On view in The Umbrella Main Gallery, Lost and Found is a group art exhibition that presents a diverse array of artists transforming found objects into artworks. To celebrate the opening of this exhibition, a Juror Talk and Artists Reception will be held Sunday, December 11, 4PM, FREE and open to the public.

Juror Jessica Straus calls the exhibition “a praise-song to the ordinary. Lifted out of the continuum of daily life these objects have come to represent the complexities and richness of the human condition. Ranging from whimsical to haunting, the 3D artworks in this collection examine our relationships with familiar, unfamiliar and defamiliarized things, and beg the question…might objects have souls?

“The artist’s love affair with found objects may have begun a few hundred years ago with the ‘Wunderkammer’,” Straus posits. “In these Cabinets of Curiosities, beautiful, soulful objects were amassed and lovingly arranged in a way that elevated their status” and gave them new life. Inspired by how fine artists of the early 1900s such as Picasso, Schwitters and Duchamp could incorporate objects physically within works of art, Straus is interested in an artist’s sensation of an object “beckoning to them; asking to be used and even rescued.”

It’s that allure or “pull” that marks the artworks in Lost and Found, and the sense the artists have a deep connection to the object, and are helping it tell its story.

The impressive lineup of artists – many of whom are widely exhibited members of the NE Sculptors Guild – include Christopher Abrams, John Anderson, Lisa Barthelson, David L. Black, Linda Bond, Jessica Burko, Laura White Carpenter, Jeanne Ciravolo, Merill Comeau, Thomas A.D. Cornell, Daniela DesLauriers, Russell Dupont, Yvonne C. Espinoza, Laura Evans, Audrey Goldstein, Nicholas M. Goodhue, Jared Green, Peter Decamp Haines, Joe Hedges, Shira Karman, Cynthia Katz, Lisa Kellner, Michelle Lougee, Billy T. Lyons, Steve Novick, Jeanne Williamson Ostroff, Ponnapa Prakkamakul, Abbie Read, Emily Rose, Robert Rovenolt, Marilu Swett, Caron Tabb, Martha Wakefield, Leslie Wilcox and Carolyn Wirth.

The exhibition is on view through December 30, 2022 at The Umbrella Arts Center at 40 Stow Street in Concord Center.  Gallery hours are 10AM-9PM, 7 days a week.

See TheUmbrellaArts.org/Lost-and-Found