Painting show opens at Ulla Surland Gallery Eleven in Fairfield Saturday

Ulla Surland Gallery Eleven
11 Unquowa Rd., Fairfield, (203) 259-1572
Lisie Orjuela: Oil Paintings on Canvas
Jan. 21—Mar. 3, 2012.
Opening Reception: Sat., Jan. 21, 6:30—8:30 p.m.

Press release

Lisie Orjuela was born in Argentina, South America. She has lived in a number of countries including Uruguay, Switzerland, Mexico and several states in the United States. She currently lives in Trumbull, Connecticut. She creates art in her studio space in the American Fabrics Arts building in Bridgeport, Connecticut. She received a BFA from Andrews University in Michigan and an MFA from New York University.

Orjuela's art is multi-faceted, energetic and deep. While she works, she dwells in the world of dreams where imagery, color, magic and ambiguity blend and sway creating a reality that competes with wakefulness in its complexity. The works evolve slowly; layers emerge and perhaps submerge only to emerge again as Orjuela wields her art with oil paint, oil bars and oil pastels. Her paintings are a stream of consciousness inspired and steered by her multi cultural experiences, the demands and responsibilities of her busy life and her hopes, fears and dreams. The elements of her life combine and bubble to the surface of her beautiful paintings.


Orjuela does her job as an artist magnificently well; she dazzles and alters our perceptions with deftness and grace, never succumbing to manipulation or sentimentality. An exciting journey awaits as one surrenders to the powerful and modified reality depicted in Orjuela's paintings and allow the richness of this world to guide the direction of ones thoughts. There are no set rules here, or rather, the rules change at random. A crow is sinister at one glance and friendly and playful in the next. Color carries one from cool and murky depths to fierce and heated heights. The pathways through these paintings are natural and without affect. Things are just as they should be even if what that is may be subject to change and full of mystery. One emerges from this journey feeling rejuvenated and enlightened, having been touched by something natural, open and honest in our world where artifice reigns.

Fairfield Arts Center announces "FACes and Places" art tours

Fairfield Arts Center
70 Sanford St., Fairfield, (203) 319-1419
FACes and Places: Art Behind the Scenes
$75 for FAC members, $95 for non-members.

Press release

The Fairfield Arts Center presents a new program for the community called FACes and Places: Art Behind the Scenes. With this new program series, FACes and Places strives to give art collectors, arts enthusiasts, and the general public access to Fairfield County’s vast arts community by introducing the faces behind the art and the place where their art is created. The program will kick off with three studio tour events featuring artist studios or live/work spaces in Bridgeport. Known for its empty factory buildings, Bridgeport has become artistic home of many area artists from around Fairfield County who have worked with building owners to repurpose the factory spaces and turn them into hubs of creative energy. The three studio buildings that FAC will showcase are the American Fabrics Arts Building, 305 Knowlton, and Read’s ArtSpace, a live/work space downtown Bridgeport.

Each tour will guide a limited number of guests from studio to studio. At each stop, the guests will have the opportunity to hear the artist talk about their background and their work. Guests will have an intimate look at the artists work in their studio. A light catered lunch and wine tasting will be provided in one of the artist’s studios. Guests are invited to linger after the program to visit with the artists and explore the studios. Each FACes and Places tour will be $75 for FAC members and $95 for non-members. Due to the limited number of spaces, guests are requested to purchase tickets in advance by visiting the Fairfield Arts Center Web site or calling (203) 319-1419.

The first tour will take place on Thurs., June 2 from 10 a.m.—3:30 p.m. at the American Fabrics Arts Building. 15 Studios will be featured and include Denyse Schmidt Quilts (Bridgeport), Lisie Orjuela (Trumbull), Brechin Morgan (Milford), Judith Corrigan (Shelton), Ulla Surland Interior Design (Fairfield) among other noted artists in the area. Lunch will be held in the studio of Janine Brown who is also from Fairfield.

The American Fabrics Art Building, once housed the American Fabrics Company. The factory was built around the 1920's, and was once a hub of the textile industry, specializing in the manufacture of linen, lace and knits. The factory buildings at that time were built with large windows to provide light and fresh air during the summer months, which provides a perfect setting for an artist loft building. Manufacturing activity at the factory began to decrease in the 1960's and by the 1970's the entire industrial complex was abandoned. A handful of artists started to rent space in the building several years ago and in 2009, the current owner of the building, Westrock Development, LLC., renovated the building turning the second, third and fourth floors into artist’s studios.

The Fairfield Arts Center (FAC) is a not-for-profit, local municipal arts agency dedicated to enriching the cultural experience of the members of its community. In support of Fairfield’s arts and artists of all disciplines, FAC seeks to integrate the creative process into the daily lives of the Town’s 60K residents by providing access through opportunity, education and outreach. FAC is funded in part by the Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism, the National Endowment for the Arts and the Fairfield County Community Foundation.

(Image: "Sienna Aspens," linoleum cut print by Janine Brown.)

Artist reception this Saturday at New Haven Public Library

New Haven Free Public Library Art Gallery
133 Elm St., New Haven
The World of Paradoxes: Paintings by Lisie S. Orjuela
Through Apr. 30, 2010
Artist Reception: Sat., Apr. 24, 2—4 p.m.

Press release

There will be an artist's reception this Saturday afternoon from 2—4 p.m. at the New Haven Free Public Library for the show The World of Paradoxes featuring the paintings of Lisie Orjuela. The show closes on Apr. 30.

"The world of paradoxes currently engages my attention," writes Lisie Orjuela. "Our interior territories—with the struggles and contradictions of the soul, the spirit, the psyche, and the mind—is a vast, complicated, and intriguing field. The attempt to understand and be consciously aware of this, motivates me and drives my artwork. My paintings integrate and weave thoughts, feelings, and experiences into an avenue in which to tap into, explore and inhabit these bewildering paradoxes. I use the format of diptychs and triptychs to accentuate the underlying sense of disruption, disconnection, abstraction, which is juxtaposed with continuity, fluidity, connections.

"I work in a way that reflects natural life; in a slow organic process each painting is created. The paintings are created with multiple layers of paint, visual textures, rich earthy colors, as well as human and animal forms. The figures tend to be a central part in most of the work, dissolving and coming out of the surrounding ground, interacting with it, and being a part thereof. The paintings change and evolve continuously as I work on them, as layers cover and reveal some of the earlier stages. I work with oil paints, oil bars, and oil pastels on stretched canvas. Most of my current work is approximately 4 and 5 feet square."

Originally from Argentina, and now a resident of Trumbull, Ms. Orjuela holds an MA from New York University, and a BFA from Andrews University, Michigan. She also attended the Art Students League in NYC. She began her teaching career in Mexico in 1986 as an Assistant Professor of Art at the Universidad de Montemorelos, where she later served in 1992 and 1998 as Visiting Artist and Lecturer. She has taught Studio Art, Art History, and Museum at such schools as Hunter College High School, and the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in New York City. She has lectured in Mexico and at St. Paul's Chapel on the campus of Columbia on the development of early Christian and sacred medieval art, and on Spiritualism and Feminism.