John Landy, Waters Running, Medium: Pastel
MONTPELIER – T.W. Wood Gallery will present two exhibitions: Pievy Polyte – Art Standing with Community and the Annual Members Exhibition with an opening reception June 2, from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m., in conjunction with Montpelier Art Walk. The artist talk is June 2, at 6 p.m., at the T.W. Wood’s Nuquist Gallery.
Burlington artist Pievy Polyte, is a Haitian Vermonter. Polyte’s acrylic paintings are inspired by Haiti and Vermont’s people, landscapes, shipyards, spiritual traditions, and music. In 2005, Polyte founded Peak Macaya Co-op in his home country of Haiti, on its second-largest mountain. Peak Macaya Coop has 1,000 acres for coffee production. Polyte gives farmers land, provides seeds, and teaches farming. Farmers give a percentage of their sales back to the co-op, to fund the only school in the region for about 500 children, also built by Polyte. However in 2016, when Hurricane Matthew destroyed most of what Polyte had built, he moved to Vermont to send money back. He worked two full-time jobs and then turned to art. He paints images inspired by the Caribbean and sells to help rebuild Peak Macaya Coop. Polyte’s newest project in Haiti is installing 27 composting toilets. This May, his goal is to plant some 30,000 coffee plants on Peak Macaya. “I give farmers coffee plants to plant because I want the economy back in the mountain,” Polyte said.
Pievy Polyte, The strong women of Peak Macaya, Medium: Acrylic
The Annual Members Exhibition features local Vermont Artists with a range of techniques that many different artists have used to create beautiful and unique art pieces from oil, acrylic, pastel, watercolor, mixed media, and ink.
The gallery is located at 46 Barre Street. For more information visit twwoodgallery.org.
