Story provided by Lauren Levato Coyne, with photos by Alexandra Jelleberg of The Ferrin Gallery, and Omari Sellers.

The Berkshires seem to be going in and out of summer temps, but Ferrin Contemporary’s exhibition Melting Point has heat down pat. The gallery’s current exhibition features 22 artists working in glass and ceramic. The artists, both established and emerging, explore the inherent physical qualities of materials that are formed and reformed by melting, as well as express their concern for the environmental melting point our planet seems to be approaching.

Though the public reception took place on Saturday, July 24, the exhibition has been open to the public since late June. “We have seen more foot traffic in the gallery this summer than any other in our eight years here,” said Leslie Ferrin, founder and director of Ferrin Contemporary. In addition to Ferrin Contemporary’s location on the MASS MoCA campus in North Adams, Melting Point is also on view at Heller Gallery in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan. All artists have work at both locations amounting to more than 100 different pieces on view between the two galleries, who are co-hosting this exhibition.

To kick off Ferrin Contemporary’s public reception, six of the “original melters” who live and work in the Hudson/Berkshires region gave brief introductions to their works both in a contemporary and historic context.

 

Chef Brian Alberg and Leslie Ferrin greet the dinner guets at The Break Room at Greylock Mills.

Following the reception, the artists and staff from both galleries, and their guests, dined at The Break Room. The Break Room, inside Greylock Works in North Adams, is a farm-to-table restaurant with a focus on ethnic and regional comfort foods. Executive chef and co-owner of Brian Alberg is a staunch supporter of the local food movement in the Berkshires and Hudson Valley, but also of the arts — he is a past board member at the Norman Rockwell Museum and the Railroad Street Youth Project.

Melting Point includes work by Raymon Elozua, Peter Christian Johnson, Steven Young Lee, Courtney Leonard, Beth Lipman, Lauren Mabry, Gregg Moore, Katie Parker and Guy Michael Davis, Paul Scott, Sally Silberberg, and Robert Silverman represented by Ferrin Contemporary, and Stine Bidstrup, Nancy Callan, Sydney Cash, Amber Cowan, Morten Klitgaard, Laura Kramer, Pamela Sabroso and Alison Siegel, and Norwood Viviano represented by Heller Gallery, presented between both gallery locations. 

The show has been extended at Ferrin Contemporary through September 26 with a special focus on Robert Silverman, whose work is also on view at Porches Inn.

Katya and Doug Heller, owners and directors of the Heller Gallery, with gallerist Leslie Ferrin
Gregg Moore’s work comes from the field —literally. Moore works in bone china, which begins in the pasture of Blue Hill’s Chef in Residence, Dan Barber’s Stone Barns. “The grass that nourishes the cattle whitens the porcelain, which is made, in part, from a mixture of pulverized bone ash. Once kiln fired, the cups emerge vitreous and translucent — a material nod to the interplay between flesh and bone, ephemeral and eternal,” said Moore.
Raymon Elozua of Mountain Dale, New York, began working with ceramic in the late 70s and by the mid-80s was incorporating steel, glass, and other materials into his work to reflect the social and physical decay of de-industrialization, among other concepts.
Doug Heller, Robert Silverman and Katya Heller
Robert Silverman, whose work is also on view at Porches Inn. 
Locally known and internationally recognized, Tom Patti was born, raised and still works in Pittsfield so it was no surprise that many friends and collectors filled the gallery to hear Patti discuss the origins of his work that began with a discarded Vitrolite, a type of glass, tile discovered on Tyler Street in the seventies.
Artist Eddie Bisese and Liza Kirwin, interim director of the Smithsonian's Archives of American Art
Raymon Elozua, Micheline Gingras and gallerist Wael Qattan

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Written by
Lisa Green