Artist Reception and Exhibition- The Covid Carnival

"The Covid Carnival" complete with fuzzy brains, daring knife tosses, rabbit holes, exhilaration, and fear...is coming to the Bowersock Gallery!

This death-defying show will take you on harrowing rides conjured by the minds of artists who share their perspectives on pandemic life. So laugh, cry, cringe, groan, scream, and relate...it's all here.

"The Covid Carnival" opens Memorial Day weekend, May 28th through June 15th, 2021 at Bowersock Gallery, 373 Commercial Street, Provincetown, MA. The show's online, multiple platform opening runs 5:15 to 5:30 pm, just before the in-gallery, live person event which runs 7 to 9 pm.

"It's been a whopper of a year - and counting. Each of us has a story and take on what we've been through and are affected differently, with great contrasts," founding Curator Steve Bowersock says. "For many artists a coping mechanism has been to hit the studio double-time, attempting to escape while simultaneously exploring. This show shares the results of those many hours squirreled away."

The "Covid Carnival" exhibit certainly runs the gamut. There are artists who've created peaceful, quiet places attempting to center their realities, and others who've created snapshots of tumultuous times. Many dove right in and just got messy expressing the mix of emotions, swift changes, and twisted states of mind.

This collection includes 2 and 3D works, representational, realism, abstract, expressionism, and fantasy. There is the silly, frivolous, the serious and strained of the mental states, created snapshots of a moment or an emotion - all representational, fantastical, and narrative

Julie Beck takes a trip down the rabbit hole with a meticulously detailed realist oil. Jeanne' McCartin's sculpted 3D painting addresses defying the odds. Jeffrey Fitzgerald's paintings explore emotional reactions, while Brian DiNicola captures a moment in a nurse's reality.

Gretchen Woodman took to her studio to mull all she's forfeited to the pandemic. Her painting depicts a snorkeling ostrich, head buried in cool, calm waters, fish-gazing. The fantastical scene is composed of "happy" blues and turquoise, soothing browns, and warm yellows.

"It's been a long year and Covid took so many freedoms, including our annual winter trip to Florida," Woodman says. "This image is a kind of substitute for the inability to get there. It's my way of bringing the sunshine and an underwater environment unaffected by Covid, straight to me."

Other prolific artists spilling reactions across their canvases include: Stanka Kordic, Terry Rafferty, and Todd Kramer.

"It's not often an exhibit is so immediate to the collective experience, something we can all relate to on multiple levels. But we've all been in this extraordinary time, together and individually," Bowersock says. "And as a collection of expression, 'Covid Carnival' offers it all."

Others Details

Time: 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm