Memorial for Joan Gardner Sun., Mar. 9, from noon to 2 p.m.

John Slade Ely House Center for Contemporary Art
51 Trumbull Street, New Haven, (203) 624-8055
Memorial for Joan Gardner
Sun., Mar. 9, Noon—2 p.m..

From Anna Broell Bresnick and Paul Clabby, director and curator at the John Slade Ely House comes an announcement of a memorial event for Joan Gardner, a gifted local artist who passed away Feb. 16:

The John Slade Ely House is hosting a Memorial Event for Joan Gardner on Sun., Mar. 9, from noon until 2 p.m. We hope that many of you will attend and that some will share a memory or two of your mutual friendship. Her husband, Frank, will join us and will most surely enjoy seeing a number of friends again. We look forward to seeing you there.

From Anna Broell Bresnick's announcement of Joan Gardner's passing:

It is with great sadness that our cultural community has lost one of its most vital artists. Joan Gardner passed away on February 16th at Hospice. She had been living at The Grimes Rehabilitation Center in New Haven for the past year and a half with her husband, Frank Gardner. She and her husband lived and worked in East Haven, and also maintain a loft on Bowery St. in New York City for many years.

Joan Gardner has been making art for over 40 years, and her primary interests have included painting, printmaking and bookmaking. Her creative ventures also included explorations in film and shadow puppetry. A puppet production of "Rooms" by Andrew Drummond was performed at the 42nd Street Theater in New York. She had been a member of 55 Mercer Gallery in Soho since 1973 until its closing at that location in early 2000.

Joan Gardner at Erector Square during City-Wide Open Studios, 2007

Joan Gardner’s prolific career as a painter has focused primarily on the world of fantasy and parody. The unrestrained creative energy of her work is achieved through the use of playful and whimsical imagery interspersed with the darker side of fantasy. Her vocabulary is grabbed in bits and pieces from all over the art world as well as from her own autobiography. This material is brilliantly painted, colored and collaged into large and small theatrical allegories. Medieval imagery, Bruegel, Rousseau, the artist’s friends and lovers, Indonesian tales and chimeras (like the monkey and lion) all find a place in Joan’s richly painted narratives. Her profound love of paint, vigorous gesture, rich psychological content and art historical references were the sources and inspirations of her remarkable work. Vibrant colors and whimsical imagery lure us into the paintings—they capture and delight us with their enticing, nightmarish humor.

"My images come from many sources including a large collection of masks and puppets from around the world. I have developed a style of intensity with color, form and gesture, which enhances the mood, mystery and ambiguity in my work. Humor plays a major role in my work as well. It must be subtle. I would like evoke a smile but never laughter."

Joan Gardner’s education included a B.F.A. and M.F.A. from the University of Illinois, and a Yale-Norfolk Summer School fellowship. She taught at Connecticut State University, The University of New Haven, Kent State University, Lane College, Jackson, Tenn. and The University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah.

Not only was Joan Gardner a highly imaginative, gifted painter, she also explored to great success various other mediums such as printmaking, bookmaking, installation at and film. Her two dimensional work has been shown in solo and group shows in New Haven, New York and in many museums and galleries across the United States including The John Slade Ely House (a solo retrospective, and one in conjunction with her husband), Artspace, Real Art Ways, Clock Tower, Tuthill Gimprich Gallery and 55 Mercer Galleries, all in NYC, as well as the New Britain Museum of American Art, the Akron Museum, Akron, OH, and the Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art, Cleveland, OH.

In the late 60's and early 70's Joan and her husband, Frank, made a number of experimental films. Her own stop motion animation films as well as those made in collaboration with her husband were shown and won numerous awards in many film festivals across the United States including Yale (three), Monterey, Harvard and two Ann Arbor Film Festivals. Lawrence Alloway praised Joan's film, "JigJag," in The Nation and ArtNews, and it was mentioned again in a review of her work in Art in America 20 years later. frankandjoantherobotproject.com is a website-in-progress created in remembrance of Joan as well as in preparation of a documentary about their film making process.

A Connecticut Commission On The Arts Grant, Yale Law School Film Grant and a N.E.T (New Hampshire) Film Grant are among Joan Gardner’s awards, and her work is in many private collections as well as those of Franklin Furnace, Lyman Allyn Museum, Yale University and The Museum of Modern Art.

"Hers (Joan Gardner) is a deeply original and inventive art." Michael Rush – Art New England and The New York Times.

"Joan Gardner has been producing an accomplished, diverse, and innovative body of work for almost four decades. She deserves a place of prominence in the annals of Contemporary American Art." Lawrence Campbell

We will very much miss Joan's vibrant contributions to our art community. She leaves behind her husband, Frank Gardner, and condolences may be sent to him at Frank Gardner, Grimes Rehabilitation Center, 1350 Chapel Street, New Haven, CT 06511.

Joan Gardner: "Virgin and Chimp"

 In 2010, I reviewed a retrospective show featuring the works of both Joan and Frank Gardner at the Ely House for the New Haven Advocate. As the corporate owners of the now-defunct Advocate haven't bothered to maintain an online archive, I will quote here from what I wrote about Joan Gardner's works in that show:

Joan Gardner's work pulses with emotional immediacy. Her paintings overall are characterized by darker subject matter and a darker color palette. Many of her drawings and mixed media paintings set figures and landscape against a black background or sky. Like fever dreams in a spooky children's book, her images feature trickster figures like anthropomorphic monkeys and cats, barking dogs, wild-eyed birds. In one painting, corpse-like face float in a steamy sea. Dragons, demons, bizarre masks, chaos haunts many of her tableaux.

In "In the Soup," the meal of two diners -- possibly the Gardners themselves -- is disrupted by one monkey chasing another across the dinner table, knocking over a wine bottle vase filled with flowers. Like many of her paintings, the pleasure of "In the Soup" derives from more than just the absurdity of the scene. Using a combination of paint, oil stick and crayon, she layers shade upon color shade, investing the static moment with vigorous energy. Similarly, in "Virgin and Chimp," the marks and colors seem to dance within the frame. It's mysterious and beautiful, rife with intimations of the unconscious.

Joan's passing is a tremendous loss. She was a truly gifted visionary artist. My condolences go out to her husband Frank Gardner.

"Handful of Art" opens this week at John Slade Ely House, reception on Sunday

John Slade Ely House Center for Contemporary Art
51 Trumbull Street, New Haven, (203) 624-8055
Handful of Art
Jun. 19—Jul. 21, 2013.
Opening Reception: Sun., Jun. 23, 2—5 p.m.

