Saturday artist reception at New Haven Free Public Library

New Haven Free Public Library Art Gallery
133 Elm St., New Haven
Our Experinced Struggles: Paintings by John Favret
Through Sept. 30, 2010
Artist's reception: Sat., Sept. 18, 2—4 p.m.

Press release

"The human form has been a dominant feature of my work for many years," writes John Favret. "I am interested in the struggles we experience in our lives and how one situation can be viewed or interpreted in different ways. I try to create a sense of tension through an unusual vantage point or a distortion of space, and often introducing subtle humorous elements. I am influenced by expressionism for its emotional energy and ability to describe the struggles and excitement of living. My goal is to work life-size. I try to surround the viewer with the images, so they can be fully engaged by the content of the pieces and the richness of the surface."

Many of Favret's pieces are derived from his life experiences. His narratives are told through images that are conjured from his memory and imagination.

Using a large format for his ideas allows the viewer to experience each narrative as a participant. His most recent work experiments with constructions using wood, plaster, paint, and miscellaneous objects, exploring ways to work off his canvases three dimensionally in a series using doorways as a metaphorical transition.

Mr. Favret has been Associate Professor of Graphic Design at Housatonic University (HU) in Bridgeport,CT since 1999, and is presently Coordinator of the Art Program there. He holds an M.F.A. from Texas A&M Commerce, a B.F.A. from Bridgewater State College, and a Certification in Computer Graphics from Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), where he was also an Instructor from 1998 to 2003. He has had solo and two-person shows at the Bert Chernow Gallery at HU, the 30/30 Park Gallery in 2004, and at The Paul Mellon Art Center at Choate, Wallingford in 2002, and at the York Square Gallery, New Haven, in 1995 (with this curator). He has been in important group exhibitions at the Slater Museum, RISD, the Hygienic Art Center in New London, and other venues. He lives in Uncasville, CT.