Image: Robert Pennington

Juror JoAnne McFarland and three artists from the 12th Annual Small Works Show will give short presentations about their artwork and vision for this exhibition.

JoAnne McFarland is the former Exhibitions Director of A.I.R. Gallery, the first artist-run gallery devoted to women artists in the United States. McFarland is a practicing artist and poet, with works in the permanent collections of the Library of Congress and Columbus Museum of Art.

Ann Cofta is a visual artist who employs traditional sewing and beading techniques to make tiny, hand-crafted pieces. Her representations of large, iconic items such as bridges, buildings, retro manual typewriters and rotary phones become references for a sense of nostalgia. The work speaks of the memories that reveal universal interconnectedness. Cofta has taught art in New York City for the past 19 years, and currently lives in Queens.

Robert Pennington is a Brooklyn-based documentary photographer and filmmaker who has worked globally in media arts for 25 years. Pennington’s work explores the cultural, social and political effects impacting the human condition. He holds a B.F.A. in Film from Tisch School of the Arts, New York University. 

Marcy Sperry’s beadwork involves a disciplined process that seeks to fill up or reinvent a space with a series of tiny marks, gestures, or improvised patterns in rich, vibrant colors. The time consuming and repetitive process of beading suggests an attempt to achieve a state of transcendence or meditation where one can escape into reflection or fantasy. Sperry received a master’s degree from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and maintains a studio at Trestle Projects in the Gowanus neighborhood of Brooklyn.