A couple of months ago we tried to confirm rumors that Highwire Gallery, part of the complex of co-op galleries that includes the Clay Studio and Nexus, was going out of business, but we had gotten the wrong wire. What’s really happening is the Clay Studio is expanding, thereby pushing Highwire out of its space, according to artist Peter Kinney, one of Highwire’s founding members.
So Highwire is searching for a new home, and is looking at space in the Gilbert Building, on Cherry Street, said Kinney. That’s the building that’s home to the Fabric Workshop, Vox Populi and the Asian Arts Initiative. As someone who treks from gallery to gallery looking at art, I’m happy with any space that’s right near other galleries. It makes for some synergy, and makes it more likely that a random viewer will drop by for a look. That particular building has elevators, which would make Highwire accessible to a wider audience (but there are still a few front steps into the building).
When I stopped in at Highwire, I found Kinney doodling with mud on paper, mud being his preferred medium, while he babysat the paintings for fellow Highwire founding member Joe Plagemen. I confess to having not much of a sensibility for whether work is made of natural or otherwise wasted products. Some of the pieces, many of them bark rubbings, were nice to look at(“Liferiver” detail shown, charcoal brickette on what looked like a bed sheet), but mostly, even when the images captured, the drapy sheets depressed me.
So if someone else who follows this kind of work and thinks I’m missing the boat here has something else to say, please weigh in.
