Ferrin Contemporary at Project Art, Summer Gallery
54 Main St.
Cummington, MA
On view through December, 2026
ARTIST TALK
Saturday, September 19, 2026 | 5-6pm
Summer Gallery
54 Main Street, Cummington, MA
ABOUT THE EXHIBITION
Ferrin Contemporary welcomes visitors to view our 20th anniversary exhibition: SERGEI ISUPOV: REUNITED, 20 Years at Project Art this Fall, 2026. The solo exhibition is a survey of works by Isupov produced during the 20 years that began when gallerist Leslie Ferrin invited Sergei to Cummington, MA to partner in the renovation of a 19th century former mill building, now the home to Ferrin Contemporary and Project Art.
Since his arrival to the United States in 1993, Sergei Isupov had already made a name for himself internationally and back home in the Baltics. Settling in Louisville, Kentucky– and later Richmond, Virginia– after the fall of the USSR (and subsequent rise of freedom of expression and international travel), Isupov’s work immediately attracted the attention of American collectors of contemporary ceramics and studio craft. Teaching, exhibiting, and selling in proliferation over the span of a decade, Isupov joined forces with gallerist Leslie Ferrin to serve as his sole representation. Together in 2004, Isupov and Ferrin established Project Art in a 19th-century converted mill building in Cummington, MA, now a live-work center for ceramic art and education. From building his in-home studio from the ground up, expanding into two decades of yearly workshops and firing events, and invigorating the Project Art grounds and galleries with his multi-dimensional sculptures and installations, Isupov’s work continues to shed light on what it means to bring worlds, cultures, people, and knowledge together through the art of ceramics.
“Sergei and I both look back and wonder at the random chance that first brought us together and later landed us in rural Cummington. Growing up during the cold war – Isupov in the USSR and me in New York – we met in the 90’s when our careers intersected around the time Sergei immigrated from Estonia to the USA. A few moves later, when the opportunity presented itself, we gambled on buying a building together and began renovations. In 2006 we moved in. Two decades later, we have lived as neighbors, raised our families and become part of a community that has long been known as a home to artists, writers, musicians and noted scholars, many who like Sergei were originally immigrants. Inspired and motivated by working together we created something neither of us planned or could have imagined when we first met.”
–Leslie Ferrin, Director, Ferrin Contemporary
SERGEI ISUPOV: REUNITED, 20 Years at Project Art reflects on Isupov’s life experiences as an Estonian-American artist. Two and three-dimensional surfaces bridge together narratives of memory and place through figural and gestural forms inspired by family and familiarity. Past & Present contextualizes the atmosphere in the wake of Russian aggression near his families in Ukraine and Estonia, while EMPATHS capture life’s challenges through universal human emotions. Works in the gallery are primarily ceramic and some are fired nearby at Mark Shapiro’s Stonepool Pottery’s wood fired kilns. Through carved native wood and found and repurposed materials, Isupov’s public art on Main Street and works installed on the exterior of the mill connect to the sounding community. SERGEI ISUPOV: REUNITED, 20 Years at Project Art is both a retrospective and prospective look at Isupov’s 20 years of ceramic excellence.
At the center of the exhibition is Isupov’s newest figure, “Reunited” (2026). Both symbolic and literal, the piece is constructed from broken fragments of an exploded sculpture and rebuilt using a Kintsugi style process. Greeting visitors as the centerpiece of the exhibition, “Reunited” is surrounded by works drawn from multiple chapters of Isupov’s career: large scale heads and busts from his 2008 series ANDROGYNY, selected figures from his 2025 series, EMPATHS, and a wall installation combining painting with sculpture from the 2022 solo exhibition, Past & Present, presented by Ferrin Contemporary. Gathered together, they fill the South side of the Summer Gallery.
“SERGEI ISUPOV: REUNITED” will be on view through December 2026. The Opening Reception and accompanying Artist Talk will take place on September 19th from 5-6pm during RiverFest, a day-long celebration of the Westfield River in Cummington, MA. Ferrin Contemporary at Project Art welcomes you to visit during the event, by appointment, or at our October Open House as part of the Hilltown Open Studio Tour (October 3-4, 2026).
