Connecticut Art Scene

Two shows open Fri., Nov. 21, at Giampietro Gallery at Erector Square

noreply@blogger.com (Hank Hoffman) — Wed, 12 Nov 2014 20:36:00 +0000

Giampietro Gallery—Works of Art
315 Peck St., New Haven, (203) 777-7760
Elizabeth Gilfilen: Laid Ledge
Jeremy Chandler: Prone Positions
Nov. 21—Dec. 20, 2014.
Reception: Fri., Nov. 21, 6—8 p.m.

Press release from Giampietro Gallery

FRED.GIAMPIETRO Gallery is pleased to present Laid Ledge, an exhibition of new work by Elizabeth Gilfilen and Prone Positions, an exhibition of new work by Jeremy Chandler. This is Elizabeth's and Jeremy's first solo shows with the gallery.

Elizabeth Gilfilen writes:

The title of this exhibition, Laid Ledge alludes to the painting act, and to locating the physical and perceived edge of uncertainty. With paint, I move fluidly through the work, and I record each misstep. Accumulated marks grow and deviate; torquing forms emerge based on the decisions I make. A kinetic energy can overwhelm, yet I strive for a tension in the marks that is sprung almost as tight as the coils and tendons that create them. It is the alternating recognition of corporeal form and its immediate denial that causes me to revisit the work over many months. Over time, the scaffolding of marks can collapse into overlapping landscapes, defined by risk and just out of reach.


Artwork by Elizabeth Gilfilen

Elizabeth Gilfilen received her BFA from the University of Cincinnati and her MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University. Awards include: Yaddo, The Marie Walsh Sharpe Foundation Space Program, Gallery Aferro Studio Residency, The Bronx Museum's AIM Program, and the Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop SIP Fellowship. Exhibitions include: Morgan Lehman Gallery, NY, Reynolds Gallery, Richmond, VA, the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, CT, and the Hunterdon Museum of Art, Clinton, NJ. Her work will be published in New American Paintings; and has been reviewed in Two Coats of Paint, The Boston Globe, The Newark Star-Ledger and The New York Times.

In a recent statement, Jeremy Chandler describes his work:

My art practice has grown out of a desire to express my own personal history; experiences, relationships, and identity through a prolonged engagement with place and a process that emphasizes shared experiences with those I photograph. I create content through a variety of conceptual and formal approaches, such as straight photography, tableaus and documentary and narrative film projects. Throughout, futility, ritual, sublimity, land use and methods of concealment are all recurring themes in my work. My visual language is informed by my own memories, cultural mythology, and depictions of masculine identity through cinema, art history, and popular culture. I am interested in subverting ritualized expressions of masculinity to reveal a more nuanced idea of maleness and how culture and myth can often intertwine to create altered perceptions of space and place.


Jeremy Chandler: "Ghillie Suit (Pine Straw)"

In my most recent photographs, I construct images by repurposing methods utilized by hunting and military culture, turning otherwise weaponized techniques into benign aesthetic devices. I activate spaces that are typically already known to me, through the introduction of people, found and homemade props, and cinematic methods of storytelling.

Jeremy Chandler received his BFA from the University of Florida and his MFA from the University of South Florida. Jeremy's work has been exhibited in many prestigious galleries and museums both nationally and internationally. Chandlre's work will be published in Ellen Mueller's new publication titled, Elements and Principles of 4D Art and Design; and has been reviewed in Oxford American Magazine, The News Herald, and The Daily Loaf. Chandler's work can be found in The Center for Fine Art Photography in Fort Collins, CO, All Children's Hospital in St. Petersburg, FL and other public and private collections.

Artist reception Sat., Nov. 1, for Occupy New Haven photo show at New Haven Free Public Library

noreply@blogger.com (Hank Hoffman) — Fri, 31 Oct 2014 18:41:00 +0000

New Haven Free Public Library Art Gallery
133 Elm St., New Haven
$ NOT FREE SPEECH: Photographs of Occupy New Haven by Byron Lembo-Frey Oct. 29—Dec. 3, 2014.
Artist's reception: Sat., Nov. 1, 2—4 p.m.

Press release from Azoth Gallery

Photographer Byron Lembo-Frey's photographs of the Occupy New Haven activist encampment will be on view in the Business/Periodicals Room of the New Haven Free Public Library through Dec. 3. The artist's reception is Sat., Nov. 1, from 2—4 p.m.

Byron Lembo-Frey was born in Nuremburg, West Germany in 1987. Through his childhood, he did drawings that featured a lot of colors, lines and symbols. He received a fellowship to Vermont Studio Center in August 2009 and graduated from Johnson State College in May 2010. His senior college exhibition focused on abstract art. Witnessing poverty, animal abuse, child abuse, alcoholism, domestic violence and arrests in his community, Byron felt a strong empowerment to focus more on social issue art to better his community.

Artist statement:

Occupy New Haven was a very controversial, but insightful movement that should be remembered. The people who really cared about this movement believed in creating a better world: They wanted more awareness of social, political and economic injustices; they wanted equal economic redistribution and political justice; they wanted healthcare for all people; they wanted to see an end to wars and job creation.

I attended an Occupy New Haven meeting to honor my grandmother, whom I promised at her wake that I would make something of myself. The first night I went to Occupy New Haven, I saw two homeless people share a cupcake; still to this day, it breaks me up inside to see how selfless they were and to see how much they reminded me of who I really was. After that experience, I felt an obligation to document Occupy New Haven.


Byron Lembo-Frey: "$ NOT FREE SPEECH—Occupy New Haven"

I graduated from college in 2010 and I struggled with finding a full time job for three years. I found part-time work at a place where I endured and I witnessed much unprofessionalism: supervisors publicly berated me and other employees; managers sabotaged workers; I was assigned embarrassing jobs as mopping the sidewalk; I was intimidated into doing my bosses’ work; supervisors manipulated employees into stopping shoplifters and then disturbingly scared employees to avoid giving them the ‘stopping the shoplifter’ bonus; supervisors made jokes about when guns were aimed at me during a robbery and also made jokes about my grandma passing away.

There was a robbery committed by the store guards. When it happened, a female boss was assaulted and a gun was aimed at her head, and two guns were aimed at my chest by two police officers. I earned little as $16 a week sometimes, so I survived on fruit from clearance sales, from which I had to cut off the molds. The situation made me depressed, ill, furious, feel objectified and devalue myself, but my father’s guidance, my promise to my grandma and seeing the goodness in people at Occupy New Haven, brought out the best in me again.

I also photographed Occupy New Haven because I felt connected with the movement through my experiences, and I want to be a symbol of perseverance for people who are going through same situations that I had endured.

As I documented Occupy New Haven, I watched many social issue movies: "Midnight Cowboy," "A Panic in Needle Park," "The French Connection," "The Harder They Come," "Last Tango in Paris," "Taxi Driver," "The Deer Hunter," "Talk Radio," "Born on the Fourth of July," "Boyz in the Hood," "American History X" and "North Country." "Midnight Cowboy" is my all-time favorite film, because it unflinchingly depicts poverty, depicts a character with traumatic experiences, humanizes homeless people and it is a realistic take on the American Dream; it pushed me to bravely take pictures of my content.

I was also strongly influenced by Soviet Montage Theory directors. Sergei Eisenstein believed a film shot can be crafted to create a metaphorical effect. I used this technique when I photographed Occupy New Haven and the Trayvon Martin protestors together, with the statue behind them. The statue looks down at all of them and it looks sad. Since the statue represents justice, the image is a metaphor of justice being saddened by the verdict.

