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.

•••

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).

Sunday reception at Kehler Liddell for "Artist's Choice" group show

Kehler Liddell Gallery
873 Whalley Ave., New Haven, (203) 389-9555
Artist's Choice
Through Aug. 16, 2012.
Opening Reception: Sun., July 8, 3—6 p.m.

Press release

Artist's Choice is a unique exhibition of member artists work paired with the work of guest artists accompanied by a written statement. Each artist in the show is accomplished. There is a broad spectrum of work including: painting, sculpture, photography and drawing or paint, wood, stone, metal, paper, ink, found objects and more. Broad spectrums of work and member/guest shows are not unusual. Artist's Choice is all this and more. It is the personal invitation from one artist to another, the particular pairings, the binding of one artist to another, which leaves the viewer wondering what stirred within the host artist to extend this invitation. The answers are provided by each of the 22 Kehler Liddell member artists in highly personal statements, which reveal inspiration and admiration among creative professionals. It is the statements and moves the exhibition out of the ordinary.

The show will be on display through Aug. 16. An artists' reception will be held Sun., July 8, from 3—6 p.m.

Host artist Gar Waterman (Web) reveals Jay Seeley as a "fellow hopeless accumulator of stuff." "Each object is fecund with the promise of finding a place in his work…. When Jay requested the use of a set of wings from my Tin Man series of sculptures, I was delighted to be able to contribute to his creative process, knowing that the result would be mysterious and wonderful…My reconfigured scrap metal sculptures and Jay Seeley's photographs (see image "Angelee" below) fuel that interpretive alchemy that we, as artists, all practice as part of our creative process."


"Marion Belanger," writes host artist Keith Johnson, "is a photographer interested in the concepts of persistence and change, and in the way that boundaries demarcate difference, particularly with regard to the land." She is a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship as well as other notable awards and has an extensive and impressive exhibition history. Johnson chose Belanger "because she is a smart, creative well seeing photographer. The piece she will show (see image below) was site-specific and printed in a non-traditional way. It will hang from the rafters in the gallery. She is a good friend and I like her work.”


The show includes the work of forty-four artists and twenty-two thoughtful statements making sense of the pairings, revealing both host and guest artist and work that surprises, delights and on occasion, confounds.

Hygienic Art call for photographers/artists—juried photography show

Hygienic Art
79-83 Bank St., New London, (860) 443-8001
The f-stops Here: In Color and Black + White
Receiving dates: Feb. 16—18 (see below for times).
Show Dates: Feb. 25—Mar. 17, 2012.
Opening Night: Sat., Feb. 25, 7–10 p.m.

Press release

Call For Photographers/Artists
Juried Photography Exhibition at Hygienic Art

The f-stops Here: A Juried Photography Exhibition at Hygienic Art.

Didn't we just have this show…YES! It was just a few months ago but our first juried photography exhibition last year was so successful with an amazing turnout of both emerging and professional photographers that we hope to establish this time slot in our calendar for the F-Stop Juried Photography Exhibition every year. If you missed last September's exhibition, this is a great opportunity to share your prints with a dynamic community of photographers and art lovers from throughout the region. Your participation will help secure the future of this exhibition in our yearly calendar.

The date is approaching fast so get out there and produce some of your best color or black + white photography or dig into your archives to submit to this exciting juried exhibition.

We have two talented photographers lending their eye and expertise for the exhibition. Photographer Keith Johnson (Web) will serve as our guest juror and Photographer and Associate Professor of Art at Connecticut College Ted Hendrickson (Web) will curate the selected pieces.

Cash Prizes will be awarded.

This Event is proudly sponsored by Hygienic Art!

Submission info:
Black + white photography and color photography may be submitted. Artists may submit up to 3 pieces to be considered. All work must be for sale. No works previously shown at Hygienic will be accepted. All works must be suitably framed with wires and ready for hanging. All metal frames must have hangers and wire, NO CLIPS. Work submitted must not exceed 48” in either direction. All work must remain for the duration of the show. Hygienic will retain 30% of sales and collect 6% CT state sales tax. Hygienic will not be responsible for unclaimed work.

Receiving Dates:
Thurs., Feb. 16, 2–6 p.m.
Fri., Feb. 17, 11 a.m.—2 p.m.
Sat., Feb. 18, 11 a,m.–2 p.m.

