With the (seeming) greatest of ease

The Barnum Museum
820 Main St., Bridgeport, (203) 331-1104
Celebrating the Spirit of P.T. Barnum: The Sculpture of David Millen
Through Jan. 2, 2011

Arrayed in the Barnum Museum's high-ceilinged gallery in a circle beneath four bigtop-like drapes of fabric, David Millen's figurative sculptures radiate kinetic joy. Almost all Millen's works are sculpted with epoxy resin layered over a steel armature. Millen additionally lingers over the surfaces of the works, incorporating textures, colors, bronzing, marbling.

The earliest and most abstract work in the show, dating from 1999, is "Hands on Hands," a 15-foot tall stainless steel sculpture. "Hands on Hands" is minimalist in its design but maximal in its evocation of grace and interconnection. Using burnished steel rods, Millen has one figure, bent at the knees, balancing another figure high over his or her head. Seldom have stick figures seemed so artful.


I assumed that it was indicative of the work Millen had been doing a decade ago. But Millen—who happened to arrive at the gallery with his wife and friends while I was there—said that actually the work was a large scale version of the armatures that inhabit the interiors of all his pieces. The work was based on a smaller armature Millen had made and was assembled to Millen's specifications by Alexander Calder's fabricator.

Trapeze artists, ring dancers, gymnasts, unicyclists, acrobats, jugglers, aerialist, even Pilobolus dancers. Millen freezes them in action as they defy gravity, take wing and execute feats of balance and strength.

The figures are streamlined, built for speed, stylized. The trick, according to Millen, is to construct the armature in the right proportion, based on Greek form. Many of his surfaces are smooth and glazed with marbleized swirls. Others have rugged textured surfaces. The figure in "Ring Dancer" sports an epoxy cloak patterned with a screen pressed into the epoxy while still malleable. Millen further tinted the garment with gold and bluish powders and crushed black glass powder that appears to glitter. Iridescent patterned gold foil lights up the clothing of "Juggler on Unicycle."


The works are testimonials to the glorious side of the human spirit—defying limitations, reaching for the heavens and, importantly, cooperative and supportive endeavor. Most of these works depict entertainers like those one might see in a circus, bringing wide-eyed joy to children and parents alike. But one of my favorites is not of circus performers at all. Created this year, "Mother's Love" shows a woman leaning back and holding her child's arms as she swings him or her through the air. It is a representation of primal pleasure and more—the inculcation of bonds of trust and adventure that hopefully may usher the child fearlessly cartwheeling into the world in their own.

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."

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.

Millen sculptures charm at private show

David Millen: Sculpture
Closed.

It was a beautiful Sunday in David Millen's private sculpture garden. Millen, a periodontist by trade but a sculptor by heart, was having his annual by-invitation-only show of his work-new pieces and older-and work by his students in classes at North Haven High School and elsewhere. A number of Millen's works, public commissions, are on view at locales throughout the greater New Haven area.

He has a fascination with balance and movement. Perhaps this is inspired by balancing his work life of dental medicine with his spiritual life as an artist. At any rate, his works are overwhelmingly figurative. For a number of years he had worked with cement as his sculptural medium, deriving rough surfaces as he encrusted it over his armatures. But the past three years Millen's work has been inspired by the acrobatic artistry of Cirque de Soleil. He also works in epoxy resin, a two-part synthetic clay. The epoxy allows him to pay increasing attention to the surface, controlling its almost marble-like coloration. He also polishes it to accentuate the sleekness of his stable of acrobats, jugglers, dancers and tightrope walkers.

Millen's figures are simplified, streamlined. It's a graceful shorthand that channels the energy of movement into the depiction of a frozen moment. They are imbued with joie de vivre. And, in the sweet crisp sun of summer's last glimmering, they shined with the pleasure of performing outdoors.