Voces/Voices, Public Art Exhibition, set for Aug. 14-31

Wickham Works presents Voces/Voices, a summer outdoor exhibit showcasing area artists responding to the theme “Finding Your Voice.”

The pieces are on display Aug. 14 through 31 at Railroad Green, Lewis Park and Pine Island Park.

Dave Kurdyla

Blacksmith artist Dave Kurdyla has created his largest solo project to date, a nearly 600 pound steel sculpture that will be placed in Railroad Green. With one side composed of crisp clean lines and the other featuring organic hand-forged shapes, the artwork explores the space between order and chaos where creativity and change can happen.

Raheli Harper

Stitched both by machine and by hand, Raheli Harper’s large-scale fabric map placed in Lewis Park represents the never-ending journey of finding one’s voice. For Harper, this is a process of unearthing parts of herself that have been buried, gaining new views of what surrounds her, and giving new truth to her voice.

Matt Barile

Matt Barile has created an “invisible” soundscape for Pine Island Park. Walking into the gazebo triggers the audio composed of voices of local young people sharing what is important to them in words, music, and sounds.

Barile worked with students in the Dulce Esperanza Summer Enrichment Program and students from The Rock Underground Music Schools in Pine Island and Greenwood Lake to give youth a chance to express themselves through this artwork.

Emily Welch

Emily Welch worked with young artists from the Alamo Farmworkers Community Center to create a two-sided mural in Pine Island Park. The mural features a landscape of the black dirt fields as a backdrop to framed paintings by individual youth.

Claire Gilliam

For Voces/Voices, Claire Gilliam has created two new works that build upon her recent body of work and exhibition in Fleischmann’s, NY, exploring the Latin alphabet, communication, and the evolving nature of language.

Large-scale blue cyanotypes on gauzy fabric hold the mark of her body and her written alphabets, while a second piece made in clay calls to mind ancient cuneiform tablets and becomes a relic to be discovered.

Gilliam’s works will be installed in Lewis Park and Railroad Green.

Brooke Hamling and Wendy Insigner

Brooke Hamling and Wendy Insigner have each created a set of panels sharing their voices as poets. In Railroad Green and Lewis Park, visitors will find a series of poems that celebrate the power of words to express one’s individual experiences.

Kris Campbell

For the first time, Kris Campbell will present her entire #iamCOLORseries of six 11-foot square translucent cross-stitch tapestries of flowers, each celebrating a different color, in Pine Island Park. Campbell was recently named the Arts Council of Rockland’s Visual Artist of the Year.

Voces/Voices will also showcase the work of young artists in Wickham Works’ summer arts programs – the Dulce Esperanza enrichment program run by the Warwick Area Farmworker Organization and the Student Youth Leadership Academy at the Warwick Valley Community Center.

Aug. 14 and 15 events

There will be two free public opening events: Saturday, Aug. 14, 4 p.m., ArtWalk and Reception, Village of Warwick.

Starting at Railroad Green and walk to Lewis Park, meet artists Gilliam, Kurdyla, Harper, and Hamling and Insinger. Reception to follow in Lewis Park sponsored by the Warwick Historical Society.

Sunday, Aug. 15, noon to 4 p.m., Art Fiesta, Pine Island Park, Kay Drive, Pine Island. Join Wickham Works and the Warwick Area Farmworkers Organization for traditional home cooked Mexican food, music, and a celebration of the artists - Matthew Barile, Kris Campbell, Emily Welch and students from the Alamo Farmworkers Community Center youth program, and the Dulce Esperanza summer enrichment program.

Event is free and open to all.

Sale of food supports the WAFO’s summer enrichment programs.

Essentials

This project is made possible with funds from the Decentralization Program, a regrant program of the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the New York State Legislature and administered by Arts Mid-Hudson.