Reunion show rocks Hull's Gallery One Whitney

Hull's Gallery One Whitney
1 Whitney Ave., New Haven, (203) 907-0320
3 After 30: Roberta Friedman, Natalie Melbardis, David Millen with guest Maishe Dickman
Through July 9, 2009.

As Part I of the Hull's Gallery One Whitney "Summer Salon," the venue is hosting 3 After 30. It is a reunion show of sorts, featuring three artists—Roberta Friedman, Natalie Melbardis and David Millen—who exhibited together 30 years ago at a Whitney Avenue gallery. There is also an installation piece and several vessels by guest artist and master potter Maishe Dickman.

Friedman is represented by a number of wonderful watercolor collages. These new works have roots in her earlier watercolors. One of those older pieces, "Autumn Reflections" from 1979, is a serenely fluid depiction of orange, red and golden leaves on a pond surface.

Stepping three decades ahead finds Friedman still preoccupied with landscape but approaching it with a richer and more experimental aesthetic. "Tanzania Vista" (2009) is typical of her contemporary approach. Instead of painting a straightforward watercolor of the scene (shore, jungle, mountains in the distance), Friedman layers pieces, strips, fragments of watercolor-painted paper, some of which looks handmade. This approach creates a vibrant surface that better captures the feel of nature—unruly, wild and beautiful.

David Millen, who I have written about previously, is showing several of his smaller scale figurative sculptures (as well as some porcelain vessels). Millen's sculptures are characterized by the grace of the interaction between his troupe of dancers, gymnasts and circus aerialists. Miller, with most of these, is working with marbleized epoxy resin to create his figures. They are mounted on a steel base. "Forming a Circle" features three figures. Two males (one standing on his hands) hold a woman up in the air. There is a strong visual circularity to the composition, flowing from the way Millen directs the energy from figure to figure (as though they are swimming after each other). This illusion of movement is accented by the swirling color of the smooth, marbleized surface.

Melbardis' pieces are the most disparate selection in the show, encompassing black and white collages, color collages in quilt-like geometric patterns and a couple of acrylic on paper paintings that combine Pollockesque density with a controlled intricacy of execution.

There are several beautiful pieces of stoneware by Dickman in the show, particularly the stunning "16-Tile Wall Piece."

Thursday evening opening at Parachute Gallery in Erector Square

Parachute Gallery
70 Audubon St., 2nd floor, New Haven, (203) 772-2788
White Collar. Blue Collar. Pink Slip.
Through Sept. 18, 2009
Opening reception: Tues., June 30, 5—7 p.m.

Press release

The Arts Council of Greater New Haven presents White Collar. Blue Collar. Pink Slip., an exhibition that explores the uncertainties, anxieties, and rewards of the workplaces that shape our identities. The exhibition will be on display at The Parachute Factory, Erector Square, 319 Peck St., Bldg. 1, New Haven, from Wed., June 24 through Tues., Sept. 18. An artists' reception is scheduled for Tues., June 30, from 5—7 p.m. The public is invited to attend.

Recently, we've been deluged with a seemingly endless amount of information about the adverse effects of the down economy. Banks and corporations are in trouble, and people are losing their jobs. It is, unquestionably, an anxious time for many.

White Collar. Blue Collar. Pink Slip. examines the impacts of the current economic crisis through works that confront us with symbols of debt and unemployment, and takes us into abandoned, often deteriorating factories whose empty silences scream of crippled industries and decimated workforces.

The exhibition also puts us face to face with the socioeconomic ladder, introducing us, through paintings and photographs, to the white-collar professionals near the top, and the blue-collar workers and manual laborers closer to the bottom. We are introduced to the dignity of those who work in the retail and service industries in New Haven and their counterparts across the United States and in Europe. And we experience the daily struggle for survival of those living "off the grid" in the southeastern United States.

White Collar. Blue Collar. Pink Slip. forces us to look at the process of starting over through the work of the exhibition's artist-in-residence, Moussa Gueye, a political asylee from Mauritania who has begun his artistic career anew here, in his adopted country.

Other featured artists include Roland Becerra, Frank Bruckmann (Web), Lucas Foglia (Web), Douglas McGoldrick (Web), David Ottenstein (Web), Hank Paper (Web), Jean Perkins, Cindy Tower (Web), and Rita Valley (Web).

