Art on the Edge' in Hopkinton is packed with exciting works

Like many people, artists find "edges" tempting, scary and exhilarating.

So when Kris Waldman chose "On the Edge" for the theme of this year's juried art show at the Cultural Arts Alliance of Hopkinton, more than 40 painters, photographers, printmakers, ceramicists and mixed-media artists submitted work made on the high wire of creativity.

For Michael Finnegan of Medway, that meant painting his wife, pregnant and anxious with their first child. Dennis Stein, of Medfield, photographed the granite facade of a Boston skyscraper soaring like the Tower of Babel into the clouds.

For her poignant and creepy "Nostalgia," Mary Dewey of Worcester juxtaposed the painted image of two doll-like children with an eerie metallic doll hanging over it. Leaping into creative parts unknown, Keith MacLelland, of West Newton, created glittery, fantastic cowboy astronauts in his mixed media "Sorry You're Going to Miss the Show."

Showcasing 65 works selected by sole juror Jane Young, "On the Edge" is packed with exciting, unpredictably varied and high-quality art from 43 mostly local artists.

The CAA's executive director, Waldman said, "I was excited by the variety of work by young and established artists."

"There's such a broad range of representational and abstract work in different media. There's bound to be many things to interest viewers of all tastes," she said.

Presently displayed in the CAA's headquarters at 98 Hayden Rowe St., "On the Edge" runs through Oct. 28. Most works are for sale.

Waldman credited Young, owner and director of Chase Young Gallery in Boston, for sifting through 112 submitted works to select an exciting mix of artwork that's visually pleasing, provocative yet still accessible.

Young seems to have equally applied the exhibit's motif of "On the Edge" to the style, construction and meaning of the art she selected.

Two artists created fragmented portraits to very different effects.

Hanging in a sunlit window, sculptor Michael Alfano's fragmented metal and resin face, "Wind Swept," exudes a haunting power like a blueprint of a robot under construction.

But Mary Shiff's acrylic "My Mother Was Here," which subdivides her mother's face into eight blocks of different ages conveys both the poignancy of memory and the grief of mortality.

The only artists who submitted encaustics, Amy Files and Lynette Haggard, are showing tactile works that seems to exude a sensual heat.

In three works of ink on paper, Alex Leaver composed dazzling abstract designs, which on closer examination, incorporate scores of tiny repetitive images of women and other iconic figures.

Young's selection of two photographers for the first and second prizes has triggered some grumbling among the more than 20 painters.

She awarded first prize to Lindsey Payson for her color photo, "Via Farini 1," which features a series of reflections in the rear window of an automobile, and second place to Carolyn Latourelle for her untitled digital photo of dreamlike angelic figures.

Both photos present interesting and evocative images but it seems curious not to have recognized any of the more than 20 painters for their varied and interesting work.

Young, however, awarded honorable mention to Leaver for her marvelously complex "The Good Samaritan," which blends scores of barely discernible figures into a labyrinthian design.

Several painters are showing striking work, including but not limited to Arlene Chaplin, Ann Christensen, Karen Rothman and Guy Stuart.

Among the standouts, Sorin Bica's boldly colored yet elemental oil painting "Split Personality" conveys the psychological tension of a divided soul.

Working out of the Fountain Street Studios in Framingham, Bica said he "rejects or remodels the pain and sorrow that surrounds us."

A self-taught artist, he began his career as a political cartoonist in his native Romania before plunging into his passion for large, wild expressive paintings."

"I've always been an optimist who sees the light, the color and the beauty in every situation. Everything is tangled, complicated and out of the ordinary in my life," said Bica. "I'm on the edge myself, fighting and passing time while balancing my daily routines with the world created in my paintings, and I am part of my work."

Like most artists in the show, Bica has shown himself at home on the edge.