March 31 - April 26, 2012
Opening Reception: Sunday, April 1, 2-5pm
curated by Kathleen Bitteti
All in the Family features work by two painters from one family. Dan McCole is the uncle of Brian Reardon and this is the first time they have exhibited together. Both share a love of similar subject matter, but they have distinct ways of depicting it. Both artists’ paintings warmly embrace elements of nostalgia, community pride, and aspects of daily life. Their choice of this imagery, the familiar, acts as a friendly mirror held up to show the optimistic warm positive vignettes of our collective contemporary world.
McCole is known for his exquisite watercolors of people, places and events. He is a story teller of street scenes, people and places. His works are quiet symbolic records that masterfully capture the mood and the atmosphere of his subjects and subject matter. People or traces of people are almost always present in his paintings. One can not help to connect his painting method to his past life as a newspaper professional. For years McCole made sure the news or stories of the community made it to people’s doorsteps. Now his paintings are telling these wonderful stories.
Oils are the main medium of choice for Reardon. He is essentially a portrait painter, but unlike most portrait painters his images are usually devoid of people. The subjects of his works are inanimate objects that are essential parts of our leisure activities, domestic daily activities or are essential for our food production. Each subject, whether a toy, a piece of sports equipment, a farm tractor, or domestic kitchen ware, is centered and cast against a background of a bright solid color. His paintings joyfully personify and spotlight these inanimate objects. These works make one take notice of the very things that are so often taken for granted, but are so intertwined with our daily lives.
---------------------------------------------------
Dan McCole is a native of South Boston and has had his studio based in the Distillery Building for well over a decade. He is a graduate of Vesper George School of Art and is the cofounder of the South Boston Arts Association. His work has been shown extensively locally and regionally. Prior to his painting career, he was a news man. He founded a weekly South Shore newspaper, the Weymouth News, and he recently retired from the Boston Herald where he wore several hats over the years: production news editor, late news deskman, and occasional columnist and feature writer.
Brian Reardon has been based in South Boston for twelve years. He holds Bachelor of Fine Art, with a concentration in Illustration from the Rhode Island School of Art and Design and he holds a Associates degree in Commercial Art from the Art Institute of Philadelphia. Reardon is a senior designer at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. He has shown in paintings in group shows at the Danforth Museum and the South Shore Art Center.
Kathleen Bitetti is a practicing visual artist, curator/arts administrator, and a public policy and advocacy expert who has been based in South Boston for 20 years. Kathleen is the chief curator at Medicine Wheel Productions which is also located in South Boston.