OPTIONS:
If these times do not work please feel free to contact us
to make a drop off arrangement

Entry fees:
$15.00 for single entry
$20.00 for two entries
$25.00 for three entries

Unselected Pick-up:
Thurs., Feb. 23, 11 a.m.—3 p.m.
Sun., Feb. 26, Noon—3 p.m.

Selected Pick Up:
Sun., Mar. 18, Noon—3 p.m.

Sunday reception for photography show at Kehler Liddell

Kehler Liddell Gallery
873 Whalley Ave., New Haven, (203) 389-9555
Seven: An Exhibition by Seven Photographers
Oct. 13—Nov. 13, 2011.
Opening Reception: Sun., Oct. 16, 3—6 p.m.

Press release

Kehler Liddell Gallery is pleased to present Seven, a group show by seven photographic artists. Featuring the work of Rod Cook, Matthew Garrett, Andrew Hogan, Keith Johnson, Hank Paper, Alan Shulik, and Marjorie Wolfe, this unique exhibition is a testament to the diversity of styles and esthetics within the photographic medium. The diverse methods used by the seven artists include Platinum palladium process, multiple image printing and photojournalism.

Rod Cookʼs photographs offer rare moments of surreal beauty. Each image is a glimpse into an intimate gesture—sometimes haunting, other times reminiscent of a comforting memory. Using the Platinum/Palladium process—a technical process in which a light sensitive emulsion is coated directly on the surface of a sheet of paper—Cookʼs photographs exhibit a stunning, soft luminosity that evoke a deep emotional response within the viewer.

Matthew Garrett is a photographer who extracts uncanny and strange images from urban and suburban environments. His photographs isolate murmurs from the rhythms of our daily surroundings. Garrett transforms familiar spaces into mysterious, meditative spaces. His compositions play with light intensity and utilize spatial juxtapositions to create signature, dramatic visual effects.

Andrew Hogan's photographs capture fleeting moments of emotion that are indefinable by words alone: Mere glimpses or gestures that can suggest an entire life story. His photographs reveal fleeting moments of personal history and their underlying emotions that are undiminished by time. Hogan captures these powerful emotional stories in their beauty and mystery. His images uncover what is hidden in our everyday lives, and show how time and distance affect our personal realities and perceptions.

Keith Johnson makes photographs that are an investigation of extended imagery. By printing multiple images on a single piece of paper, Johnson is able to push the photograph beyond the single print, into a grid work that creates new frames and connections between images. The juxtaposition of multiple pictures steers the viewerʼs focus to the idea of the image—toward the imageʼs string of potential suggested by layers of graphic detail.

Hank Paperʼs photographs are from a series entitled “Island Life.” Paper shoots in an intuitive, photojournalistic style that allows the true nature of his subjects to be seen, often in juxtaposition with their absurd nature. Paperʼs photographs can be viewed as testimonies of people in their everyday life. However, his often humorous images do more than just expose the ordinary. They puncture the viewerʼs preconceived notions of his fellow man by revealing his subjects in unexpected roles and contexts that both surprise and sometimes astonish.

Alan Shulik (see image) paints with the lens of the camera in such a way as to produce abstract-surrealist images that conjure up ethereal, dream-like experiences. The images he will exhibit in this show are landscape photographs depicting the coastlines of Maine and Connecticut. Possessing a quiet, ethereal quality, these images are at once fleeting glances and moments of stillness.

Marjorie Wolfeʼs approach to photography, though simple and direct, reveals a hidden world. Wolfeʼs photographs were all taken at the same pond in Marthaʼs Vineyard, a place that the artist visits often. However, despite familiarity with the location, through Wolfeʼs sensitive visual esthetic, she is able to use the camera to expose the subtle contrasts around her—near and far, old and young, clamor and peace.

Open House Day at Still River Editions in Danbury Saturday

The Gallery at Still River Editions
128 East Liberty St., Danbury, (203) 791-1474
Photographs by Keith Johnson and Mark Savoia
June 11—Aug. 26, 2011.
Open House Day: Sat., June 11, 11 a.m.—4 p.m.
Artists' Reception: Thurs., June 23, 5:30—7:30 p.m.

Press release

On Sat., June 11, 2011, the Gallery at Still River Editions will be re-opening as part of Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism's Open House Day 2011. Across the state on that day art galleries, historical properties, museums, parks, and other organizations will be offering free or discounted admission, tours, refreshments, and activities.