Press release from the John Slade Ely House

The very best New Haven artists working in painting, sculpture, drawing, collage, printmaking and photography have made one remarkable deck of playing cards. Please join the John Slade Ely House in celebrating the culmination of a Partnership for CT Cities project over a year in the making. Handful of Art will be on view from Jun. 19 through Jul. 21. An opening reception will be held on Sun., Jun. 23, from 2—5 p.m.

The participating artists are Michael Angelis, John Arabolos, Amy Arledge, Cat Balco, Ethan Boisvert, Riley Brewster, Frank Bruckmann, Susan Clinard, Megan Craig, Jan Cunningham, Leila Daw, Steven DiGiovanni, Karen Dow, Eileen Eder, Silas Finch, Dean Fisher, Amanda Fornal, Josh Gaetjen, Michael Galvin, Elizabeth Gourlay, Rachel Hellerich, Cham Hendon, Lisa Hess, Danny Huff, Clint Jukkala, John Keefer, Zachary Keeting, Janet Lage, Martha Lewis, Nathan Lewis, Linda Lindroth, William Lustenader, Barbara Marks, Christopher Mir, Adam Niklewicz, Jason Noushin, John O’Donnell, Perry Obee, David Ottenstein, Hank Paper, J.D. Richey, Lyn Bell Rose, Joseph Saccio, Charles Santarpia, Martha Savage, K Levni Sinanoglu, Joseph Smolinski, Kevin Van Aelst, Thuan Vu, Jonathan Waters, Marjorie Wolfe and Aicha Woods.

Artist talk and reception at John Slade Ely House Sunday

John Slade Ely House Center for Contemporary Art
51 Trumbull Street, New Haven, (203) 624-8055
Life Ascending: Three Views
Through Mar. 10, 2013
Artist Talk and Reception: Sun., Mar. 3, 2—5 p.m.

Press release from the John Slade Ely House

The John Slade Ely House launches its 2013 exhibition schedule with Life Ascending: Three Views running through March 10. Included are sculptures by Susan Classen-Sullivan of Canterbury, mixed media work by Jessica Goodyear of Branford, and photography by Frank Noelker of Storrs, all of Connecticut. An Artist Talk and Reception will be held Sun., Mar. 3, from 2—5 p.m. All events are free and open to the public.

Animals have been a subject of interest for artists since the Lascaux cave painters. Life Ascending: Three Views looks at animal forms in the context of renewed interest in life's common origins. Recent genetic evidence shows the preservation for over 500 million years of what scientists call "immortal genes”—and necessary for every lifeform from microbe to human being. For example, a gene that initiates the growth of an eye in a fly is the same as that in humans. Our new understanding of evolution leads us to see our fate as interconnected to that of all other animals.

Photographer Frank Noelker has witnessed the conditions of animals in captivity since early in his career. He has visited over three hundred zoos, sanctuaries, and farms around the world. Careful not to exploit his subjects for aesthetic concerns, he often frames his photographs with a wide, inclusive view exposing the stark reality of their environment. In his "Zoo" series animals sometimes appear in front of a painted reproduction of their native habitat giving them a toy-like appearance.

Artist/scientist Jessica Goodyear finds inspiration in the ornithological studies of James John Audubon. A video editor for the National Audubon Society in 1993, Goodyear reused the edit logs from that program as the ground upon which she xeroxed Audubon’s birds. Her recycled materials and images reflect a concern for the environment. The three-dimensional folding of the paper makes it impossible to see the work in its entirety from a single angle. Thus our stereoscopic vision interacts with the art in a way that requires and rewards extended viewing.

Susan Classen-Sullivan initially found the source for her exquisitely sculpted works in amphibians discovered while running. Sullivan was attracted to the expressive characteristics of their death throes. Transformed by direct observation into both life-size and larger than life-size pure white ceramic sculptures, they confront and invite us to look intimately at animals that are rarely scrutinized so closely. Embodying both ecstatic sensuality and extreme suffering, Classen-Sullivan's sculptures remind us that we share a common physical destiny with all animals.

Audette retrospective showcases painter's mastery of form

John Slade Ely House Center for Contemporary Art
51 Trumbull Street, New Haven, (203) 624-8055
Anna Held Audette: A Retrospective
Through May 27, 2012.

We live in a strange world, a world we make and a world we destroy. Within that cycle of creation and destruction there can be found a lot of surprising beauty.

For at least two decades, painter Anna Held Audette has been crafting complex paintings inspired by the structures and machinery of the modern industrial age as it slides into obsolescence. The retrospective of her work at the John Slade Ely House, which closes this Sunday, is a master class in painterly skill, composition and conceptual rigor.

Throughout the two floors of the Ely House are a few dozen paintings—along with some older prints and drawings—mostly concerned with architectural and technological form.

Had Audette been painting in the 1930's or 1950's, her work might have been glorifying the majestic, burgeoning industrial might of the United States, sort of a "Capitalist Realism." But most of the works date from the 1980's on, a period in which the predominant trend has been deindustrialization.

Many of these works are landscapes of collapse and decay—scrapyards piled high with machine debris, rusting in the sun, and factory buildings, gutted and falling apart. Audette has dubbed the latter paintings "modern ruins." In their conceptual concern, they reference the Renaissance and post-Renaissance predilection for painting the ruins of antiquity (see "Hubert Robert in New Haven" [1993], below).


But this is a collapse run at fast-forward speed, and with conscious intent. Our ruins may be monumental in scale but there is something wasteful and small about them. That, however, is a socio-political judgment. As an aesthetic matter, there is an undeniable attraction to these scenes of piled-high junk (like "Scrap Metal V" [1990], below), gears and machinery and light streaming in through tall windows overlooking mournful, empty factory floors.


While these are representational works, Audette often painted cropped segments of scenes; she usually worked from photographs. The effect is to approach a kind of formal abstraction in which color, contour, light and shape juxtapositions are more important than depicting a specific object (see "Old New Haven Terminal" [2006], below).


A dozen or so of Audette's most recent works are shown in the final room on the second floor. Audette was diagnosed in 2009 with Fronto-Temporal Dementia (FTD), a rare form of Alzheimer's disease. While Audette's lifelong interest in making art declined initially, since 2010—with the assistance and encouragement of former student Carole Dubiell—she has completed 120 "new" paintings, including "Ship II" (2011), seen below.

