Wellfleet Adult Community Center

On Exhibit: March 29 - May 1

Artist Reception: March 29 - 3:00 - 5:00 PM

Curated by Robert Rindler

ARTIST STATEMENT:

The work presented in this exhibition constitutes a synthesis of over 40 years of drawing, painting and constructing sculpture in the dunes, forests and beaches of the Provincelands National Seashore, my Fulbright year in Nigeria and my visits to Italy from 2014-2018.  My good fortune to be able to work, and for three summers in the 80’s, live in a dune shack in the Provincelands, has served as the foundation for my work, providing me with the visual language extracted from the natural world that I continue to explore and expand upon. My Fulbright year in Africa allowed me to incorporate, unedited, the profound exposure and influences of the art and culture I encountered daily.    My time in Italy and the opportunity to experience Medieval and Renaissance architecture, painting and sculpture was as inspiring as my year in Africa in the mid-80’s.  Specifically, the viewing of work by Giovanni di Paolo and Priamo della Quercia and their stylized depiction of mountain landscapes has resulted in a refreshed language of color, surface, and form in my work. In addition, the use of reactive dyes allowed for an intensity of color and value that, when combined with other water-based materials, amplified the range of visual language I employed. The accumulation of these experiences was critical to my understanding of the ritualization of objects and the visual power this process creates, and I explored this in all the work on display. In addition, a narrative component has been amplified through a broader range of mark-making and heightened passages of color and form alluding to a union of landscape and figuration

ARTIST’S BIO:

Bert Yarborough has a degree in Architecture from Clemson University and an MA and MFA in Photography from the University of Iowa.  He held the Sonia C. Davidow ’56 Endowed Chair in the Fine and Performing Arts at Colby-Sawyer College, New London, NH, where he also served as the Director of the William and Sonja Carlson Davidow ’56 and Marian Graves Mugar Art Galleries and taught Drawing and Painting.  A former two-year Resident Fellow at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, MA, he served as Visual Arts Program Coordinator for four years and as Chairman of the Visual Committee and member of the Board of Trustees. He has received two NH State Arts Council Grants in Painting, an NEA Fellowship in Sculpture, a Fulbright Fellowship to Nigeria, also in Sculpture, a Visual Artist Residency Fellowship at Civitella Ranieri in Umbria, Italy and an Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Individual Artist Support Grant.     He is currently represented by the Berta Walker Gallery, Provincetown, MA and resides in Truro, MA.