September 18, 2020 – January 6, 2021
A striking exhibition of artist-made mallets and balls, Out of Bounds: The Art of Croquet, will be on view at the Messler Gallery of the Center for Furniture Craftsmanship, in Rockport, ME, from September 18, 2020 – January 6, 2021.
Curators of the smashing exhibition are Jennifer-Navva Milliken, Artistic Director at the Center for Art in Wood in Philadelphia, PA, and furniture maker Silas Kopf, from Northampton, MA, both of whom are amateur devotees of the sport. Describing the show, Milliken says, “This exhibition not only encourages artists to delve into the function, form, and historical mystique of croquet, but also invites them to apply their imagination and skill to the practice of play, framed by the material of wood and the monogamous relationship between mallet and ball.”
In reimagining the ball and mallet, the show’s 21 exhibitors explore a wide range of topics, from personal artistic concerns to contemporary social issues, with clarity and wit. Participants include Ted Blachly (Warner, NH), Mark del Guidice (Concord, MA), Annie Evelyn (Brooklyn, NY), Amy Forsyth (Bechtelsville, PA), Scott Grove (Canandaigua, NY), Michael Hosaluk (Saskatoon, SK), Thomas Hucker (Jersey City, NJ), Katie Hudnall (Madison, WI), Beth Ireland (St. Petersburg, FL), Yuri Kobayashi (Camden, ME), Silas Kopf (Northampton, MA), Jim Macdonald (Burnham, ME), Adam John Manley (San Diego, CA), Craig Nutt (Kingston Springs, TN), Graeme Priddle (Asheville, NC), Ellie Richards (Penland, NC), Sylvie Rosenthal (Madison, WI), Mark Sfirri (New Hope, PA), Alf Sharp (Woodbury, TN), Elizabeth Spotswood Spencer (New Bern, NC), and Kimberly Winkle (Cookeville, TN).