"Exploded Views" now on display at John Slade Ely House in New Haven

John Slade Ely House Center for Contemporary Art
51 Trumbull Street, New Haven, (203) 624-8055
Going the Distance
Through Feb. 26, 2011

Press release

The John Slade Ely House is pleased to announce the first exhibit of 2012 Exploded Views which runs from Jan. 15 through Feb. 26. Participating artists are Aimée Burg (Web), Geoffrey Detrani (Web), Martha W. Lewis (Web), and Mark Wilson (Web). Exploded Views includes drawing, painting, installation, sculpture, video, and digital printing.

Exploded Views refers to the practice in technical drawing of representing the parts of a whole in exploded or diagrammatic form for the purpose of clarity, instruction, and to make visible the relationship of scale, position, orientation. The artists in Exploded Views utilize this mode of representation to address a variety of issues from the interaction of planning and nature, the aesthetic quality of technical and scientific instrumentation, and as metaphor for insight and understanding.

Exploded Views will be on view through Feb. 26.

Reception this Sunday at John Slade Ely House for "Going the Distance" show

John Slade Ely House Center for Contemporary Art
51 Trumbull Street, New Haven, (203) 624-8055
Going the Distance
Through Dec. 23, 2011
Reception: Sun., Dec. 11, 2—5 p.m.

Press release

Going the Distance is the third in a series of exhibits celebrating 50 years of Art, Culture, and Music at the John Slade Ely House.

There will be a reception for the show this Sun., Dec. 11, from 2—5 p.m.

Featured artists:

John Arabolos
Alexis Brown
Patricia Carrigan
Jeanne C. Criscola
Paul Duda
Ellen Hackl Fagan
Joe Fekieta
Frank Gardner
Joan Gardner
Mari Gyorgyey
Tony Juliano
Bob Keating
William Kent
Eric Litke
Fethi Meghelli
Lawrence Morelli
Hank Paper (see image)
Cynthia Beth Rubin
William Saunders
Claudine Burns Smith
Raymond W. Smith
Michael Stickrod

Nurturing the creative, positive spirit in prison

John Slade Ely House Center for Contemporary Art
51 Trumbull Street, New Haven, (203) 624-8055
Prison Arts Program Annual Show
Through May 29, 2011

Their bodies may be caged but their imaginations are running free.

Started in 1978, Community Partners in Action's Prison Arts Program is holding its 33rd Annual show of artwork by inmates—and some former—inmates of Connecticut's correctional system. The Prison Arts Program affords inmates a positive, creative outlet for expression, a means to channel pent-up energy, thoughts and emotions in a constructive rather than destructive manner. Community Partners in Action, established in 1875, is dedicated to the successful reintegration of returning inmates into the community. The art program is just one of the many things the organization does. CPA services also include educating clients in life skills, monitoring clients for the criminal justice system, substance abuse counseling and education and overseeing community service commitments. While some of the inmates with work in this show will never leave prison, most will get out. Both for those who remain incarcerated and for those who complete their sentence, the art program offers a way to contemplate their life and possibilities.

That being said, it is understandable that there might be people—particularly family and friends of crime victims—who might take offense at this show. But I think one of the things this show demonstrates is that human beings are complex; our natures aren't black and white. John Slade Ely House director Paul Clabby says the response to the show has been overwhelmingly positive. He notes that many families of inmates have come to the show, which offers them a way to see their loved one represented in a positive light.

As imagery goes, it is a decidedly mixed bag. There is a fair share of kitsch and a lot of work derived from fantasy and tattoo iconography. That makes sense. Jeffrey Greene, who coordinates and manages the program as well as leading some of the workshops, encourages inmates to draw on their imaginations. The inmates create art that references that with which they are familiar. Many of the drawings have a decidedly folk art feel, albeit with an edge.

But much of the work in the show evinces rich, technical skill and an accomplished eye. Two drawings by Vincent Nardone—"Year of the Fin" and "Breakfast Family Style," rendered in stippled ballpoint pen—are vivid recreations of moments in a day back in 1959 when Nardone was eight years old and on his way to go hunting with his father and uncle. There is almost a spookiness to the level of detail: the swirl of reflections on the chrome bumper of the garishly tailfinned 1959 Cadillac and the 1957 Plymouth and 1959 Chevy in the background of "Year of the Fin;" the diagonal rays of sunlight coming through diner windows and the Knights of Columbus patch on the jacket of one customer in "Breakfast American Style."


A diner also figures in another powerful work—Andrew Wilson's "Orange Whip Diner." It's an interior scene of customers at a counter from a perspective behind the counter and in the foreground. Perhaps inspired by the experience of prison confinement, the drawing has a dark, crowded, claustrophobic energy.

Not all the works are drawings or paintings. There are a number of sculptural works, some of which—particularly given that they are made with tight constraints on the materials and tools the inmates have access to—are among the most impressive pieces in the exhibition.

Christopher Blanks' "1987 Mack 'R' Model 6x6 Highway Plow Truck" is just what its title says it is: a scale model of a truck crafted out of paper and cardstock. But it's also more. Blanks resisted any temptation to color the sculpture. Left completely white, the viewer is free to appreciate the intricacies of the form, the attention to detail. This is powerful machinery as ghost-like presence.


Scott Deojay has several sculptural works on both the first and second floors of the Ely House. His "Queen of the Dragons: Gathering of the Bones" on the second floor is stunning. Although fashioned out of paper and soap, it looks like a sword and sorcery fantasy carved out of ivory. "The Dream House," composed of mixed media, is a masterful work of the imagination, a multi-tiered doll's house diorama for which Deojay even created artwork for the walls and faux children's drawings to post on the refrigerator. Deojay is serving a life sentence for the kidnapping and murder of middle-school social worker Judith Nilan in 2005.




Other impressive works:

• Kelly Donnelly's "Nameless" and "Where Chakras Meet" are crafted out of sheets of paper towel colored with watercolors and rolled into yarn-like lengths of twine. "Nameless," in particular, reminded me of Van Gogh's "The Starry Night."


• John Wagner's "Super Nova" is an almost psychedelically detailed color drawing composed of countless concentric illustrated circles.


• Jason Peters' "The Spetuagint—Freedom and Liberty" is a fine point pen drawing of 70 men's faces, mostly African-Americans including Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr., over which is drawn the three hands of a clock. Peters is a talented portraitist and a fine draftsman.

• Although Ross VonWeingarten considers himself a Buddhist, he created an Islamic temple out of paper. "Temple" has a deeply contemplative beauty.


The 33rd Annual Prison Arts Program Show will be on view through this Sunday, May 29.

Reception for Prison Arts show this Sunday at John Slade Ely House

John Slade Ely House Center for Contemporary Art
51 Trumbull Street, New Haven, (203) 624-8055
Prison Arts Program Annual Show
Through May 29, 2011
Reception: Sun., May 15, 2—5 p.m.

