No•Mad II art show opening Saturday in Hartford

No•Mad
1429 Park St., Hartford
The Hartford Second Annual Contemporary Art Exhibition No•mad II
Oct. 6-286, 2008
Exhibition opening Sat., Oct. 6, 3—6 p.m.

Press release

No•mad is the large annual contemporary art exhibition in Hartford at the heart of New England. We provide a field that crosses innovative emerging artists and their audience to create a new discourse between New York and Boston. Our organization is a sort of fluid, not bound at any moment, location or purpose. In a broader sense, we are a catalyst for community through contemporary art. We embrace not only the Art community but also engage the business one as well in order to work together and create a mutually beneficial environment and enrich our culture. Our goal is, through seeking an alternative approach to contemporary art and community, to provide spaces and opportunities for both artist and audience as vital cultural resources in New England.

The Hartford Second Annual Contemporary Art Exhibition No•mad II is curated and organized by Maria Gabriela Galarza-Block and Hirokazu Fukawa. The exhibition combines installations, sculptures, paintings, photographs, drawings, performance art, mixed media and video installations.

The 22 artists participating are: Linda Abadjian, Greg Bailey, Emily Cappa, Joe Dal Pra, Sam Ekwurtzel, Sarah Foley, Hirokazu Fukawa, Gene Gort, Maria Gabriela Galarza-Block, Larissa Hall, Ann Holley, Steven Holmes, Ian Keoppen, Adam Mac Hose, Sam McKinniss, Colin McMullan, Kristina Newman-Scott, Rebecca Parker, Caleb Portfolio, Dave Sinaguglia, Ari Tabei, Matthew Weber. The venue for this event is the 2nd Floor of 1429 Park Street in Parkville, Hartford, CT.

The exhibition opening will take place Sat., Oct. 6, 2007 from 3—6 p.m. and will include a live music performance by the Yusuke Imanishi Quartet. A closing event will be held Sun., Oct. 28, 2007 from 3—6 p.m. For more artist and exhibition information, and to learn about upcoming gallery talks, please visit the event website at www.sodoproject.com.

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I spoke with Gabriela Galarza-Block Wednesday evening about the upcoming show. No•Mad is an outgrowth of a number of smaller shows over the past few years. One of those shows, called Red Brick Revolution and curated by Galarza-Block three years ago, featured about seven or eight artists with Parkville studios and was held on the 1st floor of 1429 Park St. Galarza-Block invited University of Hartford Prof. Hirokazu Fukawa to co-curate No•Mad with her last year. They invited more of the artists they knew, making the exhibition more of an event.

"The purpose is to show local artists that are here in Hartford and are around Connecticut," said Galarza-Block.

But the show also resonates in ways that those of us familiar with the impact of New Haven's City-Wide Open Studios would recognize. Galarza-Block, who is a painter but also works for the Parkville Business Association, believes that "through art we can change places for the better and have influence. It's another voice inside the community." Staging art shows in the distressed Parkville neighborhood can attract visitors who might not otherwise venture there (whether the concerns are justified or merely based on stereotyped fears fed by sensationalist media). Local building owners see art as a different way to showcase buildings like 1429 Park Street and potentially attract tenants.

The name No•Mad implies having no fixed address and Galarza-Block said the intention was to have this year's show in a different location from last year's. But it is in the same space.

"We were planning to move but the place is so gorgeous that we needed to be there again," she told me. But, she added, there is only natural lighting in the exhibition space. "That's why we're having the opening from 3—6 p.m. I hope it's sunny!"

They broadened the list of exhibiting artists by asking returning participants to recommend others. Galarza-Block and Fukawa also did research through the Connecticut Commission on the Arts to choose artists.

"Last year's focus was on having more installation art because we saw there was a need to show more of that in Hartford," said Galarza-Block. "This year we're having installations, traditional sculpture, traditional painting and untraditional. We'll have a mix of what art is."