Art events this Saturday

RCR Design center
91 Main St., Norwich, (860) 887-2789
Robert Rauschenberg, Artist-Citizen: Posters for a Better World
Feb. 10—Apr. 22, 2007
Opening celebration: Sat., Feb. 10, noon.

Press release

Beginning Sat., Feb. 10, the Rose City Renaissance-The Norwich Main Street Program in cooperation with the Norwich Arts Council will be the final host of Robert Rauschenberg, Artist-Citizen: Posters for a Better World, a traveling Smithsonian Institution exhibition. The show features 17 lithographs created between 1969 and 1996 addressing a wide range of social, political concerns affecting domestic and international communities. Rauschenberg's posters promote the organizations involved with issues like nuclear disarmament, apartheid, social justice and environmental protection.

Rauschenberg is one of the most influential and innovative artits of the 20th century, working with all media to challenge ideas about painting and picture-making. This show highlights his later work using printmaking and collage, and reflects his commitment to the role of artist-activist.

The exhibition was developed by the University Art Gallery of California State University, Hayward, and organized for travel by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service. All of the works are on loan from the collection of the artist.

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John Slade Ely House Center for Contemporary Art
51 Trumbull Street, New Haven, (203) 624-8055
Breaking The Silence: Works by Imna Arroyo
Jan. 28—Mar. 4, 2007
Artist talk, Sat. Feb. 10, 2 p.m.

The John Slade Ely House is pleased to present in collaboration with the New Haven Public School's Comprehensive Arts Program, Breaking The Silence: Works by Imna Arroyo. Ms. Arroyo holds an MFA from Yale University and is currently Professor of Art at Eastern Connecticut State University. Ms. Arroyo focuses on visualizing her identity, drawing on her indigenous and African Caribbean heritage. Utilizing multi-media, sculpture, and large scale hanging prints, Ms. Arroyo creates powerful and engaging works that address the Middle Passage slave trade and the spirit of her ancestors.

Imna Arroyo will give an artist's talk about her show this Sat., Feb. 10, at 2 p.m.

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Azoth Gallery
224 College St., New Haven, (203) 777-5400
Woman is The Bearer of Peace: Visionary Abstract Paintings by Jeanmarie Conlon
Feb. 3—Mar. 9, 2007
Artist's Reception: Sat., Feb. 10, 2:30—4:30 p.m.

Press release

"I am an Abstract Artist working in oils, watercolors and sculpture," says Jeanmarie Conlon. "Most important is my own vision. My art is an expression of feelings using shapes, forms and colors as a visual language. I have been painting since I was a child while absorbing myself in the freedom of the outdoors: the wind, light, color and sound. My art is a free expression of creative spirituality, capturing all the senses. I believe that true art is an expression of the soul, free and untouched.

Conlon is a self-taught artist whose work has been exhibited in New York, California, Vermont, and Connecticut as part of group shows as well as one-woman shows.

Jeanmarie Conlon's work has also been recently displayed in Kids Benefit at the Branford Public Library; Women in Transformation at the Brandon Gallery, Madison, CT; and in many solo shows, including: Circle of Hope at the Rio Restaurant, Guilford, CT; Morning Gallery, Woodbury, CT; Peace Will Come at the Waiting Station, Branford; Illumination CafÈ Grounded , Guilford; Peacemaker at France L'Amerique, Madison; and at the Playhouse-on-the-Green Gallery, Bridgeport.

"As an artist, my vision is a tapestry of one peace and one dream. They are one and the same. Through painting, my vision is a call to peace. I believe through a woman's heart peace will come."

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Artspace
50 Orange St, New Haven, (203) 772-2709
Why Look At Animals?
Feb. 3—Mar. 31, 2007
Opening reception: Feb. 10, 6—8 p.m. (preceded by a discussion with the artists at 5 p.m.)

Press release

Why Look At Animals? is a fascinating collection of works examining the relationship between humans and animals. Featuring the work of wide-ranging painters, sculptors, photographers and video artists, the show strikes an intriguing balance between the real and imagined. Equal parts zoo, natural history museum, and art show, the exhibition takes John Berger's seminal text of the same name, Why Look At Animals?, and hopes to answer this question, as much as it seeks to invite it.

A tank of live specimens from the Long Island Sound in New Haven welcomes visitors upon entrance, collected by Brandon Ballangée, an internationally exhibiting artist whose interests lie in research technology, biology, and art. Sam Easterson's "Bird Cams" provide the opportunity to see the world from a literal birds-eye view: footage obtained by strapping tiny video cameras to the heads of a duck, chick, turkey, and other birds. Catherine Chalmers' photographs of disabled mice bred specifically for scientific study show human-animal relationships in yet another realm. Then there are examples of the influence of animals on the human imagination: fantastical hybrids as in "Bear Studies," a series of photographs by Los Angeles-based artist Carlee Fernandez, and "She-wolf" watercolor paintings by Amy Ross. The exhibition's other artists include: Guy Ben-Ner, Alexis Brown, Catherine Chalmers, Kate Clark, Sam Easterson, J. Henry Fair, Carlee Fernandez, Jill Greenberg, Mary Kenny, Joshua Levine, Amy Jean Porter, Amy Ross, and Pawel Wojtasik.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a brochure, with text written by Ginger Strand. A writer based in New York, Strand has published works in Harper's, The Believer, The Iowa Review, The Gettysburg Review, Swink, Raritan, The New England Review, and Carolina Quarterly. Strand recently published the article "Why Look At Fish?," a meditation on the Aquarium in The Believer and is currently working on a book about Niagara Falls.

Also opening on Feb. will be: Insook Huang: Wonder City an installation of large drawings and ceiling hung sculptures in the Artspace Lounge; Meredith Miller's Skin, a series of photos examining the traces of clothing left behind on skin in the Flatfile; and Traci Talasco: How You Seduce Me, a project exploring how marketing becomes a form of seduction.

The opening reception will be Feb. 10, 6—8 p.m. following an artist talk at 5 p.m. On Feb. 17, Artspace teen docents will give a one hour guided tour starting at 3 p.m. On Mar. 22, join curator Denise Markonish as she discusses her reasons behind the subject and artists of the exhibition.