Press release

The John Slade Ely House presents 33rd Annual Prison Arts Program Show of artwork from Connecticut’s prisons. The exhibit features over 750 artworks created by over 200 artists from 12 correctional facilities.

A tradition within the prison system and the State of Connecticut, inmates work all year towards this amazing show.


The Prison Arts Program was initiated in 1978. Community Partners in Action is a nonprofit agency founded in 1875.

This exhibition is funded by: Beatrice Fox Auerbach Foundation Fund at Hartford Foundation for Public Giving, J. Walton Bissell Foundation, Concerned Citizens for Humanity, Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism, Connecticut Department of Correction, Fisher Foundation, Greater Hartford Arts Council, George A. and Grace L. Long Foundation, Robert and Margaret Patricelli Family Foundation, The Edward C. and Ann T. Roberts Foundation and many individuals and collaborating organizations.



(Top image: "A Matter of Trust" by Rick Celso. Bottom image: "Untitled" by Kelly Donnelly.)

Sunday opening at John Slade Ely House

John Slade Ely House Center for Contemporary Art
51 Trumbull Street, New Haven, (203) 624-8055
Extraordinary Facilities
Jan. 19—Mar. 6, 2011
Opening Reception: Sun., Jan. 23, 2—5 p.m.

Press release

Extraordinary Facilities is the first in a series of exhibits in 2011 celebrating the John Slade Ely House’s fifty years of operation, presenting visual arts exhibitions and cultural events to the greater New Haven region. A public reception for the artists will be held on Sun., Jan. 23, from 2—5 p.m. The reception is free and open to the public.

Extraordinary Facilities comprises a selection of artists who previously exhibited in curated exhibitions at the Ely House. Media include painting, drawing, printmaking, photography, and sculpture. Artists exhibiting were chosen for the facility and command of their art forms, achieving a level of excellence in melding their technique and style to subject matter. The exhibit offers the viewer interested in contemporary art a survey of some of the finest visual artists in the Greater Connecticut region.

Subsequent exhibitions in the series will focus on Conceptual Art, New Media and Digital Art, Art in Context, as well as Traditional Art forms.

Participating Artists:

Marion Belanger, Anna Bresnick, Megan Craig, Phyllis Crowley, Steven DiGiovanni, Nancy Eisenfeld, Anne Doris-Eisner, Leila Daw, Karen Dow, Amanda Durant, Christopher Engstrom, Joan Fitzsimmons, Kathryn Frund, Joseph Fucigna, Josh Gaetjen, Gilles Giuntini, Stephen Grossman, Barbara Harder, Tom Hebert, Lisa Hess, Blinn Jacobs, Jilaine Jones, Clint Jukkala, Richard Kallweit, John Keefer, Mary Kenealy, Nathan Lewis, Sabrina Marques, Christopher Mir, Frank Noelker, Kathi Packer, Liz Pagano, Dorothy Powers, Joseph Saccio, Gerald Saladyga, Susan Sharp, Deirdre Schiffer, Laurie Sloan, Kim Sobel, Susan Classen-Sullivan, Rachael Vaters-Carr, Thuan Vu, Daniel Wilkinson, Peter Ziou

Art as burning passion

John Slade Ely House Center for Contemporary Art
51 Trumbull Street, New Haven, (203) 624-8055
Figures in the Carpet: Work of Edward Castiglione
Through Nov. 14, 2010

Artist Edward Castiglione, according to Figures in the Carpet co-curator (with John Slade Ely House director Paul Clabby) and longtime friend Stephen Kobasa, "painted only for himself, always." Castiglione died earlier this year. He spent decades painting and drawing in his New Haven studio yet rarely exhibited his work. After Castiglione's death, Kobasa, with the cooperation of Castiglione's estate, examined the works left behind. Conscious as he was of Castiglione's immense talent, Kobasa writes, "I was unprepared for what I found in his studio after his death. Turning one canvas after another from the wall was like being in some new cave at Altamira with its pageant of visions."

Kobasa describes the show as "a miscellany" rather than a retrospective. Castiglione neither signed nor dated his works; the creation dates for many of them are speculative.

Whether the imagery is figurative or abstract, an inner flame of intense passion lights Castiglione's work. What animates these canvasses and works on paper is both virtuosic technique and an incandescent spiritual core.

Flames and anguish are common threads running through this exhibition. For many artists, the act of creation is a form of joy and refuge. Perhaps this was so for Castiglione. Still, the pain of personal existence and the cruelty of social existence is a searing presence in many of these works.

Sometimes this anguish is literalized. In two oil paintings dating to the 1970's that evoke the crime of the Holocaust, emaciated bodies are piled or huddled together. It's almost a travesty to call these works "beautiful," suffused as they are with suffering. But Castiglione's rendering of the figures is so fluid as to imagine him trying to caress and comfort the bared flesh, to offer solace with strokes of his brush. Painted more than two decades before the Iraq War, they also evoke the war crimes of Abu Ghraib to come: prophecy in the form of witness.


In a nearby room, with a series of works made around 1990, Castiglione took a more metaphorical approach. On one wall is a painting of three bundles of sticks—unbound fasces, a symbol of Roman authority adopted by Mussolini's Fascists in the 1920's. Facing the painting are six large drawings in pencil and watercolor. The drawings constitute "a narrative on La Repubblica di Salo, the final manifestation of the Italian Fascist State," according to Kobasa's necessarily fragmentary catalogue for the exhibit. Over the course of these six drawings, the bundle of sticks comes undone, sparks and is consumed in an inferno of orange and yellow flame and black smoke. In the concluding drawing, the sticks resemble bones. The bones of the dead, the poison fruit of war, are scattered and scorched in a miserable gray circle.


As for Castiglione's abstractions—what an immense, commanding talent! On facing walls in one room are two paintings in which Castiglione wedded light, shadow and color to a vision of remarkable depth and emotion. One of the paintings, apparently part of a menorah series dating back to before 1990, is a long, horizontal work depicting eight rectangular panels. The motif of flames illuminates this work, a meditation on gradations of heat and fire. Castiglione has not painted flames in this work. Rather, he painted the idea of flames—their consuming energy, their active motion, their symbolic and spiritual resonance.


On the facing wall is a huge abstract painting that could be a vision of monumental canyon walls. It is a work of complex, thoroughly controlled beauty with nary a brush stroke out of place. Yet, while beautiful, it also provokes deep unease. This is not soothing abstraction for the corporate boardroom. There is the sense, if these are rock walls, that the viewer—or artist—is trapped. The sky may be glimpsed above but there is no way to scale the walls, no escape from this claustrophobic, if awe-inspiring, existential trap.