Three solo shows open Nov. 9 at Silvermine Art Center

noreply@blogger.com (Hank Hoffman) — Fri, 31 Oct 2014 18:21:00 +0000

Silvermine Guild Art Center
1037 Silvermine Rd., New Canaan, (203) 966-9700
J Henry Fair: The Hand of Man
Carlos Davila: Neo-Archaism
June Ahrens: What's Left
Nov. 9—Dec. 23, 2014.
Opening Reception: Sun., Nov. 9, 2—4 p.m.

Press release from Silvermine Arts Center

Three new exhibits open at Silvermine Arts Center on Sun., Nov. 9. Three artists explore themes of beauty and ruin, broken landscapes and lost symbols in photography, sculpture and a site-specific work in which video is a predominant element.

J Henry Fair’s stunning abstract compositions are full of organic forms and graphic patterns: plumes, branches, rivulets, as well as grids and softened geometric forms. But in Fair’s large-scale photographs, beauty and horror coexist. Fair’s subject in The Hand of Man is a damaged environment: de-forested landscapes, polluted waterways, hydraulic fracturing sites, and waste from refinery operations and other industrial practices. His goal is to “produce beautiful images that stimulate an aesthetic response, then curiosity, then personal involvement.”

Photo by J Henry Fair

“Flying over these sites is the only way to see things,” Fair has said. “The aerial perspective is inherently intriguing to land-based animals.” It is the aerial view that is his particular angle of vision—the distant view, not of the peaceful blue planet, but of the compromised landscape of a world that even in the digital era is still predominantly industrial.

J Henry Fair’s photography has been the subject of solo exhibitions throughout the U.S. and in Norway, Germany, and the Netherlands. Fair has been a member of the SIlvermine Guild of Artists since 2011.

In Neo-Archaism, Carlos Davila creates a visual landscape that abstracts the symbols and forms of ancient cultures and combines them with those of advanced technology and modern industry. He explores the relationship between the modern, highly mechanized age that we live in and a totemic, stylized symbolism of a variety of ancient cultures from Egypt, South America, and Africa.


Carlos Davila: "Medusa"

Davila abstracts line, form, and color to create sculptures, three-dimensional wall pieces, and large-scale diptychs and triptychs. His mechanical and industrial elements coalesce into a layered, three-dimensional geometry that is textural and drenched in brilliant color. His is a figurative landscape at once familiar and alien.

After earning his MFA, Davila participated in the reconstruction of the ancient city of Chan Chan, Peru. His work at this Pre-Columbian archaeological dig led to a fascination with ancient and lost cultures, and the experience profoundly affected the course of his work. Carlos Davila’s art has been the subject of solo exhibitions from Lima, Santiago, and Bogota to New York, Boston, and Miami. Born and educated in Lima, Peru, he lived for many years in New York City. He currently lives in Ridgefield, Connecticut, and maintains a studio in a loft in Bridgeport. He has been a member of the Silvermine Guild of Artists since 2012.

In her recent work, June Ahrens has explored repurposed and broken glass as material and metaphor. What’s Left is a new turn for Ahrens—a unified environment made up of a video surrounded by blue walls that are layered with dried pigment mixed with salt. This site-dependent piece, created for the Hays Gallery at the Silvermine Arts Center, evokes loss and fragility while channeling light through a landscape of broken glass.

The video serves as the primary element in the composition and contains many of the materials used in her environment. The integration of materials and images (including images of a human face and hands) invites the viewer to explore and embrace the residue of lives. Salt and glass enhance the imperfections of the walls, which become a metaphor for the imperfections in each of us. The surface partially hides some of the scarring but salt and pigment reveal it in a new way. Repurposed broken glass (clear or blue) is also part of the installation—random patterns of fallen shards will pool and reflect danger, pain, and vulnerability. Ahrens calls the work “a map of awareness.


June Ahrens: Still from video

June Ahrens’s work has been exhibited at the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art in Kansas City; at the Edinburgh College of Art in Scotland; in Strong Women Artists, a group exhibit in Matera, Italy; and in many other exhibitions throughout the U.S. She lives in New Canaan, Connecticut, and has been a member of the Silvermine Guild since 1993.

Dow, Gunderson show opens Friday at Giampietro Gallery in New Haven

noreply@blogger.com (Hank Hoffman) — Thu, 09 Oct 2014 16:18:00 +0000

Giampietro Gallery—Works of Art
91 Orange St., New Haven, (203) 777-7760
Cross Currents: Karen Dow and Laurie Gunderson
Oct. 10—Nov. 22, 2014.
Reception: Fri., Oct. 10, 6—8 p.m.

Press release from Giampietro Gallery

Fred Giampietro Gallery is pleased to present new works by Karen Dow and Laurie Gundersen in an exhibition titled Cross Currents. This show will be on view at the 91 Orange St. location in New Haven from Oct. 10 through Nov. 22. There is an opening reception on Fri., Oct. 10, from 6—8 p.m.

Jeff Bergman writes:

Karen Dow makes flat work, yet the architectural and sculptural elements within belie their flatness. The distinct layers in the artist's newest body of work act in surprising ways, exposing forms while ghost images reveal themselves under marble dust gray. Like exposed composite rock segments, striations appear. Stacked and patchworked forms assert themselves as the gray fogs over layered and masked formations. Most of these solid forms are the final layer, completing the balancing act. Within Dow's painting, there is always the possibility of imbalance and irregular shapes ready to topple at the slightest breeze.


Art by Karen Dow

Dow has spent the last few years using printmaking techniques to create unique works on paper. The act of creating these monoprints itself has influenced the artists approach to the painting process. By inking hand cut materials, variable color and texture appear in the print process. Dow has recreated this indeterminacy by masking her canvas laid affixed to board with a hand cut frisket, an opaque vinyl material that adheres to the surface. The hand cut line wobbles, making both the mask another way for the artists hand to come across. By painting over all but these masked areas, the artist creates an "Aha" moment when she excavates the relics left behind. Louise Nevelson's irregular forms, composed of collaged remnants, serve as both an apt comparison as well the artists’ inspiration. Rather than work with collage, the artist builds a thorough world beneath and chooses her own remnants.

"Signal," 2014 is a multitiered work, containing several blocks of color. In the upper left, a square is divided black on the left and gray on the right. It appears to be right at the front of the plane, helped some by a red/orange layer behind it. This small area recalls Barnett Newman's zips as well as Pat Steir's large nearly monochromatic diptychs. The red and orange area in the middle left of the plane, also propped on a ledge, is a focal point and causes the eye to draw up to the dark area and then over to the right to view the "flag." The flag is an area with a four segment square. All around the gray midtone, adds a muted field of light. With "Signal," soft, dusty colors recede and bring to mind Giorgio Morandi's Etruscan palate. The dominant colors, autumnal yellow and orange and gauzy sky blue, light the way. Everywhere a counter balance of color is assumed, dispersing weight around the plane.

Laurie Gundersen writes in a recent statement:

I am a utilitarian folk artist: a dyer, spinner, weaver, quilter and basket maker. Primarily self-taught, I have explored these various media by diving into materials close at hand. Fascinated by the creative ways of making folk art from scrap, I make textiles reflecting that spirit and my love for blending contemporary designs with traditional techniques.

