Real Art Ways Shadow Show opens Saturday

Real Art Ways
56 Arbor St., Hartford, (860) 232-1006
Shadow Show
Oct. 27, 2007—Feb. 3, 2008
Opening reception: Sat., Oct. 27, 6—8 p.m.

Press release

Edmund Burke:
"Poetry is the art of substantiating shadows, and of lending existence to nothing."

Real Art Ways opens its new group exhibition, entitled Shadow Show, from 6—8pm. The opening is free and the general public is invited.

Shadow Show includes work by 16 artists, many from Providence, Rhode Island, and others from Connecticut and New York. The exhibition will explore a range of associations with the word and idea of "shadow." Included will be work in which physical shadows either play an integral part, or the ideas of shadow, as in tail, trace, surveille, mystery, memory and longing, are explored. The exhibition will work on multiple levels, addressing visual mystery, but also hidden systems in society.

Co-curated by Rhode Island artist Elizabeth Keithline, who originated the idea, and Real Art Ways' Director of Visual Arts, Kristina Newman-Scott, Shadow Show includes painting, sculpture, video, new media, installation, and performance art.

Keithline conceived of the show after noticing a trend among her colleagues of engaging the notion of traces, things that are left behind, and things that are half-hidden. Keithline's mesh sculptures are the remnants of combustible items wrapped in wire and then set ablaze. Jennifer Perry makes "drawings" by weaving her own hair into paper, leaving behind a trace of the artist in the art object itself. Sam Ekwurtzel compiles images of televisions from eBay, wherein the seller's reflection and that of their living room is faintly visible on the photographed screen. Olu Oguibe's "Buggy: Memorial to Unknown Child" explores memory, death, longing and justice through the lens of personal experience. Artist Duncan Laurie and electrical engineer Gordon Salisbury capture and amplify sound signals found naturally in plants and minerals, giving viewers access to otherwise hidden energies.

Participating artists include William Allen, Bert Crenca, Tim Doherty, Samuel Ekwurtzel, Erik Gould, Richard Goulis, Mary Paula Hunter, Elizabeth Keithline, Duncan Laurie, William Lamson, Robin Mandel, Rupert Nesbitt, Jennifer Perry, Olu Oguibe, Gordon Salisbury and Barbara Westermann.