In his final years, Castiglione worked on a series of paintings inspired by Persian carpets. Perhaps in part a commentary on America's Mideast wars, they deconstruct the patterns on dark canvasses, the imagery sometimes threatening to catch fire. There are hints of fractal geometry, the dark recesses of time and history, the comfort of cosmic order. Although derived from decorative and utilitarian objects, these paintings have metaphysical heft. It is as though the swirling secrets of galaxies are contained within these luminous, ornate spirals. Perhaps, were Edward Castiglione with us today, he would say they are.

Sunday afternoon opening at John Slade Ely House

John Slade Ely House Center for Contemporary Art
51 Trumbull Street, New Haven, (203) 624-8055
Figures in the Carpet: Work of Edward Castiglione
Oct. 17—Nov. 14, 2010.
Opening reception: Sun., Oct. 17, 2—5 p.m.

Also showing Oct. 17—Nov. 14, 2010
Lauren Laudano, Sculpture/Installation
Eric Litke, Photo/Installation
Alyssa Sciortino, Paintings
Opening reception: Sun., Oct. 17, 2—5 p.m.

Press release

For over forty years, Edward Castiglione made a life’s work of drawing and painting in his New Haven studio. He showed his art only rarely, and little of it during the last two decades. This exhibition is an anthology made up almost entirely of that unseen achievement, with its extraordinary range of painterly skill and compelling subject matter. With influences ranging from Caravaggio through Anselm Kiefer, his unique vocabulary has long deserved to be more widely known. It is finally presented here through the generosity of the Estate of Edward Castiglione and the John Slade Ely House.

This exhibit was curated by Stephen Kobasa and Paul Clabby.

Ely House sculpture show worth its Waite in gold

John Slade Ely House Center for Contemporary Art
51 Trumbull Street, New Haven, (203) 624-8055
Peter Waite: Parallel Play
Through July 25, 2010.

Imagine the coolest school diorama ever. Then multiply that by eight. That is one way to view the show of sculptures by artist Peter Waite presently on display at the John Slade Ely House. (In fact, Ely House director Paul Clabby says the show has been particularly popular with young people.)

In this must-see show, Waite—best known as a painter who specializes in depicting architectural scenes infused with questions of politics and power—leaps feet first into constructing architecture of his own. The results are stunning.Using junk—paint scrapings, studio scraps, toys, found objects, photographic slides and more—Waite has created works that could be miniature film sets for a grand epic of social disintegration. Think Children of Men or Terry Gilliam's Brazil.

Each work overflows with visual information, with signifiers personal, cultural, historic, social and political. A title card with text by Michelle Yee of the City University of New York Graduate Center accompanies each piece. Based on Waite's notes, these texts offer back-stories helpful in contemplating the works.

But in fact, these pieces are so rich with stimuli as to be almost overwhelming. Certainly, they resist simple interpretations.

In "Death Ship," the putative concept is that the ship-like object leaving a trail of hundreds of slides is "Waite's personal death ship." The inspiration comes from a 1925 B. Traven novel The Death Ship about a ship with the purpose of ferrying souls from life to death. In this case, the work is made of massed detritus from Waite's life: old brushes, toy animals, slide loupes, paint scrapings and tubes, an old passport, a shotgun shell and more. The slides that form the ship's wake are images of Waite's paintings.


It is a wonderful visual metaphor and not only in the way that the objects carry the weight of memories and our connection to the past and other people. "Death Ship" also plumbs darker metaphorical currents. Each of us contribute to this growing accumulation of junk and stuff that's choking the globe. And all of us are trailed by—and drowning in—the images and representations of the spectacle: the consumer/commodity society.

Perhaps the most cinematic of these artworks is "There Will Be Rust," its title a reference perhaps to Paul Thomas Anderson's film There Will Be Blood, starring Daniel Day-Lewis. This complex, beautiful and disturbing work combines architectural motifs, art historical references, religious symbolism, political commentary and narrative depth.


On one side of the work, toy Hot Wheels cars are lined up in rows in a rundown, weed-strewn drive-in. They face a screen showing a print of Henri Matisse's 1909 painting "Dance." Behind them looms the crumbling façade of a bombed-out cathedral. Facing the beautiful distraction, their backs are turned on the ugly reality hidden by the cathedral's façade.


On the other side of the façade stands society's dirty—literally—secret. An oil derrick pierces the earth, spilling black poison all over, sucked up by tanker trucks. The imperialist guard of tanks, soldiers, helicopters and jet fighters rings the oil well in defensive encirclement. As the title card notes, the moviegoers' distracted ignorance may be on the verge of explosive disruption: A nondescript [toy] Ryder van rolls into the drive-in grounds, pursued by a police car. Is the blowback about to begin?


The rest of the works are similarly bold. "The System: How It Works" comments on the production of art through the metaphor of a crumbling and dank factory. "Monster from the Deep" contemplates the influence and legacy of the 1960's with a shark-pursued yellow submarine (powered by the legs of the four Beatles as pictured on the cover of the Abbey Road LP).


In another room are displayed the complementary "Temple" and "Amphitheater." Both are inspired by actual structures Waite explored -- and in the case of "Temple" painted -- at Segesta on the island of Sicily. But as with his other works, Waite isn't after literal representation. Rather, he refracts their design, original purpose and usage through his own contemporary consciousness to create objects that are jarring yet sublime.

Saturday night music & Sunday afternoon closing party at John Slade Ely House

John Slade Ely House Center for Contemporary Art
51 Trumbull Street, New Haven, (203) 624-8055
Joan& Frank Gardner: A Life's Work
Through Mar. 7, 2010.
Closing party: Sun., Mar. 7, 2-5 p.m.

Press release

Enokizu is a one man recording project conceived during the winter of 2007/2008. Utilizing vintage and modern synthesizers as well as electric guitar. Enokizu strives for a rich variety between electronic sounds and more traditional instruments. With a wide range of influences the Enokizu78 sound will constantly surprise you with its diversity. Enokizu will perform a free concert at the John Slade Ely House this Sat., Mar. 6, at 8 p.m.