White Collar. Blue Collar. Pink Slip. is the first of a two-part exhibition called Work/Place, which examines the environments on which our survival depends. The second part of the exhibition, Out of House and Home, opens in October.

The Parachute Factory is a collaboration of the Arts Council of Greater New Haven, Yale Program for Recovery and Community Health, and Community Services Network of Greater New Haven. White Collar. Blue Collar. Pink Slip. is presented by The Parachute Factory, in collaboration with Integrated Refugee & Immigrant Services (IRIS).

Thursday night opening for City-Wide Open Studios' Index I at Artspace

Artspace
50 Orange St, New Haven, (203) 772-2709
City-Wide Open Studios Index I
June 25-July 25, 2009
Opening reception: Thurs., June 25, 6—8 p.m.

Press release

For the past twelve years, Artspace has supported local Connecticut artists by promoting artistic discourse within the greater community and hosting new events and forums during City-Wide Open Studios (CWOS). On June 25, 2009 from 6—8 p.m., join us for the opening of Index I, an unjuried exhibition on view through July 25, 2009 in galleries 2, 3,4, and 7. Artspace will launch the beginning of the CWOS season by featuring approximately one hundred and twenty artists from a pool of two hundred and forty promising and inventive artists.

Miniature prints at Center for Contemporary Printmaking

Center for Contemporary Printmaking
299 West Ave., Norwalk, (203) 899-7999
International Miniature Print 2009
Through Aug. 15, 2009.

Press release

CCP is exhibiting 180 miniature prints (see untitled im mage by Carolyn Sheehan) by over one hundred national and international artists. This year's competition was CCP's most competitive, with entries from twenty five states and twenty three countries. The jurors were Lisa Hodermarsky, of The Sutphin Family Associate Curator of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs at the Yale University Art Gallery, and Craig Zammiello, Master Intaglio Printer at the Two Palms Press in New York. Those prints which were not selected are still available to view and purchase via "Salon de Refuse" binders. Please remember that sales are on a first-come, first-serve basis.

CCP's Grace Shanley Gallery is open Mon.—Sat. from 9 a.m.—5 p.m. and Sunday from 12 p.m.—5 p.m. The exhibition is also available to view online @ www.contemprints.org. Please inquire for more information.

Paper beats rock AND scissors

City Gallery
994 State St., New Haven, (203) 782-2489
No Rocks, No Scissors, Just...
Through June 28, 2009.

Edge and surface. Color and texture. It is the confluence of these attributes that provides so much pleasure in Jennifer Davies' No Rocks, No Scissors, Just... show at City Gallery. The one-person exhibit showcases her collaged paper works.These are all abstractions, and consonant with the stylistic groove of the City Gallery artists.

Davies uses both handmade and manufactured papers. She stains them or prints on them—some are leftover cutouts used in making monotypes, scraps recycled into new art—and distresses the surface. Edges are torn. There are creases and crumples; even the manufactured paper appears worn and wearied of fiber. There is a density to these works that is riveting. The various pieces of paper used in each work have rich character, whether the source of that is the intense color or staining or the distressed surface or a combination of the two factors.

One tall vertical work, "Top Shimmer," appears to bleed from the top—the lighter, more open part of the composition—down to its dark, blue-black depths. Sky and ocean. The gray area up top has been wet; the ink bleeds and spreads. Thin torn pieces of paper are affixed in the middle, as though the sky is breaching the surface of the ocean.

Like many of the works, "Compelled Rethinking" is notable for the way the ink adheres to the mottled paper surface, speckling or coating it along long vertical, diagonal and horizontal creases. It's abstraction but I also see landscape in its juxtaposition of form and color choices. To the right is deep water, the paper pigmented black and dark turquoise. Pressed up against this water is the shore, sandy speckling of burnt sienna and dark brown. Hard against the torn left edge of this section is a thin boundary or turquoise and blue. The "west" is marked by expanses of mottled burnt sienna. These effects are enhanced by Davies' overlapping and folding the torn pieces of colored paper.

