Elegy for Nature

The Institute Library
847 Chapel St., New Haven, (203) 562-5045
Out of Nature: An Exhibition of Alternatives
Through Jan. 14, 2012, 2011.

Who could blame nature for fighting back? The human species has been delivering blow after blow against the natural world for centuries.

Out of Nature, an art show in the wonderful little Institute Library space, isn't really about Mother Nature going on the offensive. Still, Michael Oatman's deadpan collage "Study for the Birds I" depicts a platoon of our feathered brethren and sistren packing some heavy heat. This collection of prints, collages, paintings and sculptures with (mostly) representational and figurative depictions of natural subjects does bring to mind our alienation from nature and the blowbacks that increasingly portends.

Curated by Stephen Vincent Kobasa, Out of Nature offers a menagerie both playful and prosaic. On the prosaic end of the spectrum we find Amy Arledge's (Web) taut, naturalistic copper plate etchings—a crow, horseshoe crabs and the grim "Honey Bees: Colony Collapse Disorder."


Over at the whimsical pole are the wall sculptures of Kim Mikenis (Web)—colorful animal characters like something out of children's literature. The goat-like "Marbles Dunleavy," crafted out of paper and colored with acrylic paint, has its big yap open as though it's haranguing its fellow barnyard inhabitants. Occupying pride of place on the floor is Laura Marsh's large Frankensteinian soft sculpture with hard internal armature. "Squawk" is an imposing hybrid turkey and peacock.


While all the works in the show evidence the technical skills of the respective artists, Joseph Smolinski's "Narwhal" (image courtesy of the artist and Mixed Greens, New York) particularly moved me. Smolinski regularly juxtaposes nature to its technological simulacra—trees and cell phone towers being his most common motif. This trope is manifest in "Narwhal," a simple composition of the unicorn-like marine mammal breaking the surface of the arctic seas. In the misty distance we can see what might be an offshore oil platform. Beneath the waters a plant akin to a palm tree hides cell transmitters amid its fronds.


If "Narwhal" were just a graphite drawing—a favored medium of Smolinski's—it would still be evocative. But his color work is so strong that the image rises to another level. One senses both the arctic chill and the ebbing of the arctic chill in the wake of climate change. Climate change's victim—the narwhal—is foregrounded, its proximate cause—the oil rig—is there in the background.

It is elegiac, suffused with loss.

Institute Library show opening and greeting of the artists this Saturday

The Institute Library
847 Chapel St., New Haven, (203) 562-5045
Out of Nature: An Exhibition of Alternatives
Dec. 17, 2011—Jan. 14, 2012, 2011.
Greeting of the Artists: Sat., Dec. 17, Noon—2 p.m.

Press release

W.B. Yeats, "Sailing to Byzantium":

Once out of nature I shall never take
My bodily form from any natural thing,
But such a form as Grecian goldsmiths make
Of hammered gold and gold enamelling
To keep a drowsy Emperor awake;
Or set upon a golden bough to sing...

Curated by Stephen Vincent Kobasa, Out of Nature: An Exhibition of Alternatives will feature works in various media by Amy Arledge (Web), Mia Brownell (Web), Paul Daukas (Web), Brian Huff (Web), Barbara Marks (Web), Laura Marsh (Web), Kim Mikenis (Web), Michael Oatman, Amy Jean Porter (Web, see image) and Joseph Smolinski (Web).


The exhibition will be on display through Jan. 14, 2012. A greeting of the artists will take place this Saturday, Dec. 17, from noon to 2 p.m.

Artists' and scientists' reception Thursday evening at Haskins Laboratories

Haskins Laboratories
300 George St. 9th Floor, New Haven, (203) 772-2788
Mind Sets
Through Jan. 28, 2011, 2009.
Artists' and scientists’ reception: Thurs., Nov. 4, 5—7 p.m. (with a panel discussion at 5 p.m.)

Press release

The Arts Council of Greater New Haven, in collaboration with Haskins Laboratories, presents Mind Sets at Haskins Laboratories, 300 George St., 9th floor, New Haven. This exhibition will be on display now through Jan. 28, 2011. Regular viewing hours are Wednesday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. An artists’ and scientists’ reception is scheduled for Thurs., Nov. 4, from 5—7 pm, with a panel discussion at 5 p.m. The public is invited to attend.

Curated by Cat Balco and Debbie Hesse with Curatorial Assistant Steven Olsen, Mind Sets explores the potential of collaboration between artists and scientists. New initiatives and ideas result from conversations between artists and scientists, offering new ways of approaching concepts through interdisciplinary communication.