Brian LaRue, in the August 5th, 2009 New Haven Advocate, wrote:

Bill Beckett, for years a well-regarded guitarist in local rock circles, unleashes another disc of songs from this one-man instrumental project, a collection of compositions that many might tag as "experimental" but which don't sound like mere experiments. Using synths, guitars and a sparingly-applied drum machine, Beckett creates waves of sound, repeated minimalist figures over pulsing backdrops, ambient drones and subtly melodic lines. With 22 tracks clocking in at 55 minutes total, the pieces are long enough to pull the listener in to these burbling, often elliptical sound-patterns and to assert each piece's basic theme, but not so long that the repetition becomes tiresome. And, from track to track, Beckett's able to vary his basic formula enough to keep the listener's ear occupied. It certainly works as mood-setting chill-out music, but those who choose to listen closely will find plenty of rewards.

•••

The John Slade Ely House will also host a Closing Party, Sunday Mar. 7, from 2-5 p.m. to celebrate the careers of one of New Haven's most respected artist couple, Joan and Frank Gardner.

The Gardners have continuously produced the highest quality artwork for over thirty-five years and the Ely House is proud to present the Gardner's individual and collaborative accomplishments. A recent highlight of the Gardners' was the screening of their 16mm Film, The Robot at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City in November of 2009 as part of the film series Machine Made Man along with Woody Allen's Sleeper. The Robot as well as over sixty, watercolors, paintings, drawings, and prints will be on display through March 7, 2010.

NOTE FROM HANK: Last week my review of this wonderful show was published in the New Haven Advocate. I wrote that, "The John Slade Ely House is currently a temple of wonder. Frank and Joan Gardner: A Life's Work showcases the longtime New Haven couple's separate and collaborative work. The show is a fitting tribute to two lives long enriched by an immersion in art."

Read more of the review.

Show of Joan and Frank Gardner's work opens this afternoon at John Slade Ely House

John Slade Ely House Center for Contemporary Art
51 Trumbull Street, New Haven, (203) 624-8055
Joan & Frank Gardner: A Life's Work
Through Mar. 7, 2010.
Opening reception: Sat., Feb. 13, 2—5 p.m.

Press release

Come celebrate the careers of New Haven's most respected artist couple, Joan and Frank Gardner, at the John Slade Ely House, Sat., Feb. 13 from 2—5 p.m.

The couple has continuously produced the highest quality artwork for over 35 years. The Ely House is proud to present the Gardner's individual achievements as well as work created collaboratively.

A recent highlight of the Gardner's was the filming of their 16mm Film, The Robot at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City in November of 2009 as part of the film series Machine Made Man along with Woody Allen's Sleeper. The Robot as well as over sixty, watercolors, paintings, drawings, and prints will be on display through Mar. 7, 2010.

Frank and Joan Gardner were previously written about on Connecticut Art Scene here.

Orchard Street Shul show closes this weekend at John Slade Ely House

John Slade Ely House Center for Contemporary Art
51 Trumbull Street, New Haven, (203) 624-8055
Orchard Street Shul Cultural Heritage Artists Project
Through Jan. 31, 2010.
Closing party and open forum: Sun., Jan. 31, 2 p.m.

A devotional tribute to memory, culture, people and place, the Orchard Street Shul Cultural Heritage Artists Project at John Slade Ely House closes this coming weekend. With photography, sculpture, installation art, painting and digital media, it is a thought-provoking eye and mind feast. Just a sampling of images from the show:

Photographer David Ottenstein:

Mary Lesser's "Sukkah":

The installation by Meg Bloom and Howard el-Yasin:

Upcoming events at John Slade Ely House in conjunction with Ocrhard Street Shul Project

John Slade Ely House Center for Contemporary Art
51 Trumbull Street, New Haven, (203) 624-8055
Orchard Street Shul Cultural Heritage Artists Project
Through Jan. 31, 2010.

Press release

Upcoming events in conjunction with the Orchard Street Shul Cultural Heritage Artists Project:

Thurs., Jan. 21, 4 p.m. • Presentation by Yale Computer Science Graphics Group on “The Orchard Street Shul: Case Study in Three - Dimensional Digital Representations of Culture Heritage Sites”. A presentation of innovative, original research on digitizing architectural sites for documentation, reconstruction, and artistic applications.

Sun., Jan. 24, 2 p.m. • Panel Discussion: Art and the Echoes of Spirituality. With Laurie Wohl, Shalom Gorewitz, Yona Verwer, Donna Burton, Bruce Oren, Karen Schiff, Alan Falk.

Sun., Jan. 31, 2010 • Open Forum: Artists Reflect on Cultural Heritage Project as Process. Closing Party

Orchard Street Shul Project opens Sunday at John Slade Ely House, Saturday night jazz jam session at Joseph Slifka Center

John Slade Ely House Center for Contemporary Art
51 Trumbull Street, New Haven, (203) 624-8055
Orchard Street Shul Cultural Heritage Artists Project
Dec. 6, 2009—Jan. 31, 2010.
Opening reception: Sun., Dec. 6, Noon—5 p.m.

Press release

During the months of December 2009 and January 2010, the John Slade Ely House Center for Contemporary Art in New Haven, Connecticut will come alive with memories, recollections, and recreations of an important community heritage site, in an innovative group installation designed to both stimulate reflection on the legacies of past generations and engage the public in dreams for the future.

The Orchard Street Shul Cultural Heritage Artists Project is an art exhibition, a history lesson, a point of cultural exchange, and meeting place for dreamers, both nostalgic and visionary. Artists, researchers, and scholars have joined together to celebrate an important historic New Haven landmark, which was once central to the life of a large Jewish immigrant population in the Oak Street neighborhood.

Contributions to the installation offer a range of approaches. Some artists researched the history of the Orchard Street Shul and its neighborhood, uncovering multiple stories of this community: stories of women working together to aid refugees, stories of hard-working fathers and mothers who dedicated themselves to making a better life for their children, and stories of teenagers who giggled and mingled on the steps of the Shul. Others built on their own experiences, reaching into their hearts to create depictions of the Shul that are evocative of deeper connections with history and community. Still others focused on the issues of urban renewal, making real the shifts in our urban landscape that are difficult to imagine as we visit the site today.

Included in the Project are presentations by researchers from Yale University who developed innovative ways to document the building, including virtual reconstructions exploring new digital methods, ground-breaking research by computer scientists that promises to change the ways that cultural heritage sites will be documented in the future. Some contributing artists used this digital data in their creative work.