DiGiovanni shows new direction at Hungry Eye, opening on Wednesday

Hungry Eye Gallery
838 Whalley Avenue West Rock Ave Entrance, New Haven, (203) 494-9905
Featured Artist: Steven DiGiovanni
Through June 28, 2009.
Opening Reception: Wed., June 17, 6—8 p.m.

Press release

New Haven artist, ArLoW resident artist and Creative Arts Workshop Drawing & Painting Department Head Steven DiGiovanni is the featured guest artist this month at Hungry Eye Coop Gallery. As a neighbor to both Jennifer Jane Gallery and Hungry Eye, we are pleased to have Steven be our first Guest Artist.

Artist Statement by Steven DiGiovanni:

The works I have been doing in the last two years represent, for me, a period of terrific energy, play and experimentation. I switched media about one year ago from oil on primed canvas to acrylic on unprimed canvas. My imagery has changed significantly with the change of media, from realistically depicted figurative narratives to a much more graphic and collage-based imagery. Each of my images seems to evolve quite separately from the images that precede it. As I work I am often driven by the accidents that result from pouring, splattering and staining the unprimed material. Each effort results in a different emphasis whether it be graphic, physical or illustrational. I am now reluctant to commit fully to any coherent narrative space. Rather, I prefer that the imagery and space remain open and fluid. I draw images from digital camera snapshots, internet image searches, and my imagination. I enjoy navigating multiple layers of reference and manipulating modalities that lead to a more free-associative narrative structure. I sometimes look at the oil paintings which preceded my current efforts and miss the lush, deep surfaces which distinguish them from the shallower, more graphic acrylic media. However, I have not yet experimented with and experienced the enormous range of technical possibilities that acrylic materials can provide and I find the immediacy and freedom of the acrylic liberating and enervating. I am enjoying a new vigor in my work effort.

My review:

There are three new paintings by DiGiovanni on display in the Hungry Eye Gallery. These acrylics on canvas mark a real shift for DiGiovanni, who has specialized in precisely articulated figurative and (mystifying) narrative oil paintings. Working with acrylics has freed up his approach.

His brush strokes are more vigorous. Using a lot of thinner in his paints, DiGiovanni is drenching his canvases in fluid, dripping colors. Figurative imagery remains at the core of his work. But he's drawing his inspiration less from photographing friends and acquaintances (with the exception of his partner Chisato) and more often from pop culture and advertising detritus. I could see references to rock band logos (the Buzzcocks), record covers, advertising imagery and mechanical drawings.

In his earlier work, DiGiovanni often hinted at a narrative. His figures were often posed in domestic interiors in ways that suggested some obscure drama of alienated relationships. But these narrative hints were linear. The new works have more of a collage feeling, as though they derive fictive inspiration from the avant-garde cut-ups of William S. Burroughs.

DiGiovanni has always been content to leave room for the viewer to complete the artwork with their own imagination. Now, he leaves the actual surface "unfinished." In the work in the center of the room, imagery overlays imagery. Line sketches are overpainted by blocks of color and precisely rendered text. It is a bold move, one that allows DiGiovanni more compositional freedom without sacrificing the strengths of his draftsmanship and grasp of the figure.

There will be an opening reception for this mini-show this Wed., June 17, from 6—8 p.m.

Creative Arts Workshop exhibition showcases talented faculty

Creative Arts Workshop Hilles Gallery
80 Audubon St., New Haven, (203) 562-4927
Faculty Show
Through June 26, 2009

On thing that struck me as I wandered through the second floor of the two-floor Hilles Gallery at Creative Arts Workshop, checking out the Faculty Show, is the seductive energy of the gesture. It isn't that there were gestural drawings. Rather, there were a number of works in which the physical dynamism of the approach—or the appearance thereof—is reflected in a compelling liveliness of expression. This gestural current is present in Kelley Kapp's "Mad Plaid," a two-panel monochromatic acrylic on canvas. There's something about Kapp's doodle-like profusion of brush strokes that invites closer inspection.

A sense of fervent commotion also animates Julie Rogoff's "Through the Trees," an oil painting and abstraction. The pastel hues in "Through the Trees" capture the sense of sunlight coursing through the forest canopy. Her "Chomping at the Edge, CT River" relies on a darker palette but still conveys the feel of gestural motion.

