Artist Brian Walters discusses his work

Metal sculpting artist Brian Walters recently had a show up at the Benkhe Doherty Gallery in Washington Depot. In this YouTube video, Walters discusses his work.

Saturday opening for 3-artist show at Master of None in New Haven

Master of None, LLC
978 State Street, New Haven
Fernando DaSilva, Rebekah Owens, and Alyssa Mollica: Build. Grow. Expose.
Aug. 7—31, 2010
Opening reception: Sat., Aug. 7, 4—7 p.m.

Press release

Featuring the work of Fernando DaSilva, Rebekah Owens, and Alyssa Mollica.
Build. Grow. Expose. is an interesting juxtaposition of painted cityscapes and flora interpretations alongside the candid observation of the camera’s eye. The show will be available for viewing from August 7 through the end of the month at Master of None, LLC. Hours: Tues.—Sat., 12—4 p.m.

Van Aelst artist talk at Real Art Ways Thursday night

Real Art Ways
56 Arbor St., Hartford, (860) 232-1006
Kevin Van Aelst: Elsewhere
Through Aug. 15, 2010.
Artist Talk: Thurs., Aug. 5, 6 p.m.

Press release

Kevin Van Aelst and Real Art Ways Director of Visual Arts Kristina Newman-Scott will discuss Van Aelst’s show of photography tomorrow at 6 p.m.

Opening reception for installation at Creative Arts Workshop this Friday evening

Creative Arts Workshop Hilles Gallery
80 Audubon St., New Haven, (203) 562-4927
Melanie Rose Peterson: Osculum
Aug. 6—31, 2010
Opening reception: Fri., Aug. 6, 5—7 p.m.

Press release

Creative Arts Workshop presents an installation by Boston-based artist Melanie Rose Peterson, titled Osculum, from Aug. 6—31, 2010. The installation is viewable from outside the CAW Hilles Gallery. An opening reception will be held on Friday, August 6, from 5—7 p.m.

Melanie Rose Peterson strives to create engaging spaces that break down the physical barrier between viewer and art. Her recent work explores biological and cellular forms -- particularly the forms of the human body - magnified to extreme scales. "I have always been fascinated by biological formations, from the patterns that develop on a cellular level to the shapes found in larger organisms," she says.

The site-specific installation Osculum employs plastic stretch wrap, inflatables, styrofoam peanuts and foam balls to create a monumental, mouth-like form inside the gallery, extending from the second floor balcony to the ground level windows. With these synthetic materials, Peterson evokes with startling accuracy the textures and colors of the human mouth's membranes and tongue. Says Peterson, "My goal is to transform the gallery into a place of exploration and reflection, one that transports the viewer into an imaginative state."

Melanie Rose Peterson (Boston, MA) is a graduate of the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Massachusetts. She is currently the manager of the Public Art/Sculpture Studio at Janet Echelman, Inc. in Brookline, Massachusetts. She has participated in numerous group exhibitions, including Creative Arts Workshop's juried exhibition Sky's the Limit, in which she was a Merit Recognition honoree. She is also an accomplished ice carver and has been awarded the coveted Golden Chainsaw in Boston's annual Chisels & Chainsaws Ice Carving Competition.

Group show opens at eo artlab in Chester Friday evening

eo artlab
69 Main St., Chester, (860_ 526-4833
Common Purpose
Aug. 4—29, 2010
Artist's reception: Fri., Aug. 6, 6—9 p.m.

Press release

On the heals of two very successful contemporary art fairs in Chicago and San Francisco, eo art lab is pleased to present a group show entitled Common Purpose recognizing the critical role art plays in bettering our world. Art is a mirror of our times, a driver of change, an unraveler of mystery, and a lifelong companion. eo's artists are riding the wave of life's wondrous portent. So, grab your surfboard and join us!

The Artists' Reception and gallery talk for Common Purpose will take place Fri., Aug. 6, 6-9 p.m.

New Britain Artists Co-op having open studios and art opening Thursday

New Britain Artists Cooperative
66 West Main St., New Britain
Open Studios and Iconic Compositions: Mixed Media Works by Harriet Cianci
Opening reception for Iconic Compositions: Thurs., Aug. 5, 4:30—7 p.m.
Open studios: Thurs., Aug. 5, 5—9 p.m.

Press release

The New Britain Artists Co-op is having a gallery Opening and Open studios night at the Downtown Gallery that occupies the first floor of our building. The opening will be for Iconic Composaitions, Harriet Cianci's show of mixed media work: mixed media icons consisting of hand-painted clay tiles, varieties of glass, mirror, metal and glass beads, antique and contemporary jewelry pieces, pictures, and different religious icons.

Saturday night opening at the Hygienic in New London

Hygienic Art
83 Bank St., P.O. Box 417, New London, (860) 443-8001
Prag Gral: Katia Jirankova Levanti & Jirí Salamoun
In the Underground Gallery: From the Collection of Dr. Clement E. Marks Jr.
Aug. 7—Sept. 4, 2010
Opening reception: Sat., Aug. 7, 7—10 p.m.

Press release

In October of 2008 the Hygienic Art Galleries featured the works of Boris Jirku and Katia Jirankova. Mr. Jirku was flown to Connecticut from Prague and resided here during his exhibition where he painted numerous works en plein air and with Katia, held public demonstrations for local artists and students on his painting techniques. It was a fascinating experience to learn about Czech artists and the artistic culture that exists in the capital city of Prague.

In the Prag Gral exhibition the artists and board of directors of Hygienic Art are honored to present the works from Jiri Salamoun who we consider to be a national treasure of the Czech Republic and through the artistic collaboration with artist Katia Jirankova Levanti, we expect Czech country to be well represented to the visual artists' community in America.