This collection of small textiles has helped me reflect and remember the people whose work in textiles have inspired me and provided movement in my life. Annie Albers, Lenore Tawney, Mary Hambridge, Randall Darwall, Hiroko Harada & Yoshiko Wada to name a few. Over the past decades my craft has slowly evolved, eventually leaving the art-to-wear movement behind. However, I have been gathering textiles over the last three decades in hopes of constructing art with it. Here is the new beginning of that process.

Gundersen lives and works in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. Her studio/showroom is called Appalachian Piecework and is located at the train depot in Staunton.

Kathy Kane painting show reception Sat., June 7, at City Gallery in New Haven

noreply@blogger.com (Hank Hoffman) — Sat, 31 May 2014 16:57:00 +0000

City Gallery
994 State St., New Haven, (203) 782-2489
Kathy Kane: LIFE—LINE
June 5—29, 2014.
Opening Reception: Sat., June 7, 2—5 p.m.

Press release from City Gallery

City Gallery presents LIFE—LINE featuring artist Kathy Kane, June 5—29, 2014. The opening reception is Sat., June 7, from 2—5 p.m.


Kathy Kane: "Interstices"

The exploration of line, its delicate nature and ambiguous presence in the landscape bring punctuation and life to Kane's new work.

William Bailey show opens at Orange St. Giampietro Gallery May 30

noreply@blogger.com (Hank Hoffman) — Fri, 23 May 2014 16:20:00 +0000

Giampietro Gallery—Works of Art
91 Orange St., New Haven, (203) 777-7760
William Bailey: Paintings and Drawings
May 30—July 12, 2014.
Reception: Fri., May 30, 6—8 p.m.

Press release from Giampietro Gallery

Fred Giampietro Gallery is pleased to announce an exhibition of works by William Bailey. This is his first showing at the gallery. The exhibition includes still life paintings and figure drawings that reflect nearly sixty years of exploration by the artist. Bailey studied under Joseph Albers at the Yale School of Art following his service in the Korean War. He began his studies at the University of Kansas School of Fine Arts and graduated from the Yale School of Art. Bailey has taught widely including at the University of Indiana at Bloomington. He held a long tenure at the Yale School of Art from which he retired in 1995 as the Kingman Brewster Professor Emeritus of Art.

Bailey's still life paintings present seemingly everyday objects, including bowls, pitchers, and cups, in groupings that conjure the familiar world while offering a metaphysical timelessness. Although they focus on a realm that is idealized, the works explore a mnemonic or remembered space where drawing, proportion, measure, and color find voice in Bailey’s expansive ability to capture light...light that illuminates the recognizable world while seeming to belong to an undefined, distant place. In contrast to a Realism of everyday life, Bailey offers us an integrated world of autonomous interiority, stating, "I am trying to paint a world that is not around us."


William Bailey: "Soldier"

Like the poet filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky, who viewed art-making as a necessary effort toward perfection in an imperfect world, Bailey's images reflect the history of imaging and clarifications of his craft. His work links us to the past of Piero, Corot, or Hopper yet guides us to a perpetual here and now through his use of color and light. In this way he challenges our notions of both time and space.

The still life paintings suggest an environment grounded in Bailey's imagined world of things. With sustained viewing these images suggest landscape, architecture and groups of figures that seem, subtly, to generate an atmosphere of color giving them both space and breadth. These suggestions allow us to come to terms with the impermanence that defines our need for remembrance.

The works of William Bailey reveal themselves through a complex shifting of time and perception. Bailey's particular focus on drawing allows an unfolding of varied duration within the continuity of space. Attention in the imaginative act is shaped by the appearance and reappearance of forms. The paintings also derive information from his ongoing practice of observing the figure. Just as the pictures seem to sustain the tension of approaching absence, likewise, through the attention to delicate shifts of shadow and light, they seem to breathe with the presence of objects, figures and places.

K. L. Sinanoglu, New Haven, April, 2014

"Por Oaxaca" opens Satuday, May 24, at Insitute Library

noreply@blogger.com (Hank Hoffman) — Fri, 16 May 2014 16:48:00 +0000

The Institute Library
847 Chapel St., New Haven, (203) 562-5045
Por Oaxaca
May 24—June 21, 2014.
Reception: Sat., May 24, Noon—2 p.m.

Press release from Catalina Barroso-Luque

Por Oaxaca is the end stage of the Postal Art Project organized and curated by the Mexican artist, Catalina Barroso-Luque, who sent a seemingly straightforward photograph taken in Oaxaca, Mexico to a selection of local and international artists in China, Mexico, England and Connecticut and asked them to respond.

The show features works by Phil Lique, Kevin Van Aelst, Isabelle Gressel, Ivan Mendez Vela, Panachai Chaijaratat, Maria Lara Whelpley, Susan McCaslin, Martin Roberts, Justin Rodier, and Sophie Aston.


Artwork by Phil Lique

The responses received were unexpected and varied. The apparent diversity of works stemming from the same image brings out issues of cultural tourism, analog vs. digital technology, image-media mediation over our engagement with reality, cultural aesthetics, and the prevalence of a western hegemony over contemporary artistic production.

Also on view, in the Main Reading Room, is a display of Postales Mestizas, by Catalina Barroso-Luque. The artist has fashioned these small-scale works out of collaged, collected post-cards and other found images, and her own discarded photo-prints. They are an intuitive recycling of the artist's physical and mental imagery that aims to bring into question the boundaries between personal and collective memory.

Ramon, Angelis shows open at Giampietro Gallery May 16

noreply@blogger.com (Hank Hoffman) — Fri, 09 May 2014 15:56:00 +0000

Giampietro Gallery—Works of Art
315 Peck St., New Haven, (203) 777-7760
Peter Ramon: Inherent Collisions
Michael Angelis: Collective Memories
May 16—June 11, 2014.
Reception: Fri., May 16, 6—8 p.m.

Press release from Giampietro Gallery

Fred Giampietro Gallery is pleased to present new works by Peter Ramon and Michael Angelis. Inherent Collisions is Ramon’s second solo show at the gallery and Collective Memories is Angelis’s first. These solo exhibitions run from May 16 through June 11, 2014.

Peter Ramon has always been captivated by the constant changing of the positive, negative, and colorful shapes casted in nature by sunlight. Each of Ramon’s compositions embodies the intention to document his responses to these brief moments, sideways glances, and fleeting thoughts. Those experiences are expressed through a beautiful and complex handling of layers, colors, textures, and shapes.


Peter Ramon: "Out Under the Sun"

Peter Ramon lives and works in Branford, CT. Ramon received his MFA from Indiana University and his BFA from the University of Hartford, Hartford Art School. His work has been included in numerous exhibits, including the Moody Art Gallery at the University of Alabama and The New Britain Museum of American Art. His work can be found in many private collections.

In a recent artist statement, Michael Angelis explains that his on-site paintings of the urban landscapes in and around New Haven have dominated the focus of his work over the past 5 years. The series began as a study of the street level experience underneath the overpasses of Route 91. Working directly in the environment influences the aesthetics in a much richer way than if the work were to be completed in the comfort of a studio setting, where it may simply imitate the photographs being used for reference. The paintings in the series often focus on environments in flux, whether they are actively changing or less obviously changing.


Michael Angelis: "Earth"

Michael Angelis lives and works in New Haven, CT. Angelis received an MEA from the Teachers College at Columbia and his BFA from SUNY Purchase. His work has been included many local exhibits.