This energy is present in Dorothy Powers' "Round Again," collaged and enlarged photocopies of a drawing of objects that look like balls of string. Nancy Eisenfeld's "Vortex," ink on paper, weds sweeps of pen lines with what appears to be stamps of abstract natural forms. Again, whether Eisenfeld approached the execution of "Vortex" in a gestural manner, the drawing pulses with visual energy.

Some works convey this sense of motion and urgency even though the act of creation was likely meticulous, even painstaking. Connie Pfeiffer's "Opening" is a steel wire wall sculpture in which two vertical, parallel lines anchor a chaotic profusion of horizontal threads. It is like a 3-D drawing in black and white. There is also motion captured in the sculptures of David Millen and Susan Clinard—figures poised in one-legged balance.

The exhibition showcases the breadth of media in which CAW's artist/teachers work. One example is the trio of sculptures by Jeannie Thomma. Thomma's poles are wrapped and decorated with felted wool and mixed media—thread, lace, sequins, ribbon. Thomma uses the characteristics of all materials at her disposal—the colors, textures and surfaces—to create complex, visually engaging works.

Downstairs, I loved the contrast between Steven R. DiGiovanni's "Untitled" acrylic on canvas and Josh Gaetjen's "Story and Play II." Lines and form are important for both painters. But where Gaetjen's urban landscape is concerned with accurately replicating architectural perspective and the play of light and shadows, DiGiovanni bends and warps his geometric shapes. He turns space inside out, painting a funhouse mirror of his imagination. Both large works satisfy in their very different ways (although both painters share a command of their craft.)

A short review like this can't do justice to this show. Suffice to say, Creative Arts Workshop is a treasure trove of talent and a real jewel for New Haven.

June exhibits open at Silvermine on Sunday

Silvermine Guild Art Center
1037 Silvermine Rd., New Canaan, (203) 966-9700
June Exhibits at Silvermine
June 12—July 14, 2009
Opening Reception: Sun., June 14, 2—4 p.m.

Press release

The new exhibits opening at the Silvermine Guild Arts Center will engage viewers in an exploration of the emotional, spiritual and striking aspects of our surroundings. According to gallery director Jeffrey Mueller, "whether the depictions are abstract or realistic, each artist is invested in tapping into what lies beneath the surface of the environment we live in to encourage deeper thought and passion for sometimes overlooked elements in our world." The exhibition showcasing artists Rosamond Berg, Liz Dexheimer, Alanna Fagan, and Yolanda Petrocelli opens June 12 and runs through July 14. All are invited to the opening reception on Sunday, June 14 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. at the Silvermine Galleries located in New Canaan, Connecticut.

Director's Choice, Rosamond Berg from New Canaan, CT has sailed extensively over the last 25 years with her husband all the while observing water and waves breaking on shore. In this new exhibit of Asian inspired paintings Variations on a Wave Berg expresses the beauty, power and energy she sees and feels in the flow and cycles of waves and water. "I am fascinated by the audio-visual rhythms of waves and the glorious drama of waves breaking, large and small. The movement of the life spirit through the rhythm of things is the statement that embraces for me what art is all about and what I see when I contemplate and meditate upon this awe inspiring natural world."

In Sacred Places painter and printmaker Liz Dexheimer creates invented landscapes, sometimes filled with storytelling and symbols, others time not, but always acknowledging and celebrating the elegance of Nature. Her recent works are in response to the deserts and mesas of the western part of the country as well as the swamps, marshes and wetlands in this area. According to Dexheimer "I find beauty and meaning in these mysterious places, in the seductive, tangled decay and renewal of swamps and in the majestic, imposing western rock formations that hold the secrets of the ages. I frequently incorporate mythological characters and symbols to build a narrative. I see them as wonderful, timeless metaphors for our state of being and our relationship with Nature." The artist's process in her creating her work is to build images and repeated forms, adding and peeling away to create formal and narrative structure.

