Meet the Artists

 Elizabeth Dooher                                          

Elizabeth Dooher grew up north of Boston, Massachusetts.  The natural beauty found at the beaches of New England has strongly influenced her work.  She studied sculpture and psychology at The College of Wooster, Wooster Ohio and received her M.F.A. from the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth in 2002.

Dooher currently teaches part time at Bristol Community College.  She has also taught courses in the Art Departments at Bridgewater State College, Roger Williams University, The University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth and The College of Wooster.

Dooher works in a variety of media, including bronze, wood and clay.  Her work has been exhibited around New England and nationally.  Recently she participated in the “Northeast Prize Show” at the Kathryn Schultz Gallery in Cambridge MA and the “2nd All Media Juried Exhibition” at the Grimshaw-Gudewicz Gallery in Fall River, MA.  Currently, she has pieces in the “Tarrant County College Invitational Outdoor Show” in Fort Worth, TX and at the New Bedford Whaling Museums outdoor exhibition, “The Unequal Cross-Lights” in New Bedford, MA.

Dooher has received several awards including the Silver Shield Award from Bristol Community College, The Walter D. Foss Grant from The College of Wooster and awards in both the 19th Annual Greater Midwest International Exhibition from Central Missouri State University, Warrensburg MO and Second Prize in the 2004 Cambridge Art Association National Prize Show Cambridge, MA.

Mimi Frank                 www.maryannellafrank.com 

Mimi Frank was born in 1954 in Baltimore, Maryland.  She received her Bachelor of Arts from Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, Massachusetts , advanced studies at the University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, and received her Master in Fine Art from the University of Maryland in College Park, Maryland.   Ms. Frank currently lives and works in Maryland and has served on the faculty of The Catholic University of America (Washington, DC), Georgetown University (Washington, DC), and the University of Maryland (College Park, Maryland).  In her work, musings about life, relationships, objects and their ironies when juxtaposed are repeatedly presented for our consideration.  Occasionally humorous, but always attentively crafted, Ms. Frank’s sculptures use materials that are classic to our notion of sculpture, while embodying images that may leave us uncomfortable with their implications of love, lust, loss and longing. Ms. Frank’s use of industrial materials has played a major part in her history of sculpture making.  Her hand wrought objects, while bent and hammered, retain the marks of their making.  The crafting of the many elements of her work successfully plays rugged facture against psychological content.   In her most recent work, Ms. Frank explores the inherent properties of steel (its tensile strength and ductility) to model forms that “inhabit” space rather than reside in a space.  Viewers feel the presence of these works rather than simply observe them.  These shapes are warm in their presentation while still retaining their identity as steel objects. The scale varies from small invitations that require closer inspection to human-sized work that feels alive and breathing.

Ms. Frank has exhibited nationally and is the recipient of numerous grants and awards including several individual artist awards from the Maryland State Arts Council.  Her work is included in several private collections.  Reviews of her work have been published in the Washington Post, the Washington Times, New Art Examiner, City Paper, and others.

Danielle Krcmar                                         

Danielle Krcmar is currently an Artist in Residence at Babson College.  She earned her BFA in Sculpture from SUNY Binghamton and her MFA in Sculpture from University of Massachusetts at Amherst.  Krcmar has also taught at Brandeis University, Clark University and The Museum School in Boston.  She received the Elizabeth Greenshields Grant in 1993, and the Massachusetts Cultural Council Grant and the Blanche Colman Foundation Grant in 2001.  Her work has been shown in the Fuller Art Museum, the Duxbury Art Complex Museum, the Gallery at Green Street, and other galleries in New England and New York.  Her work has been reviewed in Sculpture Magazine, The Boston Globe, The Boston Herald, The Boston Phoenix, Arts Media, and The Rockland Journal among others.

Ron Rudnicki                     www.ronrudnickisculptor.com

Ron Rudnicki is a sculptor and landscape artist. He holds an MFA from the former Southeastern Massachusetts University (SMU) now University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth.  His work in sculpture extends beyond the object into the surroundings both within the landscape and architectural interiors. His appreciation of natural beauty, love of art, and interest in the built environment have been reflected in his innovative designs for thirty years. Rudnicki’s nationwide and international learning and teaching experiences have given greater depth and wider range to his restraint and sensitivity in the placement of sculptural elements and waterworks. His work has been exhibited at many museums and art centers such as the De Cordova Sculpture Museum, Lincoln, MA and Jack Lenor Larsen’s Longhouse Reserve, East Hampton, NY as well as many private and public commissions. Rudnicki’s work has received national recognition and he has been the recipient of numerous prestigious awards including the New York, Massachusetts, and American Horticultural Awards. The Boston Society of Landscape Architects honored him with their award quoting, “a true integration of art and the landscape where art literally becomes part of the landscape.”

Steve Whittlesey                      www.stevewhittlesey.com 

Steve Whittlesey earned his B.A from Columbia University, School of General Studies and his M.F.A. from Columbia University, Program in the Arts.  Whittlesey began making art out of reclaimed materials in 1962 when he lived in a rural town on the coast of Puerto Rico.  Following MFA studies in painting at Columbia in 1965, he went to Spain for a year with a Fulbright grant.  Since 1970 his work has focused mainly on sculpture and furniture made from old wood salvaged from barns, homes and boats here in New England.  He has made a living by selling directly from his own gallery/showroom, and sales through commercial galleries and commissions.  In 1992 he joined the faculty in the Artisanry Department at UMASS Dartmouth, and continued there until June, 2010, when he left teaching to pursue his projects in the studio on a full-time basis.

Lasse Antonsen                   www.lasseantonsen.net

 Lasse Antonsen was born in 1947 in Copenhagen, Denmark. He has been a permanent resident since 1978. Antonsen attended the Experimental Art School in Copenhagen in 1963-64, studying with the art historian Troels Andersen, and the artists Poul Gernes and Per Kirkeby. He attended Hoelbaek Kunsthoejskole in 1964-65, where he studied creative writing with the poets Poul Borum and Inger Christensen. He later studied art history at Copenhagen University, the Harvard University Extension Program, and Tufts University, where he received his MA in 1986. Antonsen has taught art history at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, and University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, and currently teaches graduate seminars at Massachusetts College of Art.

 After a career as an art historian, art critic, researcher, curator, and gallery director, at institutions such as the ICA in Boston, the Danforth Museum of Art in Framingham, and at University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, Antonsen is now an active artist who has exhibited widely. Most recently he was included in exhibitions at the Bryan Art Gallery at Coastal Carolina University in South Carolina, Curious Matter in Jersey City in New Jersey, and at Proteus Gowanus in Brooklyn in New York. He has recently created installations at the Artists Foundation in Boston, The Whaling Museum in New Bedford, and the Providence Museum of Natural History in Rhode Island.

Antonsen is known for his conceptual work featuring historical objects, but has lately begun to create figurative sculptures out of found wood. These sculptures are inspired by Cubism, Folk Art, African Art, the sculpture of Picasso, Max Ernst and Giacometti, alternative European circus such as Dromesko, and the work of contemporary choreographers such as Marie Chouinard, Akram Khan and Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui.

Lasse Antonsen creates personages that appear to be actors on a stage, or perhaps orators addressing the silence, or characters pontificating on their own reality, or extras playfully waiting their turn to go on stage. Each figure tells its own story, and as messengers bring their own reality.