It’s Rude to Stare: Drawinging & Sculpture by Richard Criddle from MASS MoCA on Vimeo.Opening reception: October 4, 2007, 3 - 6 PM in Kidspace.

Here’s the press release:

Kidspace Opens It’s Rude to Stare by Local Artist Richard Criddle

(North Adams, MA) Opening in Kidspace at MASS MoCA on October 4, 2007, It’s Rude to Stare will feature sculpture and drawings by English-born, Vermont-based artist Richard Criddle. In a personal ‘archaeological dig’ into his childhood fears and stories, Criddle interprets his memories on a larger-than-life scale. He presents his autobiography in the form of oversized sculptures made from wood, bronze, fabricated steel, and found objects including wooden blinds, furniture components, a furnace shovel, and heavy-duty industrial hardware.

Criddle’s style of working produces vivid impressions of people from his past in this trip down memory lane. Many of the sculptures were inspired by real people who made a lasting impact on the artist, including his school teachers, a grumpy war veteran, and a disabled child (at whom his mother told him it was rude to stare). Criddle merges true stories of people from his memories with folklore stories to create hybrid figures—half-real, half-mythological. Their sculptural presence in the gallery resonates with collective and personal memories as well as the artist’s own.

In addition to the sculptures of other people and characters, the exhibition includes collages, drawings, and mixed-media self-portraits which reveal the artist’s interest in how we experience ourselves in the past and the present and in relationship to others. These drawings, along with Criddle’s huge figures, provoke the viewer to consider: are we looking at them or are we the object of scrutiny? Is the art looking at us?

Richard Criddle is a British sculptor who moved to New England in 1996. He now lives and works in southern Vermont. Criddle has exhibited his sculpture throughout the UK, including twice at the Royal Academy of Arts in London, and in the United States, most recently at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts Gallery 51 in North Adams.

The North Adams Public Schools will continue the Massachusetts Cultural Council Creative Schools grant in collaboration with Kidspace, which funds field trips, curriculum development, and artist residency programs.

The opening reception for It’s Rude to Stare will be held on Thursday, October 4, from 3:30 to 6 PM. The reception is free and open to the public. Visitors will be treated to refreshments, a first look at the exhibition, a chance to meet the artist and the opportunity to make their own art inspired by the exhibition.

During the school year, Kidspace’s public hours are Saturdays and Sundays from noon to 4 P.M., plus additional holiday hours. Kidspace is only open to school groups during the week. Admission to Kidspace is always free. Public art classes and special workshops are offered during school breaks. Its Rude to Stare will be on display from October 4, 2007, through February 24, 2008. For more information contact Kidspace at 664-4481 ext. 8131 or visit www.massmoca.org/kidspace.

Kidspace is a collaborative project of the Sterling & Francine Clark Art Institute, Williams College Museum of Art, and MASS MoCA. Major support for Kidspace is provided by the William Randolph Hearst Foundation; the Massachusetts Cultural Council; the National Endowment for the Arts; the Nimoy Foundation; the Brownrigg Charitable Trust and Alice Shaver Foundation in memory of Lynn Laitman; the Artists’ Resource Trust, a fund of the Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation; and the James and Robert Hardman Fund for North Adams, a fund of the Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation.

MASS MoCA, the largest center for contemporary visual and performing arts in the United States, is located on Marshall Street in North Adams on a 13-acre campus of renovated 19th-century factory buildings.

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