[ccfic caption-text format="plaintext"]
By James Kinneen
Hometown Weekly Reporter
This week, at Art Basel, a banana duct-taped to the wall sold for $120,000. However, after hearing the news, a rival “performance artist” pulled the banana off the wall and ate it in an apparent protest. Lest you think there was anything special about the first banana, it was immediately replaced with a new one, and the sale continued.
If $120,000 is a little out of your price range and a banana taped to the wall far too postmodern for your tastes, the nonprofit Zullo Gallery is holding its annual holiday exhibit until January 5, where a wide variety of pieces, all under $375, are on display. Now open Thursday to Sunday, gallery director Bill Pope explained that no matter what type of art strikes your fancy, you’re likely to find something at the gallery for someone in your life.
“The nature of this show is a wonderful variety of painting that are all priced under 375 dollars. There’s photography, oil painting, abstract painting and watercolor, so there’s a really nice variety for people. Even if they don’t choose to get a piece for a Christmas gift, the show is here until January 5th and it’s a great time to purchase some outstanding affordable art.”
What should you buy? If you’re looking for realism, two new additions to the show are Medfield’s own Morgan Laplante, and Academy of Realist Art student Noah Olsen.
“Morgan Laplante, who is a Medfield girl, and Noah Olsen both do an outstanding job at realism. They both went to school for that and actually, Noah is still in school. We haven’t had them here before - they’re a great addition to this year’s show.”
While people feel very comfortable with realistic painting, some feel uneasy about abstract art. Luckily, the holiday exhibit has the prefect thing: Gretchen Warsen’s work, which acts as a nice introduction to abstract art for the layman.
“We’re very fortunate to have a really outstanding abstract painter named Gretchen Warsen. She refers to her paintings as ‘gateway art’ into abstract painting, because it’s very accessible to people and gets a great reaction from the public. They’re wonderful designs in an abstract nature that a lot of people really enjoy.”
You could also give the gift of art classes to someone in your life. The gallery offers those, with Pope noting that Kim Weineck, whose work is on display in the exhibit, is one of the gallery’s teachers.
“We do offer art classes that start in January for adults and kids. Kim Weineck has taught a bunch of oil painting and pastel classes. She has great work in the show and is one of our instructors.”
With great work that’s actually affordable, the Zullo Gallery’s holiday exhibit may have the perfect, unique gift for someone in your life.
And its highly unlikely anyone will try and eat them.
