TurnPark Art Space
2 Moscow Road
West Stockbridge MA
Ever been inside an eyeball made from twigs?
A decade and a half
ago, two Russian immigrants, Igor Gomberg and Kaya Brezgunova, had a vision.
Before moving to the United States, they had befriended artist Nikolai Silis
and had spent time at his Moscow studio. As is often the case with artists,
Silis’ studio was also a community gathering spot. Gomberg and Brezgunova
wanted to create something like that in their new home and found an ideal spot in
West Stockbridge, Massachusetts, on a small bluff that sits against the pond of
an old quarry. From this TurnPark Art Space was born. It’s no accident that
many of the artists represented are also Russian, Russian-American, or from
former Soviet republics.
TurnPark Art Space is deceptive in its outward appearance. A low slung whitewashed concrete building greets you as you pull into its parking lot. The side closest to you is a windowless blank, though the other has glass that helps illumine indoor exhibits. The galleries are small and are closed at present, but the grounds are open. Officially, this white structure, which looks like it might have escaped from Mies van der Rohe’s sketchpad, is called the Gatehouse. You can walk through it and see a few pieces, but after putting money in the donation box, I suggest you walk atop it.
TurnPark Art Space is deceptive. At first glance, it looks small and, by the standards of places such as New York’s Storm King or the deCordova in Concord, Massachusetts, it is. Still, TurnPark Art Space is bigger than you imagine: 16 acres and growing. A winding path takes you on a journey that’s a blend of sculpture, environmental art, and conceptual pieces. One of the first pieces you see will bring a smile. At a glance, Vladimir Lemport’s “Bohr and Einstein” might look a bit like Ma and Pa Kettle smoking matching corn cob pipes, but the name gives it away. Lemport is whimsically honoring Niels Bohr and Albert Einstein, arguably the two greatest names in 20th century physics. Another amusing piece comes from none other than Nikolai Silis himself, “Don Quixote V” shows Cervantes’ noble fool cast in steel and sniffing a cut tin daisy.
Inhabitants of Childhood 
There are lots of
real daisies and woodland flora to be viewed along the path, as well as a stone
amphitheater that, in non-COVID times, is the setting for performances of
everything from classical music and dance to lectures, yoga, ethnic fairs,
movies, and comedy. The middle part of the grounds, where one finds the
amphitheater, is a grassy expanse hemmed in by woods. For a unique look at this
setting, see it reflected in “Heliograph 2,” a Vadim Kosmatscher inground
mobile. If you want frisson from something spookier, installations from Uta
Bekaia’s “Inhabitants of Childhood” will do the trick. His childhood was
apparently more something out of the Grimm Brothers and macabre Georgian folk
tales than Winnie the Pooh!
Some of the pieces
are just fun, such as stylized discuss and shotput competitors, and others that
look amusing are more profound. This is notably the case of “Rain” from
Ukraine’s Nazar Bilyk. It depicts a six-foot bronze figure with upturned head
and a giant glass raindrop resting across his face. Bilyk wants us to consider
several things, not the least of which is humankind’s delicate and precarious
place within nature. There are also works that fall into the conceptual realm,
such as Ben Butler’s “Jigsaw,” Gene Montez Flores’ “Puerto,” and Alexander
Konstantinov’s “Wandering Rocks.”
You may not like
everything you see. To me, Konstantinov’s work on top of the Gateway evokes
stacked window frames, though I liked his installation across the pond on the
quarry wall, which is truly suggestive of rock striations. This is the beauty
of art such as you will see at TurnPark. You can be enthralled or baffled, none
of it is stuff you see every day, a mark in its favor. A bigger one still is
that art such as Bilyk’s “Rain” stretches the mind. There are many meanings and
interpretations one can assign to such pieces and each is probably valid. Plus,
the grounds are simply a nice place to commune with your surroundings and plop
down for an informal picnic.
Don’t worry about having trouble finding TurnPark. The go-to stop in West Stockbridge is No. Six Depot, a popular coffee and light snack destination. TurnPark is just up the hill from it. Don’t make my mistake of being in West Stockbridge dozens of times before finally paying a visit to the TurnPark Art Space.
Rob Weir
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