IN THE ANNEX: MAY 2021

May 5-May 30, 2021
Rahim Gray, Joanne Holtje, Susan Plant

SoWa First Friday Art Walk: Friday, May 7 | 5:00–8:00PM

Exploration of form and color take over the Annex in May. Rahim Gray, Joanne Holtje, and Susan Plant embrace the physicality of their media.  Surprise and exploration are elements of their practices. Holtje and Plant each use their unique artistic eye to suggest the natural landscape. Gray is inspired by resistance and response to forces in the endeavor of questioning solutions to structural racism. 

The ANNEX is a section of the Gallery where we spotlight new work by regional artists.

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PRESS RELEASE ➢


Rahim Gray

Rahim Gray is an emerging artist, born, raised, and living in Boston. He is also a chef and feels that this goes hand in hand with his art. He fell in love with art as he learned how help his mother as she cooked. He was captivated by all the colors in a stir-fry. Gray has had exhibitions at Blick Art Materials, Cambridge; Savin Gallery Savin Hill; Equinox Art After Dark, Boston; and Aeronaut Brewery Virtual Ales & Arts, Boston. He's recently been commissioned to design a label by Aeronaut Brewery in Somerville. In addition to his artwork, Gray is an activist with a growing commitment to racial equity, criminal justice reform/abolition, and civic engagement. Currently he is pursuing these areas of interest as a student in the competitive year-long certificate program on criminal justice and racial equity offered by Tufts University.   

 

 

Joanne Holtje

Joanne Holtje spent her youth exploring the woods, fields, and riverbanks of her hometown, Concord, Massachusetts. She received her BA from Tufts University, and after a brief adventure in Los Angeles, returned to make the Bay State her home. Since 2006 she has exhibited in a wide range of venues including the Fitchburg Art Museum, the Danforth Museum, the D’Amour Museum of Fine Art, and the Painting Center Gallery, Chelsea, New York. Her work appears in the book, Creating Abstract Art by Dean Nimmer. Joanne now lives, works, and draws inspiration from the Pioneer Valley where she has been a member of the Oxbow Gallery, Northampton since 2014. 

 

Susan Plant

Susan Plant is a printmaker and mixed media artist who explores abstracted interpretations of the natural world in her work. She received the Roddy Prize for Printmaking at the Concord Center for the Visual Arts’ Francis Roddy Open Competition in 2018. She has exhibited her work in multiple group shows in the Boston area, including the Bromfield Gallery in Boston, the Brickbottom Gallery in Somerville, the Cambridge Art Association, and Gallery Twist in Lexington. Raised in New York City and Connecticut, she received a B.A. in Russian Studies from Cornell University and a M.Arch. degree from the University of Pennsylvania. Following a ten-year career as an architect, in 2005 she returned to her interest in creating art. She has studied studio art at the SMFA at Tufts, MassArt, Zea Mays Printmaking, and Abrazos Press, among other organizations. She prints at the Mixit Print Studio in Somerville, and out of her home studio in Arlington, MA.