Two shows open Saturday, May 10, at Artspace in New Haven

noreply@blogger.com (Hank Hoffman) — Mon, 05 May 2014 16:40:00 +0000

Artspace
50 Orange St, New Haven, (203) 772-2709
Forced Collaboration
David Politzer: Hyper Democratic Landscapes
May 10—June 28, 2014.
Opening: Sat., May 10, 5—8 p.m.

Artspace press release

Two shows open at Artspace Sat. night, May 10: the group show Forced Collaboration and David Politzer's Hyper Democratic Landscapes. The opening reception will occur from 5—8 p.m.

Forced Collaboration pairs 12 artists (6 collaborations) with wildly different practices. The artists are strangers to each other; selected by the curator (Jacob Rhodes) to exchange a finished work and to re-create that work by forcing themselves on it in any way they please. No preconceptions stain their attempts; no obligations of friendship or acquaintance constrain what they can or cannot do.

"Forced Collaboration"

In the highly competitive contemporary art world, both success and failure are continually on display and are often signaled by proximity to known successes or failures. A single group show with a known success can make a career. An unfortunate collaboration can break it.

Our novel form of interaction raises questions about the nature of collaboration and competition, success and failure. Is competition inherent in collaboration? Will the artists move toward unity and resolution, merging opposed disciplines, practices, and aesthetic sensibilities, or will they subjugate and corrupt the other artist’s work? And which would be best for each artist? Should they trust the other artist to treat their work in a collaborative way or should they forcibly impose their vision of how the other artist’s work ought to be?

Featured artists are Chris Bors, Daniel Bozhkov, Ilana Harris-Babou, Kerry Cox, Oliver Herring, David Humphrey, Bridget Mullen, Mariah Robertson, Mandolyn Wilson Rosen, Jen Schwarting, Mark Starling, J.R. Uretsky.

Hyper Democratic Landscapes is a 3-channel video installation of constantly changing, surreal landscape imagery. Politzer culled the images from Flickr using targeted searches for specific tags plus the word "landscape." For the Artspace Project Room installation, each channel is divided thematically based on those tags. The left channel is comprised of searches for "harsh," "rugged" or "barren," the middle channel "tallest," "biggest" and "highest," and the right channel "sublime," "heavenly" and "inspiring."

Politzer (ab)uses the HDR (High Dynamic Range) function in Photoshop to create composite images from several of the appropriated Flickr images, which he selects at random. Typically the HDR function is used to combine several images of the same scene taken from the same vantage point to make an enhanced, single photograph with an extremely wide tonal range. Rather, he creates a hybrid of 3-5 images of different scenes. The results are psychedelic compositions of saturated color that have multiple horizon lines and light sources. The status of each image changes from an authentic index to a fabricated digital artifact.


David Politzer: "Hyper Democratic Landscapes Video Still 7"

By misusing software, Politzer pushes the images beyond their intentions for realism, nostalgia, memory. These over-worked, conglomerate mashups resist the preciousness of an individual image, but create a new sense of romance for a fantastical place. The project also negotiates the impossibility of there being a simple one to one relationship between an image (sign) and a word (signifier). This realization suggests that imperfect fitting, choice and multiplicity are at the heart of what makes possible the notion of democracy.

For their debut at Artspace, Politzer has decided to install the videos above eye-level to suggest their position as stained glass windows inside of a cathedral. Their position up high in a darkened room encourages the viewer to enter more slowly, wait for his/her eyes to adjust to the light, and be open to the calm. The atypical shape of the rounded screens adds to their feeling as historic architectural elements or objects—emulating the frames of turn of the century illustrations, photographs and stereograms.

"Self Ease" reception at Perspectives Gallery Sat., May 10

noreply@blogger.com (Hank Hoffman) — Wed, 30 Apr 2014 17:29:00 +0000

Perspectives: The Gallery at Whitney Center
200 Leeder Hill Rd., Hamden, (203) 772-2788
Self Ease: Contemporary Portraiture
Through Jun. 17, 2014.
Artists' Reception: Sat., May 10, 3—5 p.m.

Press release from the Arts Council of Greater New Haven

The Arts Council of Greater New Haven presents a new twist on the "selfies" trend. Organized by Debbie Hesse, Self Ease: Contemporary Portraiture brings together seven artists who work within the tradition of portraiture. The exhibition features artwork by Eileen Carey, Steven DiGiovanni, Megan Marden, Larry Morelli, Katro Storm, Erika Van Natta, and Jeff Wrench. The exhibition is on view now at the Perspectives Gallery at Whitney Center, 200 Leeder Hill Drive, Hamden, Connecticut. Gallery hours are Tuesdays and Thursdays, 4—7 p.m. Join us for a special public reception on May 10, 2014 from 3—5 p.m.

Self Ease focuses on the psychological nuances regarding how we see ourselves and how we choose to be seen, commemorated, and remembered. Eileen Carey paints colorful portraits of people she knows in great detail as well as faceless crowds that explore the interaction of people in a fast paced culture. Jeff Wrench sketches faces of strangers on paint swatches and wallpaper samples creating casual portraits that are both specific and mysterious. Steven DiGiovanni puts people into ambiguous settings, using the surrounding objects as props to draw out meaning. Katro Storm, Megan Marden and Larry Morelli rely on personal, gestural and painterly mark making to create ambiance and psychological tension. Erika Van Natta creates a video portrait, via a self-designed kaleidoscope of herself singing original lyrics that finds cohesiveness thru geometric fragmentation.


Artwork by Eileen Carey

In addition, digital portraits or selfies emailed in from the general public will create a collective tapestry of how we see ourselves in a rapidly changing technological world. These fleeting digital captures offer a counterpart to the paintings and video in the exhibition, framing a dialogue about the history and future of this artistic genre. To participate, send digital selfies to selfeaze@gmail.com. Selections will also be included in an online exhibit at NewHavenArts.org.

Meg Bloom exhibit reception Sat., May 3, at City Gallery in New Haven

noreply@blogger.com (Hank Hoffman) — Fri, 25 Apr 2014 17:20:00 +0000

City Gallery
994 State St., New Haven, (203) 782-2489
Meg Bloom: Mixing Memory with Desire
May 1—June 1, 2014.
Opening Reception: Sat., May 3, 2—5 p.m.

Press release from City Gallery

City Gallery presents Mixing Memory with Desire, an exhibit of new sculptural works by Meg Bloom. The show will be on view from May 1 through June 1, 2014. The opening reception is Sat. May 3, 2014 from 2-5 p.m. Admission is free.

Finding beauty in the imperfect or impermanent, acknowledging moments of change, and engaging with the process of transformation form the basis of Bloom's work.


Meg Bloom: "Autumn Flight"

Bloom's process is guided by the mix of planning and chance that her materials offer to the imagery. She has developed her own method of making and then assembling paper made from abaca and flax pulps into large sculptural forms and smaller collages. The final sculptures are a revisioning of her memories.

