Art: A Visual Language

• Friday, Jul 14, 2023  6pm Opening Reception
• Tue, Jun 20, 2023 - Sat, Oct 14, 2023  9am - 5pm

Sawyer Yards is proud to announce this year's all campus invitational exhibition, Art: A Visual Language. Hosted yearly at Spring Street Studios, the exhibition brings together artworks from artists all across the different studio buildings at the Sawyer Yards campus. 

I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn’t say any other way —things I had no words for.

~ Georgia O’Keeffe

While a verbal language includes sounds, words and the way the words are arranged, the visual language equivalent includes shapes, lines, colors, tones and textures.  Art combines these elements into expressive patterns in order to represent real or imagined phenomena, to depict a narrative theme, or to create abstract relationships.  A painting, sculpture or photograph may express ideas or elicit particular emotions.  Color itself can show emotions, create an impression or make a point.

Artists often have a message to communicate in their art, as well as the ability to learn from their viewers, since the viewer may have a different interpretation.   This interchange constitutes a visual dialogue between the artist, the artwork and the viewer.  In this exhibition, artists  may communicate their thoughts, feelings and perceptions inspired by the human body, nature, color and design, narrative, personal experiences and current events.  Viewers can be engaged by the formal characteristics of the work and conceptually by the artist’s intent.

The show itself is a work of art created by the curator with a voice all its own.  While considering the entirety of the exhibit, notice the interplay of one piece against another.  They speak through movement, form, shape, and color throughout the space, and thus another dialogue is added.

Image: Musing You, Meribeth Privett