RAL exhibitions to open with reception June 9
The Rehoboth Art League will kick off summer with the 50th Annual Members’ Fine Craft Exhibition, as well as Joseph Barbaccia’s Delaware Days, and Ideas and Images from the Rehoboth Camera Club and Coastal Camera Club. The beloved Doors of Fame also will be on display.
The art league will host opening receptions for all the exhibitions from 5 to 7 p.m., Friday, June 9, inviting visitors to the Corkran, Tubbs, Ventures and Homestead galleries to see these new shows. All run through Sunday, July 16.
The Members’ Fine Craft Exhibition is a signature RAL summer show featuring works created by member artists in a wide variety of media, including baskets, ceramics, fiber, glass, jewelry, leather, metal, mixed media, wood and more. The show will take over the Corkran and Tubbs galleries, with awards given for distinguished pieces. Artists and the public are invited to hear from Richard Holt, this year’s exhibition judge, during his free gallery talk at 10 a.m., Saturday, June 10, in the Corkran Gallery. Holt is chair of the ceramics department at Towson University and co-creator of Claymonster Pottery in Baltimore.
In the Ventures Gallery, Barbaccia will showcase his polymer clay paintings with a solo show titled Delaware Days. Inspired by the Impressionist painters of the 19th century, Barbaccia creates flowing paintings not from oil-based pigments, but from plastic-based pigments in clay form. With these pure color extrusions, he is able to weave a visual mixture that demonstrates subtle variations of color, form, texture and light. The clay adds a three-dimensional effect in each work, creating a depth and impasto-like texture throughout the Delaware-inspired landscape images.
As part of its 85th anniversary celebration, the art league is hosting exhibitions and displays that showcase its history. In the DeWitt Gallery, the Doors of Fame will be on display for the public to view. The tradition of signing the Doors of Fame began on Dedication Day in 1938 when Rehoboth Art League founder Louise Corkran invited artists and distinguished visitors to paint their signature and a symbol of interest on one of the Paynter Studio’s doors. Today, three Doors of Fame contain more than 270 signatures of notable visitors to the art league including artists, diplomats, musicians, writers, educators, scientists, legislators and more.
For more than 80 years, photography has played an integral part not only in documenting the early years of the Rehoboth Art League’s development but also as an increasingly accessible artistic medium. The Ideas and Images exhibition will display photographs from the Rehoboth Art League’s Fine Art Collection in the Homestead. Many images were captured by members of the Rehoboth Camera Club, a group formed by William Horn in 1950 that became affiliated with the art league in 1951 and was first announced as a group in 1952. Although the camera club is no longer in existence, RAL still maintains its spirit through an ongoing partnership with today’s Coastal Camera Club. Selected works from Coastal Camera Club members will also be on display.
The exhibitions are free and open to everyone during the regular gallery hours of 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Saturday, and noon to 4 p.m., Sunday.
The Rehoboth Art League is located at 12 Dodds Lane, Henlopen Acres.
For more information, go to rehobothartleague.org.