"Oil + Water" mix at Kehler Liddell, reception Fri., May 9

noreply@blogger.com (Hank Hoffman) — Wed, 23 Apr 2014 16:52:00 +0000

Kehler Liddell Gallery
873 Whalley Ave., New Haven, (203) 389-9555
OIL + WATER
Apr. 24—May 25, 2014.
Artist's Reception: Fri., May 9, 6—9 p.m.
Art Yard Tag Sale, Children's Painting Event: Sat., May 10, starting at noon

Press release from Kehler Liddell Gallery

Kehler Liddell Gallery is pleased to present its spring group show, OIL + WATER, from Thurs., Apr. 24 through Sun., May 25, with an Opening Reception on Fri., May 9 from 6—9 p.m., and a number of events coordinated with Westville’s 17th annual ArtWalk on May 10.

The show will feature work by all 25 Kehler Liddell Gallery member artists: Corina S. Alvarezdelugo, Edith Borax-Morrison, Amy Browning, Frank Bruckmann, Susan Clinard, Penrhyn Cook, Rod Cook, Tom Edwards, Julie Fraenkel, Matthew Garrett, Sara Beth Goncarova, John Harris, Lisa Hess Hesselgrave, Keith Johnson, Sven Martson, Fethi Meghelli, Hank Paper, Jean Perkins, Joseph Saccio, Gerald Saladyga, Alan Shulik, Maureen Squires, Mark K. St. Mary, Gar Waterman, and Marjorie Wolfe.

This unique collaboration of the Gallery's painters, photographers, sculptors, and installation artists presents diverse interpretations of these icons of opposites—oil and water.

"Oil and water. They do not mix, never have, and never will," says Gar Waterman, one of the show’s artists. "Yet they exist together in a myriad of circumstances. In the hands of artists, that complex relationship becomes apt metaphor for the challenges we face in the world today—political, environmental, religious, cultural."


Frank Bruckmann: "Studio Still Life"

Charged with the task of addressing this relationship, KLG artists arrived at different conclusions. Some saw OIL + WATER as representative of that which does not belong, while others considered the idea of separation.

Many participating artists were quick to note that OIL + WATER has an obvious association with the very materials used in the creation of art. "Oil and water don’t mix but can make fascinating play on paper and canvas," says calligrapher Maureen Squires. "You're never quite in control on the surface, always moving, changing, affecting color and light."

OIL + WATER coincides with the 17th annual ArtWalk in the historic Westville Village, May 9 and 10. This community-based arts festival features live music, art exhibitions, demonstrations and studios, interactive art-making for kids and adults, theater & dance, walking tours, and an Artist & Artisan Market.

In addition to the group show, Kehler Liddell Gallery is hosting two special ArtWalk events on Saturday, May 10:

• Art Yard Tag Sale Sat., May 10, noon—4 p.m.:

A great opportunity to stock up on art supplies: canvases, frames, paper, pencils, pens, paints, old gear, art books, magazines, pencil sharpeners, rulers, old frames, old show cards, and odds and ends of all types! The Art Yard Sale will take place in a tent outside the Gallery from noon—4 p.m. Participating artists are donating 80% of the proceeds to support future KLG programming.

• Children’s Event: Oil and Water Painting, Sat., May 10, starting at noon:

Children of all ages are welcome to practice the art of art using oil and watercolor paints, with creative input from KLG member artists Marjorie Wolfe and Corina Alvarezdelugo. Starting at 12 noon.

Shows open Sat., Apr. 26, at Gallery on the Green in Canton

noreply@blogger.com (Hank Hoffman) — Fri, 18 Apr 2014 17:07:00 +0000

Gallery on the Green
Corner of Dowd and Route 44, Canton, (860) 693-4102
The Eighth Annual Maxwell Shepherd Memorial Invitational Exhibition
Judy Cantwell: Ten Years Later
Genti Bushi: Recollection!
Apr. 25—May 25, 2014.
Reception: Sat., Apr. 26, 6—9 p.m.

Press release from Gallery on the Green

The Eighth Annual Maxwell Shepherd Memorial Invitational Exhibition will take place at the Gallery on the Green in Canton from Apr. 25 through May 25, 2014. This year's invited artists are Connecticut residents Mary Kenealy and Richard Klein. The public is warmly invited to an opening reception from 6—9 p.m. on Sat., Apr. 26. The artists will give an informal talk about their work prior to the reception, at 5 p.m.

Mary Kenealy, registrar at the Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art in Ridgefield, Connecticut, has shown widely throughout Connecticut in solo exhibitions including those at Real Art Ways and Trinity College in Hartford. She has also been included in several group shows such as those at the Baltimore Museum of Art, the National Collection of Fine Arts in Washington, D. C., the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford, and the DeCordova Museum in Lincoln, Massachusetts. Kenealy has also served on the faculty of Central Connecticut State University and Fairfield University. She works largely on paper creating intricate and engaging patterns of color.


Mary Kenealy: "All the Hours #10"

Richard Klein, exhibitions curator since 1999 at the Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, has had works shown in numerous museums and galleries, notably at the Neuberger Museum of Art at SUNY Purchase, Caren Golden Fine Arts in New York City, and Tufts University Art Gallery in Medford, Massachusetts. Working with found glass and everyday objects, Klein fuses them to create works that are ethereal and transcendent while remaining grounded in the commonplace.


Richard Klein: "Black Friday"

Walter Kendra, Professor Emeritus of Art at Central Connecticut State University and Mark Snyder, Associate Professor of Visual Design at the Hartford Art School curated the exhibit. The Annual Maxwell Shepherd Memorial Invitational Exhibition is sponsored by the Maxwell Shepherd Memorial Arts Fund, Inc., a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the fine and performing arts. For further information about the Fund please write to MSMAF, Inc., 16 South St., Collinsville, CT 06019 or telephone 860.693.2762.

Also on exhibit Apr. 25—May 25 are two new shows in the upstairs galleries by Judy Cantwell and Genti Bushi.


Judy Cantwell: "Ferns and Oak Leaves"

Cantwell's show, Ten Years Later in the Spotlight Gallery includes found objects such as old wood and rusted metal that are given new life as simple constructions. Her digital photographs, gel transfers and mixed media woven paper pieces are full of colors, patterns and intriguing images. She has found that using more than one medium at a time allows her to better translate the images of the world around her into works of art. She is a member of a group of Ct./ Ma. mixed media artists known as MIXUS as well as a member of the Connecticut Academy of Fine Arts.

Inspirations for Genti Bushi's exhibit, Recollection!, in the main Upstairs Gallery come from objects, landscapes and images from his memories —those shapes and colors that have been tucked away but never forgotten. Bushi's acrylic and oil paintings are rich in vivid colors and lively compositions.

"Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here, Part Two" reception this Sat. at Institute Library

noreply@blogger.com (Hank Hoffman) — Thu, 03 Apr 2014 23:04:00 +0000

The Institute Library
847 Chapel St., New Haven, (203) 562-5045
Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here, Part Two
Through May 3, 2014.
Reception: Sat., Apr. 5, Noon—2 p.m.

Press release from Stephen Vincent Kobasa

On March 5th 2007, a car bomb was exploded on al-Mutanabbi Street, the historic center of Baghdad bookselling. More than 30 people were killed and over 100 were wounded. In response to this attack upon a cultural treasure of the Iraqi people, the poet and bookseller Beau Beausoleil founded the al-Mutanabbi Street Project which to date has assembled 130 broadsides by letterpress artists, 260 artist books, and a literary anthology Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here with contributions by over 125 writers from around the world.

Also included, on special loan from the artist, is a book by Daniel Heyman, Sing With A Lovely Voice, hand-printed from woodblocks based on watercolors drawn during interviews which were part of a fact-gathering mission concerning torture and abuse at Abu Ghraib Prison in Iraq.

