This time of year, most Vermonters start their day by thinking about layers — how to dress to defend against the inevitable shifts of the weather or the office thermostat. Many art-making techniques rely on layering, too: A painter creates glazes that dry over each other; a sculptor builds out from an armature. Nine local artists interpret the concept in the aptly titled “Layers,” on view at the Adamant Cooperative Gallery through February 15.
Four paintings by Hannah Morris hit the thematic nail squarely on the head. Morris’ tableaux show people engaging in an activity, as in the 24-by-24-inch “Cabana Afternoon,” where they swim, sunbathe and seem to converse in mini-scenes under beach tents.
To make her work, Morris starts with vintage midcentury magazine clippings, collaging them onto panels and building scenes over them with Flashe and gouache paint. Morris doesn’t hew to the clippings under her paint but takes shapes from them as jumping-off points for imagining her figures. The technique adds a mostly obscured layer of text and images that occasionally interrupts her painted scenes. It brings an aspect of randomness to the underpaintings that Morris uses in crafting her awkward, expressive people. Here, layers result in work with psychological tension: The painting suggests that we don’t know exactly what lies beneath a pleasant day at the beach.
Freddie Wiss presents the same subject in “Slough,” a video of ripples on Slough Pond in Truro, Mass., accessible via a QR code on the label if the gallery’s digital frame isn’t working, as when this reporter visited. Ghostly bathers seem to swim beneath the water, blending with shadows of trees on its surface. Placing the imagery in these layers collapses time, creating a scene that plays like memory. The label mentions that the piece has been shown before without sound; watching it muted is a more ambiguous, abstract and satisfying experience than with its piano soundtrack, which is uplifting but a little too prescriptive.
Dan Thorington’s sculptures play with layers of perception. A bell jar covers a taxidermied blue jay — out of place until the label reveals that its feathers are silk and its body made from wire, wood and papier-mâché. Nearby, a lifelike crow perches on a branch seemingly growing from the gallery wall. Somehow, Thorington has crafted its feathers from black stovepipe. The level of detail and skill is superb. It’s hard to believe there aren’t layers of bone and muscle animating these creatures.
Karen Kane’s small collages — many only three inches wide — take an intriguingly spare approach. Each is a visual experiment in which only a few elements create a scene. In one, a woman’s face is obscured by a wedge of cheese; its geometry mirrors the points of her collar and severe line of her hair. In another, the colors and shapes of an illustrated pelican resonate with abstract photographic elements. These layers aren’t deep but, as Kane’s statement puts it, “just enough.”
As always, the show in the little Adamant gallery has a casual air and doesn’t take itself too seriously. Marjorie Merena’s cut-paper “Esmeralda” and an assemblage by Joni Clemons have a cheeky take on the title, offering up plump, happy hens — you know, layers. Get it?
“Layers,” on view through February 15 at Adamant Cooperative Gallery. adamantcoop.org
The original print version of this article was headlined “Artists Serve Up ‘Layer’ Takes at Adamant Co-op”
This article appears in Jan 22-28, 2025.
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