Washington Art Association Young Talent Show

The annual Young Talent Show begins its exhibition at the Washington Art Association with a reception open to the public on Saturday, January 11 at 3 p.m. The show features six artists whose mediums range from painting to mixed media to sculpture. This exhibit, which can be viewed until February 2, showcases the talents of a variety of young artists who reside locally but have lived and traveled all over the world.

Jae-Yong Kim has lived everywhere from Korea to Kuwait, and his international exposure has inspired his clay pieces. His most recent work is a succession of sculpture based on his dog, Momo, who has become a kind of companion on days when Kim finds himself homesick for friends and family. "I want the viewer to feel joy when they look at my sculpture," says Kim.

Artist Adrian Kalyesuba turns garbage into beauty by melting plastic bags and waste and then molding them onto wooden boards to form his designs. This celebrated Ugandan artist is now living in Massachusetts. "Because of my great love for the environment, I intend to expand so that I can be able to recycle these dangerous plastics on a large scale, for the sake of this generation and the future," says Kalyesuba.

Jesus Moreno from New Jersey has moved from country to country and "wanted to create an environment where my life experience becomes real and tangible." Moreno uses a broad range of texture as well as ornamental and religious symbols in his paintings, combining them with organic elements and synthetic pastes. "The unifying concept for me is the desert," says Moreno.

Marsha Doran hails from Roxbury and got a Master of Fine Arts in Painting at Boston College. Her watercolors are inspired by forms of the female body that, when exaggerated, begin to replicate a landscape. "The manipulation of these dramatic curves and lines of the female body intensifies the femininity and sensuality," says Doran.

Dorothy Prey's paintings stem from her continual interest in the agrarian lifestyle of her family in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania: "My farther was a farmer and taught me to notice the beauty in nature, to celebrate its growth cycles and seasons." She has been painting landscapes for the past five years and received her M.F.A. from American University in 2002.

Rachael Weinstein of New York says that when she starts a painting, "my primary concern is structure and space. It must be structurally sound in the way a building must be in order to stand." She tends to return to the same painting over and over again to best become aquatinted with its emotional properties. Rachel received her M.F.A. in Painting at the University of Washington.

The Washington Art Association is located in Bryan Memorial Plaza in Washington Depot. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m.-5 p.m., and Sunday from noon-5 p.m.; for more info call 860-868-2878.