This is the second of two exhibitions curated by Stephen Vincent Kobasa out of this larger collection. There will be a panel discussion on books in a time of terror on Sat., Apr. 5, at noon.

Receptions for two shows at Middlesex Community College on Tues., Apr. 8

noreply@blogger.com (Hank Hoffman) — Mon, 31 Mar 2014 16:19:00 +0000

Middlesex Community College Pegasus Gallery
100 Training Hill Road, Middletown, 1-800-818-5501
Mari Skarp-Bogli: Architecture of a Memory in the Pegasus Gallery (Pegasus Gallery is located within the library on the first floor of Chapman Hall)
Mar. 24—May 3, 2014.
Kevin Fletcher: Glass Works—Linear Radiation in The Niche (The Niche is located in Founders Hall across from the Registrar’s Office.)
Mar. 24—May 8, 2014.
Reception for both shows: Tues., Apr. 8, 6—7:30 p.m.

Press release from Middlesex Community College

Two new shows at Middlesex Community College will have their artists' receptions on Tues., Apr. 8, from 6—7:30 p.m.

Mari Skarp-Bogli’s Architecture of a Memory addresses the subject of memory and its operation within the human brain. Skarp-Bogli's paintings, sculpture and interactive drawings employ abandoned locations, discarded materials and objects that transmit associations of loss, abandon and decay. These works are assemblages of memory evoking relics of attics, basements, barns and the garages of home in as much as representations of the physiological, psychological and neurological functions they interpret.


Mari Skarp-Bogli: "Synaptic Plasticity II"

Skarp-Bogli earned her M.F.A. from Maine College of Art and B.F.A.’s in both painting and sculpture from the University of Hartford. She is an adjunct art instructor at Tunxis Community College and at the University of Hartford.

Kevin Fletcher’s sculptures unite the complex and associative nature of line and the dynamic energy of glass. Works like "Radiate" exploit the similarities between the animate light of neon with that of molten hot glass.


Kevin Fletcher: "Radiate"

Fletcher has a B.F.A. in Glass from the Appalachian Center for Craft and a B.A. in Business Administration from Marist College. He has also studied glass at Penland School for Crafts, Urban Glass and Franklin Pierce University.

Reception Sun., Apr. 6, for "Explorations in Embellishment" at Mercy Center gallery

noreply@blogger.com (Hank Hoffman) — Sun, 30 Mar 2014 17:35:00 +0000

Mercy Center at Madison Mary C. Daly, RSM Art Gallery
167 Neck Rd., Madison, (203) 245-0401
Rachel Hellerich: Explorations in Embellishment
Mar. 31—Apr. 25, 2014.
Artist's Reception: Sun., Apr. 6, 2—4 p.m.

Press release from the Mercy Center at Madison

Explorations in Embellishment is the second solo exhibition for Milford-based artist, Rachel Hellerich. The show will include more than 20 drawings and paintings spanning from 2005 to the present. Hellerich’s work will be on display at the Mary C. Daly, RSM Art Gallery, Mercy Center at Madison, 167 Neck Road, Madison, CT from Mar. 31—Apr. 25.


Rachel Hellerich: "Emerald Erosions"

With a background heavily rooted in sculpture and installation, Hellerich’s return home to Connecticut in 2004 marked a new phase of creative development focused on drawing and painting on canvas and panel. From its conception, this body of work has been influenced by the themes and aesthetics of Asian art, science fiction, fashion and military history. Her drawings have been a source of reflection, serving as blueprints for larger scale, atmospheric paintings. The work encompasses a range of media including watercolor, ink and vinyl paint, each painting or drawing considered three-dimensionally from the compositional development of their subjects to their physical realization with brush, pen and palette knife. The process of working in multiples on a modular level, with repetitive, textile-like references, has been a recurring exercise; as an obsessive means to connect with each piece physically, providing a gateway to meditate and reflect on a particular memory or place.

There will be an opening reception on Sun. Apr. 6 at the Mercy Center from 2—4 p.m. Both the exhibition and the reception are free and open to the public.

Chuck Webster show opens at Giampietro Gallery at Erector Square Sat., Apr. 5, from 6—8 p.m.

noreply@blogger.com (Hank Hoffman) — Fri, 28 Mar 2014 17:51:00 +0000

Giampietro Gallery—Works of Art
91 Orange St., New Haven, (203) 777-7760
Chuck Webster: Shelter with works by Martín Ramírez, Thornton Dial, William Hawkins, and Marsden Hartley
Apr. 4—May 3, 2014.
Reception: Sat., Apr. 5, 6—8 p.m.

Press release from Giampietro Gallery

Fred Giampietro Gallery is pleased to announce the solo-exhibition of new works by artist Chuck Webster. The shows will be on view from Apr. 4—May 3, with an opening reception on Sat., Apr. 5, from 6—8 p.m.

From Ross Simonini, a writer, artist and musician based in New York and Interviews Editor for The Believer Magazine:

Chuck paints on wood. Sometimes he uses paper, which comes from wood, but mostly he works on thick, pale panels made of birch. Some of them are small enough to be handheld. Others are so large they could be mistaken for walls, and he heaves and slides these around his studio with chest-puffing exertion. He lays panels on the floor so he can pour liquids that accrete in a thin meniscus on their wooden surfaces. If he wants to paint outside the studio, he'll strap a panel to the roof of his Volvo station wagon, drive out to Rockaway Beach, and set himself up to work alfresco. The painted canvas is often described as a window; For Chuck, the wood panel is a roof, wall, and ceiling.

When he works, he puts the paint onto the wood with brush and hands. If he doesn't have gloves, he uses bare fingers and the pigment gets trapped under his nails for days. Even when he scrubs his hands feverishly with corn oil, the color stays put. Sometimes he'll make a painting in 2 hours, slathering on translucent textures that echo the whorling wood grain beneath the gesso, hues ranging from romantic, demonic maroon to thick, frosting-like applications of periwinkle.


Chuck Webster: "Perfect Home"

When he's finished, the images look like portraits and landscapes, a form of abstraction that remains connected to the physical world, governed by gravity. They often appear architectural, as houses upon undulating earth. Sometimes they're figures. He resists the term characters - preferring the more open-ended term "souls" - but embraces the possibility of narrative, and uses the words, "whip-tail" and doingle" to describe the ornamentations that flutter around his souls. Recently he's become compelled by a particular soul: a small octagonal shape with an ocular hole at its bellybutton that he stacks and bends, leans and constellates. It appears in almost every drawing and painting he makes.

The wood that surrounds Chuck is his home. He coats it with the full-armed technique of mural painting, something he was involved with for six years in the Barnstormers collective. He makes work near constantly - along the side of the highway, sitting the gallery during his exhibitions, or in a hotel room, where he recently got evicted and escorted from the premises for spilling paint on the desk and floor. When not creating, he is hungrily looking: at art in galleries or in the monographs stuffed into shelves of his studio at home. He curates often. Recently, he packed a gallery with small drawings by Picabia, Richard Tuttle, Mary Heilman and countless others. Soon, he will fill a space with devotional art by contemporary artists.

The works in this show by William Hawkins, Martin Ramirez, Marsden Hartley and Thornton Dial resonate with Chuck's sturdy, wooden, structural approach, and all of them have served as inspiration for his own paintings. He refers to these artists as "heroes," and he has spent considerable time poring over their works. They are his shelter. They are the foundation and building within which he constructs his own images. Under the roof of this gallery, his works and the work of his artistic architects can cohabitate.

