The public is invited to an Arts Night Out opening reception in the East Gallery on Friday, April 13, 5-7pm.

PROOF is an exhibition of materially responsive drawings by the artists Jennifer Sussman, Lena Schmid, and Matthew Samolewicz. The proof is in the drawings and the drawings are the proof.

The work of Sussman, Schmid, and Samolewicz finds a common foundation in the practice of drawing, using intuitive mark making to understand and communicate the inner self. The three describe, "this process [as one that] exposes truths that would otherwise remain inaccessible."

Utilizing this theme of communicating the inner self, Jennifer Sussman's drawings and paintings of invented body systems illustrate her interest in the "blind trust and inherent skepticism that forms the disconnection between the self and the physical self." Using physical movement as well as her own body as a drawing tool, Lena Schmid, says that she works to investigate the "basic truths about myself and the human experience." Finally, Matthew Samolewicz's motivation largely stems from the attempt to "direct experience onto surface." Matthew also utilizes the home, a self, which he remarks, "is enacted, recast and imagined in my painting."

All native to the Pioneer Valley, these three artists met while studying at Massachusetts College of Art. After returning to the area, they continued to together, thriving from one other by discovering similarities in the way they work and the pieces that they create.