Fierce Flowers: MassoniArt Gallery Host Opening Reception March 14

Fierce Flowers
March 4 – 31, 2026

Saturday Opening Reception, March 14, 11am – 2pm

Freezing weather, historic snow falls, burst pipes, collapsing trees, stalled frame deliveries, angst and illness…and still Fierce Flowers bloom.

It has been a rough winter.  Our artists are juggling more than their share of challenges…but the show must go on.  Fierce Flowers will roll out over the next two weeks.

Join us for our Opening Reception, Saturday, March 14^th – Champagne and Mimosas.

While Joe Karlik, Kathryn O’Grady and guest artist Rebecca Saylor Sack ground the show in its theme, the exhibit also features work by Susan Goldman, Stu Cawley, Janis Goodman, Catherine Kernan, Deborah Weiss, Grace Mitchell, Blake Conroy, and Elizabeth Casqueiro.

In a recent interview I suggested paying attention to work that captures one’s imagination and produces a response – even an uncomfortable one.  Fierce Flowers explores this sense of un-ease present in our current reality.

Kathryn O’Grady is especially interested in the places where people’s plans for the landscape collide with the riot of life that is there to begin with. The conflict is beautiful and strange. Plants have an agenda of their own. She is drawn to the frailty, the vanity of the human marks to explore the interleaving of time frames, scale and purpose. “I am astounded by the tornado of forces at work in living things. My work is fueled by a lifelong obsession with color and awe at the monstrous complexity of the natural world.”

For Joe Karlik natural structures hold a quiet wisdom: they are both fragile and resilient, shaped by care, instinct, and time. He finds reflections of his own emotional landscape in their growth, decay, and renewal. His paintings exist between representation and abstraction, where drips, smudges, and textures are not mistakes but vital expressions — traces of emotion and process. “I am interested in finding beauty in what is often perceived as imperfect or accidental, allowing the work to evolve through intuition and surrender while exploring the quiet harmony between the natural and emotional worlds, where love and imperfection coexist.”

Rebecca Saylor Sack expresses the essence of this exhibition succinctly in her artist statement:

“I mine anxieties of the corporeal body with the liquidity of paint. I am deeply fascinated by the ever-changing processes of growth, decay, and consumption visible in our environment – and the way our bodies and landscapes alike are consumed and remade.”

Her work is influenced by the traditions of floral still life and landscape painting, but also borrows from natural history’s cataloging gaze and the imaginative reach of science fiction. Material and color are invoked for their visceral ability to create sensations of seduction and repulsion, creating a space that is at once sumptuous and unsettling.  “I seek a fragile equilibrium where beauty edges toward violence, where chaos and stability lean towards one another, always threatening to tip.”

“Flowers” may be our theme but there is nothing fragile in this exhibit. The artists invite us to stretch our imaginations, be present with dis-equilibrium, and deepen our relationship to the world we inhabit.   May our response be equally fierce.

Gallery Hours: Thursday – Friday – 11-4; Saturday – 10-5, Sunday – 11-2

We are happy to open our gallery to you outside of our regular hours. Private appointments may be scheduled at any time by contacting either Carla Massoni (410-708-4512) or Kate Ballantine (410-310-0796) in advance.