Submerged: An Oceanic Arts Odyssey

Submerged: an oceanic arts odyssey" featuring metal and mixed media sculpture and paintings by mother and son artists Nina Rossi and Jon Bander opens on April 15 at Hawks & Reed in Greenfield. This exhibit showcases welded sculpture by Bander, aka Notorious Weld, including an elaborate, glowing octopus coatrack, along with ammonite, jellyfish and seahorse wall sculptures. Bander produced the new Hawks & Reed sign and stage logo, and had his first art exhibit here with Rossi back in April, 2017. Rossi’s work includes soft sculpture jellyfish and boxfish, a gourami mosaic, lobster paintings, and a ceramic nautilus shell housing a metal creature made by Bander.
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Turners Falls native Bander studied welding at Franklin County Tech and the Advanced Welding Institute in Burlington, VT and worked in the welding industry prior to pursuing art. Bander recently completed a commission for ModVic, Inc of a 14-foot-tall metal cherry tree with bottle lights and aluminum blossoms, that was installed at Park + Ford in Alexandria, VA . Rossi assisted Bander as they worked together in the studio for more than a month crafting the trunk, branches and blossoms out of found objects and metal sheet, pipe, and rod. See this and other projects at www.notorious-weld.com or Instagram @notoriousweld.

Rossi is a long time member of the Shelburne Arts Coop and studied art and writing at GCC and Smith College. She is the former owner/artist of the Nina’s Nook gallery in Turners Falls (closed during COVID) and is a member of the art performance group, Exploded View. Find her on Facebook and Instagram @ninasnook.

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The exhibit will remain up through June 15.