Paul Kelly and Mike Wright—Friday, July 7-July 20, 2023
Provincetown, MA: The Alden Gallery will present a two-person show of new work by Paul Kelly and Mike Wright, opening on Friday, July 7, 2023, at 423 Commercial St. The artists’ reception will be on opening day, Friday, July 7, from 7 to 9 p.m., with both artists attending. The show will be on view through July 20.
Provincetown artist Paul Kelly has been showing at the Alden Gallery since 2010. “My paintings have evolved over the years from townscapes, using a basic understanding of architectural forms from my professional background as an architect and city planner, to imaginary forms and locations using unidentified vantage points,” Kelly says. “I look for impossible perspectives on well-known images to trigger my curiosity and re-examine our built environment. My approach and preparation for creating oil paintings include my love for notebook pencil sketching, quick watercolor studies, and weekly access to figure drawing to keep my eye in check. The art of Hopper, Thibaud, Diebenkorn, and Nicholas De Stael are significant influences.”
Mike Wright is a Provincetown artist who has for decades been creating sculptures made of painted wood that she finds locally and shapes into new forms. This year she has created a series of “pennants” and “trophies” created out of discarded signs from the renovated house of a noted local sign painter. “The point of using found wood is that, as debris, it seems unpromising,” Wright says. “But that lack of promise is also its appeal—the peeling paint, the color scrubbed by salty waves, sand, or human use. The main parameter for me is that the wood must be found in Provincetown.” Wright has received a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant, an Artist’s Residency Award at the Vermont Studio Center, and has had solo shows of her work at the Provincetown Art Association and Museum, Cape Cod Museum of Art, and St. Botolph Club in Boston.
The Alden Gallery is open daily, 11 a.m.-5 p.m., and Wednesday through Saturday evenings, 6-9 p.m., through Labor Day, after which it will be open weekends through New Year’s Day, 2024. It is free and open to the public. During gallery hours, call 508-487-4230; off-hours, call 646-483-8164.
The future shows of the 2023 season:
Chris Firger: July 21 through August 3
Joerg Dressler and Ed Christie: August 4 through August 17
Jim Broussard and Robert Morgan: August 18 through August 31
Kevin Cyr and Alice Denison: September 1 through September 14
Cathleen Daley and Jane Paradise: September 15 through September 28
Autumn group show: September 29 through January 1, 2024
Press contact: aldengallery@gmail.com or 646-483-8164.