The Orchard Street Shul Cultural Heritage Project is organized by Cynthia Beth Rubin, a New Haven based artist, in collaboration with participating artists and researchers: Nancy Austin, Meg Bloom, Donnamarie Bruton & Tim Coutis, Jeanne Criscola, Roz Croog, Linda Drazen, Paul Duda, Gonzalo Escobar, Maya Escobar, Alan Falk, Greg Garvey, Shalom Gorewitz, Jaime Kriksciun, Leslie J. Klein, Beth Krensky, Seth Lamberton, Mary Lesser, Lisa Link, David Ottenstein, Bruce Oren, Robert Rattner, Cynthia Beth Rubin, Holly Rushmeier, Janet Shafner, Frank Shifreen, Suzan Shutan, Sharon Siskin, Christina Spiesel, Yona Verwer, Julian Voloj, Laurie Wohl, Chen Xu, and Howard el-Yasin. The group includes artists from California, Florida, Utah, Missouri, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and New York, who traveled to New Haven to contribute to the project alongside artists from the region.

A Project Book is being published in conjunction with the exhibition, including essays by Hasia Diner, the eminent scholar of Jewish immigration history, Walter Cahn, renowned historian of art and and architecture, and Hana Iverson, known for her remarkable multi-media installation "View from the Balcony", that was instrumental in helping attract attention to the renovation project of the Eldridge Street Shul. The book will also feature photographs of the works in the exhibition and memories of the Orchard Street Shul, with commentary by Karen Schiff. The innovative book design is by Criscola Design.

The Public is Invited to the Opening Reception for the Participating Artists, on Sunday, Dec. 6, from Noon—5 p.m. To set the mood for the launch of The Orchard Street Shul Artists Cultural Heritage Project, the Joseph Slifka Center for Jewish Life at Yale for Jewish Life at Yale will host a Jazz jam session on Dec. 5 at 7:30 p.m., celebrating the swing dance music of 1924 and beyond, when the cornerstone of this Synagogue was put in place in a ceremony attended by Mayor Fitzgerald and much of the entire New Haven community.

For group visits outside of regular hours, send an email to: arts [AT] orchardstreetshul-artistsproject.org

An exciting series of public events includes:

Sat., Dec. 5, 7:30 p.m.
Music from the 1920s—1930s jam session
Joseph Slifka Center for Jewish Life at Yale

Sun., Dec. 6, noon—5 p.m.
Opening Reception with the Artists
The John Slade Ely House Center for Contemporary Art

Wed., Dec. 9, noon
Lunch and Learn, in Partnership with the Jewish Historical Society of Greater New Haven
The John Slade Ely House Center for Contemporary Art

Sun., Dec. 20, 2 p.m.
Panel Discussion: Memoirs and Remembrances
The John Slade Ely House Center for Contemporary Art

Sun., Jan. 10, 2 p.m.
Panel Discussion: Documentations: Photography, Recordings and Recreations
The John Slade Ely House Center for Contemporary Art

Sun., Jan. 17, 2 p.m.
Informal Community Conversations
The John Slade Ely House Center for Contemporary Art

Thurs., Jan. 21, 4 p.m.
Presentation by Yale Computer Science Graphics Group on The Orchard Street Shul: Case Study in Three - Dimensional Digital Representations of Culture Heritage Sites.
The John Slade Ely House Center for Contemporary Art

Sun., Jan. 24, 2 p.m.
Panel Discussion: Art and the Echoes of Spirituality
The John Slade Ely House Center for Contemporary Art

Sun., Jan. 31, 2010
Open Forum: Artists Reflect on Cultural Heritage Project as Process
Closing Party

Light, paint and dreams at Ely House

John Slade Ely House Center for Contemporary Art
51 Trumbull Street, New Haven, (203) 624-8055
Inviting Abstraction
Through March 1, 2009.

There is a fine painting show at The John Slade Ely House. Inviting Abstraction features the work of Willard Lustenader, Megan Craig and K. Levni Sinanoglu. It isn't a show of abstract paintings in the usual sense, although Megan Craig's work comes close. These are works that flirt with abstraction in various ways despite having one foot planted strongly in different representational traditions.

The ostensible subjects of Willard Lustenader's oil paintings are still lifes of paper cutouts on tabletops. For the most part, the pieces of paper are folded in half with each half coming to a peak like the roof of a house. There is the sense of models of little communities created by Monopoly pieces. But the real subject of Lustenader's paintings, the star—at least to my eyes—is light. In works like "Cut-outs with 1 Red and 2 Yellow," "White Cut-outs, 1 Gray" and the luminous "Cut-outs, 3 White," Lustenader immerses himself in not only the way the geometric shapes cast a multiplicity of shadows on the reflective surface. It's like he wields a prism in his paintbrush, channeling the waves to the linen surface. It is the substance of light made visible while remaining true to its quality as light. Both light and lightness.

Megan Craig's subject would appear to be blunt abstraction. Her paintings are inspired by household objects—a chair, for example—but aren't in any way representational. (Craig has previously built up a fine body of work painting cityscapes.) But as with Lustenader, the real subject is something else again: the kinetic pleasure of applying paint to surface.

There could hardly be a stronger contrast than that between Craig's approach and that of Lustenader. Where Lustenader works with the precise delineation of a trained classicist, Craig covers her panels or canvas with broad brush strokes of boldly stated color. In Lustenader's paintings, colors bleed imperceptibly into other colors based on observed principles of physics. Not so with Craig's paintings. Shape abuts shape. "Jubilee" is made up of four panels abutting each other. Each briskly applied brush stroke is 2—3 inches wide. You can see the physical energy expended in the act of painting. The paint coming off the bristles interacts with the underlying color layers to generate lines of force.

K. Levni Sinanoglu's paintings document a private metaphysical universe. Surrealism is certainly a touchstone. There is the stuff of dreams: birds in flight, strange elongated trees, ghostly figures and inscrutable architecture. Perspective is skewed, imagery is layered on imagery in the way one archaeological site may rest on top of another. Although dreamlike, there is a sense of order, suggested by the delicate use of gridwork in a way that references architectural drawings.

Ely House show open Saturday evening

John Slade Ely House Center for Contemporary Art
51 Trumbull Street, New Haven, (203) 624-8055
Inviting Abstraction
Jan. 25-Mar. 1, 2009
Opening reception: Sat., Jan. 31, 5-8 p.m.

Press release

Inviting Abstraction—a show of work by Megan Craig, Willard Lustenader and Levni Sinanoglu—opens at the John Slade Ely House in New Haven this Saturday night. The opening reception takes place from 5—8 p.m.

Limitations schlimitations

John Slade Ely House Center for Contemporary Art
51 Trumbull Street, New Haven, (203) 624-8055
Black + White and Red Upstairs
Through Dec. 9, 2007

According to John Slade Ely House curator Paul Clabby, he was "thinking about how black and white represents clarity. Red is a very subjective symbolic color—the opposite of clarity, relatively."

