Artspace opening Thursday night

Artspace
50 Orange St, New Haven, (203) 772-2709
Summer exhibition series
Through Aug. 9, 2008
Opening Reception: Thurs., May 15, 6—8 p.m., preceded by an artist talk at 5 p.m.

Press release

Artspace is pleased to announce our summer exhibitions on view from May 15 through August 9, 2008. The opening reception will be held Thursday, May 15, 2008 from 6—8 p.m., following an artist talk at 5 p.m.

• Pretty Things: Confronting Sensuousness

This exhibition explores the role of sensuousness in contemporary art. Ten artists employ diverse materials in innovative ways to entice us with artworks that project a seductive allure. While exploring the potential of rich colors, patterns, and surfaces, these works also promote unexpected encounters with subject matter that ranges from the attractions of consumer products to the realms of biography, science, and geopolitics. In Gallery 1, view the work of Kelly Bigelow Becerra (Web), Phyllis Bramson (Web), Mia Brownell, Oliver Herring, Grant Lincoln Johnston (Web), Joyce Kozloff, Christi Rinklin (Web), Ben Weiner (Web). In Gallery 2 view the work of Jane Rainwater and Cheryl Yun.

• In Case of Loss Please Return to Paradise: An installation by Fredo Conde

On view in Gallery 3, Conde combines painting, drawing and sculpture to collectively form a narrative. The work is the product of Conde's disillusionment with the excesses of consumerism and subsequent regression into escapism. Conde's mixed media installation chronicles a fabricated utopia guarded from the advances of consumption and its susceptibility to inevitable fragmentation.

• Put Together

Last fall Jeffrey Walkowiak, Director of the Sara Meltzer Gallery in New York, visited over 400 artist studios during Artspace's City-Wide Open Studios Festival 2007. His selection of five artists articulate concurrent and relevant issues in today's art world. In Galleries 4, 5 and 7 view the work of: Brian Huff, Phil Lique, Kari Britta Lorensen, Drew Nemetz, and Dorothy Powers.

• Things I've Seen

Student Curator Simeon Durham, of the Hyde Leadership Academy, selected the work of two artists from the Artspace Flatfile, Robert Knight (Web) and Andrew Hogan, for his exhibition, Things I've Seen, on view in Gallery 6. Robert Knight's colorful photographs playfully expose the personal space of the bedroom. Andrew Hogan pushes the standards of lighting practices in documentary photography in his series, 12 Images of New Haven at Dusk and After.