ROMANUM: A New Exhibit at Gallery A3 in March

Source: Gallery A3

Gallery A3 presents in the month of March ROMANUM, a collection of mixed media works by Ron Maggio, inspired by the wall paintings (or frescos) from houses and villas of Rome, Pompeii, Herculaneum, and Boscoreale, dating from the second century B.C. and the first century A.D.

The exhibit opens on Thursday, March 5, and runs through Saturday, March 28. There will be an opening reception at the gallery from 5-7 p.m. on Friday, March 6. Gallery A3 is located at 28 Amity Street 1D in the Amherst Cinema Complex. Gallery hours are Thursday through Sunday, 2-7 p.m.

About the Exhibit
Home is truly where the heart is, in this series by Ron Maggio. As he explains, DOMUS is the Latin term meaning house or home. In addition to fulfilling basic needs of providing shelter and a place to engage in domestic activities, the Roman domus also allowed its owner to project intangible aspects of mind and heart onto its walls. Roman painting of this time not only imitated images perceived by the human eye but also those that dwell in the imagination. Maggio expands upon that to re-envision the domus as a “Theatre of Imagination” in his artwork.

“As an abstract artist,” he explains, “it was not my desire to create literal translations of the ancient Roman wall paintings. Rather, I sought to work with selected imagery and within classical Roman sensibilities of architectural space and color.” As part of his research, he incorporated the rich color palette employed by Roman fresco painters: black, chalk white, raw sienna, burnt sienna, malachite green, azurite (French ultramarine blue), cinnabar red, orpiment yellow, cerulean blue, indigo, rose madder, verdigris green, and vermillion.

Maggio mixes his media, using oil pastel, Gel Medium, color pencil, graphite, and acrylic paint applied sometimes more like watercolor. The eleven works in the exhibit vary in scale, ranging from some as compact as six by six inches up to others measuring around two feet square. One, titled “Cicero’s Cup”, is actually a wooden box, mixed-media and high-relief, that hangs on the wall and holds historical references.  As he notes, “The Ancient Romans often had boxes that they kept personal items in or where they stored items that may have included tools related to their jobs or professions.”

“Welcome to my imagined world,” the work proclaims. “Domus mea grata. /Welcome to my house.”

About Gallery A3
A cooperative, contemporary fine arts gallery located in downtown Amherst, Gallery A3 is celebrating its 24th anniversary this year.  Current members include painters, sculptors, photographers, printmakers, and mixed media artists. Over its two-decade history, A3 has been home to over 60 member-artists, mounting monthly exhibits and offering cultural events and community collaborations. The Gallery hosts opening receptions every month and community outreach programs, free and open to the public, are scheduled on the third Thursday. The Art for Community II outreach program is supported in part by grants from the Amherst Cultural Council, a local agency, which is supported by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency.