Three shows open at Artspace in New Haven this Friday

Artspace
50 Orange St, New Haven, (203) 772-2709
William DeLottie: in three states of mind
Interventions: Works from Artspace's Flatfile
Felandus Thames with Summer Apprentices: Occupy Main Street
July 27—Sept. 15, 2012.
Opening: Fri., July 28, 5—8 p.m.

Artspace Press release

Three new shows open this Friday at Artspace in New Haven. The opening reception will be held from 5—8 p.m. All three exhibits will be on display through Sept. 15.

• William DeLottie: in three states of mind

This show, organized by VAC member Eric Litke, will present previously unseen video installations and a mural-sized work on paper by Connecticut artist William DeLottie, who has been exhibiting regionally and nationally for over 30 years. DeLottie’s work, which is typically raw and nonhierarchical, was included in the 2000 Whitney Biennial. DeLottie's art continues to explore notions of collage imbued with media imagery, as well as a very personal lexicon of forms both abstract and pictographic in nature. DeLottie’s range of materials, including pure pigment, metallic sheets, and vinyl bags, give an unpredictable and enigmatic quality to his works on paper, while his video installations frequently delve into a range of both narrative and abstract subjects.

William DeLottie currently lives in rural, eastern Connecticut. Though he has exhibited frequently for over three decades, moving from monochromatic paintings in the 1970s to more experimental installations in recent years, he has often been fully employed at non-art-related jobs. His installation works, often referred to as "systema," constantly mutate in response to new sites or inspirations in DeLottie’s own studios in Putnam and Willimantic.

Eric Litke was born in Hartford, CT and holds a B.F.A. from the School of the Visual Arts. A member of Artspace’s Visual Arts Committee, Litke currently resides in New Haven, CT and works at the Yale University Art Gallery.

• Interventions

Interventions features works from Artspace’s Flatfile that are centered on the theme of human intrusions into nature. The Flatfile, Artspace’s rotating collection of works on paper, celebrates a diverse collection of local and regional artists. Many of the works featured in this exhibition deliberately play on a sense of what is real; some through mechanical alterations, such as that of a camera lens; others through staged recreations and dioramas; and still others through shifts in scale. Collectively, these works seem to offer a reminder, subtle or otherwise, of the artist at work behind an image and, more broadly, of the constant tension between constructed and natural environments. Artists to be shown include Hannah Cole, Keith Johnson, Carolyn Monastra, Robert Morris, Lori Nix, Jessica Schwind, Jeff Slomba, Joseph Smolinski, and Bradley Wollman.

This exhibition is organized by Kristen Erickson, curator and art history teacher at Greenwich Academy, and Erin Riley, art teacher and director of the Luchsinger Gallery at Greenwich Academy.

• Felandus Thames with Summer Apprentices: Occupy Main Street

Each summer Artspace seeks out an artist and a group of New Haven high school students to work together in the spirit of collaboration. Over the course of three weeks this group coalesces into a creative unit, learning new art skills and completing an intricate installation in the Artspace galleries.

This year’s project features a silk-screening collaboration between artist Felandus Thames and 16 New Haven high school students. The project centers around ideas of branding and self-image; their work features hand-screened logos for their class, which they dubbed the Sharpie Squad, that have been applied to the long wall in Artspace’s gallery.

The summer apprentices are: Badria Ahmed (Hillhouse High School), Arianno Alamo (Wilbur Cross and Educational Center for the Arts), Danny Amir (Metro Business Academy), Tyler Carrillo-Waggoner (Guilford High School), Jasmine Chevalier (Hillhouse High School), Ian Davidson (Sound School), Shawn Duplessie (Metro Business Academy), Jazmin Iturbide (Metro Business Academy), Rain Jasiorkowski (Sound School), Shanti Madison (Hamden High School and Educational Center for the Arts), Olivia Marciano (Shelton High School and Educational Center for the Arts), Stefany Mitchell (Joseph A. Foran High School and Educational Center for the Arts), Kira Podgwait (Cooperative Arts High School), Isaiah Rodgers (Metro Business Academy), Juan Velazquez (Metro Business Academy), Aysha Younas (Hamden High School and Educational Center for the Arts).

Felandus Thames is a cross-disciplinary artist engaged with questions of race, power, and identity. Born in Jackson, Mississippi, he received a B.A. in Painting and Graphic Design from Jackson State University before completing his M.F.A. in Painting/Printmaking at the Yale University School of Art in 2010. Thames has participated in a residency at the Smith Robertson Museum and Cultural Center in Jackson and has shown in solo and group exhibitions throughout the United States. He currently works in Harlem, New York, and is represented by the Tilton Gallery.