The theme of just about every art show right now is capitalism. As the snow begins to fall, artisan holiday markets and craft fairs spring up alongside gift-oriented members’ shows and that gallery perennial, the show of “small works.” Though the format may be ubiquitous and the selections rarely cohesive, different approaches to the idea make for fun and surprisingly varied experiences. The three exhibits profiled here and the many others across the state share a single message: For the love of all that is holy, please buy art this season!
‘Celebrate the Smalls’
Through December 24 at Axel’s Frame Shop & Gallery in Waterbury
There was a Black Friday vibe at the reception for “Celebrate the Smalls” at Axel’s Frame Shop & Gallery on Small Business Saturday, November 29. As people purchased works straight off the wall, without necessarily even knowing the artist’s name — each item has a code, rather than a full label — holes appeared in the salon-style layout, feeding shoppers’ FOMO.
Owner Whitney Aldrich said she doesn’t replace what’s on the wall when it sells. Artists have the opportunity to submit six works, and she hangs everything before the show opens. Keeping track of the inventory would be too complicated if she did restock, she said, because the show has more than 300 artworks by 56 artists from 28 Vermont towns, all in one not-very-big storefront.
Aldrich has been celebrating the smalls for about eight years, she said, and it’s her favorite show of the year: Everything is 12 inches or smaller and priced at $99 or less. Buyers and artists know what to expect and plan accordingly.
Landscape painter Cindy Maynard said she sold one piece in 2024 and all six in 2023. “Now, I have it in the back of my mind,” she said, as she makes work during the year.
A few artists attended the show with young children, including Rachel Mirus, a teaching artist whose practice is based in science. One of her works on view depicted an inky cap mushroom, drawn in ink she made herself out of mushrooms of the same species. Though it’s hard to commit to making a whole new series or large piece while juggling teaching and a young family, she said, participating in a show like this one is “a really comfortable way” to experiment with new techniques.
‘Small Works’
Through December 21 at the S.P.A.C.E. Gallery in Burlington
The show at the S.P.A.C.E. Gallery and Studio Collective is all about volume and variety. Gallery director Nikki Laxar has taken full advantage of the gallery’s large footprint in the Soda Plant, showing 430 artworks, all less than 12 inches, by 110 artists. She estimates that the show has been happening annually for at least a decade.
Such a large collection might seem overwhelming — especially at the opening on November 7, when Laxar said 600 people visited. But it is less so when you stop to take in the details of scenes that range from traditional to totally out-there. Ceramic octopuses share space with block-printed fabric frogs. Comics sit alongside landscape paintings. Some of my favorite pieces include “Sea Bound,” a blue-and-green beaded embroidery by Jennifer Carusone; a haunting little square oil painting of a sunset by Jason Gorcoff; dramatic birds on brightly colored backgrounds by Cynthia Cagle; and a realistic-looking wall-mounted papier-mâché bagel by Ashley Roark.
This year, many artists have contributed ornaments, which are being sold to benefit Outright Vermont. Those include vintage baubles, plaster ears (disembodied à la Vincent Van Gogh), and hand-painted cardboard replicas of household objects such as Neosporin and a Band-Aid.
S.P.A.C.E.’s success with the format undoubtedly has something to do with its pricing, which starts at just a few dollars. (Someone on your list needs hand-sculpted miniature lettuce leaves by Dakin Fuller for $10.) While most works cost a little more than that, they’re certainly less expensive than a Lego set. Laxar said sales at the opening brought in about $3,000 — an impressive sum for a community-based gallery.
As at Axel’s, Laxar emphasized that the show’s participants often use the opportunity to try something new or just to take pressure off in a very busy season. Shows of small works, she said, “bring the artists a lot of joy.”
‘Small Works 2025’
Through December 31 at Edgewater Gallery on the Green in Middlebury
What you probably don’t expect to see at a show called “Small Works” is a 6-by-8-foot expanse of Montana sky. But that’s one of the pieces Rory Jackson sent when Edgewater’s management team asked the gallery’s artists for small works — or anything new and exciting. Shaena Neal and Ryan Cabrera, who took over when longtime director Theresa Harris retired earlier this year, have expanded the show from its original focus on four artists who often paint in a smaller format — Bonnie Baird, Julia Jensen, Margaret Gerding and Julia Purinton — to include 12 of the gallery’s stable of more than 80 fine artists.
The show contains some 16-by-16-inch prints by Shelburne photographer Jim Westphalen — which Neal called “very small, for him” — as well as a couple of compact paintings by Kathleen Kolb. Helen Shulman’s abstract works are large but new. Dennis Sheehan and Penny Billings populate a corner with atmospheric winter landscapes, while Gerding’s and Jensen’s summer scenes are dynamic and verdant.
Neal and Cabrera said they tried to flank small works with larger ones, giving everything room and creating visual “pockets” to allow for an intimate experience in a very large space. “If we had literally small works lined up for the entire gallery,” Cabrera said, “I mean, that’d be crazy.”
Edgewater’s selection has higher price points than the other two shows, but Neal said impulse buying still reigns: “I’m pretty sure every piece we’ve sold from the show so far has been kind of like a spontaneous decision.” And she thinks most of those purchasers chose the works for themselves, rather than as gifts.
Although Edgewater tends to sell more pieces from this kind of show than others, Neal said, the difference isn’t as much about revenue as exposure. “If five sell in a week versus selling one very, very large painting, it might be the same for us, price-wise,” she explained. “But it means that those artists are being seen more and getting out there — which is nice.”
The original print version of this article was headlined “It’s a Small World, After All | Three different approaches to shows of diminutive art”
This article appears in Dec 10-16 2025.
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