Rehoboth Art League showcases 111 works from across the region in 12th Regional Juried Biennial Exhibition

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The Rehoboth Art League opened its 12th Regional Juried Biennial Exhibition on Friday night. The show, hosted inside the league’s Corkran and Tubbs Galleries, features art pieces from about 70 artists.

Entries for the exhibition were open to artists in Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Washington, D.C., Virginia and West Virginia. The exhibition happens every two years, and artists are allowed to submit up to three entries. Pieces displayed in the exhibition are also available for sale.

“There was a pool of hundreds of entries this year, but it was narrowed down to 111,” said Nick Serratore, the exhibitions director for Rehoboth Art League. “It’s a lovely collection of artwork. It really showcases the creativity, the expertise of the artists and their medium.”

Serratore said the Art League created the exhibition years ago to introduce more artists to Sussex County. Since then, the organization has grown and exhibitions have seen an increasing number of entries over the years.

The Rehoboth Art League was founded nearly a century ago, hosting classes and exhibits. It currently has more than 1,000 members. Serratore said shows and organizations like the Art League encourage community members to explore and engage in art.

“I grew up in an area in Abington, Pennsylvania, that had the Abington Art Center. I was affiliated with that since I was a kid, taking little classes and stuff, and art’s been a big part of my life,” Serratore said. “I think art is a part of everyone’s life. But some people don’t realize it until they experience it.”

According to Serratore, the exhibition accepts work in all media. Artists who submit work are also considered for other curated shows throughout the year.

What makes a winner

The biennial exhibition also awards some artists with cash prizes. Juror and Awards Judge Lynn Marsden-Atlass selected the participating artists in the exhibition as well as the award winners.

“I was looking for the broadest, widest example of artworks that I could include in the exhibition,” Marsden-Atlass said. “The diversity of the artists’ styles, medium, abstract and works on paper, oil paintings, sculptures, ceramics, fiber works, many different types of work were included in the show.”

Marsden-Atlass worked as a museum director and curator for more than 35 years. She juried the show virtually, but selected the winners only after seeing them in person.

“What we’re looking for is excellence in terms of execution and technique, and impact as well,” she said.

Best in show was awarded to Frank Spino’s “Colossal Citrus,” a large watercolor painting of citrus fruit slices. During a gallery talk she hosted Saturday morning, Marsden-Atlass said it’s rare to have a watercolor painting be significantly big.

“It’s an enormous 40-by-40-inch watercolor and that’s exceptionally unusual and it’s painted with great skill and it was marvelous,” Marsden-Atlass told WHYY News.

The three Award of Excellence winners were “All Eyez On Me” by Amuri Morris, “Oceana” by Lisa Battle and “Acceptance” by Grace Barden. Honorable mentions included “Turquoise and Texture Moon Vase” by Ava Thaw and “Geared Up” by Michael Hower.

“I think it still pleases me that artists are working in so many different styles and have so much to say,” Marsden-Atlass said. “Art, of course in every civilization, reflects the culture of that civilization, and very often the artists are the first to try something new or to give expression to something that’s going on in our world.”

From the garden to the gallery

Charlese Phillips won best in show for the exhibition in 2024. This year, she submitted a mixed media and fiber arts piece called “In The Garden.” She said the piece was spiritual to her.

“I spent a lot of time in my garden just reflecting on life during that time,” Phillips said. “It’s a piece that incorporates a cyanotype image that I’ve sketched on and colored on, and then also surrounding it with woven fiber and embellishments.”

Phillips said she is inspired by nature, color and shiny objects, and her artistic process always starts with the subject of the work.

“Wherever you see the subject in my work, I weave a backing for that to help support it,” Phillips said. “And then around that, I will adhere different woven fibers, some hand-spun yarn, feathers, lots of different things, buttons, so that way it just really helps to tie it all together.”

Phillips has been working on similar pieces for about five years and said it’s an evolving process she has fallen in love with. Being based in Delaware, she said shows like the Rehoboth Art League’s exhibition are a great way to see other artists’ creativity and how locals take inspiration from the place they live.

Tim Barton, an artist based in Lewes, works in 3D construction and assemblage of found objects. Two of his pieces were featured in the exhibition. The first piece, titled “The Pansy Wars,” uses a print Barton found from the 1890s depicting flower characters on a seesaw.

“I thought, ‘What if the pansies were having a war?’ It just made it that much more ridiculous,” Barton said.

His other featured piece, “Children At Play,” uses a weathered “Slow / Children At Play” sign as its base, with translucent overlays including images of a mushroom cloud, children imprisoned during the Holocaust and Barton himself as a child screaming. Barbed wire stretches across the sign, while the silhouette of a running child holds a match that appears to burn through the piece’s transparent surface.

“It’s this idea about how we protect children, but we don’t protect children. And also how some children even though we protect them can grow up and do some horrific things,” Barton said.

‘Art is meant to be seen’

Barton and his partner, artist Joe Barbella, moved from Philadelphia to Delaware as they were getting ready to retire. He said the Rehoboth Art League was one of the reasons they chose to move to the area.

“If you’re artists, I mean, you’re going to make things, regardless, whether you show them or not. But it’s kind of like screaming into the wind if you don’t show it,” Barton said. “Art is meant to be seen.”

Barbella also has three portraits in the gallery. He said he and Barton have previously submitted works to the exhibition and have been members of the Art League for several years.

“We really love this institution, because it gives us the opportunity to actually have something to do a painting for,” Barbella said. “It’s encouraging and it gives us a reason to actually continue working in artwork.”

The exhibition is open until Sept. 20.