Size Matters

December 10, 2009 - January 10, 2010

A group show with more than 100 works by 22 artists.  A portion of the proceeds from this exhibition will benefit that Child  Life and Enrichment Program at Yale-New Haven Children's Hospital.  Featured artists include: Joseph Adolphe, Amy Browning, Frank Bruckman, Jason Buening, Susan Clinard, Rod Cook, Emilia Dubicki, Matthew Garrett, Lisa Hess Hesselgrave, Blinn Jacobs, Keith Johnson, William Kent, Gigi Horr Liverant, William McCarthy, Lawrence Morelli, Edith Borax Morrison, Hank Paper, Joseph Saccio, Deirdra Schiffer, Alan Shulik, Gar Waterman and Marjorie Wolfe.

Overtones Undertones

Paintings by Blinn Jacobs & Photographs by Marjorie Wolfe

November 5 - December 6, 2009

Overtones Undertones  is quietly intellectual, vividly visual - a continuum from both artists on repetition, abstraction, and inspiration.  Jacobs’s monochromatic surfaces are overtones of color with undertones of subtly incised lines.  Seen in series, colors and lines reverberate with depth and delicacy.  Overtones of mystery and abstraction permeate Wolfe’s serial image photographs. The photographs have a formal composition but allow for her slightly skewed world view and play between the abstract and familiar. 

Live music at the Artist's Reception by Bob Giannotti. Artists’ Talk: Sunday, November 15, 2:30 p.m.

Affinities

Joseph Adolphe & Amy Browning

October 1 - November 1, 2009 

Adolphe’s works are narrative, with exquisite draughtsmanship and color. Each image exists for itself, and also as a “piece of a psychological self-portrait midway in its development.”  Browning’s paintings are impressionist and abstract. Her rich textural surfaces, and explorations of color and shape are informed by her “what if” search for unexpected landscape.  Affinities is a painters’ show with mutual respect, unique thought-filled processes, and evidence from both of the articulate and accomplished painters’ hand.

Scene/Seen

Rod Cook & William McCarthy

August 29 - September 29, 2009

Scene/Seen is about landscape both observed and invented. Cook’s platinum palladium photographs are an ethereal and earthy documentation of environment. McCarthy paints atmospheric landscapes in glowing oils, imaginary, yet entirely real. Together these artists throw open the genres of landscape/nature by evoking an intimacy and recognition of their subject while balancing on the edge of other worldly.  Artist Talk, September 16th 7 PM.

Relevant Irreverence

Prints and Sculpture of William Kent

July 9 – August 23, 2009

Image: Hand carved slate prints and wood sculpture, created over 40+ years in his CT studio.

William “Bill” Kent is a remarkable artist whose work chronicles mid to late 20thC politics and culture, yet remains thoughtful, provocative, and humorous in the 2009 arenas of sex, politics, and pop-culture. Kent’s sculptures are a master class in woodcarving and form, making banal objects elegant, satirical and uniquely his own.

No Constraints

Emilia Dubicki & Edith Borax Morrison

June 4 – July 5, 2009 

Emilia Dubicki’s paintings are inspired by nature and abstraction seen in the environment. The work contains a visual blurring between the physical or material world and a more personal world of mind and spirit. Dubicki joins what can be seen with what is felt and imagined – allowing the outer world to serve as metaphor for her internal landscapes.

Edith Borax Morrison identifies with the mythological mortal Arachne, who condemned for her great skills, is transformed into an endlessly weaving spider. Borax Morrison is compelled, pen in hand, to endlessly weaving configurations of free flowing images. “Pen weaving” from blank page,a process that generates and defines her work, she maintains access to the unconscious alongside constant assessment of composition and emotional response.

No Constraints defines an attitude, a self motivating creative directive and its results. Neither artist is without structure or intention in their abstract images – still Dubicki and Borax Morrison revel in a certain freedom. Unstressed discipline, intellectual curiosity, and a joyful compulsion to work are evident in this exhibition of abstract art.

Artists Talk: Emilia and Edith – two views, no constraints on Thursday, June 18, 7pm; meet the artists and join the conversation.  Poetry Reading: Charlotte Currier reads from her latest collection, Shadow and Light. Signed copies available.  Sunday, June 28, 3pm.

Paper Wood and Bone
Susan Clinard & Alexis Brown

April 30 - May 31, 2009

Susan Clinard’s sculpture expresses a strong affinity with nature and a compassionate connection with humanity. Whether sculpting from life forms in resin and terra cotta or carving wood, she strives to reveal nature’s truths – the duality of chaos against perfect symmetry. Her inspiration is often in life cycles. “I am continually humbled by how people find inner strength; the breathe to continue living and loving even when conditions seem unbearable.” Over the past decade, Clinard has moved from sculpting figures for the figure’s sake to experimentation with a wider range of materials; primarily found natural objects. This integration has simplified her forms and figurative elements. The resulting sculpture is open to the intuitive and interpretive response of an audience, rather than the single narrative intention of the artist. The work draws on and layers nature’s puzzles with personal and political themes of inherently deep emotion.

