Two shows open at Artspace in New Haven Saturday night

Artspace
50 Orange St, New Haven, (203) 772-2709
The Figure Eight
Figurative Metonymy
Feb. 9—Mar. 16, 2013.
Opening: Sat., Feb. 9, 6—8 p.m.

Artspace Press release

Two shows open at Artspace this Saturday night, Feb. 9: The Figure Eight and Figurative Metonymy. The opening reception will occur from 6—8 p.m.

The Figure Eight, organized by artist and Artspace Visual Arts Committee member Kwadwo Adae, will run at Artspace from Feb. 9—March 16, 2013. In this exhibition, depictions of figuration encompass the continuum from the traditional to the abstract, the scientific to the animalistic, and address the historical as well as societal aspects of artistic relationships with the viewer. Each artist employs innovative approaches to the traditional concept of the figure in aspects of form, social commentary, and the willful transformation of materials. The exhibition will be supplemented with community programming to engage the general public in these questions of figuration. Weekly figure drawing classes with live models, free and open to the public in the gallery at Artspace, will span the duration of this exhibition.

About the Artists:

Sophia Wallace is an award-winning and critically acclaimed photographer who lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. In Wallace's body of work titled On Beauty she skillfully focuses attention on societal perceptions of masculinity, femininity, and sexuality by creating photographs of male models that objectify them in ways similar to the societally accepted practice of the objectification of women across artistic media.

Jaclyn Conley is a figurative painter who lives and works in New Haven, CT. Conley's work is driven by fragments of jpeg images cultivated from the internet and explores the line between the human figure and animal figure, asking which aspects of human behavior are animalistic and what aspects of animalism are human in nature.

Gerri Davis (Web) is a painter living and working in Manhattan, NY. In her series Iteration she renders awe-inspiring, spatially perverse, monumentally sized figurative pieces in oil paint. These works are comprised of the exploration of staccato moments of time and space, echoing masterpieces of classical artistic expressions of portraiture.

Gaviero Umami is the moniker for the collaborative team of sculptors, Eoin Burke and Jim Dessicino. They live in New Haven, CT and work in Brooklyn, NY. They render innovative forms by utilizing aspects of the figure as a vehicle for the exploration of ideas, leading to conceptual creations of figurative entities that are simultaneously abjectly familiar and impossibly alien.

Gregory Santos, an artist who works predominantly in printmaking, lives and works in Manhattan, NY. In Santos' body of work entitled Movements, he explores and portrays intimate interpersonal relationships by reducing figurative form to the rudimentary building blocks of color, shape, size, and space. These simplified forms capture complex aspects of personality, mood, and the vibrancy of human gesture.

Ryan and Trevor Oakes (Web) are multidisciplinary, collaborative, twin artists living and working in Manhattan. In their series Vision they explore fundamental aspects of visual perception by utilizing a special concave easel (specifically designed for the cranial measurements of these identical twins) with concave paper surfaces that are analogous to the spherical shape of the human eye. These masterful concave drawings take into account the technical aspects of the perception of the viewer to create surprisingly accurate freehand ink drawings of interior and exterior spaces.

About the Organizer:

Kwadwo Adae is an award-winning abstract painter, teacher, and member of the Visual Arts Committee, Artspace’s peer review artist board. Adae is the founder of Adae Fine Art Academy, a small art school and studio dedicated to providing individualized instruction in drawing and painting in the community through afterschool art programs, assisted living centers, and rest homes for the mentally ill. He holds a Masters in Art from New York University.

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Figurative Metonymy is the first to be organized at Artspace by the University of Connecticut's Advanced Photography Class, led by professor Cara Vickers-Kane (Web). Metonymy, a linguistic device used in rhetoric in which one thing is named or referred to by the name of another, forms the thesis of this show. The exhibition features five artists whose images coalesce to form a pictorial response to the work in the surrounding space. Learn more about the exhibition on the Figurative Metonymy blog. Opening on February 9, 2013.

Participating artists are Joan Fitzsimmons (Web), Carolyn Monastra (Web), Christopher Beauchamp (Web), Keith Johnson (Web) and David Coon (Web).

