Ann Vollum Retrospective at The Brassworks Gallery
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Ann Vollum’s solo exhibition at The Brassworks Gallery in affluent Montclair, New Jersey is of the highest quality and comprehensive. These dynamic textile works mainly come in two forms of plush ‘beasties’ and graphic ‘beasties’, all hand-sewn and meticulously assembled from recycled fiber materials. Sharp Teeth, Long Tongues! exhibition runs until May 22nd, 2026 and the gallery is open weekdays from 7am-7pm, with easier parking during latter hours. The gallery will also be open for Garden State Art Weekend, April 17 - 19 with Ann Vollum giving artist talks at 2pm on the 18th and 19th. The artist will also be attendance during these days from noon to 4pm and The Brassworks Gallery is located at 105 Grove Street.
The main hall contains two versions of the plush beasties, to the right are monochromatic fiber installations with earth tones which may seem like a cross between a jelly fish, a bug, and a brain. These morbid forms seems to float on the wall, seemingly alive as if to sweep past or at the spectator. To the left of the gallery we will find more recent plush beasties, an assembled installation of toy-like and octopi-like configurations with bright neon and pastel colors. Some of these particular pieces also resemble sea urchins, squids, coral, and other forms of aquatic life. These specific installation works come off as more innocent and playful, yet quite unfamiliar in their elongated and angular as well as linear forms.
In the rest of the gallery within the corridor, we will mostly find the graphic beasties. These particular pieces have a similar conceptual approach and intent as the plush beasties but are narrative-based in nature. Loosely inspired by old graphic books from the early 20th century, Ann Vollum invents characters and theatrical scenery with children frolicing with dragons, one type of beastie within her portfolio. The beasties, in all forms, are imaginary characters from Ann Vollum’s childhood. Through observation, in the graphic textiles and tapestries, at first impression these may seem like cute illusions. However, upon closer inspection, we will find macabre scenes on display with people being digested by dragons and rotting corpses on the ground as well as smiling dead dragons seemingly hunted by children. In these graphics, dragons wreak terror upon the open landscape. There also seems to be red threads in some of the pieces, indicating streams of blood flowing upon the land.
These dark graphic tapestries offer a dichotomy between innocence and despair, the macabre and the playful. As growing up is a loss of innocence and exposure to more dangers, these ‘beasties’, in all forms, seem to reflect a sense of resistance to growing up, in a similar spirit to Peter Pan.
Sharp Teeth, Long Tongues! is an extensive retrospective which takes us on a journey through Ann Vollum’s early encounters with textile and fiber works since 2019, all the way to more developed and recent pieces which can be as laborious as taking up to 6 months to construct. The immense detail in the fiber of both sets of works is apparent as even the plush beasties have hidden lockets of buttons and trinkets hanging within crevices of the installations.
The Brassworks Gallery functions as a communal space within an upscale and renovated professional office complex. With meticulous restoration true to the time period along with modern amenities, Brassworks originated as an industrial building from the 1930s previously known as the George Rutledge Etched Brass Works. Within the confines of the interior, we will find a professionally installed exhibition with spacious placement, extending from an L-shaped corridor after the visitor reaches the main hallway of the gallery.
Ann Vollum’s Sharp Teeth, Long Tongues! is a conceptually-rich exhibition which offers a variety in approaches to narrative-based and form-based interpretations of childhood through contemporary visual art. These intricate works are as delightful as they are haunting, disturbing, and playful. The intent of the artist seems to provoke our emotions and psychological relationships to our past, especially in regard to our inner-innocence. The opening reception, which was held on March 1st, attracted a large crowd of professionals from the Montclair metropolitan area as well as all of North Jersey.
