May 26 - July 4, 2021

ATELIER NEWPORT presents an early summer group exhibition, SPELLBIND, opening May 26th.

SPELLBIND features David Barnes, Charles Waller, Robin Crocker, Duncan Laurie, Jemison Faust, Mary Dondero, and Deborah T. Colter. This group of artists contemplate the meaning of spell, ritual, incantation and what it means to be transfixed. What moves us, what gravitational pull harnesses us, or better prepares us for the utter unknown on a spinning planet, meteors and all. What whets, enthralls, bedazzles or captivates the attention of the spellbound. No one is untouched by some form of ritual, prayer, elixir, repetitive practice, survival skill, altered state, yoga practice, breathe or meditation, or restraint, which we depend on to soothe our survival yoga practice, breathe or meditation, or restraint, which we depend on to soothe our survival and our current transcendental storm. The soul's desire for meaning and purpose made ever more evident as we try to transcend our current conditions. These artists allow us to peer in on the visceral meaning of SPELLBIND. There is a symbiotic, kismet relationship between man/woman/spirit and ritual; as though we are trying to remember our connectedness, our godliness, and always searching for meaning or divinity as we enlighten or escape or find a moment of respite from our human condition. "Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there - on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

- Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot, A Vision of the Human Future in Space

EXHIBITION LookBook HERE