Phyllis Crowley photo exhibit "Splash" reception Sat., Apr. 5, at City Gallery

noreply@blogger.com (Hank Hoffman) — Fri, 28 Mar 2014 17:03:00 +0000

City Gallery
994 State St., New Haven, (203) 782-2489
Phyllis Crowley: Splash
Apr. 3—27, 2014.
Opening Reception: Sat., Apr. 5, 2—5 p.m.

Press release from City Gallery

City Gallery presents Splash, Phyllis Crowley’s photographs of swimmers, pools and fountains from Apr. 3—27. The opening reception is on Sat., Apr. 5, from 2—5 p.m.

Crowley shows the joy and ebullience of human motion in water, with hints of the risks of staying under. The abstract images of water dripping and gushing from fountains and pools convey the beauty we see in this life force.


Phyllis Crowley: "Touching Bottom"

"Artist. Art Therapist" opens Fri., Apr. 4, at Sumner McKnight Crosby Jr. Gallery

noreply@blogger.com (Hank Hoffman) — Fri, 28 Mar 2014 12:00:00 +0000

Sumner McKnight Crosby Jr. Gallery
70 Audubon St., 2nd floor, New Haven, (203) 772-2788
Artist. Art Therapist
Apr. 3—May 9, 2014.
Artists' reception: Fri., Apr. 4, 5—7 p.m.

Press release from the Arts Council of Greater New Haven

The Arts Council of Greater New Haven presents Artist. Art Therapist in the Sumner McKnight Crosby Jr. Gallery at the Arts Council of Greater New Haven. Organized by Debbie Hesse, this exhibition will be on display from Thurs., Apr. 3, through Fri., May 9. Gallery hours are Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. A public reception is scheduled for Fri., Apr. 4, from 5 to 7 p.m.

Artist. Art Therapist looks at artwork created by art therapists and considers the relationship between these two different sides of the creative self. The exhibition aims to answer the following questions art therapists are faced with on a daily basis: How do the passion to help and the passion to create impact one’s own artistic output? How do they inform each other? As an artist and art therapist, how does one navigate between one’s private, meditative and public self—emotionally, physically and spiritually?

Regional and local art therapists are invited to present their work and share stories on the exhibition blog. To submit artwork visit artistarttherapist.wordpress.com, or contact Debbie Hesse at the Arts Council, (203) 772-2788.

Two openings at Gallery on the Green in Canton weekend of Mar. 22-23

noreply@blogger.com (Hank Hoffman) — Sat, 15 Mar 2014 17:21:00 +0000

Gallery on the Green
Corner of Dowd and Route 44, Canton, (860) 693-4102
Michelle Thomas: Small Wonders
Ruth Jacobson
Reception: Sat., Mar. 22, 6—9 p.m. Emerging Talent
Reception: Sun., Mar. 23, 2—5 p.m.
Mar. 21—Apr. 20, 2014.

Press release from Gallery on the Green

The Gallery on the Green in Canton will be presenting three new shows running from Mar. 21 through Apr 20.

Emerging Talent in the downstairs Founder’s Gallery features outstanding artwork done by regional high school juniors and seniors. The juror of this show is Noelle Croce, manager of Five-Points Gallery in Torrington. Students from high schools in Avon, Bloomfield, Canton, West Hartford, Simsbury, Farmington, Ethel Walker, The Master’s School, Miss Porter’s, Pathways Academy for Technology and Design and the Gilbert School will be participating in this show. The opening reception will be held on Sun., Mar. 23, from 2—5 p.m. Awards will be presented during the reception. A scholarship will be offered to a student in the exhibition whose work would qualify for admission to the Hartford Art School at the University of Hartford.

Michelle Thomas will be featured in the Spotlight Gallery with a show titled Small Wonders. Thomas focuses on the season of Spring as a time of renewal. She is inspired by images from nature, especially the butterfly. For her, the image of a butterfly represents transformation and renewal and is a symbol of hope. Her process for this show brings together different materials to create a transformative layering effect. She uses newspaper, tissue, watercolor and acrylic paint, graphite, pastel and ink to create a scaffold effect of moving in and through the elements. Her desire is to have you think about the process of creation, whether in art or in nature.


Michelle Thomas: "Butterfly 4"

Ruth Jacobson will be featured in the Upstairs Gallery. She describes her work as colors, energy and motion. Her goal is to capture depth and vibrancy by both layering colors and by placing them next to one another. "I want the viewer to see that light coming from within each person-to experience what I experience; the light, the vitality, the dignity in each of us and in all of nature."

The opening receptions for the Spotlight and Upstairs shows will be held on Sat., Mar. 22 from 6—9 p.m. and the public is warmly invited.

Lindroth photography exhibit opens at Giampietro Gallery on Orange Street Fri., Mar. 21

noreply@blogger.com (Hank Hoffman) — Thu, 13 Mar 2014 18:17:00 +0000

Giampietro Gallery—Works of Art
91 Orange St., New Haven, (203) 777-7760
Linda Lindroth: Recent Disturbances
Mar. 21—Apr. 19, 2014.
Reception: Fri., Mar. 21, 6—8 p.m.
Artists' Talk: Sat., Apr. 5, 2 p.m.
Press release from Giampietro Gallery

Fred Giampietro Gallery is pleased to announce an exhibition of new works by Linda Lindroth. This exhibition will be Lindroth’s second solo exhibition with the Gallery and is entitled Recent Disturbances. The shows will be on view from Mar. 21—Apr. 19 at the Orange Street location, with an opening reception on Fri., Mar. 21, from 6—8 p.m. and an artists' talk on Sat., Mar. 15, at 2 p.m.

Lindroth’s large-scale work utilizes vintage packaging and ephemera as a source. The artist manually manipulates, digitizes and prints these objects over-sized, creating a situation where they are taken out of context. All work is printed on archival Epson Hot Press Natural and presented allowing the paper to float in the frames.


Linda Lindroth: "Tower"

Lindroth’s artworks are included in many important public collections including the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the High Museum in Atlanta, the Princeton University Art Gallery, and the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris. She has won numerous grants and prizes including ones from the Connecticut Commission on the Arts, the Foundation for Contemporary Performance Art, The National Endowment for the Arts, The New England Foundation for the Arts, and the Architecture League of New York. She earned her Master of Fine Arts degree from Rutgers University and is an adjunct professor at Quinnipiac University.

ArtSpot! happy hour networking event in New Haven to resume Thurs., Mar. 27

noreply@blogger.com (Hank Hoffman) — Thu, 13 Mar 2014 16:41:00 +0000

Arts Council of Greater New Haven
70 Audubon St., 2nd floor, New Haven, (203) 772-2788
ArtSpot
Mar. 27, 2014 at Fred Giampietro Gallery at Erector Square.

Press release from the Arts Council of Greater New Haven

The Arts Council of Greater New Haven is happy to announce the return of ArtSpot! The art inspired happy hour will kick off on Thurs., Mar. 27, from 5:30—7:30 p.m. at Fred Giampietro Gallery, 315 Peck Street in New Haven, CT. It is the first of a series of seasonal events. On view in the gallery will be artwork by Richard Lytle and Blinn Jacobs. Join us for a night of art, live jazz, drinks and mingling. Tickets are $10 for Arts Council members and $15 for non-members. Ticket includes two free drinks and refreshments.

