The Governor’s Academy Exhibits "Waves and Welkin"

The Governor’s Academy is excited to announce the last exhibit in this year’s professional art series, Waves and Welkin, featuring artist Jennifer Day in the Peter C. Remis Lobby of the Wilkie Center for the Performing Arts through May 10.

Day’s work merges the fluidity of water with the expansiveness of the sky, creating dramatic compositions that evoke both serenity and tension. She uses rich surfaces to build depth and energy within her pieces, infusing each with a sense of movement. With black oil paint on a gessoed panel, she exquisitely employs a grayscale sensitivity and range that floods the eye. To achieve this, she works reductively by rubbing the surface and scraping her fingernail methodically through the paint to find the light beneath. Similarly, the artist explores the ephemeral form of clouds which are, in fact, another form of water. The artist works between two opposites: the geometry of the picture plane versus the challenge of the ephemeral and the impulse of nature to escape the plane altogether.

Day resides and works in Newburyport, Massachusetts. A native of New England, she grew up in the Boston area and in Dennis, Massachusetts, where her summers were spent on Corporation Beach as part of a multigenerational extended family. Day attended Bowdoin College and later the School of the Museum of Fine Arts. She continued her education at the Graduate School of Fine Arts at the University of Pennsylvania, where she earned her MFA in painting under the mentorship of Neil Welliver. Throughout her career, Day balanced her artistic practice with teaching. She has been a teacher of art at St. George's School and Phillips Andover Academy and has also taught at Northern Essex Community College and Colby-Sawyer College. Day has received numerous honors, including the New Members Jury Award and First Prize in the Summer 2006 Exhibition at the Copley Society on Newbury St., Boston. She has also won awards from ArtsWorcester (sculpture) and Agora Gallery in New York City. In July 2025, Jennifer will present a solo exhibition of 3-dimensional constructions at Bromfield Gallery in Boston, where she has been a member for many years. Day is represented by Atelier (Newport, Rhode Island), Atelier Santa Fe, Miller White Fine Art, and BostonArt, Inc. She is also currently exhibiting a 12-foot wide triptych throughout the year at the deCordova Museum in Lincoln, Massachusetts. For more information on Jennifer Day’s work, visit www.jenniferdayart.com.

Please take some time to experience this dynamic exhibition and join the artist for a reception on Friday, April 18, from 5:30 to 7:00 p.m. This event will provide an opportunity to meet Jennifer Day, learn about her creative process, and explore the rich visual experience of Waves and Welkin. The gallery is open to the public from 8:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. weekdays, and Saturday and Sunday by appointment. Please contact Shanna Fliegel to make an appointment.