Think of this exhibition as lemonade. You know, like when life gives you lemons and you make something delicious out of them. In the “before-times,” Placitans frequently gathered at the library en masse to hear marvelous lectures on myriad topics, chairs set up front to back and side to side in the Collin Meeting Room with late-comers standing and sitting amid the library stacks beyond the opened double doors.
There was little opportunity to present three-dimensional objects as part of library exhibitions. But now, with the pandemic restricting the use of the space to a limited number of attendees, the need to protect sculpture and wall-hung objects from careless movements, chair backs and broad shoulders has pretty much disappeared.
In response to these new circumstances, the November/December “Off the Wall” exhibition was conceived. The temporarily restricted access to the room presents an opportunity to display the usual assortment of occasionally fanciful, always accomplished paintings as well as objects on pedestals or wall-hung constructions that jut into the room and might otherwise have been in jeopardy.
Sixteen artists have contributed both two- and three-dimensional work for this exhibition. They include Carolyn Berry, Connie Falk, Stephen Feher, Jensue Hawks, Jim Holley, Karen Jacobs, Lavon Maestas, Karen Jones Meadows, Joseph Koetler, Tobin Levy, Joanne Lim-Pousard, Bobby Lopez, Rebecca Nolda, Alfons Schuster, Lee Small and Katherine Wilson.
Expect a mix of two- and three-dimensional objects, some physically and others thematically “off the wall.”
To preview the exhibition or to review the work after first visiting the library, take a virtual tour. Beginning Saturday, November 7, “Off the Wall” can be viewed in the Collin Meeting Room during the Library’s Special Operating Hours: Tuesdays 3-7 p.m., Thursdays 10 a.m.-2 p.m. and Saturdays 1-5 p.m.
Please check the website or call (505) 867-3355 for schedule changes or to leave a message to arrange access to the work in the exhibit.
All artwork is available for purchase online at PLCart.placitaslibrary.com or through the library and 25-percent of sales will benefit the PCL as it moves toward inaugurating the new Nancy P. Kellum-Rose and Scott W. Deuel Wing where future exhibitions will take place beginning early in 2021.