What If… Why Not?
Sponsored by BioMed Realty
November 1 – 24, 2023
Presented at CAA @ Canal, 650 E. Kendall Street, Cambridge MA
Hours: Wednesday – Friday, 12:00-4:00pm
Curated by Michael Bourque
Exhibiting Artists | Michael Bourque • Nathan Bourque • Madeleine Lord • Derrick Te Paske
The Cambridge Art Association (CAA) is pleased to announce What If… Why Not?, a Members Curatorial Exhibit, featuring Michael Bourque, Nathan Bourque, Madeleine Lord, and Derrick Te Paske. This exhibit is part of our new Members’ Curatorial Series, an annual opportunity for members of the CAA to curate an exhibit of three or more artists.
About What If… Why Not?
Two painters and two sculptors push past norms and traditional limits in their chosen media.
Michael Bourque has had a parallel award-winning career as a commercial interior designer. He has often designed spaces for corporate art collections. Locally, he designed spaces in many of the Boston landmark towers whose influence is evident in his impasto paintings with geometric designs and closely managed color palettes. He lives in the Fort Point Channel and walks daily throughout the city allowing its landscape to feed his unique muse.
Nathan Bourque defies the restrictions of being a quadriplegic, who has no use of his fingers, to paint intricate abstracts with brushes, cups or other implements taped to his hands. The results are like solar systems of spatter, circular imprint, drip and stencil lines released from an infinite supply of imagination and love of color. He is the embodiment of “Why Not”.
Madeleine Lord has worked with found steel scrap for over thirty years. Her works are alive with movement, defying the static material they are composed of. She employs a classical drawing style as well as abstraction. She composes with lines, forms and found color, all welded into an implied narrative. The Strongman was created with CAA member Bob Hesse’s collection of Rice Barton wooden forms and his wizardry with dowels and epoxy.
Derrick Te Paske roams tree removal waste yards to score black walnut, cherry or yew logs to transform by turning on a lathe or by carving. He draws from a deep well of knowledge of prehistoric art to pay homage to the works of ancient artists and artisans. Playful titles, use of contemporary hardware in surface patterns defy the usual. While the figure and grain in the source wood speak to him, the results often exude elegance, totemic importance and gentle wit.
Each artist’s body of work stands alone but together they create a lively visual conversation as they form visual bridges in metal, wood, color and pattern that leap across the gallery. There is an implied jazz ensemble taking turns with exciting extemporaneous riffs as the works take risks and applaud each other for doing so.