The inaugural re-opening exhibition at the gallery will feature the work of photographers Keith Johnson (Hamden, CT) and Mark Savoia (New Fairfield, CT). Both Johnson and Savoia were 2010 Artist Fellowship Recipients from the Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism. Johnson is a photographic educator and fine artist from Hamden, CT. Savoia is a fine artist and co-owner of Still River Editions and Connecticut Photographics in Danbury, CT.

Savoia and Johnson’s work is harmonious—they both have a subtle sense of humor that guides their photography.

On June 11, the Gallery at Still River Editions will feature:

• Special Saturday gallery hours 11 a.m.—4 p.m.

• 1 p.m. Artist’s talk and printmaking discussion with Mark Savoia.

• 2:30 p.m. Be a part of “Faces of Danbury”, and be photographed by Catherine Vanaria, fine artist and Adjunct Professor of Photography at WCSU.

• Refreshments

In addition to the Open House Day festivities, The Gallery at Still River Editions will be having an artists’ reception for Photographs by Keith Johnson and Mark Savoia on Thursday, June 23, from 5:30—7:30 p.m.

Artists' Talk for "The Guy Show" at Artplace in Fairfield this Sunday

Artplace Gallery
11 Unquowa Rd., Fairfield, (203) 292-8328
The Guy Show
Through Feb. 26, 2011
Artists’ Talk: Sun., Feb. 13, 3 p.m.

Press release

Artplace Gallery is pleased to announce dates for the first curated show in its new gallery space. Entitled The Guy Show the exhibit runs from February 1—26, 2011 at 11 Unquowa Rd. in Fairfield and is unique in that it will exclusively feature regional male artists from Fairfield and New Haven counties. The opening reception was held this past Saturday, Feb. 5, but there will be an artists’ talk this Sun., Feb. 13, at 3 p.m.

“We selected these ten artists for their professionalism, clarity of vision as well as their ability to move beyond limits set by traditional art,” says Gerald Saladyga, who is curating and organizing the exhibit. Saladyga is a member of ArtPlace and has curated exhibits on religious art, art and AIDS and redefining “landscape” in art. He notes that The Guy Show is not about “male issues” but about the direction male artists are now moving in.

“We chose five painters, three sculptors and two photographers who demonstrate a wide range of work as well as age and visibility—some are beginning their careers and several are already established,” he says.

Most of the artists featured are New Haven-based with two from Norwalk and one from New Fairfield. The painters include Chris Durante, a member of Norwalk Community College Art Department; Christopher Joy (Web) and Zachary Keeting (Web), co-founders of “Gorky’s Granddaughter,” an artist video interview site; Felandus Thames (Web), a painter and silk-screen printmaker who was recently represented by the Jack Tilton Gallery at Art/Basel/Miami 2010; and Jonathan Waters (Web)whose work has been exhibited at Art in General in NYC and locally at the Ivoryton and Madison Sculpture Miles.


Photographers Keith Johnson (see image above) and Jeremy Keats Saladyga have also been included in important exhibitions: Johnson in three Ground/Cover exhibits in Arizona, Washington and Wyoming and Keats Saladyga at The Michael Foley Gallery, NYC and the Museum of The City of New York.

Joseph Saccio (Web), a largely self-taught sculptor, received the “Best in Show” award at Silvermine’s Art of the Northeast USA exhibit in 2010, while Silas Finch (Web, see image below), a young New-Haven based sculptor, will see his work featured in the up-coming indie film by Stephen Dest, My Brother Jack.


Finally, Joseph Fucigna (Web), also a member of Norwalk Community College, held a recent one-man exhibit of his constructions at the Sculpture Barn in New Fairfield, CT.

“This show presents cutting-edge art not usually represented in Fairfield,” says Saladyga. “Visitors to the show will see art that is not usually exhibited in a private gallery.”

Friday night art opening and Christmas party at A-Space, West Cove Gallery

West Cove Studio & Gallery
30 Elm St., West Haven, (203) 966-9700
sameness-difference-variance
Emilia Dubicki: Cold Suite
Bridges, Inc.
Dec. 6, 2010—Jan. 2, 2011
Opening Reception: Fri., Dec. 10, 6—10 p.m.

Press release

sameness-difference-variance is a group exhibition at West Cove Studio & Gallery running Dec. 6, 2010—Jan. 2, 2011. Organized by Eric Litke, the exhibition brings together work by eight Connecticut artists who share an interest in serial approaches to presenting their imagery, and creates a dialogue between the traditional poles of "painting" and "photography".