Clabby noted that in a book by Oliver Sacks, one of Sacks' patients loses the ability to see color after bumping his head in a car accident. All he could see after the accident was black, white and shades of gray. But, Clabby told me, Sacks wrote that his patient soon began to see more detail, see further and see patterns he hadn't seen before.

"I was thinking how in some way those patients have what we would look at as limitations but their world is complete for them," said Clabby. "It's the same with artwork that is black and white, or red. It can be complete, not lacking in anything. The irony is that I had a hard time finding red works that were good. Black and white took care of itself." For anyone has been visiting a number of shows around town this past year, or Open Studios, there are a number of pieces in this show that will be familiar.

The exhibition title, Black + White and Red Upstairs, is a play on an old riddle as well as a straightforward description of the curatorial arrangement. On the first floor are all works executed in the range of black/white/gray monochromaticism. Works in which red is a prominent-although not only-color occupy the hallway and rooms of the second floor.

These limitations seem like no limitations at all, at least as far as the presentation of a range of media is concerned. Jemma Williams and Meg Hunt used soft sculpture to create "Big Mama," a fanciful octopus. Williams did the sewing and Hunt illustrated the work. It is quilted and decorated with acrylic painted illustrations of fanciful sea creatures on the dark bands of its tentacles. Among the black and white works is Alexis Brown's "Murder of Crow Series, I-IV," a set of woodblock prints. Brown, who I profiled during City-Wide Open Studios in 2006, has a gift for imbuing her imagery of animals with active grace.

Deirdre Schiffer also offers prints, in her case a series of primarily monochromatic monotypes of the CAW [Create Arts Workshop] Typesetting Room and of an interior with a window. Schiffer captures the sense of the natural light coloring the room in each case. The two figures in "By the Window" prints 1 and 2 are all shadow. In "CAW Typesetting Room 1 & 2", the light coming through the window is a white so intense that it overwhelms the posts.

Fethi Meghlelli's "A Veil of Tears" is as powerful, if not more so, than it was in his Erector Square studio. The mélange of faces, rendered in charcoal and acrylic, meld together on three large sheets of white paper. They suggest not so much individuals as huddled humanity. Long lengths of black string hang in front of the drawings, the tears through which we view a constant image flow of suffering.

A rather unromanticized, if amusingly macabre, take on childhood is on display in Daniel Long's black and white photos. In "The Very Naughty Chair," a little boy in shorts sits facing the wall on hard wooden chair. He's situated in a bare concrete room and is bent forward, his head touching the wall. A boy dressed in jeans is seen entering a bathroom carrying a gun that shoots ping-pong balls in "Shock and Awe." A naked woman sits on the edge of the bathtub, her back to the opening door. Although her face is outside the frame, it appears she is just turning around while the barrel of the gun starts to poke out past the edge of the door. In Long's images, the traumas and threats of adulthood find their analogue in childhood play.

Trauma is psychological, personal and internalized in Julie Fraenkel's imagery of girls and women, drawn with charcoal and colored pencil on Masonite. While some of her subjects are smiling or laughing, others stare with the blank expression of the emotionally numb. There is throughout a sense of scarring. Scars are etched as scratches into the surface of the boards and apparent in scrawls across the faces and bodies.

Andrea Miller's fabric collages were inspired by the painted cement walls of an I-91 highway overpass near her studio, specifically the rectangles of beige, gray and white that appear as highway workers paint over graffiti. Geometric pieces of cotton rags and other fibers are stitched on a linen background. The lighter tones are set off by smaller, strategically placed dark areas (deep blue, maroon). The visual interest is heightened by the subtle tonal play within each of the elements.

Along the upstairs hallway are a series of prints, monotypes with collage, by Maura Galante. In "ByPass," the background field of swimming hot red, orange and magenta bypass the area where lithographic line images of hearts—the organ, not the Valentines Day symbol—are printed in blue. In "Untitled I-IV" and "Untitled Red," Galante collaged the monotypes with textured papers, some with Asian writing. As with Miller's fabric collages, there is an effective balance between the roughly geometric shapes of the collaged elements and the unconstrained play of color shades within the elements.

The installation "Red Square" is, according to her artist statement, Suzan Shutan's "first attempt at integrating drawing, painting and sculpture with a moving image on video." It incorporates video projection with a three-dimensional frame composed of red string, red tape and red paint. The video projection with accompanying declamatory soundtrack ("Seeing red! Red hot! Red alert! Red hot society! Fire engine red!") is a succession of images, most of which feature red prominently. Puckered lips. A red change purse. Salt and pepper shakers with red tops. A stop sign. A catsup bottle. The string and tape mark the boundaries of an imaginary skewed geometric enclosure, related to but not a square. The paint on the wall flares off to the right, a red shadow (sounds like a superhero's name) but one not quite in perspective.

Joseph Saccio's "Quiver for St. Sebastian" was one of the works he showed at Kehler Liddell Gallery in October. Dozens of wood rods tipped with pointing seashells at either end burst through a torso of wood. The arrows, alluding to the story of the saint, are stained red. The big, hollowed-out log is smeared with beeswax in several spots, giving it the feel of sundered flesh.

Although red doesn't predominate in terms of surface area covered in Nancy Eisenfeld's two works, "Smolder" (written about before on CT Art Scene) and "Torch," its presence is essential to the sculptural compositions. Both works were created from found pieces of wood, both processed and wild. Much of the woods has been singed and then painted in colors—red, gold, yellow, orange, cool flame blue—to suggest still simmering fire.

In the works of Saccio, Eisenfeld, Galante, red is felt as an emotional charge, freighted with a certain measure of symbolic resonance. It's blood, heat. Shutan's installation, of course, plays the spectrum of red's associations. Kevin Van Aelst's two large Lightjet print photographs also feature red prominently but without any noticeable symbolic resonance as "red." Van Aelst's stock in trade is "conceptual photography." He reconfigures everyday objects in new ways, often with a strong dollop of humor. His conceptual fingerprints are all over these two photographs. In "Right Middle Finger," Van Aelst created a massive fingerprint on a mottled maroon diner countertop using saccharin as his medium. The fingerprint is surrounded by a mug of coffee with the dregs left, salt, pepper and sugar dispensers and a crumb-flecked saucer with a credit card receipt. This fingerprint is a reverse image, the lines reading maroon in a spill of white saccharin. The reverse is the case for "Left Index Finger." The print is formed out of red yarn and seems to hover over the beige carpet on which it rests. With knitting needles lying nearby, this could perhaps be a bloody fingerprint, the telling clue in a murder mystery as filtered through Ladies Home Companion.