Opening Reception, Sunday June 28, 5 - 7PM

GATHERING HERE

 Co-curated with Lari Washburn

JACKIE SHATZ LARI WASHBURN KELLY POPOFF

BENJAMIN PRITCHARD ISABEL RILEY DAN DOWD

The Cynthia Winings Gallery presents Gathering Here, a group exhibition co-curated by Lari Washburn and Cynthia Winings, inspired by Ursula K. Le Guin’s 1986 essay The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction. In this essay, Le Guin reimagines the story of human culture not as one defined by conquest and heroic acts, but by gathering, holding, and sustaining. In this case, the “carrier bag” becomes a powerful metaphor for the exhibition: a vessel for what we collect, carry, and share. Bringing this idea into the realm of visual art, Gathering Here considers artists as gatherers—collecting materials, impressions, memories, questions, and experiences over time. The artworks become containers themselves: places where meaning is held, layered, and allowed to unfold.

The artists in Gathering Here embrace processes of discovery, transformation, and attention. Their works reflect a willingness to follow what emerges rather than impose a fixed conclusion, creating spaces where uncertainty and possibility can coexist. At a moment when so much of our world is shaped by speed, certainty, and division, this exhibition offers another way of seeing and making: one rooted in care, curiosity, and connection. Gathering Here invites us to consider the quiet acts of attention that shape our lives—the things we notice, remember, and return to—and how art can hold these experiences in ways that continue to unfold.

Sculpture in the Garden by LUNAFORM, Melita Westerlund, John Wilkinson, Mary Lou Reid

THREAD, PAPER, SCISSORS:

LUCY CHILD AND LARI WASHBURN in the Project Space

Cynthia Winings Gallery will present Thread, Paper, Scissors in the Project Space of the gallery from June 23 – July 18, in conjunction with Gathering Here in the main gallery space. This work features collages by Lari Washburn and hand embroidered textiles by Lucy Childs. Lari layers many paper elements into her work, thinking of them as everyday offerings from the world. Often these are snippets from drawings and paintings she has put aside. Lucy hand sews imaginary landscapes, beach scenes, maps, and abstract patterns, and includes lace-making and white work techniques in a contemporary way. Both artists use carefully considered details and color to evoke and give shape to thoughts and feelings which are more subtle than words.

Lucy Childs lives and works in mid-coast Maine. Her detailed and colorful textile work is evocative and an effort to make visible the invisible: ideas, perceptions, sensations, and emotions. A focus on letting the work of her hand guide her is an organizing principle. Her art practice includes artist’s books and drawing as well as textile art.

Lari Washburn, a Maine resident for the past 23 years, will show a body of collage work completed at a recent retreat. Making collages provides her with an opportunity to compose without immediate commitment in a way that is not as possible in her painting and drawing practice.

OPENING RECEPTION:  SUNDAY, JUNE 28, 5 - 7PM