Getting Serious Press Release

Celebrating Women’s History Month
New Work by Chris Chou, Karen Kemp & Maureen O’Connor

80 Border Street East Boston
March 3 - March 26, 2011

Opening: March 3, 6:00-9:00 pm
Third Thursday: March 17, 6:00-9:00 pm

Come experience the artistic contributions of these 3 women artists living and working in Boston.

Chris Chou received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2007 and says of her work: “Painting is an attitude about life. I see things very directly. I love color. I paint the color of red hot, red is blood, red is energy. I love color and form. I draw the form of circle. It could be an egg: or a window: to lead you to another landscape. It could be an eye: but what an eye! I believe painting is my mission. My goal is simple, but is not easy. I want to make great art. I want use it to share, to comfort, and to celebrate. Through my painting-- May you smell the different seasons of life. Have a date with surprise! Or .. Just simply a smile.”

Karen Kemp is in love with the shoreline and continues to portray it in her paintings simply and unspoiled. The essence of her landscape painting is nature unpeopled and uninterrupted which gives a sense of calm. Kemp also continues her work in etching with a new series of small dogs: cute loveable animals that are fun to draw! Kemp, a native of Long Island, New York, studied at Rhode Island School of Design and the University of New Hampshire received a BA in Art History. She has training in traditional fresco painting restoration from Il Laboratorio Per Affresco di Vainella in Prato, Italy. In 2003 Karen received a painting fellowship at the Vermont Studio Center. She has also been the recipient of several awards for her work in etching and oil painting. Karen is represented by Danette Koke Fine Art in New York, Boston Drawing Project at the Bernard Toale Gallery in Boston, MA. Her artwork has become a part of private and corporate art collections.


Maureen O’Connor has been called a “masterful painter of our favorite things (like candy) by Randi Hopkins, curator at Boston’s Institute of Contemporary Art. O’Connor continues her work with ceramic ducks which are known for their anthropomorphic quality and have been compared to the work of Japanese artist Takashi Murakami. Her ducks are in the private collections of Bruce Dayton, founder of Target Department Stores, Richard Miner, founder of Android and a partner at Google. Her work is also in the collections of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, Fidelity Investments and Boston Medical Center among others. O’Connor won 1st Prize in Painting at Home for the Arts in 2007, juried by Paul Tucker noted Monet Scholar and author of Monet in the Twentieth Century. O’Connor is represented by the Jack Meier Gallery, Houston Texas.


Fridays and Saturdays 2-6 pm and by appointment
Free and handicapped accessible.

Lick It Up Bitch New Members Show - Opening Night

Vanessa R Thompson - Grundo

Leah Grimaldi

Mark Natale -Bitch Dancers

Justin Augsperg - Raised by Wolves

Vanessa R Thompson

Vanessa R Thompson

Jack Hammers, Die, Die, Die and Antler Girls - Background

Chris and Sonia Enjoy Lick It Up Bitch

Nick DiStefano - Head in the Clouds

Live LIUB Dancers

Atlantic Works Presents

East Boston, December 20, 2010 –
Atlantic Works Gallery is proud to present Lick it Up Bitch, an exhibit by its new members inspired by wall art photographed in a hotel room in San Francisco. Deliciously tasteless, the five new members use this exhibit to explore issues of gender, consumerism, public domain and propriety. The work ranges from photography to painting and sculpture, and is highly experimental.

The public is invited to the ARTISTS’ RECEPTION on Saturday, February 5 from 6-9PM, and to visit the gallery on Fridays and Saturdays 2 – 6pm from February 5 to February 26, 2011. The public is also invited to attend Atlantic Works’s monthly THIRD THURSDAY RECEPTION on February 17 from 6-9PM. To schedule a private press viewing and interview at a more convenient time, please contact Leah Grimaldi at 508-397-1482 or leah.grimaldi@yahoo.com.

About the Artists

Justin Augspurg received his BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art. In 2006 he was an MFA candidate at the University of New Hampshire, where he was an adjunct professor in 2005. “In the studio,” Augspurg says, “I strive to be open to any idea or impulse, incorporating quotation and appropriation from a variety of sources, both historical and popular. I want my pictures to grow out of an obligation to freedom and acceptance.”

Mark Natale is a self-taught photographer inspired by the works of Yousuf Karsh, Roy Volkmann and Diane Arbus, and by the vision of Ray Johnson. He became interested in flyposting and its legal implications after seeing the Shephard Fairey show at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston.

Leah Grimaldi received her BFA from Pratt and is currently an MFA candidate at Vermont College of Fine Art. Her images and soft sculptures conjure up impure, mixed-up feelings from the way that borders divide the clean form the unclean, the disgusting from the pleasing, the appropriate and inappropriate. In her work and in life, these borders constantly shift, so the dichotomies they enforce are constantly in threat of violation.

Nick DiStefano has a background in Art History. He has worked with the Mayor's Mural Crew in Boston and is currently working towards a Master's in Graphic Design at the New England School of Art and Design.

Vanessa R Thompson received her MFA at Art Institute of Boston. She has exhibited her work through out New England; most recently at first Fridays at 450 Harrison Ave, Studio 213 in Boston. Her photography and instillations recall the brightly-colored Technicolor heroes and fuzzy saviors who, sometimes with nothing more than a catchphrase, helped us through our day.

Begun in 2003, ATLANTIC WORKS GALLERY, “East Boston’s Collaborative Space for Art and Ideas,” is a member-operated gallery located on the top floor of 80 Border Street on the waterfront of East Boston. It is T-accessible (near the Maverick T stop on the Blue Line). For detailed directions and other information about members and past and future shows, please see atlanticworks.org.