To revise an apocryphal Albert Einstein saying, sometimes the only way to maintain sanity is to do the same thing over and over again and expect different results.
Any practice of craft builds on this idea. You repeat a technique enough to master a skill, and what you make becomes more refined, complex and interesting. Studio Place Arts in Barre has embraced the concept with “Rock Solid XXV,” its 25th annual stone show, on view through October 25.
Executive director Sue Higby said its founders committed to hosting the annual show from the outset. “Sculptors have a very solitary art-making practice, in part because of the dangerous environment in which they work,” she noted. Additionally, many local sculptors “are working on commissioned pieces that are made and then shipped out, so it’s actually pretty unusual for people to know what’s being made,” Higby said. One goal of the annual show is “to honor the talents here in our neighborhood.”
“There are no boundaries around the show.”
Sue Higby
Higby’s work supporting local stone carvers is one reason she received the Walter Cerf Medal for Outstanding Achievement in the Arts at the Governor’s Arts Awards on September 17. In addition to curating this annual exhibition, she has advocated for more outdoor stone sculpture in Barre and launched the Stone Sculpture Legacy Program in 2012, complete with a walking guide for visitors.
One reason “Rock Solid” continues to be surprising and relevant is that, besides showcasing the craft for the public, the show allows sculptors breathing room to experiment or express their own ideas in what can be a very commission-driven field. Not only does Higby bring in new sculptors each year but, she said, “people who have been in previously know that they can do a sidestep and do some different work. There are no boundaries around the show.”
That’s evident in some of this year’s powerful political works, such as Montpelier sculptor Gampo Wickenheiser’s “Harvest.” Wickenheiser was recently pictured in the Barre-Montpelier Times Argus working on a major project, a granite monument featuring a life-size, realistic horse.
He took a break from that, Higby said, to complete his piece for this show: a much smaller Carrara marble statue depicting a child holding a bowl as a missile falls overhead. The pristine white stone sits on a banged-up piece of sheet metal. It’s a sequel of sorts to Wickenheiser’s 2021 contribution, which featured a child against a backdrop of bullet holes. The sculptures seem less like memorials than they do a form of witness.
Christopher Curtis of Waterbury Center also presents a work with political overtones. “The Gilt Sword of Damocles” is a striking vertical shaft of gray slate, which seems wounded by a hollow slash of gold leaf. This could be a perfectly lovely formalist piece — the rough stone contrasts with the polished sides of the obelisk; the bright gold glows and offers depth against the flat gray surface — but Curtis’ artist’s statement makes clear the piece is about the inevitable demise of all gold-seeking despots.
Other works in the show are less narrative but no less intriguing. Taylor Apostol, who lives in Newton, Mass., but works in Barre with sculptor Sean Hunter Williams, uses a very unusual technique in her “Shrinking Mass, Spreading Mass 9.” Gouged ridges encircle a biomorphic, organic form whose attached lobes seem to be pulling apart. Apostol has painted the ridges with magenta ink, which contrasts with the white marble to produce an effect a lot like a cut purple cabbage. It’s weird and lovely and pairs very well with East Montpelier painter Tracey Hambleton’s “Confetti Quarry” on the wall nearby. Cut slabs of rock in the dramatic landscape meet their own reflections in a quarry pool, whose deep shadows seem to borrow their hue from Apostol’s sculpture.
Kerry Furlani uses color to great effect as well, showing off a range of slate in her reliefs. The Poultney sculptor’s deep brown “Secrets of Her Heart” looks like worn leather. “Fatal Noise Upstairs” is a dynamic composition. Its blotchy purple and gray surface, smooth curves, and pointy shapes come together like some kind of abstract shark.
Randolph sculptor Zahra Dana is another newcomer — at 27, she is one of Heather Milne Ritchie’s apprentices in the show, along with Arielle Edelman. (Ritchie also contributed several works.) Dana’s “Spill Your Guts” is a powerhouse of a sculpture: On one side, the carved limestone undulates like intestines, while on the other, a raw, broken surface roils even more. It’s visceral and fantastically ugly.
Attheother endofthecareer spectrum is Barre’s Giuliano Cecchinelli, 82; the 2016 “Rock Solid” was entirely devoted to a retrospective of his work. Higby has described Cecchinelli as the last of Barre’s Italian immigrant stonecutters. One of his small granite figures, “Relaxed,” shows off those skills. Its head is bent, and its folded knees look so light that the body seems to levitate from the rock below.
Cecchinelli’s son, Giuliano Cecchinelli II, learned from his father and has likewise participated in many “Rock Solids.” This year, he contributed “Cattail Redux,” displayed in the front window, which combines a strange, holey rock with two types of granite, giving the effect of cattails growing from a frothy bog. “Looking for Venus,” his other piece, is a lamp shaped like a rocket ship.
The lamp might seem out of place, but it’s one of several lighthearted works, including Charlotte sculptor Bruce Hasse’s interactive “Teeter Totter,” which places two rocks on a steel seesaw, instantly giving them personality as well as weight.
Though “Rock Solid” changes with each iteration, the breadth of approaches represented is one factor that, after 25 stone shows, Higby has come to expect. “There’s always a mix of social commentary and just plain gorgeous,” she said.
“Rock Solid XXV,” on view through October 25 at Studio Place Arts in Barre.
The original print version of this article was headlined “Solid State | Studio Place Arts celebrates stone for the 25th time”
This article appears in Sept 24-30 2025.
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