The Hall Art Foundation is pleased to announce, Made in Vermont, a group exhibition of new and recently completed work by Vermont artists to be held in its galleries in Reading, Vermont from 11 May – 1 December 2019. Including paintings, works on paper and sculpture by Arista Alanis, Steve Budington, Clark Derbes, Jason Galligan-Baldwin and Sarah Letteney, this show spotlights artists who live and work in Vermont.

Arista Alanis’ gestural paintings derive from the landscape. Although they are inspired by her experiences in Vermont, Maine and other places she has visited during her travels, her works are not direct representations. Rather, they are abstractions where light and color create a sense of place, and a feeling, sensation or mood about her encounter with the natural environment is conveyed. Alanis states: “The artwork is not about specific places, but about significant moments that ignite a feeling of being alive in the space. The formal structures of nature directly experienced, or recalled, give my work the solid foundation upon which I improvise abstractions.”

Steve Budington’s recent work investigates concepts of mapping and historical modes of documentation, in particular, twentieth-century world map projections and nineteenth-century anatomical compendiums. While these traditional forms of mapping sought to present exhaustive overviews of entire systems, contemporary forms of mapping—including GPS and data archives—offer only selective windows of information for specific, limited uses. Made in response to Buckminster Fuller's Dymaxion Air-Ocean World Map, Budington’s shaped paintings are composed of triangular canvases and present imagery that has been fragmented and recombined. These paintings are shown alongside a group of works on paper that were made in response to nineteenth-century anatomical diagrams and more contemporary forms of imaging. Budington’s highly detailed anatomical graphite drawings have been partially obstructed with colorful elements of watercolor collage.

Clark Derbes’ dimensional sculptures are made of large hardwood trunks salvaged by arborists from the area surrounding his studio. He carves the trunks into dynamic shapes with a chainsaw, which he then meticulously paints with a variety of complex visual systems, patterns and patina processes. His geometric sculptures display novel distributions of light and color -- playfully and unexpectedly shifting space and undermining our habitual viewing systems.

Jason Galligan-Baldwin’s work is based on real and imagined childhood stories. His multi-media paintings and works on paper are influenced by the materials of his youth, including progress reports, childhood books, school assignments, and random doodles or drawings. Composed of acrylic paint, screen-print, fragments of text, speech bubbles, arrows, and collaged cutouts of men, women and children (including astronauts and cowboys), his works tell a story that is at once personally charged and ambiguous.

Sarah Letteney’s simple line drawings aim to express the bigger picture in a limited palate. Composed of clean and deliberate lines of black ink, her works feature somewhat dark, but often bittersweet, subject matter. Within her illustrations, repeated characters take the form of hands, crows and blood. Inspired by her own experience and daily interactions, her comical, heartfelt and dreamlike works express a spectrum of human emotion including awkwardness, vulnerability and honesty.

Please direct sales inquiries to vermont@hallartfoundation.org or + 1 802 952 1056.

Artist Biographies

Arista Alanis (b. 1967) is originally from Texas and received an MFA from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, LA, and a BFA from Texas Woman’s University in Denton, TX. Her work has been included in numerous solo and group exhibitions in the United States. She has been a staff artist at the Vermont Studio Center, the largest international artist’s and writer’s residency program in the United States, since 1995 where she is currently also the Community Arts Program Coordinator. She lives and works in Johnson, Vermont.

Steve Budington (b. 1978) received his MFA in painting and printmaking from the Yale School of Art and his BFA in painting and art history from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Budington’s work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, including in New York, at Exit Art, Misc. Gallery, and Dorsky Gallery Curatorial Programs; in San Francisco, at Mirus Gallery; in Austria, at Hotel Pupik Schrattenberg; and in Italy, at the Fondazione Ambrosetti Arte Contemporanea.  Most recently, a solo exhibition of his work was held at the Greenleaf Gallery of Whittier College in Whittier, CA. Budington lives with his wife, son, and daughter in Burlington, Vermont, where he is an associate professor of art at the University of Vermont and plays electric guitar in a Middlebury-based collective dedicated to improvised music.

Clark Derbes (b. 1978) is originally from New Orleans, LA and received a BFA at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, LA, where he was raised. In addition to his sculptures, Derbes also makes paintings, works on paper and large public installations. His work has been shown extensively throughout the United States, including solo exhibitions at Devin Borden Gallery in Houston, Schoolhouse Gallery in Provincetown, Marcia wood Gallery in Atlanta, and Martine Chaisson Gallery in New Orleans.  Derbes currently lives and works in Charlotte, Vermont.

Jason Galligan-Baldwin (aka Art2D2 Industries) (b. 1972) is originally from Durham, North Carolina, and grew up in Alexandria, Louisiana where he attended Louisiana State University at Alexandria on the Elizabeth M. Bolton Art Scholarship. He received a BFA from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and his MFA from The University of Mississippi in Oxford, MS. Jason has exhibited his artwork in solo, juried (international, national, and regional), and group shows and has won many awards, including four best of shows and an artist’s grant to attend the Vermont Studio Center. His work is included in the permanent collections of the University of Southern Indiana, the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith, the Laurel Arts League, and the Meridian Museum of Art, among others. He is currently an Associate Professor of Art and Studio Arts Coordinator at Norwich University in Northfield, VT and currently lives and works in Montpelier, VT.

Sarah Letteney (b. 1984) received a BA in psychology from the University of Vermont. Among other collaborative projects, she is a frequent contributor to The New Yorker. She currently lives and works in Burlington, VT.

The Hall Art Foundation in Reading, Vermont is open weekends by appointment.

Appointments are available Saturdays and Sundays at 11 AM and 2 PM.

Admission: $10 pp

The First Friday of every month, from 5 - 8 PM, we also welcome visitors to view our exhibitions without a guide and at their own pace. Admission is free!

Donations to help support our programming are always appreciated.

544 VT Route 106
Reading, VT 05062

For more information and images, please contact the Foundation’s administrative office at + 1 802 952 1056 or info@hallartfoundation.org.