Included are works by: John Bent (Web), Cham Hendon (Web), Keith Johnson (Web), Eric Litke, Jeff Ostergren (Web), Jessica Schwind (Web), Mark Williams (Web), and Robert Zott (Web). The opening reception is Fri., Dec. 10 from 6—10 p.m. Open Saturday and Sunday 10 a.m.—4 p.m. and weekdays by chance or appointment: (860) 878-5589.

Also on view will be Cold Suite, an installation of drawings by Emilia Dubicki (Web); Bridges, Inc., a photograph show curated by Harold Shapiro (Web) and other works by studio artists throughout the building.

Opening at Kehler Liddell this Sunday during CWOS

Kehler Liddell Gallery
873 Whalley Ave., New Haven, (203) 389-9555
Keith Johnson and John Harris
Sept. 30—Oct. 31, 2010
Opening reception: Sun., Oct. 3, 3—6 p.m., with Artist Talk at 3 p.m.

Press release

Kehler Liddell Gallery is pleased to present a two-person exhibition of new works by painter John Harris and photographer Keith Johnson. This will be Harrisʼs debut at Kehler Liddell Gallery, and Johnsonʼs third show.

John Harris isolates and exaggerates forms, colors and sequences found in nature. His large-scale, photorealist paintings take months to complete, as he meticulously works to recreate various environmental complexities from photographs and memory. His process begins with mapping out large shapes of color on his canvas, the paint is allowed to dry and then details are added. The repetition of this careful glazing technique results in the dramatization of hundreds of translucent layers—a visual effect that is conceptually harmonious with its subject: water.

Harris is most interested in exploring waterʼs physical properties-- reflection, turbidity, rhythm, pattern, that make up its unique viewing experience. He addresses these issues by isolating a moment in time in various bodies of water, painting from a birds-eye view. The result is a series of hypnotic and fleeting images, in which water is disguised as tree canopies and the skies above.

Keith Johnson photographs environments with the control and excitement of an anthropologist excavating a new civilization. Johnson is captivated by the hidden language of images, and makes photographs to explore 1) the intrinsic meaning of images, 2) how and why these meanings change over time, and 3) how position, context and presentation affects their meanings.

Johnson photographs a wide range of subject: landscapes, cityscapes, waterscapes, interiors, isolated forms, aerial panoramas. The exhibition will feature new work from his Grid Series and Extended Landscape Series, in which Johnson presents multiple photographs as one work. His presentations vary from involved grids of 4 images across by 4 images down, to simpler triptychs of 3 large images across. The works challenge the traditional notions of photography by implying that sometimes a single photograph does not aptly describe the idea.

There will be an opening reception for this show this Sunday from 3—6 p.m. during City-Wide Open Studios.

Transformation as subject and process

Kehler Liddell Gallery
873 Whalley Ave., New Haven, (203) 389-9555
Keith Johnson & Joseph Saccio: Transformative
Through Mar. 1, 2009

Transformative is the second show together at Kehler Liddell Gallery in Westville for sculptor Joseph Saccio and photographer Keith Johnson. (Their first is reviewed here.) In this exhibit, they offer two different takes on the notion of transformation.

For sculptor Saccio, the concept is expressed both in his use of materials and in his overarching metaphor. Saccio uses found objects of both natural and synthetic nature. He transforms them through a process of manipulation, coloration and combination. Saccio is particularly drawn to wood, which in its various forms takes well to carving, bending and painting. Consistent with his technique, he uses both found natural wood—massive tree trunks, twisted driftwood branches, splintered twigs—and processed wood. The paired works "Witch Queen of the Forest" and "Her Husband, the Warlock with the Wondrous Wand" include bamboo fencing and spirals of oak hoops. The spirals enclose mutilated painted doll parts; the fluorescent green paint on the doll in "Her Husband" has a very evocative and eerie glow. The sense of a living presence in these two works is highlighted, ironically, by the addition of plastic leaves.

Saccio's transformative metaphor is a concern with the processes of life and death, death and rebirth. In his materials, he breathes new life into found objects by situating them within new contexts. But the metaphor is also, and more importantly, expressed through his compositions. In the large "Memorial: From the Fire," rigid trunks of Arbor Vitae and cedar wood, carved and painted, thrust upward from a blackened base of metal mesh covered with tar and a pile of dirty yet sparkling coal. The trunks are pierced with metal spikes. A sense of desolation is present. But, in keeping with his metaphor, four of the posts offer the possibility of new life. Scarlet buds of painted fiberglass and resin sprout from or near the top, the notes of life charred yet irresistible.

