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A packed gallery is a great thing at an art opening.  It means that publicity has gone well, the curator has chosen wisely and there is plenty of food and wine.  Today, Edge of Winter, curated by Kate Merritt Davis and featuring fourteen Birmingham artists, opened to the public at 4 p.m.  By 4:10, the gallery was filling.  At 5:00 when I arrived, it was full.  At 8:15 when I was leaving, it was brimming. 

Large-scale pieces could have seemed foreboding in the small space, but color and size and proportion were combined to make each set of pieces congruous, visually independent from the contrast of neighboring artists' pieces.Edge of Winter was an understatement for today's weather.  I believe it was something like 19 degrees with a windchill of about -100 when I walked across the Pepper Place parking lot to the gallery.  The kind of wind so cold and multi-directional it feels as though your breath is being stolen out of your mouth before it can make it to your lungs.  Hair flying, coat clutched to chest, freshly balmed lips chapping in seconds, I ran straight in and to the wine table for a warm up cup.  

Lite Box Gallery is a stark-white, boxy (aptly) space.   Large-scale pieces could have seemed foreboding in the small space, but color and size and proportion were combined to make each set of pieces congruous, visually independent from the contrast of neighboring artists' pieces. 

It was a great crowd and a successful opening, complete with a delicious smelling installation by Jess Marie Walker & Larry Hoagland, a "nest" floored with long-leaf pine needles.  I won't assert why Edge of Winter was such a compelling title for this show or how it worked on my psyche.  That's for you to experience, reader.  All that I can say is, I can't wait to get back there on a weekday to view the pieces in silence, in daylight, having the space all to myself.  It's a rare thing to be in a room so full of great art - you'd think the curator was working a museum space, not just a small local gallery.

ARTISTS

Julia Peerson Carpenter
Liesa Cole & Tony Rodio
Kate Merritt Davis
Susan Dennis
Karen Graffeo
Joanna Hamilton
Ben Harley
Chris Lawson
Lisa Michitti
Elizabeth Russell
Spencer C. Shoults
Jess Marie Walker & Larry Hoagland
Daisy Winfrey
Paul Cordes Wilm

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