Mosaic Art Collective celebrates October
An upcoming exhibit at a downtown Manchester art gallery will be equal parts harvest moon and hocus pocus, if the early submissions are an indication. Mosaic Art Collective holds monthly themed shows. In September, “Full Circle: The Speed of Light” offered works like the eclipse-inspired “Four Minutes of Totality, Twelve Hours of Light” and “Evil Eyes,” a kinetic piece made of metal and stained glass.
Mosaic founder Liz Pieroni hopes this month’s “Spellbound” will evoke the magical and mystical.
“There are a lot of artists that specifically only make creepy, Halloween-y kind of work,” she said. “There’s definitely some very witchy portraiture, a lot of skulls … and a creepy moon landscape pastel by Susan Markham.”
Also contributing is Jackie Hansen, known for absurdist takes on the natural world like “McChicken,” an acrylic on canvas painting of a barnyard bird peeking out from a McDonald’s fries container. “She does almost traditional New Hampshire art, but it always has a little bit of a twist,” Pieroni said. “This one is a chicken riding a broom with a witch hat on.”
Artist submissions will be available for viewing beginning Oct. 7, with a reception set for the afternoon of Oct. 12. In the spirit of the season, a tarot card reader will be on hand to tell fortunes at the event. These Second Saturday gatherings happen every month and in the recent past have included live music and comedy.
As always, the different works on display at “Spellbound” can be purchased and picked up at the end of the month. Mosaic encourages ownership, with prices befitting an aspiring art collector. Helpfully, each piece has its own QR code that links to a web page for interested buyers.
“In some ways it makes it more accessible,” Pieroni said. “People don’t necessarily want to figure out who to approach and how to purchase something, but everyone has a phone on them…. If you’re introverted in any way, this makes it a little bit easier to stomach.”
On any given day, Mosaic is abuzz with activity. Seesaw Art Gallery has its own space in the back corner of the second floor space, and artists work in individual studios. One, Hannah Cole Dahar, makes whimsical works like custom portraits of local women in saintly poses. It’s truly a collective, exactly what Pieroni had in mind when she started it.
Since graduating in 2005, she missed the art school vibe. Opening Mosaic “was about finding my own art community,” she said. “We all have our own separate spaces, but when we come into the gallery, it kind of automatically creates this swirl of conversation, which is comforting … it’s not just a big white room with art on the wall, it has a nucleus feel.”
So far, it’s been a good year.
“We saw a little bit of a slowdown in June, but I think it was just that people were kind of busy and out enjoying the weather,” Pieroni said. “We ended up taking the summer off and just recharging our batteries. September so far has been really great. We’ve seen a good amount of sales and a lot of new artists that haven’t shown with us before, which is really exciting. In general, I’d say things are on the up and up.”
There’s hope that growth is on the horizon, she continued. “We’re building out our program still. We’ve had a few little setbacks as businesses do. I think right now we’re just trying to get all our ducks in a row and find some funding … then build out a couple of bigger programs that hopefully we’ll see early next year.”
These efforts include recruiting volunteers. “The program we’re hoping to put together is volunteering that is kind of educational at the same time,” Pieroni said. “You could learn how to hang a show and host events, stuff like that, then walk away with an understanding of how things function so that you can go and do something similar.”
Spellbound
When: Begins Monday, Oct. 7, with opening reception Saturday, Oct. 12, at 4 p.m.
Where: Mosaic Art Collective, 66 Hanover St., Suite 201 (second floor), Manchester
More: mosaicartcollective.com
Featured image: Mosaic Art Collective. Courtesy photo.
