Patrons at the opening of the Niagara Frontier Art Exhibit take in one of the 62 works by 51 area artists. (PHOTOS BY HEATHER N. GRIMMER / ENP PHOTOGRAPHER)

BY SCOTT LEFFLER
scott.leffler@eastniagarapost.com

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Lockport artist and award winner Kathleen Giles takes time to enjoy the  other works in the show.

Paul Alico's "Larkin Stop" won the Best of Show award this afternoon at the opening of the Niagara Frontier Art Exhibit.

Scores of people were on hand for the opening day of the month-long show at the Kenan Center House Gallery.

Other awardees included John Lagomaggiore's photo "Love in Barcelona," which won the Juror's Choice Purchase Award; Kelsey Merkle's "Rebel," which took the Sheila Whalen Memorial Realism in Drawing Award; "Blue & White" by Joan Saba, which took the Julia Beamer Memorial Award; Fran Noonan's "Quell," Nancy Mariani's "Keeping Control," and M. Scott Reagan's "The Future is the Past," which won the Awards of Excellence. Honorable mentions were Kathleen Giles' "Peonies in the Spotlight," Robert Bemisderfer's "House on the Hill," and Sharon Fundalinski's "Windswept."

M. Scott Reagan discusses what went into his award-winning piece.

Reagan's piece is an interactive sculpture made of wooden beams from old barns and clay, among other things. It is comprised of four poems with the poem lines on four-sided, color-coded clay posts, which swivel. Turning each of the 11 posts gives a potential 4,194,304 different possibilities from the four original poems.

He said following the award ceremony that it took about six months to assemble. It started months before that, though, when he asked people to submit poems about their experience in Niagara County. From those submissions, the four poems that appear on the sculpture were created.

The Niagara Frontier Art Exhibit continues daily through Aug. 29. The Kenan House is open noon to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and 2-5 p.m. Sundays. The exhibit is closed Aug. 24.

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Click here for more Niagara Frontier Art Exhibit photos by ENP Photographer Heather N. Grimmer.