WebinART: Friendship: The Enduring Art of Ali
Virtual event hosted by Pucker Gallery.
Join us 24 March at 1pm EST for a conversation with Pucker Gallery artist Ali Clift, local Boston artist Lorie Hamermesh, and Gallery Director Bernie Pucker. This event will provide an opportunity to look back over nearly 5 decades of magical work along the most recent creations, aka fabrications. Ali has continued to forever amaze and delight in her unique medium of carefully placed cloth paintings. Join us to share and enjoy.
The exhibition Friendship: The Enduring Art of Ali will be on view at Pucker Gallery from 11 March through 9 April 2023. There will be a virtual tour available next week. Attached is the ecatalogue.
Alison Clift's unique and mysterious cloth paintings are delicately crafted using fabric. Born in 1949 in Nova Scotia, Ali is a graduate of Tufts University and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Her first cloth paintings were inspired technically by a picture composed of small cloth pieces at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts. Throughout her artistic career, Ali has been fascinated by the challenge of creating an authentic sense of space through the illusion of fabric. As she continues to expand her creative process, each new body of work introduces distinct subjects and a notable change in her exploration of cloth as a medium for painting.
An ardent and engaged traveler, she shares, literally and figuratively, fragments of her experiences in new environments. Ali’s earlier works inspired by Mexico are featured in the book Paintings of the Last Decade: Still Life, which is the second publication featuring the artist. The first, entitled Beyond the Big Top: The Cloth Paintings and Graphic Works, explores her successful circus-themed works. Ali’s art has been represented by Pucker Gallery since 1977 and is included in public collections in New England, New York, Canada, Israel, Vietnam, and Bali. She resides in Chelsea, Massachusetts and Naples, Florida.
Lorie Hamermesh, a native of Denver Colorado, has been on the Boston art scene since the mid-1980s. She received her BA from the University of California Berkeley (1970) and her diploma from the School of The Museum of Fine Arts Boston (1984). She has had multiple one woman shows at Gallery NAGA in Boston and has been in group shows throughout New England.
Hamermesh’s early work created a rich visual vocabulary through combining silkscreen, paint, sheer fabric, and collage. In 2010, she began making mono prints. Her paintings and prints are steeped in memory, layering medium and imagery, concealing and revealing simultaneously. The themes of desire and female identity are central to Hamermesh’s work, expressing her personal experience and intimate emotions while communicating universal struggles.
Bernard Pucker is the director of Pucker Gallery, which he founded with his wife, Sue, on Newbury Street in Boston in 1967. Pucker Gallery represents over fifty artists from around the world, presenting approximately ten exhibitions annually, often paired with artist talks, virtual “WebinArts,” and other public events.
Bernie is currently a Board Member at the Japan Society, Boston, and the Jewish Publication Society. He also serves on the Leadership Council for Facing History and Ourselves, as well as the Artistic Advisory Board for the Terezin Music Foundation. Previously, he served as President of Solomon Schechter Day School; President of the Newbury Street League; and a Board Member for the Friends of Copley Square and The Unity Project, among others.
Bernie received his MA in Modern Jewish History from Brandeis University and his BA in History and English Literature from Columbia College.