Del Deo at the Vorse House
The Provincetown Arts Society offers “A Closer Look at Salvatore Del Deo” at the Mary Heaton Vorse House, 466 Commercial St., Provincetown, through Sunday, March 13.
It’s one thing to see Provincetown painters’ work in the clean, white spaces of a gallery, quite another on the patinated walls of the historic Vorse House. Nestled among antique furniture, the work gains a renewed vitality in a remarkably empathetic pairing.
The bay, the fishing fleet, the denizens of the town clustered across a mantle — Del Deo’s grand theme of Provincetown is writ large. By appointment only. Email [email protected]. Proof of vaccination, booster, and masks required.
Winter Photographs by Speer
An online show of new work by photographer Curtis Speer, titled “Winter,” is offered by Cusp Gallery. Shots of cottages in the snow capture the desolate beauty of an empty town of white facades with red shutters blazing. Speer engages in a theatrical tableaux of self-portraits like “The Captain” in peaked cap, heavy pea coat, and tall boots, quoting Ralph Waldo Emerson: “A swan-like form …The frolic architecture of the snow.” Speer’s narrative feels cinematic, like color stills from The Lighthouse with Willem Dafoe bracing himself against the snow or casting his gaze across a dark bay. Beautifully composed and technically impeccable, the photos, even online, are compelling. At cuspgallery.com.
Janet Lesniak ‘Works in Wax’
Janet Lesniak steps out of her role as executive director of Wellfleet Preservation Hall with “Works in Wax” at the Wellfleet Adult Community Center, 715 Old Kings Hwy., through Feb. 28. Her friend Cherie Mittenthal, artistic director at Castle Hill, introduced her to encaustic painting seven years ago and she hasn’t looked back. The small suite of paintings from the last two years combine encaustic with oil stick and cold wax media. Lesniak draws inspiration from real life — furniture, landscapes, flowers, and nests — as well as what she calls the “abstract expressions of interior landscapes held together by strong, saturated color.” The objects are but platforms from which to explore a single form and develop it into “the emotional response to visual memory: spontaneous, layered and full of color,” she says in a statement. There is a reception Friday, Feb. 11, 4 to 6 p.m. Masks required.
‘Words of Love’ at Orleans Modern
The poetry collective “Voices of Poetry” and Orleans Modern Art, 85 Route 6A, Orleans, celebrate Valentine’s Day with “Words of Love,” Sunday, Feb. 13, 2 p.m. Billed as an afternoon of poetry and music, the event features readings by poets Kristin Knowles, Chuck Madansky, Gloria Monaghan, and Wilderness Sarchild. There will also be music by Rose Clancy and Monika Veress. The event is free, masks required. See orleansmodern.com for more information.
