This holiday season, Working Loose turns its attention to an age-old material and one of humanity's most enduring creative pursuits: woodworking.
WOODSHOP, a holiday exhibition and specialty shop, brings together work by 40 artists and studios working in wood. The opening reception will take place on Friday, November 20, from 5 to 7 p.m. at Working Loose, 49 Main St. in Blue Hill, Maine, and runs through January 16, 2027.
WOODSHOP draws deeply on Maine's community of makers, with 24 of the participants based in the state, alongside artists from California, New York, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Texas, Vermont, Wisconsin, and Mexico. The work spans furniture, carved spoons and bowls, sculpture, amplification horns, and woodblock prints, showing the many directions contemporary woodworkers are taking the material. Part exhibition and part shop, WOODSHOP invites visitors to spend time with the work and take a piece of it home, making it a natural stop for handmade holiday gifts.
Woodworking asks for patience and attention: reading the grain, sharpening a tool, taking off one shaving at a time. Above all, WOODSHOP celebrates the plain joy of making things, and of living with things someone made by hand.
Participating Artists
Aaron Beck (ME) · Aaron Rodriguez (CA) · Alanna Hernandez (ME) · Alex Gartelmann (WI) · Audrey Louise Reynolds (NY) · Bad Habits by Morgan Hill (ME) · Brian Paccione (NY) · Clark Derbes (VT) · Colin Smorawski (ME) · Cool Your Jets (CA) · Cynthia Winings (ME) · Danielle Rose Byrd (ME) · Doug Hawkins & Will Reynolds (ME) · Early Barrett (NY) · Em Collier (ME) · Gregory Beson (NY) · Holly Bobisuthi (CA) · Jaccob Perkins (ME) · Jace Cooke (ME) · Jessie Temple (TX) · John Vasquez (ME) · K.V. Saint (ME) · Kate Hawes (NY) · Mikey Goldenberg (ME) · MiniSuper Press (MEX) · Mo Pepin (MA) · Mothership Studio (MN) · Oliver Wilson (CA) · Paul Sampson (ME) · Peter Hedstrom (ME) · Rachel Alexandrou (ME) · Sam Finkelstein (ME) · Sam Giberson (ME) · Sam Mercer (CA) · Sarah Tyson (ME) · Sonja Bergquist (ME) · Studio Rodeo (ME) · Swede Plaut (ME) · Todd Weeks (ME) · Twice Turned (ME) · Zack Hay (ME)
Opening Party: Friday, Nov. 20th, 5–7 p.m.
