NHA exhibition specialist sets the stage for Spring Salon

NHA exhibition specialist sets the stage for Spring Salon Lori Goldstein Behind every great art exhibit, there is a great exhibition specialist. For New Hope Arts (NHA), that person is Christine Ramirez, who worked with founding director Robin Larsen since 2005, three years after NHA’s inception. With a degree in fine arts, Ramirez gained experience in the gallery on her college campus, doing the practical work of spackling holes and painting walls to get ready for the next exhibit, an important part of what she does for the 10 to 12 shows that NHA presents each year. The late Robin Larsen was her mentor, guiding her in the art of planning exhibits. Ramirez is also an artist who is commissioned by individuals to draw portraits of people and pets. Ramirez designs the wall groupings, hangs or positions the works for all of NHA’s shows. This year’s Spring Salon she describes as eclectic—as every annual Salon exhibit is because of its diverse mediums—and challenging, because of the 150 entries representing each artist member, a significant increase from the past year, which had 100 artists contributing. The Spring Salon serves as a “thank-you” to them. Seven days before the opening on March 12, Ramirez started the process of designing groupings, but several pieces came in one or two days before that date. “In an ideal world I would be able to look at every piece before I decide where it goes,” says Ramirez. “In a realistic world, as pieces come in and artists put them against the wall, I walk around [the gallery] looking for compatibility. If a piece speaks to another piece in my mind, I’ll put them next to each other. “And then as I continue walking around and pieces are still coming in, I’ll say, ‘oh, this piece looks fantastic with this grouping. Let me put it over here with them.’ At this point I’m not sure which wall it’s going to go on, or how many pieces I’m going to collect for this grouping, but that’s how it starts.” The “RBG” wall was the first wall she hung because the gray wall is prominent in the gallery, and she knew the portrait would garner a lot of attention—because it was RBG and because of the medium: acrylic paint on bubble-wrap. Ramirez wanted to surround RBG with a lot of “feminine energy because throughout her career Ruth fought for gender equality.” So she walked around the gallery and found three smaller pieces that “emanated feminine energy” and hung them beside RBG. While following in the tradition of the French salon, meaning, hanging paintings from floor to ceiling as did the great collector Dr. Barnes, she avoids cramming practically every inch of a wall with artwork. Ramirez prefers to give each piece in NHA’s Salon space and breadth. “With the Salon exhibit in particular, having all different mediums, sizes, shapes, colors and textures, it’s pretty difficult to put it together without [it] looking like it’s just put together. I’m always flattered when people notice that I put a lot of thought and effort into making groupings, making them all work together and tell a story.” When I ask Ramirez what gives her satisfaction regarding her exhibit design, she tells me she’s pleased when people email her or write to say, “I noticed what you did here. I noticed the relation that this piece and… [that] piece had.” “Sometimes I’ll even place a sculpture in the middle of the room and if you look through it the right way, something [else] will be framed and it will have a relation to the sculpture that’s in the middle of the room, but it’s way on the back wall. And when people notice … that, it lights me up … I love to surprise people, create unity, and really play the works off of each other in a way that is exciting and clever.” “Each time I hang a show, I am challenged in new ways and love every bit of it, but I shouldn’t get all the credit for making the gallery look fantastic,” says Ramirez. “I would be remiss not to mention my longtime friend and a loyal volunteer for New Hope Arts, Kevin Bulger. Kevin has been lighting the exhibits, helping with maintenance, and painting the building (inside and out), as well as bartending many of the receptions for the past 15 years. Kevin is a devoted advocate for the arts.” The Spring Salon is free and open to the public Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, noon to 5 p.m., through May 1. New Hope Arts is located at 2 Stockton Ave. in New Hope.

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