BRATTLEBORO — Bob Boemig has been creating outdoor landscape installations across New England for more than 50 years, including "Landlift" at the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center, and "The Fiddlehead" at Retreat Farm.
A new exhibition at (1)C X Silver Gallery, 814 Western Ave., shows a collection of Boemig's interior works made over two decades.
Boemig's sculptural reliefs use construction materials and debris, cardboard, house paint, wood, stone, twigs, and branches. The series Ashes to Ashes and Dust to Dust makes use of fire and tracing paper with urethane. In the Nebula series, Boemig uses chiffon fabric, covering over sculptural reliefs.
"These two series represent contrasting themes that are ultimately intertwined - the destruction and deterioration not only in the landscape but in our own bodies," wrote Boemig in his artist statement that introduces the exhibit.
As he turned 50, he also examined his existence, "as many of us do as we age," say organizers, "a subject that relates to anyone in their lives as we examine and process our own existence, looking back at our beginnings but also forward to the end."
"Nebula was the hopeful and optimistic response to that examination, representing a new outlook and the possibilities of what our lives can be in the reimagined outside world, and beyond," Boemig wrote.
Two recent large works are part of a new series featuring an ongoing collaboration between Boemig and Cai Xi. These works began with hosta leaves and house paint and were completed with little or no verbal communication or specific plans - a free-flowing, open embrace of the creative process.
C X Silver Gallery is open Thursday through Monday, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. For information, contact the gallery 802-257-7898, ext. 1, or visit cxsilvergallery.com/bob-boemig.
This The Arts item was submitted to The Commons.