Beyond their emotional power—which includes a refreshing reservoir of humor as well as chords of grief—Saccio's sculptures are remarkable for their fine compositional balance. That balance is evident in the small wall sculpture "Burst." It is dominated by coils of oak hoops painted in purple and magenta and roughly coated with beeswax. Like a giant Slinky, they surround globs of hardened foam painted fluorescent yellow and orange. Green cane shoots protrude from the foam and through the spaces between the hoops, each long, arching tendril ending in a dayglo pink plug. The three-dimensional balance is complemented by the eye-popping balance of colors. Similarly, the delightful "Flowers for Duchamp" creates its gestalt through the combination of a sinuous carved driftwood branch with accordion cardboard files, among its several disparate elements.

For Keith Johnson, transformation occurs both within his gridwork of photographic images and over the course of a series of photos. Johnson has created the grids either by shooting the same scene repeatedly or by showcasing similar images arranged either randomly, chronologically or on the basis of an overall compositional balance.

"Old Growth Sprawl Forest" is a 4-image-by-4-image grid in which each image depicts one forlorn leafless tree stranded on the median of an upstate New York commercial strip. Taken individually, these images might make a statement about the caging of nature in our contemporary consumer dystopia. Displayed as a unit, each tree can be seen as an individual, almost a series of strangers in a strange land. That they are connected to each other—if alienated from nature, their nature—is symbolized by the sagging horizontal lines of utility wires that glide from image to image. (This theme is further teased in many of the images by the background presence of utility poles, domesticated simulations of trees further distanced from their wild origins.)

As Johnson explains it, these images are about typologies, in some cases, or about time. "EW Falls" is a nine-image grid shot of the Eli Whitney Falls over a five minute period. It documents changes in the light on the rushing water within that short span of time. But it isn't necessary to know what the photographs document to appreciate the work on the level of aesthetics. Each individual shot, and all taken together, look like a well-balanced abstract charcoal drawing.

The centerpiece of Johnson's portion of the show is "Suite Niagara," a series of 10 3x3 nine-image grids all shot of Niagara Falls. It starts, at left, with images of the falls, the Maid of the Mist cruising in the background. This grid is the most overtly documentary of the suite. One of the benefits of viewing the images in a grid such as this is that we are challenged to look closer. In searching out the differences between individual shots the viewer takes more notice of the details: the way the water looks in each shot, the variations in the billowing of the mist. Over the course of the suite, the images trend more toward abstraction as Johnson's subject becomes less the falls per se and more the qualities of light on the water and the spray in the air. In the suite, transformation occurs within the sequence of each grid. But the suite also documents a transformation in Johnson's way of looking at and photographing the falls.

There will be two artist talks in conjunction with this show. On Sun., Feb. 8, at 2 p.m., Joe Saccio will discuss his sculpture. And, rescheduled from Jan. 28, Keith Johnson will present a large screen PowerPoint presentation "10 Years in Search of Nirvana with St. Lucy" on Wed., Feb. 11 at 7 p.m.

"Transformative" opening at Kehler Liddell on Sunday afternoon

Kehler Liddell Gallery
873 Whalley Ave., New Haven, (203) 389-9555
Keith Johnson & Joseph Saccio: Transformative
Through Mar. 1, 2009
Opening Reception: Sun., Feb. 1, 3—6 p.m.

Press release

Keith Johnson is showing new photographic work that continues his exploration of repeated or extended imagery. Much as a poet explores the topography of word and repeating text, or a filmmaker splices film into montage, Johnson moves beyond a single photographic image to a reconsidered or transformed topology in multiple images.

"Sometimes extended viewing of a photographic idea would reveal not only the idea, but additionally, time, light, color, and comparison changes during the extended time." By printing multiple images on a single piece of paper, working with grids, and linear presentation, Johnson offers the viewer a "bunch of picture ideas," beautiful, sharp, somewhat abstract pictures in both black & white and brilliant color. He creates an opportunity to be involved with his process, to follow and share his compelled exploration of typology, topology and the photographic ability to record.

