Gil Scullion show opens Thursday at Housatonic Museum of Art

Housatonic Museum of Art
900 Lafayette Blvd., Bridgeport, (203) 332-5052
Gil Scullion: Up All Night
Feb. 28—Mar. 22, 2013.
Opening Reception: Thurs., Feb. 28, 5—7 p.m.

Press release from the Housatonic Museum of Art

Up All Night: work from the insomnia project opens February 28 and continues through March 22, 2013. This exhibition has been curated by Robbin Zella and features the work of installation artist Gil Scullion of Middletown, Connecticut. There will be an opening reception for the show on Thurs., Feb. 28, from 5—7 p.m.

Up All Night (2013) is inspired from the sleep disorders that the artist has wrestled with for several years. Although the project is not a first-person record of tossing and turning, it nevertheless is inspired by Scullion’s interest in sleeplessness. This theme evolved through the recognition of insomnia’s intriguing formal relationships, especially its foundation as a presence defined by an absence. After all, insomnia is the absence of sleep, which is itself the absence of consciousness. So while autobiographical information is integrated into the structure of the installation the elements are manipulated with an emphasis on their formal characteristics.

The project incorporates five different but related sets of work, "Wake Me Shake Me," "Sheet-Sheep-Sleep," "00-60," "Not Just Another Good Night’s Sleep," and "It’s the Same Thing Every Night."

"Wake Me Shake Me" (2010 – 2011) depicts the brain’s sleep center as a workshop. Here the stimuli that provoke sleeplessness are represented as templates for the production of various images. Paper bags serve as containers for the resulting pictures. Two projection screens are utilized: one describes sleeplessness as a lost love and the other describes a rare, fatal form of insomnia.

Gil Scullion: "Wake Me Shake Me"

In "Sheet Sheep Sleep" (2009-2010) 30 stenciled panels of sheep are hung out on a line laundry-style. Each template is capable of producing multiple impressions; however, that potential is, as yet, unrealized. Here, Scullion’s use of sheep is a humorous reminder that counting them is believed to induce sleep.

"00-60" (2009-2011) features a modified digital alarm clock that endlessly reads out minutes but not hours, reflecting the dislocation from time that characterizes a loss of sleep. Cardboard bedroom furniture provides a setting for the clock. A one-hour video of the clock in an actual bedroom is projected within the installation.

"Not Just Another Good Night’s Sleep" centers on a set of three short texts describing incidents that contribute to sleep deprivation. The texts, and a series of images inspired by the texts, have been cut into stencils. The stencils are used to produce paintings directly on the gallery walls on scrap paper or, as in this installation, on discarded cardboard boxes. The paintings are temporary, disposable and frequently recyclable.

In "It's the Same Thing Every Night" (2011) stenciled sheep are combined with an ornamental motif and the texts from "Not Just Another Good Night’s Sleep" to produce a tense standoff between sleeplessness and slumber. The elements appear in two and three-dimensional forms evoking our visceral engagement with painting and sculpture.

Each of the five bodies of work was conceived as an independent piece, but they are cumulative as well, in effect, flexible modules that create a profoundly more dramatic work over time. Each exhibition utilizes a different set of elements while each new installation is expressly tailored to engage with each new physical space. Gil Scullion’s Up All Night: work from the insomnia project in the Burt Chernow Galleries at the Housatonic Museum of Art is the most comprehensive installation of the project to date.

Conceptual art and the telephone exhibit reception on Thursday evening at HCC

Housatonic Museum of Art
900 Lafayette Blvd., Bridgeport, (203) 332-5052
It's For You: Conceptual Art and the Telephone
Through Mar. 25, 2011
Show reception: Thurs., Mar. 3, 5—8 p.m.

Press release

From Feb. 24—Mar. 25, 2011, the Housatonic Museum of Art (HMA) at Housatonic Community College will present an exhibit It’s for you: Conceptual Art and the Telephone in the Burt Chernow Galleries and other areas of the HCC campus. The exhibit is, in part, a response to the wide-ranging use of phones in the hallways and other areas on the campus of the college.

The reception for the exhibition is Mar. 3, from 5—8 p.m. at the gallery in Lafayette Hall (900 Lafayette Blvd, Bridgeport, CT).

Each day students text, talk, surf the net, and listen to music on their phones. With this exhibition, artworks that use the phone as an artistic medium or mediator are brought together in an original exhibition curated by Terri C. Smith.

The projects range from the late 1960s to today and include sound pieces, videos, and objects that resonate with the functions, technologies, and physicality of the telephone. Artists in the exhibition include: T. Foley, Lukas Geronimas, Jeremy LeClair, Christian Marclay, Yoko Ono, Rachel Perry Welty, Robert Peters, Pietro Pellini, and Hannah Wilke.

Many of the artists in It’s for you aim to democratize the artist/audience relationship, a quality that is intricately woven into the history of conceptual art. In It’s for you, Yoko Ono might call the gallery as part of her "Telephone Piece," providing direct contact between artist and viewer. Students will work with T. Foley, creating their own ring tones as part of her "Locally Toned" project. Archival materials are also included as a way to represent ephemeral works from the past as with Robert Peters' "Naming Others: Manufacturing Yourself" (1993) where the artist asked people to call an 800 number from pay phones and choose which stereotyping phrase described them best.

