“Natural Selections” transforms gallery into vibrant laboratory space

The Dorrance H. Hamilton Gallery has announced the opening of “Natural Selections,” an exhibition of paintings, inkjet prints and sculptural ceramics born from a fascination with science and the natural world.

“Natural Selections” unites the creative work of Angela Cunningham, Maria Napolitano and Laurie Sloan. Together, the images and objects of these three New England-based artists blur the boundaries between the microscopic and the macroscopic, transforming the gallery into a vibrant laboratory space.

The exhibition runs through Wednesday, Nov. 9. On Thursday, Oct. 6, the campus community and the general public are invited to attend an opening reception for the artists, which will run from 5-8 p.m. in the gallery. The artists will also discuss their work in the gallery from 6-7 that evening.

Cunningham introduces the viewer to a new and enlivened species of sculptural ceramics. Her three-dimensional organic volumes are stunning mutations that swell and sprout, not unlike their counterparts in nature. From plants and animals, her forms have inherited captivating physical characteristics, unique coloration and elaborate surfaces. Cunningham operates Cunningham Ceramics in Somerville, Massachusetts.

Napolitano’s oil paintings describe a landscape just beyond our reach. Like the artifacts of an excavated civilization, her images present a puzzle-like network of organisms, diagrams and hieroglyphs. This is a mysterious world where botanical imagery is filtered through the lens of scientific illustration and mid-20th century abstract painting. Napolitano lives and works in Providence, Rhode Island.

In Sloan’s invented world, images evolve from file fragments into dynamic composites on a computer screen. Her specimens are an encyclopedic assortment of pictographs that she meticulously shapes and reshapes with design software. Through a hybridization of form and process that mines the sciences, both her inkjet and screen prints explore the possibilities for image growth and visual innovation. Sloan is an associate professor in printmaking at the University of Connecticut.

The gallery is handicap accessible with parking along Lawrence and Leroy avenues. Its exhibits are open 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesdays and Fridays and noon to 4 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. The gallery is closed on Mondays.