Artists celebrated for lifetime of work

Sculptures by Richard Van Buren and mixed media representing dance works by Batya Zamir will be on exhibit in Dennysville at the private gallery, Atelier La Forest. "A Married Life" will be shown in three parts, the first a joint show of works starting on July 6 followed on July 27 by Van Buren's sculpture and then Zamir's multimedia show on August 17. All shows start on Saturdays with opening receptions from 3 to 6 p.m., and the gallery will also be open on Mondays from 1 to 5 p.m. or by appointment.
"Melinda offered the space all summer for a show to Richard," explains Zamir. The private gallery is a completely renovation of the former Dennysville youth center by owner and Dennysville resident Melinda Jaques. Van Buren thought about the space, the show possibilities, and wanted to divide the time into show segments. Throughout their lives the two have created art that is internationally known and recognized for testing the boundaries of their respective art forms.
On a recent June morning, the couple are sitting in Van Buren's studio in Perry. On the floor are works from his early career to present day. Earlier, in Zamir's dance studio, much the same assessment was taking place, with drawings and photographs spread out on the floor. Van Buren jumps in, "I decided to divide it up. The idea of Batya showing photography and video is a whole new experience." He pauses, "I've been interested for a while in her drawings. She uses them as a tool for her work. I've been seeing them for years and really like them."
The artists have been collaborative partners in art for over half a century, with 54 years of marriage, grown children and countless shows and performances from the early days of their life together in Soho, New York City, to their life in Perry as established and mature artists. "We've been collaborating since day one," Van Buren says. Showing Zamir's drawings, photographs and videos as art is the only new part of the equation. "It's a new venue for Batya; they're not a tool anymore."
Zamir's drawings are at times architectural, at times like playful scribbles, at times like petroglyphs -- meanings obscured by time and deeply personal moments and all the more interesting for the opacity. She explains that she used them as tools for her abstract and improvisational dance. They define movement and placement, she says. "I didn't go back and look at them. I didn't see them as anything to show, as an aesthetic thing. They've been in boxes for years." She adds, "I'm nervous about showing them. I don't see myself that way. It doesn't move, it's stationary. It's very unusual and unfamiliar to me" to think of her drawings as visual art.
"To work with Richard on this has been really interesting," Zamir says. The two have been figuring out how to place their works together in the gallery space. "I've been playing a lot with pieces coming out from the wall," says Van Buren. His abstract pieces often have pockets of space that cast shadows and play with space and light. "I thought it would be too aggressive to have mine next to hers." Zamir's work will be on the gallery's longest wall, with Van Buren's on the shorter wall and on pedestals.
"It's been an experience going through all this history," says Zamir of reviewing the span of their work as artists, of their years together creating. Van Buren adds that when they were married the officiate said the couple was a marriage of the arts. "I cringed at the time. We didn't think of it [that way]. But it's been very true."
The Atelier La Forest Gallery is located at 3 Cemetery Road in Dennysville. The gallery is open to the public on the Saturday reception dates, on the Monday gallery hours and by appointment by calling Jaques at 207‑726‑5258.