ART OPENING: May Solo Artist Exhibitions at New Hampshire Artist Association

Description

The New Hampshire Art Association is pleased to present a series of exhibitions at the Robert Lincoln Levy Gallery in Portsmouth, NH, opening May 1st from 5–8 PM and on view through May 31. Together, these exhibitions highlight diverse artistic approaches and deeply personal explorations of memory, place, and identity across painting, photography, and textile work.

In Bittersweet Nostalgia, painter Sophie Pearson examines the lasting impact of childhood trauma through reconstructed memories drawn from family photographs. By removing parental figures and replacing them with fields of red and blue, she creates a visual language rooted in emotion rather than representation.
Her process—layering paint with expressive marks made in oil sticks—bridges past and present, allowing moments of pain, warmth, and complexity to coexist.

Similarly rooted in personal history, Cassidy Thurber’s photographic exhibition, I Want the Sun to Shine Down on You, reflects on family, home, and upbringing. Through intimate images shaped by her experience growing up in rural New Hampshire as the eldest of five siblings, Thurber explores themes of care, instability, and resilience, offering a quiet yet powerful meditation on belonging and memory.

Cheryl Z. Miller’s Vibrant Still Life shifts focus toward the natural world, reinterpreting the tradition of 17th-century Dutch still life painting through textile art. Using hand-dyed, printed, and vintage fabrics, Miller constructs layered compositions that capture flowers, plants, and insects in various stages of life. Her work merges painterly sensibility with material depth, inviting close observation and contemplation of color, texture, and the passage of time.

In contrast, Debbie Shirley’s Convenience turns to the built environment, celebrating small, immigrant-owned neighborhood stores. Through acrylic paintings inspired by real storefronts, she highlights the overlooked beauty of everyday spaces, emphasizing their role as cultural meeting points and symbols of community resilience.