Katia Jirankova Levanti, a Czech artist now residing between Waterford and Praque, was born to a Russian mother and Czech father. Her childhood was marked by flights to Moscow to visit her maternal grandmother, a famous actress from Stanislavsky's legendary theater. Though they were cautious not to flaunt their Russian in public, her and her mother, Lena, always felt most at home in their mother tongue. But in Prague the atmosphere was icy. Vaclav Havel was still musing a long way from his presidency of the 90's, and Katia's father's artistic genius was gaining him no friends in the communist ranks. He was a political, satirical cartoonist who was more than once prohibited from working and forced to live off the small income of Lena's translations alone. Some of the most progressive minds in the country would congregate in Katia's childhood home, well aware of the bugs planted in the walls by the secret police, and aware of a privacy relegated solely to thoughts expressed below a whisper amongst themselves, or through the most cunning means (Such as through children's cartoons, which her Father also became famous for). These comrades would later become Havel's minister of foreign affairs, another the prime minister, and her father was honored by the president himself as a foremost prominent figure of Czech culture. These environs molded Katia's artistic ambitions and memories. She studied Philosophy and linguistics at Prague's Charles University and Universita per Stranieri, Perugia, Italy and later with the great Boris Jirku, then Professor at the Praque's prestigious Art Conservatory.

Jirí Salamoun, born April 17, 1935 in Prague, was drawing constantly from childhood. In 1952 he began his studies in the Academy of Arts in the graphics department. In the years 1956—59 he continued in Hochschule fur Graphik und Buchkunst in Liepzich, Germany, and he finished his studies back in the Prague Academy in 1962.

In 1990 he came back to school in Prague as a teacher in the University of Art and Design and in 1992 he was nominated professor. At this time he had behind him already an extensive body of illustrations, graphic designed books, a litany of films ranging from animated cartoons of his own creation to cartoons accompanying feature films from around the world which has been a long standing tradition in Czech culture, and a voluminous number of posters for movies and theatre.

Not only was Salamoun recognized for his quantity of work, but also for the certain magic of his influence on the students of The Atelier of Illustration through his own high level of education, especially in literature, and his great standards imposed upon his students. The profession of the illustrator and graphic designer is an activity coming from the synthesis of a deeply intuitive understanding with a certain level of rationality.

Most recently among his many awards, Jiri Salamoun was honored with the "Golden Ribbon" from the minister of culture of the Czech Republic.

In the Underground Gallery:

An eclectic selection of artwork featuring many familiar regional artists from the collection of Dr. Clement E. Marks, Jr. Over the past ten years Dr. Marks was a major supporter to emerging artists from The Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts, the Golden Street Gallery and the Hygienic Art Galleries, both of New London, and beyond. His knowledge, passion, enthusiasm, and overwhelming generosity for art and the art making process was inspiring. Over 100 pieces will be on exhibit and for sale. Dr. Clement E. Marks died at his home in Chester, Conn., on Monday, March 16, 2009, at age 72 of pancreatic cancer. One of his wishes was to share this portion of his collection with the public. A portion of the proceeds from this exhibit will benefit the Hygienic Art High School Scholarship fund, established in 2008 with The Community Foundation of Southeastern Connecticut.

In addition to being an avid art collector and novice architect, Dr. Marks was a clinical professor of medicine at the New York University Medical School and attending physician at New York University Langone Medical Center. He was revered by generations of medical students and medical house staff as an iconic teacher of clinical medicine. He also served on the admissions committee of the School of Medicine for many years.

Ronnie Rysz show opens in Norwalk Thursday evening

22 Haviland Street Gallery
22 Haviland St., South Norwalk, (203) 852-6727
Ronnie Rysz: Losing All Touch
Aug. 5—Sept. 12, 2010
Artist Reception: Thurs., Aug. 5, 6—9 p.m.
Gallery Talk: Sun. Aug. 29, 3—5 p.m.

Press release

22 Haviland Street Gallery opens its most recent solo exhibition, Losing All Touch, on Thurs., Aug. 5, 2010 with a reception that evening from 6—9 p.m. The exhibition will showcase ink drawings, mixed media paintings and relief prints by New Haven artist Ronnie Rysz. A gallery talk including the artist and curator Laura Einstein will take place Sun., Aug. 29, 2010 from 3—5 p.m. The exhibition runs through Sept. 12.

Losing All Touch addresses the diminishing importance of physical communication between individuals... "In this exhibition there are no intimate relationships. Quality time is discarded in search of other stimuli, whether arbitrary Internet information, a status posting, or shallow abbreviated text exchanges," Rysz states. "My work explores the contemporary audience's lust for the destruction of their muse. Each image captures the characters' ambitious attempts to attain excellence through aggressive competition with one another and within themselves. They brandish obnoxious postures accentuated by loud colors and patterns to amplify their supposed individuality, but ultimately these subjects succumb to the overpowering conformity of pop culture." The artist's commentary is accentuated by the precision of his compositions, where crisp marks and garish patterns of color combine with exaggerated facial expressions and body language to create a chilly distance between his characters.

Curator Laura Einstein states, "Ronnie's use of humor is both sarcastic and cynical, yet maintains a playful tone. I believe that Ronnie has a sense of reality that is all too familiar to each of us as we confront the ever-present virtual breakdown of traditional human interaction."

22 Haviland Street Gallery is a commercial gallery established in 2003, presenting cultural events and fine art exhibitions in all mediums. The gallery is located in downtown South Norwalk, CT at 22 Haviland St., across from the Haviland Street Parking Deck (parking fee $1/hr). Hours: Fridays from 6—9 p.m., Sat/Sun from 1—5 p.m. and Wed. 3—5 p.m. There is free Parking on Sundays. Call (203) 852-6727 for more gallery information.