'Essential Momentum' Exhibit Opens at Little Art Gallery

doors will open this weekend to showcase the work of artists Amanda C. VanDenberg and Joseph Bower in the new exhibit "Essential Momentum."

VanDenberg’s “Madonna Complex” series features pencil and acrylic on paper.

“The title is a little tongue-in-cheek," she said in a Little Art Gallery news release. "I am poking a bit of fun at myself for doing all of these self-portraits, rather like the self-obsessed woman one might refer to as having a Madonna complex, but it also refers to the complex relationship that I have with the Madonna and the concepts of femininity and beauty that she embodies."

Bower, owner of the studios and gallery of Mt. Pleasant Pottery, will showcase a series titled “Shotgun Pottery.” In the series, stoneware vessels and slabs are altered with a 20-gauge shot gun before being decorated with multiple layers of hardwood ash glazes and stained glass. The work is fired up to 2,200 degrees Fahrenheit in an oxidation atmosphere and then slowly cooled.

The exhibit opens Saturday with a reception from 2 p.m.-4 p.m., and runs through Aug. 18. The Little Art Gallery is open during regular North Canton Public Library hours (Monday through Thursday 10 a.m.-8 p.m.; Saturday 9 a.m.-5 p.m.; closed Sunday). The opening reception is free and open to the public.

Stay tuned for artist Q&As from Vandenberg and Bowers on North Canton Patch.