A whopping 86 artists contributed 138 pieces of art to “All the Feels,” an annual exhibit (minus a pandemic interruption) at the S.P.A.C.E. Gallery in Burlington. The open call for participation asked artists to “exude” emotion. It prodded: “How do you feel during the creation process? Does the content of your work bring joy, angst, humor? What emotions does the viewer go through when experiencing the art?”
The diversity of artworks — paintings, drawings, photographs, collage, sculpture — keeps pace with the range of human emotions. Many artists took the assignment to heart and just let it all out.
A terrifically striking entry is the large vulva with a fluffy pink exterior and inner folds studded with screws — business ends pointed out. Artist J. Kalisz gave her wall-hung piece a title that dispels any ambiguity: “Yup! It’s a big fucking pussy. Don’t like it? Go FUCK OFF!”
The clever-but-off-putting camp includes Django Hulphers’ collection of handmade objects laid out on a narrow pedestal and collectively titled “Mother.” Made of wood and found materials, the assortment suggests items on a vanity table, but these defy function. A “mirror” is not reflective but murky, its surface resembling leaves lodged beneath ice. Instead of useful bristles, spiky wads of dried botanicals snarl from tooth- and hairbrushes. Hulphers’ craftiness is subversive.
With an adroit cartoon-style pencil drawing titled “Artistic Inspirations,” Robert Waldo Brunelle Jr. chronicles despair. The first of eight panels reveals: “My melancholia is the result of a myriad of maladies, including chronic migraine, digestive complaints, and an arthritic spine. And now I am going deaf.” But he is fortified by the stories of six other artists who endured physical misfortunes, including Frida Kahlo, Claude Monet and Francisco Goya. In the final panel, Brunelle finds his own silver lining: “When I am creating, I am able to forget all my pains.”
Many of the artworks in “All the Feels” leave interpretation up to the viewer. TheaWH anthropomorphizes foodstuffs in jokey color photographs, such as “EggLashes” — an over-easy egg whose orange yolk sports a pair of absurdly long false eyelashes.
Energetic abstract paintings by Linda Blackerby and Eric Eickmann disclose only that these artists were feeling … energized.
Jenny Rossi’s wall-hung creations are just plain cute: a quartet of vintage dishes holding food items made of polymer clay. “Sunday Brunch,” for instance, comprises a pair of tiny saucers holding even tinier pastries.
Some artworks prompt feelings of joy, hope or at least enticing promise. Alyssa DeBella‘s watercolor “Summer Sunflowers” offers a field full of red, yellow and white blossoms, with a footpath right up the middle. Who knows where it might lead?
“All the Feels” is on view through March 25.
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This article appears in Mar 15-21, 2023.
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