Three artists are featured in an insightful new exhibition entitled Without a Map at the Lichtenstein Center for the Arts. Featuring work by Carol Beth Icard, Rosemary Starace and Anna Rowinski, Without a Map will be on display from October 12 through November 17, 2012, with an opening reception on Friday, October 12 from 5pm-7pm.

Starace, Rowinski and Icard harnessed their creativity in an attempt to communicate their journeys through art in a universal language. The culmination of these artistic explorations is akin to self-actualization. Now, their journeys to find and express the elusive concept of “Self” is embodied in a series of original artwork.

A Pittsfield native, Starace is a multifaceted artist and writer, whose visual artwork, done in mixed media and collage, has appeared locally at the Image Gallery in Stockbridge, the Doreen Young Gallery at Bard/Simon’s Rock and the Lichtenstein Center for the Arts, among other venues. In this exhibit, Starace presents new work as part of an ongoing collaboration with visual artist Joel Schapira. Most of her pieces are pages torn from a book, erased and altered using innovative technique for effect.

Rowinski, a Holyoke resident and current member artist of the North Adams Co-op Gallery, works in mixed media and acrylic paint with finely-tuned intuition. Her paintings are the result of her ongoing, intrinsic exploration into her previously-uncharted connection between artwork that is produced consciously and spontaneously. Over more than 20 years, her work has been exhibited at numerous Berkshire venues and celebrations, including the Train Station Gallery, Spazi Contemporary Art and the Lichtenstein Center for the Arts.

An oil painter and resident of Landrum, S.C., Icard often scrapes and scratches back into previous layers of color in her work to find a way to her final, artistic destination. Icard considers introspection to be a tool in her studio, saying, “I am a traveler with signposts but no maps, and the signs are metaphors or dreams.”

Rowinski observes an indelible connection between her, Starace and Icard that she describes as sharing, “a common ground beneath [our] feet.” About their relationship, she said, “Each of us leans into the darkness, releases her vessel and sends it down on its journey like a prayer. In time, what is reflected back—what is retrieved—is uniquely our own.”

Without a Map will be open until 8pm for gallery visits during the October 18 3rd.Thursday and November 2 First Fridays Artswalk in upstreet Pittsfield.

Through November 17 | Wed-Fri 12pm-5pm | Lichtenstein Center for the Arts | 28 Renne Avenue | 413-499-9348  | FREE