In its 12th year, YoloArts’ Art & Ag Project continues to celebrate farms as art, and art created on farms. The Art Farm Exhibition, the annual culmination of a season of artist to farm visits, features work cultivated on local farms and inspired by the open spaces, agriculture and bounty of Yolo County.
This year’s exhibition opens on October 4 at Gallery 625 in Woodland and showcases 142 works of art by 101 local and regional artists in a collection of original art that includes oil and acrylic painting, photography, watercolor, pastel drawings, prints, fabric art, and ceramicsreflecting Yolo County’s agricultural panoramas. The 2019 exhibition represents the largest number of “Art Farm” participating artists to date.
Submitted artwork was juried by Veronica Passalacqua, Curator C. N. Gorman Museum at UC Davis.
“I thoroughly enjoyed jurying this exhibit, the range of subjects, techniques and styles was truly impressive; the jurying process was challenging with so many excellent artworks,” Passalacqua stated recently. “Yolo County is so well represented by such a diverse group of creative people in this exhibition.”
Presentation of juried awards will be announced by Passalacqua at the opening reception and will include Cream of the Crop, for highest artistic merit, Farmers Pick, for originality of theme (co-selected by Marcail McWilliams, owner Valley Oak Wool Mill, Woodland) and the Plein Air Award, for artwork painted on location or from a location sketch. Additionally, the Top Ten Honorable Mentions will be announced. The public will be able to vote for the People’s Choice award at the reception and throughout the month of October at Gallery 625. This award will be announced at the Art Farm Gala on November 1.
The show’s opening reception will be from 5:30 to 8 p.m. Friday, Oct. 4. Awards will begin to be announced at 6:30 p.m. Hosted by YoloArts board members Debra Gonella and Julie Salley.
In the upstairs gallery, the artwork of the winners of the Yolo County Farm Bureau’s National Ag Week Art Contest will be on display. Yolo County students in grades K-6 competed for four prizes at each grade level. Students from all five Yolo County school districts participated.
Art Farm will run through October 30 at Gallery 625 in the County Administration Building, 625 Court St. in Woodland, after which the show moves to Hotel Woodland, 436 Main St. in Woodland, where the exhibit reopens for the Art Farm Gala fundraiser on Friday, November 1.
Tickets for the gala are on sale now at yoloarts.org. Gallery 625 is located at 625 Court Street in Woodland and regular gallery viewing hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Fridays. For more information, call YoloArts at 530-309-6464.