Joseph Saccio's works range in size from large installations inside and out, to small pedestal pieces. His material is often natural, organic, frequently wood or found objects joined in what he calls a "primitivistic manner that expresses personal feelings associated with myth and ritual, loss and rebirth." He also offers sculpture constructed from synthetic materials with an apparent ironic humor that both contrasts and informs more solemn work. This show presents two memorial sculptures that have been out doors for 20+ years, and returned to the studio for restoration and decisive rework. They are shown as newly altered work with original and renovation dates, and accompanied by completely new sculpture that continues to explore the mysteries of transformation.

Keith Johnson's and Joe Saccio's art works have a notable relationship. There is a visible concern with natural materials, surfaces, and the compelling study and placement of objects in space. Both artists' work with ideas, producing striking visual images and objects which seem abstract or metaphoric, and then lead us into the transformative process.

Opening Reception: Feb. 1, Sun., 3—6 p.m.: Public is invited to join the artists and community in celebration. No admission fee for gallery or reception.

There will be two artist talks in conjunction with this show. On Sun., Feb. 8, at 2 p.m., Joe Saccio will discuss his sculpture. And, rescheduled from Jan. 28, Keith Johnson will present a large Screen PowerPoint presentation "10 Years in Search of Nirvana with St. Lucy" on Wed., Feb. 11 at 7 p.m.

CWOS AIRS Hamden

I approached City-Wide Open Studios differently this year. I wanted to make as many visits to disparate locations as possible so I didn't spend as much time as I like talking with artists. For example, where in the past two years I spent part of both Saturday and Sunday at visiting studios on the Erector Square weekend, this year I had to squeeze Erector Square into two or so hours on Sunday before I went to work.

I started on Friday with the Hamden AIRS, following that with a visit to Westville. There I took in the AIRS as well as other attractions at ArLOW, and the Kehler Liddell Gallery. Saturday started with Westville-a return to the AIRS and over to West Rock Gallery to savor Gar Waterman's sculpture. From there I headed to Gilbert Street in West Haven, checking out the AIRS exhibitions and the sculpture in Susan Clinard's studio. I ended up downtown, visiting the AIRS and Roberto's restaurant, dropping in on Jerry Saladyga, Steve Grossman, Silas Finch and Jo Kremer at 39 Church and detouring down near Cafe Nine to observe the works in progress of "aerosol art," organized (at least, in part) by artist Robert Greenberg. Sunday started with the Fair Haven AIRS and concluded at Erector Square. Whew!

(Before continuing, I want to note a caveat. I couldn't take notes on and write about everybody. The fact that some artists aren't discussed in this post is not because they weren't worthy of attention.)

The Hamden AIRS focused on photography. I spoke about their art and process with Michelle Reynard, Regan Avery, Cara Vickers-Kane and installation artist Greg Garvey. (I spent more time talking with artists at the Hamden AIRS than anywhere else. I quickly realized that would be a recipe for not getting very far in my explorations.)

Reynard was showing medium format color prints, night photography. The series evolved over the last couple of years, she told me. Her images, several of which were shot at the Shoreline Trolley Museum, featured long exposures, rich colors and sharp focus. Reynard is working with film, not digital, and she appreciates the various ways that different emulsions respond to different light situations. Particularly with night photography, she said, there is a large element of the unknown. The end result is a combination of choosing certain materials, estimating exposure time and "alchemy."

"The film does its own magic. You can sort of but never quite predict it," said Reynard. "The wonderful thing about film is that delayed gratification—not looking at the back of the camera to see what you got."

A lot of the scenes, said Reynard, were shot several different times with different kinds of emulsions, some of which have been discontinued in the last several years. Different emulsions work better in different situations. She noted that Kodak Portra is "more buttery." She used it for three of the images from the Trolley Museum. Working with tungsten light, it yielded images bathed in a nostalgic gold glow. I particularly liked an image of one of the libraries at Yale. Shot through big glass windows at night when the first floor was empty, it has a hint if melancholy. But that note is leavened by the appearance on the floor of a paper airplane.

Regan Avery also still uses film and, like Reynard, her images were primarily shot at dusk or in the night. For this "Mirrors" series, Avery planted a 12x12-inch mirror in the sand on the shoreline, facing away from the water. She shoots with a 6x7 medium format but crops the images square to evoke the mirror itself.

"I like perspective changes. It's one of the fun things about this project," said Avery. "It is actually disorienting to see two things at once."