Milford, Connecticut artist Alanna Fagan's exhibit The View Inside are paintings of real places exploring the psychological implications of domestic interiors. Working in oil, pastel, watercolor and printmaking this exhibit of new works evokes emotions that are the result of some inherent quality in the shape of the rooms, the light that describes their forms, and the memory of those who have inhabited them over time. They are not only about the scene as witnessed in the now, but about the inevitable passage of time. Within these interiors, the artist invites the viewer to move from one room to another by way of doorways and windows, and sometimes by mirrors, which hint at space that cannot be seen, but possibly imagined. "The inhabitants of the rooms have moved off-stage, but their presence is implied, a trace of memory lingers and perhaps also a sense of anticipation, all adding to the complexity and mystery of an unspoken dialogue," says Fagan about her work.

A native of Mexico City, Yolanda Vasquez Petrocelli is a contemporary artist from a strong family of artists. Vasquez Petrocelli studied art at the San Carlos Academy in Mexico, the University of the Americas and the University of Texas at Austin. Motivated by recent trips to Mexico and her fascination with a gigantic moth she noted on the wall of a museum as well as the 500 year-old trees and surrounding landscape, the artist was inspired to create a new series of self-portraits. In her new exhibit Dreams, Women and Time, she explores the familiar and subconscious mental landscape as a woman providing the viewer with images that are both dreamlike and surreal, all the while celebrating the spirit of women and nature.

Architects as photographers in Guilford

Guilford Art Center
411 Church St., Guilford, (203) 453-5947
Built: Architects Taking Pictures
Through July 24, 2009

Built: Architects Taking Pictures, showing at the Guilford Art Center's Mill Gallery through July, features the photographs of almost 50 architects who work locally. The show was curated by Roberto Espejo, who teaches photography at the Yale School of Architecture.

The discipline of architecture is a design discipline, a way of seeing that's transferable to the medium of photography. Photography, like architecture, exists at the intersection of technology and aesthetics.

The photography of architecture plays a strong role in this show but not exclusively so. More than shooting buildings or structures, most of the photographers are shooting space, either consciously designed space or aesthetically composed space.

With some 50 photographers and over 100 images on the walls, the show is a little overwhelming. But there were a few photographers whose work particularly caught my eye. Foremost was the selection of photos by Enzo Figueres. Although Figueres has a couple of black and white images in the show, he is primarily showing richly saturated color prints. A number of them are seascapes (no titles are given for any of the works in the show unless the photographer wrote the title on the mat). Number 11 on the exhibition checklist is a luminously rocky shore scene captured at either sunrise or sunset (I'm guessing morning). Probably shot with a long exposure, the boulders in the foreground are nestled amid a soft, steaming soup of water, the gentle mist of which contrasts nicely with the fiery sky.

Dave Coon appears attracted to the sights that others might see as blight, the overgrown and rundown backstreets of urban industrial districts. A desolate looking factory with its parking lot bisected by orange fencing. A small red industrial building or machine shop with iron bars over the windows. A corrugated tin garage is streaked with rust, hung with fading yellow signs advertising tires for sale. In Coon's images there is a reminder of the utilitarian and humble roots of architecture.

Ke-Wei Chang's streetscapes look as though they were shot with a pinhole camera, with their short depth of field and blurred imagery. Some feature juxtapositions of solitary birds in flight with the implacable solidity of built structures.

While the works of those three photographers made the strongest immediate impression on me, there are many beautiful images throughout the show. However, I would have liked more information in the exhibition checklist—titles, photographic processes, etc.

All the works are for sale for $250, unframed for $200.

A closing reception on Fri., July 24, 5-7 p.m. will feature a Cuban lechon asado (pig roast) and salsa music. Cost is $25/per person at the door, with proceeds benefiting Guilford Art Center.

Sunday afternoon opening at Kehler Liddell Gallery

Kehler Liddell Gallery
873 Whalley Ave., New Haven, (203) 389-9555
No Constraints: Emilia Dubicki & Edith Borax Morrison
Through July 5, 2009
Artist Reception: Sun., June 7, 3—6 p.m.

Press release

Emilia Dubicki's paintings are inspired by nature and abstraction seen in the environment. The work contains a visual blurring between the physical or material world and a more personal world of mind and spirit. Dubicki joins what can be seen with what is felt and imagined—allowing the outer world to serve as metaphor for her internal landscapes.

