BELLOWS FALLS — “Gretchen Seifert: In Abstraction,” the first show in the Canal Street Art Gallery's new spring solo shows lineup of local artists and artwork, is on view to the public and via the gallery's website through Saturday, April 3.
“I see abstraction as an opportunity to be curious and to discover,” Seifert said in her artist's statement. “There is an important imaginal quality, a dreamlike exploration that occurs. Abstraction has always, for me, been a doorway into the complex of individual-ness, or, how we relate personally to our unconscious. Not what is in thought, but what is embodied, felt.”
Seifert, a prolific and accomplished visual artist and musician, has recently relocated to Brattleboro. This exhibit is an exclusive glimpse into nearly three decades of art making and will exhibit artwork that includes silver gelatin prints of her photographs, multimedia works on paper, paintings, and drawings.
She said her artwork is created to heal trauma through visually representing the relationships between sensations, feelings, and memory. Using her training as a classical musician - she has degrees from Boston University and Northwestern University in cello performance - Seifert said she is inspired by experimental music to create her mainly abstract visual work.
In many ways, Seifert's journey begins with using art as a way to interact with the world. A camera enabled her to find the moment to release the shutter, showing visually how she experiences life.
She worked as a musician until the birth of her first child. She was given a camera, which jumpstarted her love affair with visual art.
Seifert then continued working as a professional photographer and now works primarily in mixed media.
At canalstreetartgallery.com, you can watch Seifert's “Meet the Artist” narrated tour of the show. On March 19, for the Bellows Falls 3rd Friday gallery night, the gallery will host a “Live with the Artist” stream on Facebook Live at 6 p.m.
The gallery, at 23 Canal St., is open to a limited number of visitors at a time on Wednesdays through Saturdays, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. contact the gallery at 802-289-0104 or [email protected] for more information.