqArt mannequins will also be exhibited at various other Howard County locations in September; additional  information can be found at www.manneqart.org.

A reception for all three exhibits will be held on Friday, September 20 from 6–8 p.m., in conjunction with the Arts Council’s Annual Meeting and Grant Awards Ceremony. This event is also the kick-off for Road to the Arts weekend, marking the beginning of Howard County’s 2013–2014 exhibit season with three days of special events at Howard County galleries. Resident artist studios will also be open to guests during the reception.

Gallery hours are Monday through Friday 10AM-8PM, Saturday 10AM-4PM, and Sunday 12-4PM. To learn more about HCAC programs and exhibits, call 410-313-ARTS (2787) or visit www.hocoarts.org.