For nearly 6 years ArtSpot! served as a regular monthly event for business professionals at various New Haven arts institutions before it ended in 2008. The events provided a wonderful way for the community to discover the arts, meet new friends and make a few lasting memories.

Our goal for the new ArtSpot! is to host the event once per season to help foster conversations about art, inspire professional and artistic collaborations and to provide a great and exciting event that the entire New Haven community can be part of. Check out our ArtSpot! article on the new #ARTNHV Blog.

"Slight of Hand" reception this evening, Thurs., Mar. 13, at Seton Art Gallery

noreply@blogger.com (Hank Hoffman) — Thu, 13 Mar 2014 16:27:00 +0000

Seton Art Gallery at the University of New Haven
Doods Hall, University of New Haven, 300 Boston Post Rd., West Haven, (203) 931-6065
Slight of Hand
Through Mar. 21, 2014.
Reception: Thurs., Mar. 13, 6—8 p.m.; (Preceded by and concurrent with bake sale from 2—8 p.m.)

Press release from Seton Art Gallery

The group exhibit Slight of Hand will be marked by a reception this evening, Thurs., Mar. 13, from 6—8 pm. In the Seton Art Gallery at the University of New Haven. A bake sale will begin at 2 p.m. in the gallery and run through the reception. Participating artists are Geoffrey Detrani, Rachel Hellerich, Debbie Hesse, Jeanne Heifetz, Tim Nikiforuk and Rachel A. Vaters-Carr.

Intended to be a play on words: slight, refers to modest, handmade gestures that form interplays of spatial configurations. When wnvisioning space in the mind's eye, memories fade and certain details come into focus. Often our memory of particular space conflicts with physical rules, and the mind has a unique way of imposing elements from one space with those of another. Whether those space recall chaos theories, explore organic matter, and/or expose socio-political histories, each participating artist addresses his and her own spatial perceptions.


Jeanne Heifetz: "Working the Line 7"

From the layered abstractions of Geoffrey Detrani to the iconic geysers and volcanoes of Rachel A. Vaters-Carr, this exhibit attempts to capture spaces that are familiar but vaguely distant. Rachel Hellerich's detailed paintings draw on a variety of architectural references from German WWII style structures to Islamic patterns, depicting representational and embellished spaces. Debbie Hesse assembles plant matter with plastic and foam, alluding to the fragile balance between humans and nature. Jeanne Heifetz works with quartzite, bronze, zinc, nickel and wax to generate sinuous lines that recall ridges and other natural formations. Tim Nikiforuk, University of New Haven Art and Design faculty member, references biological entities and systems through condensed layering. Through line, pattern and textured surfaces, the artists in Slight of Hand employ highly crafted techniques that are subtle yet evocative.

"White Whale" opens at Pongratz Fine Art in Glastonbury Mar. 14

noreply@blogger.com (Hank Hoffman) — Thu, 06 Mar 2014 20:23:00 +0000

Pongratz Fine Art
51 Trumbull Street, New Haven39 New London Tpk., Glastonbury, (860) 430-1559
White Whale
Mar. 14—Apr. 20, 2014
Ribbon Cutting Ceremony: Fri., Mar. 14, Noon.
Reception: Fri., Mar. 14, 8—11 p.m.

Press release from Pongratz Fine Art

White Whale is the grand opening group exhibition for Pongratz Fine Art, the fruition of artist Jacob Pongratz’s Successful Kickstarter crowd sourcing campaign. Pongratz Fine Art is the first contemporary gallery in Glastonbury CT located at the freshly reimagined Glen Lochen Center.

The show focuses on contemporary works by artists from the NY and CT areas. In Pongratz’s words, "What white whale means to me is the single minded determination to obtain an almost unreachable goal, in regards to my journey, as well as the artists I represent."

Artists: Michelle Asfalg, Anne Bjorkland, John Downing Bonafede, Scott Cousins, Jackie Allen Doucot, Richard Falco, Josh Jayne, Phil Lique, Laura Marsh, Ted Mikulski, CJ Nye, Elisa Pritzker, Ted Salmon, Susan Stiller, David Taylor and Dwight Teal.

A Ribbon Cutting Ceremony hosted by the Glastonbury Chamber of Commerce will be held prior to the Grand Opening White Whale Reception on Fri., Mar. 14, at noon.

Juried "How Simple Can You Get?" show opens Friday at Creative Arts Workshop

noreply@blogger.com (Hank Hoffman) — Sun, 02 Mar 2014 20:41:00 +0000

Creative Arts Workshop Hilles Gallery
80 Audubon St., New Haven, (203) 562-4927
How Simple Can You Get: Hillary Charnas, Rebecca Murtaugh
Mar. 7—Apr. 3, 2014.
Opening reception: Fri., Mar. 7, 5—7 p.m.

Press release from Creative Arts Workshop

Creative Arts Workshop (CAW) presents new work by Hillary Charnas (Glastonbury, CT) and Rebecca Murtaugh (Brooklyn, NY), prizewinners of the 2013 juried exhibition How Simple Can You Get? Robert Storr, Professor of Painting and Dean of the School of Art at Yale University, served as juror. The Prizewinners show will be on view in CAW’s Hilles Gallery from Mar.7 to Apr. 3, 2014. An opening reception is scheduled for Fri., Mar. 7 from 5—7 pm. The public is invited to attend.

The juror’s intent for the exhibition from which he chose Charnas and Murtaugh, was to assemble a collection of artwork in which "complexity has been reduced to its most essential and visually arresting expression." Open to any visual media, the juried show ultimately included pieces that ranged from minimalist forms to intricate constructions.

Multimedia artist Hillary Charnas presents a selection of work from her series In A New Light, a collection of photographs that feature found objects reimagined and resurrected into two-dimensional abstract forms. It appears to the viewer that the artist has discovered and examined overlooked and neglected items that might once have occupied a place of belonging. By depicting the objects as specimens, Charnas has stripped away the ephemeral nature of familiarity, leaving the audience with images to decipher as they will.


Hillary Charnas: "Stanton Twins"

Rebecca Murtaugh will exhibit a collection of sculptures from her project entitled Alluring Repulsions. The three-dimensional abstract forms are created using a variety of materials and techniques that draw from both painting and sculpture. Murtaugh describes her interest "in alchemy and the history of objects and materials for their transformative potential… improvisation and intuition drive my actions along with a strong desire and consideration of beauty, form and color." Similar to themes in Charnas' work, Murtaugh gives discarded materials a new life. With titles like "Aequalis: Sunburst and Russian Violet" and "Stand: Regatta and Reflecting Pool," the artist’s non-representational sculptures offer particular references from which the viewer can engage on an aesthetic and intellectual level.


Rebecca Murtaugh: "Aperture: Rain and Cool Lava"

Concurrent with Prizewinners: Hillary Charnas | Rebecca Murtaugh, the Creative Works Gallery will feature two exhibitions. Detroit Dalliance is a collection of photographs by Bart Connors Szczarba, on display from Mar. 7 through 21. An opening reception will be held on Mar. 7 from 5 to 7 pm. Following will be an exhibition sponsored by Susan Foshauer, featuring the work of multiple artists working across a variety of mediums. This group show will be on display from Mar. 28 through Apr. 11. The opening reception will take place on Mar. 28 from 5—7 pm.