Avery takes time to set up her tableaux, positioning the mirror both so as to catch an interesting reflection behind her and to have that reflection appear out of synch with the rest of the image. Especially compelling is a picture taken on the shore in Rye, New York. The water and sky are a dark night blue and in the upper quarter of the photo there is a double black horizon line (a jetty with a land mass behind it?). The mirror is planted in the sand in the foreground, angled slightly up toward the left of the image. In strong, almost surreal, contrast to the night darkness, it's an image of the nearby amusement park with lights and a ferris wheel.

One print, shot at a beach in Greenwich—Avery said the placidity of Long Island Sound is more conducive to this concept than the more turbulent ocean—features dark sand and the mirror reflecting an overcast light sky and what appears to be a castle in the distance. It is a well-made illusion, a sand castle small and close. Avery told me she had to spend time building it and getting the perspective right.

Cara Vickers-Kane was raised Mormon and taught that human bodies in general—and the female body, in particular—were one's temple and should always be covered up. She left the faith but the fascination with the body has remained. It has been accentuated by a personal history of gaining and losing weight. For her series "Self-Portraits of Your Mother," Vickers-Kane shot nude self-portraits of herself over a 14-month period during which she was losing weight. In all the images, she is posed on a plush couch, often accompanied by her German Shepherd. The dog is a "symbol of domesticity," she told me.

The self-portraits were shot with a medium format film camera. Vickers-Kane also received permission from the University of Connecticut to use a medium format digital camera to shoot 18 daguerreotype frames from the university's special collection. Using a computer, she replaced the antique daguerreotype images with her own portraits. The reference to the past is bolstered by several of the poses, which echo nudes in paintings by Manet, Courbet, Rubens and others. Vickers-Kane told me she "like[s] the point in history where painting split off" from an emphasis on faithful representation, displaced by photography's superior capabilities in that regard.

Greg Garvey's installation was titled "Don't Push Me 'coz I'm close to the edge/I'm trying not to lose my head..." (derived from lyrics of Grandmaster Flash's 1980's rap hit "The Message"). Garvey's forte is creating installations using modern technology that are both thought-provoking and accessible (see here for a post on his 2006 CWOS installation and here for a post on his 2007 installation). For "Don't Push Me," Garvey erected a mini-theater where viewers can look through security peepholes at video loops playing on iMac computers. The loops could be changed by pressing a button mounted on the wall near the peephole. There were 20 loops. Some were nature scenes shot by Garvey with a digital camera on a walk at Hammonassett State Park. The other videos, found on the Internet, consisted of scenes of military mayhem, both real and made in Hollywood. These included the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, footage from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the Trinity nuclear test.

Although Garvey's video compilation was non-narrative in nature, he was influenced by Soviet avant garde filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein's theories of montage. It shares with Eisenstein "the principle of juxtaposing two different perspectives or threads of action." Juxtaposition can create new meanings. Here, contemplation of nature is juxtaposed with the existence—in the same temporal plane if different location—of war. At the heart of "Don't Push Me" is a critique of 21st century fragmentation and alienation.

"The shots of nature and contemplation suggests a way of looking that is literally about being in a Zen-like state, about experiencing where there is simply a sense of a continuum," explained Garvey. "And then suddenly you see something that is all about the action and arrow of time and irreversibility of time and implication of death."

The use of the peephole reinforces the metaphor. It is a security mechanism employed, Garvey said, "in the cocoon of the household through which we peer out from behind the safety of the door." The peephole creates a kind of distancing from the parade of alternately peaceful and disturbing scenes. The video, while created with contemporary technology, is playing on slower computers (by about 5-8 years!). This causes the imagery to stream in kind of a slow, herky-jerky way, adding another element of edginess.

Speaking of edginess, Bradley Wollman's The Little War photographs, which previously were shown in Real Art Ways' Real Room, were even stronger in this setting. The eight photographs—recreations by Wollman with toys of scenes from the Iraq War—were hung in two horizontal rows of four each. The gritty nature of the images resonated in the semi-industrial garage space.

Photographer Keith Johnson's (web) images explored elements of texture, shape and color. There were also some visual puns. One triptych, entitled "CMY," depicted a succession of rundown bungalows. One was painted in a soft blue, a second was colored a washed-out yellow and the bungalow on the right was a stark pink.