Alexis Brown draws and paints animals as objects. Much like a taxidermist she asks, “ how can I recover the essence and vitality of an animal that is implied, what is absent in skeleton and present only in skin?” She favors careful proportions, gestural aspect, and the implied movement of open lines. Drawn, painted, etched and printed, the animals move from object to subject as attitude overlays draftsmanship. This deliberate anthropomorphic manipulation by Brown invites the viewer to look more carefully at what is human as well as animal.

Paper Wood Bone is an exploration of nature’s forms – animal and human, distorted and perfect, found and inspired. Clinard and Brown share a mastery of their individual crafts and mediums and present a thrilling emotional tour of nature’s truths. Here are the fine lines between human and animal behavior, art reflective of life which contains the ugly and the beautiful without interruption.

Sneak Preview: Press, collectors, and artists – get a first viewing of Paper Wood Bone on Wednesday in Westville, April 29 – 5-7 p.m.  Artist Talks: Susan Clinard & Alexis Brown: technique, process, personal vision – how it all comes together, on Sunday, May 17, 2:30pm.

Breaking the Surface: Painting and Sculpture

Gar Waterman, James Prosek & Susannah Waterman

April 1 - 25, 2009

This exhibition looks at the marine environment through the eyes of three New England artists. New York Times bestselling author /artist James Prosek will exhibit paintings of real and imagined marine creatures. His images are finely rendered in watercolor, color pencil and graphite, and he is well known for his natural science art as well as childrens’ book illustration.

A lifetime of diving with father and pioneer underwater filmmaker Stan Waterman inspires Susannah Waterman’s painted fish on wood panels and beach combed crustacean assemblages, as well as New Haven sculptor Gar Waterman’s luscious forms of shells, nudibranchs, and squid carved in marble and onyx.

A percentage of the artwork sold from this show will be donated to the Penobscot East Resource Center, a nationally recognized marine and fisheries conservation group that works to balance sustainable fishing with the environment.

HYPERLINK "http://www.penobscoteast.org/about.asp" www.penobscoteast.org/about.asp

Sneak Preview: Tuesday, March 31 – 6-8pm- press, collectors, and artists – get a first viewing of Breaking the Surface.  Westville Wednesday Film: April 15, 7:30 p.m. “The Man Who Loves Sharks”, a Discovery Channel Special about the remarkable life of underwater film maker Stan Waterman, his family, and the underwater world that has inspired him for over 60 years.  Gar Waterman - Sculptor: Artist Dialogue, Sunday, April 19, 2:30pm.

Vanishing Points

Alan Shulik & Bob Gianotti

March 2009

Bob Gianotti and Alan Shulik are photographers working in the genre of landscape photography over many years - each on an individual journey.  When Gianotti photographs, his ego vanishes. Ice forms are rendered in beautiful silver gelatin tonalities. He composes abstract universes of motion formed from the ring-residua of cut-down tree trunks, fungal forms, and semi-frozen water droplets. Nature is captured as hyper-real, other wordly, and inviting.

Shulik’s vanishing points portray traditional landscape or interiors as well as conceptual imagery. He is drawn to faraway and desolate locations, rooftop views of ancient towns, and existential landscapes where people seem to disappear into their surroundings.  Shulik’s photographs are of people and places in Connecticut, Martha’s Vineyard and Pennsylvania, with new work shot in Tuscany and Sicily (October, ’08), and the border towns of West Texas (March, ’08).  

In this exhibition of selected new works, Shulik and Gianotti suggest Vanishing Points not only as an element of composition or perspective, but a visual and illusive opportunity. The power of these photographs allow the viewer to vanish his or her sense of personal reality for a brief and pleasurable moment, or perhaps, a longer mesmerizing visit. 

Sneak Preview Reception, March 4, Wednesday, 6-8 p.m.  KLG Movie Night –March 18, Wednesday, 7:30p.m. special screening of The Vanishing Point, a blend of  art film, road trip, and cult classic with gorgeous cinematography across the American West, social commentary on post Woodstock American, and handpicked by our own Hank Paper. It’s a Wednesday in Westville! $5 donation recommended, light refreshments for sale, call to reserve seats. 389-9555

Impromptu Music to accompany the Artists' Reception, March 22, Sunday 6 p.m – 8p.m.. live performance by photographer and musician Bob Gianotti. Accoustic guitar originals to dance party covers. Bob plays it all. Stay to listen, sing, and dance along.

Transformative

Keith Johnson & Joseph Saccio

 January 24 - March 1, 2009