Christina Lefebvre at 42 Maple
Opening Reception
The Gallery at 42 Maple Contemporary Art Center is pleased to present multimedia works by Christina Lefebvre. They will be on display for the month of December.
Lefebvre takes commonplace objects that proudly show their history with nicks and scrapes. She merges them with eclectic castoffs in such a way that her love of patina is undeniable. While she can’t save everything from a slow demise in a landfill, she can take a few mundane scraps from everyday life and re-form them into compositions. Like a domestic archaeologist. They will live a new life and make the world a more enjoyable place.
Childhood
Imagine a barefoot, seven-year-old girl, pulling her little red wagon through town. Picking up and collecting the most interesting things along the way. A rusted bottle cap, a piece of bark that curled up like a smile, and a green army man rescued from the gutter to name a few. She then puts some dirt in a coffee can, adds some daisies and clover that she has hijacked from her yard, and thoughtfully places those found treasures throughout the ensemble. Next, she paints a “Yard Sale” sign and pitches it in her yard where her “terrarium” masterpieces are for sale. That was Lefebvre as a child.
After giving up that childhood enterprise, she joined the corporate world in a not-entirely-unsuccessful try at being a mechanical drafting software geek. After giving that up, Christina finally circled back to her childhood roots. By 2015 she embraced a new career as an upcycle artisan. Loosely translated, she has become someone who takes things that other people no longer want. She then transforms them into something unexpected that many other people actually do want.
About the Art
Lefebvre invites you to see the beauty in the broken. As you examine the stories told in these pieces, note two things. The first, other than glue and varnish, nothing new was purchased to produce her art. Everything, right down to the screws and wires used to fuse objects together, was deconstructed from artifacts recovered in an abandoned building, donations that appeared magically on her front porch, or leftovers salvaged from a past construction or art project. The second thing of note is that each composition contains at least one item that is, or rather was, considered broken.
Lefebvre has a studio in Berlin, New Hampshire. “It is, luckily, only a moment’s walk from my apartment,” she says. She lives upstairs with her very patient and supportive husband, Brian. As well as two cats who are perpetually amused by the myriad of things that cycle through their home.
Reception Details
The opening reception for Christina Lefebvre will be on Friday, December 6, 2019, from 7:00 to 9:00 pm, and her work will be on display until December 30. If you are interested in learning more about the events at 42 Maple, please call 603-575-9077 or visit the website at 42maple.org.
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