Featured artists include Fritz Horstman, Zachary Keeting, Lucy Kim, Eva Lee, Martha Lewis, Laura Marsh, Kim Mikenis, Carol Padberg, Dushko Petrovich, Cuyler Remick, Matt Sargent, Bill Solomon, Susan Classen-Sullivan and Paul Theriault. Students of Natacha Poggio, a multidisciplinary designer on faculty at Hartford Art School and Director of the Design Global Change initiative, have collaboratively produced a catalogue and graphic images for the exhibit.

Haskins Laboratories is an independent, international, multidisciplinary community of researchers conducting basic research on spoken and written language. Exchanging ideas, fostering collaborations, and forging partnerships across the sciences, it produces groundbreaking research that enhances our understanding of—and reveals ways to improve or remediate—speech perception and production, reading and reading disabilities, and human communication.

The Arts Council of Greater New Haven is a regional nonprofit arts organization that provides leadership to, and advocates for, member artists and institutions throughout the Greater New Haven area. Visit the Arts Council at www.newhavenarts.org and follow the organization on Facebook (www.facebook.com/artscouncilofgreaternewhaven) and Twitter (NewHavenArts).

CWOS 2010 final weekend miscellaneous images

I just wanted to post images of the work of a few more artists with whom I visited this past Saturday.

Work by Kim Mikenis ("Werewolf Visits Martha's Vineyard"):

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A sculpture with toy soldiers from Margaret Roleke's "Weapons of Mass Destruction":

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An anamorphic mural designed and painted by students of the Cooperative Arts High School's visual arts after school program. The design was inspired by the anamorphic work of Felice Varini:

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A detail from one work by Suzan Shutan:


A window installation by Shutan:


An outside view of Shutan's window installation with enthusiastic visitor juxtaposing a diagonal:

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A recent painting by Gerald Saladyga:


A recent drawing by Saladyga that harkens back to work he was doing in the 1980's:

Two events Saturday at Artspace

Artspace
50 Orange St, New Haven, (203) 772-2709
Grant Writing Workshop: We Are Pleased To Inform You
Artspace Underground
Sat., Apr. 17, 2010. The workshop will be held 12—3 p.m.; Artspace Underground from 8—11 p.m.

Press release

Two events this Saturday at Artspace in New Haven:

We Are Pleased to Inform You

We Are Pleased To Inform You is a Saturday grant writing workshop from 12—3 p.m. The workshop will be led by guest artist, Brainard Carey. Carey has exhibited in the Whitney Biennial and numerous solo museum shows and is the co-founder of the art collective known as Praxis, which he created with his wife Delia Bajo.

Praxis is an internationally acclaimed art collaborative whose works have been featured in the Whitney Biennial, MOMA, PS 1, The Reina Sofia, and most recently in a solo show at The Whitney Museum. Currently Praxis has several traveling shows in progress. Carey also works as a career coach and mentor to artists.

Artspace is pleased to invite Carey to speak about his professional practice, his extensive research in the grant-writing field, current trends in the art market, and his own artist consultation business. The three-hour workshop will reveal the diverse approaches to guide artists in their own pursuits and refine their written materials. The workshop will cover a broad spectrum of topics from how to understand arts organizations and their staff to customizing application packages to submit to galleries, museums, and foundations.

For additional information, please contact Laura Marsh, Communications and Program Director: lauralmarsh [AT] artspacenh.org. This Artspace workshop is $30; the proceeds of your order will help to fund a workshop series in 2011. Please reserve your seat today: https://artspacenh.org/events.asp



Just got out of a Bad Romance? Can't get off the Telephone? Well, put on your Poker Face, play the Love Game, and Just Dance at Artspace Underground on Saturday, Apr. 17, 2010, from 8—11 p.m.! Think you can wear those McQueen platforms better than the Lady, herself? Then walk, walk, fashion baby because the most inspired Gaga look will win a gift certificate from 116 Crown! Try your best, but dress to impress.

Or, if Gaga isn't your thing, no big, we've got two bands and a multi-media puppet show performance right up your alley. SHARK, a three-piece ethereal rock band from both New Haven and Boston, are, according to The New Haven Advocate, great candidates "for listening in the car late at night or putting on the headphones and drifting off to wherever you want to go." Drift over to Artspace for Saint Bernadette, a five-piece erotically-charged aural accord that meshes a disparate template of psychadelic-meets-arena rock with a peppering of jazz and candy-coated sing-along choruses. Kamikaze puppeteer Kim Mikenis promises to tickle your senses with her unique and always original live performance pieces.

So there you have it, SHARK and Saint Bernadette will get you woozy, Kim Mikenis will perform a doozy, and DJ Sofia Cavallo will keep you schmoozy. If you arrive between 8 and 9 pm, get in for $2 with your school I.D. After 9 pm, $5 admission includes free spiked-punch until it's gone. $6 drinks from 116 Crown. Be there or be square. For more information about Artspace Underground or to find out how you can get involved, please contact Madison Moore: madison.moore [AT] yale.edu