The Montana Artists Refuge opened a new exhibition in its Basin gallery on Apr. 14: “Light Beings,” an offering of sculpture and craft from Jennifer L. Thompson and Nan Parsons inspired by the cocooning behavior and metamorphosis of caddisfly larvae.
Parsons and Thompson have been involved with Artists Refuge for over 30 years, and see their exhibit as representative of the organization’s own rebirth. The Refuge“used to be a global residency, and we’d bring artists in from around the world to study and create here,” said Parsons. “New people have come in with fresh ideas, and for a few years now we’ve been starting to do more.”
While the Artists Refuge has held similar exhibitions in its gallery space, often featuring the work of several artists presented under the guise of a single theme, “Light Beings” marks the start of a calendar of planned gallery exhibits over the next few months. Thompson and Parsons’ exhibit will remain in the gallery until the end of May, to be replaced by the work of local artist Kate Huston. Huston, whose recent “Tiny Box World Series: A dream within a dream” is presently being displayed at The Myrna Loy Theatre in Helena, works extensively with cutouts, tricks of light, and deploying two dimensional images within three dimensional sculpture.