Edith Borax Morrison identifies with the mythological mortal Arachne, who -condemned for her great skills - is transformed into an endlessly weaving spider. Borax Morrison is compelled, pen in hand, to endlessly weave configurations of free flowing images. "Pen weaving" from blank page, a process that generates and defines her work, she maintains access to the unconscious alongside constant assessment of composition and emotional response.

No Constraints defines an attitude, a self motivating creative directive and its results. Neither artist is without structure or intention in their abstract images. Still, Dubicki and Borax Morrison revel in a certain freedom. Unstressed discipline, intellectual curiosity, and a joyful compulsion to work are evident in this exhibition of abstract art.

There will be an artist reception on Sun., June 7, 3-6 p.m. Gallery Admission and Reception are free.

There will be Artist Talks with Emilia Dubicki and Edith Borax Morrison on Thurs., June 18, at 7 p.m. Meet the artists and join the conversation!

"No Rocks, No Scissors, Just..." opens Saturday at City Gallery

City Gallery
994 State St., New Haven, (203) 782-2489
No Rocks, No Scissors, Just...
June 5—28, 2009.
Opening reception: Sat., June 6, 2—5 p.m.

Press release

Jennifer Davies is exhibiting new paper work in No Rocks, No Scissors, Just... at City Gallery from June 5 through June 28. The opening reception will be Saturday June 6, 2—5 pm. Davies will showcase collages made with her own handmade paper and also papers pigmented from years of use as stencils in the monotype process. Some pieces, repeatedly dyed, are heavily textured and refer to topographical or aerial images. In addition, there will be hanging web-like pieces made from Asian kozo fiber. The artist will be in the gallery on Sun., June 7 from 12—4 p.m. to discuss the processes and the work to interested visitors. Free.

Saturday Open House for "Cellutations" at Arts Council's Sumner McKnight Crosby Jr. Gallery

Sumner McKnight Crosby Jr. Gallery
70 Audubon St., 2nd floor, New Haven, (203) 772-2788
Cellutations
Through July 10, 2009
Open House: Sat., June 6, 12—5 p.m. during Audubon Arts on the Edge.

Press release

The Arts Council of Greater New Haven presents Cellutations in the Sumner McKnight Crosby Jr. Gallery, 70 Audubon St., 2nd floor, New Haven. This exhibition will be on display from Mon., June 1 through Fri., July 10. Gallery hours are Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. An open house is scheduled for Sat., June 6, from 12—5 p.m., during Audubon Arts on the Edge. The public is invited to attend.

From the Urban Dictionary:
"1. Cellutations
slang for cell phone
Call me on the cellutations"

Cellutations is an evolving exhibition of cell-phone art (see "Joe Munroe at McSorley's" by Susan Farricielli), a unique art show whose submissions could come from anywhere in the world. It is an exhibition of instantly captured moments in time—fleeting scenes frozen by, and shared through, technology.

One click, two clicks, and impulse becomes art—a reaction preserved, a passenger's surroundings framed by the window of a moving car.

Images submitted to cellutations@gmail.com, a dedicated e-mail address set up in late March, will be printed and hung in the Arts Council's Sumner McKnight Crosby Jr. Gallery. Selected images will also be posted on the Arts Council's Web site and/or blog.

Works will not be for sale and will be replaced with other submitted cell-phone images as the show evolves.

Thursday night artists reception for Paper New England at Artspace in Hartford

Paper/New England
(860) 236-4787
Current CT
Showing at Artspace, 555 Asylum Ave., Hartford
Through June 13, 2009.
Artists' reception: Thurs., June 4, 6—9 p.m.
Artist talk: Thurs., June 11. 6—9 p.m.
Closing party: Sat. June 13, 2—4 p.m.

Press release

There will be a reception for the show Current CT, organized by Paper New England, at Artspace in Hartford tomorrow night. The show features work by Joseph Adolphe (Web), Deborah Dancy (Web), Stephen Grossman (Web), Zbigniew Grzyb (Web), Barbara Hocker (Web), Eva Lee, Ken Morgan, Laurie Sloan (Web), Joseph Smolinski (Web) and Deborah Weiss (Web). An artist talk for this show will be held Thursday of next week from 6—9 p.m.. The closing party will be Saturday afternoon, June 13, from 2—4 p.m.