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.