IN THE PRESS

Here’s some o'the news stories of the past week on Connecticut artists and museum showings:

DEAD BIRDS

On February 25 The Hartford Courant ran an article on Randall Nelson of Willington called "Road Kill Silenced: An artist's take on disappearing bird species runs afoul of state and federal laws." The article by Stephanie Summers starts:

“Willington artist Randall Nelson thought that he was making a provocative yet pro-migratory bird statement when he dyed dead birds and put them on display during an open weekend show at Stafford’s town hall in early February.

“Nelson couldn’t have seen the flock of trouble coming, even with
binoculars.

“Thinking that Nelson had killed the birds, which were actually victims of cats and cars, viewers left anonymous notes calling him vile’ and notified town authorities, who ordered the exhibit covered up.

“Then the state Department of Environmental Protection swooped in….”

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A few days later The Hartford Courant also posted an editorial saying that Nelson's

"satirical exhibit ‘Catch and Release’ was meant to make a statement about the gradual loss of cherished bird species in Connecticut. Instead, it exposed the misplaced enforcement priorities of the state Department of Environmental Protection.”

Mr. Nelson's Satire 2/26/08

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More art exploring "the dark side" of the relationships between humans and birds can be found at the University of Connecticut in Storrs and Trinity College in Hartford. See Steve Grant's article, also in The Hartford Courant, for more information about the exhibits and the topic in general.

"The Birds That Used To Be Glorious Birds: Exhibits Measure What We've Lost In Our Relationships With Nature" 2/28/08

Exhibits:

“Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang”: Bird Extinctions Around the World Since 1600 Sponsored by Watkinson Library, Trinity College

Ornithology Contemporary Art Galleries, University of Connecticut

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ARTISTS AND ARCHITECTURE

e-flux has posted a press release for an upcoming show at the Aldrich called Painting the Glass House: Artists Revisit Modern Architecture.

Part of the exhibit is also currently up at the Yale Art and Architecture Gallery. According to that gallery's website,

“'Painting the Glass House' invites the viewer to consider the impact that “Masters of the Modern” (such as Le Corbusier, Philip Johnson, Mies van der Rohe and Frank Lloyd Wright) have had on a new generation...In two-dimensional works of various media (including video), the artists featured in the exhibition explore both the utopian ideas expressed by Modern architecture and the passing idealism that Modern architecture now embodies. The show will feature works by Alexander Apostol, Daniel Arsham, Gordon Cheung, David Claerbout, Angela Dufresne, Mark Dziewulski, Christine Erhard, Cyprien Gaillard, Terence Gower, Angelina Gualdoni, Natasha Kissell, Luisa Lambri, Dorit Margreiter, Russell Nachman, Enoc Perez, and Lucy Williams."

The Yale exhibit is designed by Dean Sakamoto, and the Aldrich curators are Jessica Hough and Mónica Ramírez-Montagut.

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ALSO AT YALE:

Tracey O'Shaughnessy of the the Republican-American reported on February 23 that Yale Center for British Art will 'Lure' you in with its most recent exhibit

(i.e. The Lure of the East: British Orientalist Painting, 1830-1925)

O'Shaughnessy writes:

"'The Lure of the East' is one of a series of British exhibits devoted to the re-evaluation of the country's imperial past. Already, the Yale Center for British Art has examined British colonization of Jamaica, its hegemony in India and, next month, England's first brush with America. Great Britain seems currently engaged in a kind of mass penance for past colonial sins. Whether that expiation makes for a good art exhibit is debatable. But it certainly makes for a fascinating, and indeed, heroic, history lesson."

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Lastly, two articles on the Yale Art Gallery's exhibition "Making It New: The Art and Style of Sara and Gerald Murphy":

Gallery Explores America's First Performance Artists Allen Appel New Haven Independent 2/26/08

and

"The Art of Friendship: Yale Exhibit On Stylish 1920s Couple Captures Spirit Of The Lost Generation" Frank Rizzo Hartford Courant 2/22/08