RAL summer exhibitions to open with reception June 13

The Rehoboth Art League will kick off summer with its 52nd Annual Members’ Fine Craft Exhibition, along with two exhibitions from RAL’s Fine Art Collection: Inside the Studio of Ethel PB Leach in the DeWitt Gallery and Feathered and Fancy: Avian Interpretations from the RAL Collections in the Homestead.

The art league will host opening receptions from 5 to 7 p.m., Friday, June 13, inviting visitors to the Corkran, Tubbs, Ventures and Homestead galleries to see the displays. All run through Sunday, July 13.

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 Jinsoon Oh, this year’s exhibition judge, during a free gallery talk at 10 a.m., Saturday, June 14, in the Corkran Gallery. An artist and poet based in Salisbury, Md., Oh was born in Seoul, South Korea, where she earned a bachelor of fine art in painting. Since coming to the United States in 2016, she has actively participated in regional, national and international art exhibitions. She has been expanding her studio practices in the ceramics and sculpture programs at Salisbury University and has trained as an art teacher, specializing in secondary and high school art education. Her recent series of works, The Soundless Poem, was showcased at RAL last fall.

The Ventures Gallery will become an extension of the Members’ Sales Gallery, showcasing an eclectic collection of fine art and craft by RAL Member Artists. Throughout the summer season, patrons can browse everything from watercolor paintings to wearable fiber art, ceramics and fine-art photography. Each purchase supports a practicing artist, as well as the mission of the Rehoboth Art League.

RAL also will display two exhibitions featuring work from their Fine Art Collection. On display in the DeWitt Gallery through Sunday, July 27, will be Inside the Studio of Ethel PB Leach, curated by Collections Committee member, Ellen Roney Hughes. A founder of Rehoboth Art League, Ethel Pennewill Brown Leach was known as a leader of women painters in Delaware for the first half of the 20th century. The league has an extensive collection of Leach’s work, which includes oil paintings, etchings, illustrations, drawings and personal diaries. In 2024, RAL was gifted a collection of her studio equipment including her easel, camera and woodblock cutting tools, and many of her sketches and illustrations. With these pieces on display surrounded by her art, this mini exhibition gives a glimpse into what Leach’s studio might have been.

Feathered and Fancy: Avian Interpretations from the RAL Collections will be showcased in the Homestead through Sunday, Aug. 17. Birds inspire humans in endless ways through their flight, beauty and delightful mannerisms. This exhibition celebrates avian wonders through interpretations in original paintings, sculptures and sketches from the Rehoboth Art League Collection.

RAL’s iconic Doors of Fame, which feature the signatures of more than 285 prominent artists, creatives and notable citizens from the art league’s history, are also on display in the Homestead and will remain available to view through October.

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.