It’s for You harnesses the familiarity of the telephone as a way of introducing audiences to a variety of conceptual art practices, which often include a mix of art theory and social critique. The exhibition, consequently, endeavors to connect concerns found in contemporary art with the objects, communication habits, and changing technologies in our daily lives. In that spirit, visitors and students will be encouraged to comment on the exhibition using telephone-friendly interfaces such as Twitter.

Series of prints on Matthew Shepard murder at Housatonic Community College

Housatonic Museum of Art
900 Lafayette Blvd., Bridgeport, (203) 332-5052
Nomi Silverman: The Shepard Cycle
(On view on the 3rd floor of Beacon Hall at Housatonic Community College)
Through Jan. 8, 2011

Press release

In 1998, Matthew Shepard (Wikipedia article), a young gay man, was murdered by peers. In court the defense claimed the crime was a gay bashing. Titled The Shepard Cycle, Nomi Silverman of Glenville, Connecticut, created a suite of prints in 2008 that detail this narrative. Silverman’s prints are on view on the third floor of Beacon Hall at Housatonic Community College (HCC). The installation is sponsored by the Housatonic Museum of Art and is on view through January 8, 2011.

Silverman structured the persecution and suffering of Shepard much like the Passion of the Christ, also known as the Stations of the Cross. Silverman explains, “I used the Passion of the Christ/Stations of the Cross in this manner – describing his last night (and a few days after) loosely in those terms. I took liberties with the images, and moved and even eliminated one, but they are essentially there.”

The works on paper are created using two printing processes, lithography and etching. Silverman says, “The idea is that each medium is slightly different – allowing for a push and pull of emotions. Etching is a very violent medium, using acid on a plate to eat away at the metal. Lithography, the ‘gentler’ medium, allows for more nuances and a beautiful drawing-like quality which is perfect for the more subtle scenes.”

In her introduction to Silverman’s portfolio, printmaker and painter Ann Chernow describes Silverman’s approach as approximating the social critique and sure-handedness of artists such as Spanish court painter Francisco Goya. Regarding the Stations of the Cross, Chernow adds, “Of particular significance is her liberal use of the Stations of the Cross as the allegorical vehicle to depict her intensity of feeling. The entire suite is a condemnation of political and religious hypocrisy that emerged in response to the Shepard case, …”

Silverman sees the series as a continuation of her impulse to address social and political issues, “Over the years, [my art] has dealt with the origins of hate and how it spirals through the generations into violence, so often against those perceived as outsiders.” Through printmaking, the artist harnesses the storytelling capabilities of rendered images and expresses her emotional response to a senseless act with confidently etched lines and visceral applications of ink. Silverman hopes viewers will react to the feeling of each type of print as they follow Shepard’s story.

The exhibition is open to the public at no charge. Hours are: Monday through Thursday, 8:00 a.m. – 10 p.m., Friday 8:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m., Saturday 8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m., Sunday 11:30 a.m. – 5p.m.

Blog for Warhol-related show at Housatonic Museum of Art

Housatonic Museum of Art
900 Lafayette Blvd., Bridgeport, (203) 332-5052
In the Company of…Andy Warhol
Through Oct. 15, 2010.
Special Event: Thurs. Oct. 14, 4 p.m.: Trisha Baga performs Madonna y El Niño

Press release

Curator Terri Smith has created a blog for In the Company of, a show that places the works of Jeremy Kost, Rashaad Newsome, Billy Sullivan, and Andy Warhol (as well as other artworks and pop culture materials) in the company of each other. In doing so, the exhibition explores some ways in which artists include their social circles as a subject or as a medium in their work. In 2008, the Andy Warhol Photographic Legacy Program donated a collection of 158 photographs by Andy Warhol to the Housatonic Museum of Art.

Call for entries from Housatonic Museum of Art; deadline May 31

Housatonic Museum of Art
900 Lafayette Blvd., Bridgeport, (203) 332-5229
Call for Entries: Flower (Re)Power
Deadline: May 31, 2010

Press release

Why (Re)Power the Flower?

When you couple the art class exercise/classic art staple of the still life with the flower - sumptuous siren of subject matter for painters big and small, the result is a brigade of flower art that ranges from straight representation to a kinetic sculpture where sunflowers turn circles in a wooden box. Like trying to write a love song, it is challenging to revamp the exhausted visual of the flower, bringing it into a contemporary art dialogue and finding new ways to approach it as formal element, subject, symbol, etc. With Flower (Re)Power, the Housatonic Museum of Art is asking artists, whether you love or hate flowers in art, to share works influenced by or that address the flower in any way. All media are welcome - sound, video, painting, sculpture, online projects, etc. Experimentation, critique, quirky perspectives, and general irreverence are encouraged!

For more information, check out the Flower (Re)Power blog.

Juror: Terri C. Smith

Important Dates:

Entry deadline: May 31
Email notification of acceptances: June 4
Drop off selected work: June 10, 11, 14, 10 am - 8 pm
Shipped work must arrive by June 11
Opening Reception: Thursday, June 17, 5 - 7 pm
Exhibition dates: June 18 - July 23, 2010
Pick up of artworks: July 26, 27, 10 am - 8 pm