The Gateway Gallery at Great Bay Community College is honored to present the
Gateway Gallery – Great Bay Community College is pleased to present “Intertwined” featuring work by artist Michelle Lougee and curated by Thomas Devaney.
The work in Intertwined, composed mainly of post-consumer plastic, examines the relationships between humans, plastic, and nature in the face of a changing environment. People across the globe produce over 300 million tons of plastic a year. Half of this plastic is used only once and then heads for the world’s oceans.
This exhibition spans multiple years and bodies of work, transforming post-consumer plastic into art. It began with lifelike depictions of sea creatures, like jellyfish, and evolved into abstract interpretations of microscopic water life in the Ubiquitous series. Flotsam, a tapestry-like piece, obsessively repurposes single-use plastics, while Souvenirs encase natural objects—feathers, lichen, shells—inside blister packaging, questioning the absurdity of how we preserve nature. The ghostly Onesies, made from industrial shrink-wrap, evoke environmental fragility and our uncertain future. Finally, layered collage drawings incorporate plastic, papyrus, and other discarded materials, representing both natural landscapes and microscopic worlds. Through these works, I confront our obsession with plastic and invite reflection on our relationship with the environment.
Intertwined reflects on our current exuberant consumption as we teeter on the edge of disaster and the last chance to prevent the worst of climate change’s future harms.
Michelle Lougee is a fiber artist, sculptor, and ceramist. Her work addresses the impact of our consumerist society on nature. She is a member of the Boston Sculptors Gallery, and her artwork has been shown at Kunstverein Teirgarten in Berlin, Convento de Santo Domingo Qorikancha in Cusco, Peru, the Peabody Essex Museum, the Art Complex Museum, and the Trustman Gallery at Simmons College.
In addition, she teaches sculpture at Lesley University College of Art and Design. She resides with her family in Cambridge, MA and maintains a studio at Vernon Street Studios in Somerville, MA.