Saccio and Johnson reveal their artistic natures

Kehler Liddell Gallery
873 Whalley Ave., New Haven, (203) 389-9555
Keith Johnson and Joseph Saccio
Oct. 3—28, 2007
Artists talk: Thurs., Oct. 25, 7 p.m.

There is a fine show over at the Kehler Liddell Gallery in New Haven's Westville neighborhood. I stopped in at the opening on Sunday, checked out Keith Johnson's photographs and Joseph Saccio's stunning sculptures.

Saccio uses disparate materials to create complex idiosyncratic forms. The materials include found object scraps, packing materials, ping pong balls and more. Saccio likes to contrast the natural and synthetic. He seems particularly attracted to wood in both its various processed forms and in its natural state. A couple of the sculptures here explore that dichotomy directly. "Once a Tree I" and "Once a Tree II" each stand on a base carved from a tree trunk. The "trunk" of each sculpture, though, is made up of cardboard discs. The trunks terminate in "foliage" of crumpled paper out of which sprout branches of carved wood. Natural wood extends into processed wood (cardboard and paper) back into natural wood. But even the "natural" wood in these works has been partially processed—carved and painted or stained.

One of the perks of exploring a show at an opening is the opportunity to talk with the artists. I spoke with Saccio about several of his pieces. He told me that, in choosing his materials, he "looks for textures with a kind of regularity, a repetition" that resembles the "kind of growth phenomenon you see biologically."

As an example, he directed my attention to "In the Dark Forest Primeval One Discovers the Ambivalent Ping Pong Tree." The painted packing material at top reminded me of coral. It was studded in several places with ping pong balls, their fragile off-white surfaces resembling carefully placed eggs.

Saccio told me that his pieces tend to develop "organically," without any preconceived endpoint. I was asking in particular about "Wake For a Dead Forest." It had its beginning in Saccio's acquiring pieces of packing boxes from another Erector Square studio tenant. The strips of cardboard adhered to wood slats sparked his interest. Wanting to create a work that "reflected the state of the original substance, a tree in a forest," he used actual twigs to put "roots" on them. The piece then sat for many months until Saccio decided to use ragged pieces of wood veneer "to put wings on it, so it could fly." Saccio then added layers of collaged imagery. Skulls, possibly photos from the Khmer Rouge genocide in Cambodia, evoked the death of the forest. Images of dancers on a black background also had macabre associations for Saccio, reminiscent of an Irish wake. Collaged images of "awesome landscapes"—canyons, lightning strikes—add portentous power. The addition between the wood and cardboard slats of lengths of Plexiglas cut into gently rolling shapes gives the appearance of clouds when viewed from the side. At the top, crumpled paper coated with resin represents the forest canopy.

Saccio doesn't miss the trees for the forest, though. "Do You Remember That White Tree?" is composed of two long branches of a white birch from Saccio's yard. They are mounted on a base in such a way as to arc toward the ceiling, one of the branches curving in toward the other. There are a series of shiny metal strips joining the branches together. As it rises toward the ceiling, curving in upon itself, it looks like a stairway to the heavens.

While some of Saccio's works are somber (and playful at the same time), others are more lighthearted in aspect. This is the case for "The Great Showgirl Returns, Bejeweled, Outrageous, but Sad." Protruding from the wall like a giant enhanced burlesque breast, it has layers of foil tubing, pink plastic, green plastic and glittery stars. It is fascinating and absurd.

In comparison to Saccio's unique aesthetic, Keith Johnson's photographs seem far more traditional. But there are points of complementarity. Some of his landscapes are of unadulterated natural scenes. But most document the intersection of the natural world and the manmade, usually to the detriment of nature.

There is an interesting contrast between the side-by-side triptychs of "Cape Cod Tri" and "Stone Crop." The former includes three separate shots of wooded scenes: twisted trunks of scrub pine, floor of pine needles, dappled sunlight and tall coarse grasses. "Stone Crop" also portrays three nature scenes. But where "Cape Cod Tri" offers a natural image of contemplative freedom, "Stone Crop" is different. First, and most noticeably, taut horizontal wires in the foreground fence nature in and the viewer out in each panel. There are also natural elements that play into that sense of confinement: the tangle of forbidding brambles in the image on the left, the profusion of clutching vines that cover the brush in the center and overrun a large rock on the right.

Johnson shows an appreciation of form and texture that complements that of Saccio. The image field in "Red Rock" is filled with light blond gravel. But the crushed stone on the right is finer than the rocks on the left.