"Five Course Meal" exhibit artists' reception Tuesday at Katalina's in New Haven

Katalina's Cupcake Shop
74 Whitney Ave., New Haven, (203) 891-7998
Five Course Meal
Through Nov. 2, 2012.
Artists' reception: Tues., Sept. 18, 5—7 p.m.

Press release

The Arts Council of Greater New Haven presents Five Course Meal, an exhibition of works by Connecticut artists Joan Fitzsimmons, Laura Barr, Alexis Neider, Barbara Marks, and Lisa Hess Hesselgrave.

The exhibition will take place at Katalina’s cupcake shop at 74 Whitney Avenue, New Haven, and will be on display from Sept. 10—Nov. 2, 2012. Katalina’s is open to the public during business hours, Monday to Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 7 p.m., and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.

An artists’ reception is scheduled for Tues., Sept. 18, from 5—7 p.m. The public is invited to attend. Refreshments and light appetizers will be served, including cupcakes, of course!

The exhibit will feature artwork that revolves around the theme of food, including colorful and playful paintings of indulgent breakfasts and black and white photographs of emptied glasses. The exhibition, curated by our Director of Artistic Services & Programs, Debbie Hesse, brings together all the abundance and the lack that the theme summons within all of us, roughly three times a day.

This exhibition will also complement the Arts Paper’s September issue “The Art of Food,” which will highlight local culinary talent, delve into international eating trends, discuss food documentaries, and goes behind-the-scenes in the article “The Ballet of Service.”

Upcoming events at new Gallery 305K in Bridgeport

Gallery 305K
305 Knowlton St., Bridgeport, (203) 814-6856
Upcoming events:
Sun., Jan. 23, 3 p.m.: Historical talk with Mary Witkowski and Charles Brilvitch.
Tues., Jan. 25, 7 p.m.: Views on Bridgeport's future.
Sun., Feb. 5, 3 p.m.: Grand Opening Show reception.

Press release

The New Gallery 305K, Art and Cultural Center. (formerly the Gallery at Black Rock) announces it’s move and grand opening event schedule.

In celebration of the gallery’s move to the City of Bridgeport’s vibrant East Side we are having three grand opening events. The gallery’s move is part of its mission to bring arts and culture to Bridgeport Residents. The historic factory space at 305 Knowlton Street has considerably more space so that we are able to show a much more broad array of arts, music, film, dance, etc. The building, a newly renovated and restored 19th century bicycle and automobile factory, houses the studios and workspaces of architects, filmmakers, fine artists, fine furniture makers and decorative painters as well as the new gallery. The gallery aims to become an integral part of the east side neighborhood and plans to provide programs and art events that will serve and be of interest to its residents, as well as the wider Greater Bridgeport area.

Sun., Jan. 23, 3 p.m. • Charles Brilvitch and Mary Witkowski will speak on the history of the east side of Bridgeport and the Armstrong factory in which the gallery is housed. Mary Witkowski runs the Bridgeport History Center at the Burrows Library. She is the current Bridgeport City Historian. Charles Brilvitch is a past Bridgeport City Historian and a noted expert in the architectural history of the city of Bridgeport.

Tues., Jan. 25, 7 p.m. • The gallery will host students from the University of Munich in coordination with Nils Weisenmuller of Bridgeport Design Group who will showcase their views for Bridgeport’s future including ideas on sustainable development.

Sun., Feb. 5, 3 p.m. • The Grand Opening Show reception! The show will feature a sampling of art from the Black Rock gallery artists, as well as some artists work who we will be featuring in the future. It is an open themed show that will allow our artists to show their newest and best work and will set the tone for the gallery’s future exhibits.

Some artists included will be Joan Fitzsimmons, Liz Squillace, Marcella Kurowski, Felipe Soltero, Mark DeRosa, Jessica Bajoros, Michelle Beaulieu and more.

The gallery will have regular Business hours beginning Thursday Feb. 10, Thurs.—Sat. from 11:30 a.m.—5:30 p.m.