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Brian Slattery |
Nov 8, 2022 9:22 am
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Cailin Alcock
Exposure and Perspective 2.
Cailin Alcock’s Exposure and Perspective 2 — part of “Unusual,” a show of Alcock’s works running now at Blue Orchid on Court Street for a few weeks — can be understood to act as a tutorial for the rest of the show. The piece itself is abstract, hanging from a metal pipe on a chain, but the shapes and shades in it are evocative enough that one’s brain might begin to try to make sense of it, as a portrait, as landscape, as something. Alcock has anticipated this. “These images may be reminiscent of a face, but not one that is recognized. These can be interpreted as faces based on what is known. Eyes, nose, mouth. But is that enough to say this is a face?”
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Karen Ponzio |
Nov 7, 2022 8:50 am
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Karen Ponzio Photos
Movimiento Cultural
The world-renowned Shubert Theatre was home to some of New Haven’s own on Saturday night, as a show entitled Elm City’s Finest brought artists performing everything from bomba to dramatic monologues to rock ‘n’ roll to this first-of-its-kind event. The evening also included work displayed by local visual artists, food from local restaurants, and wares from local vendors.
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Brian Slattery |
Nov 1, 2022 9:13 am
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Graham Honaker
Wren 1842.
The repeated image of a women’s face, in what could be a space helmet. A school of fish. Household objects. A spiraling line of red, moving across it all. It feels like graffiti, like Andy Warhol a little. It has some pop art in it, but there’s texture and grit to it, too, a sense of dirt. What does it mean? What do we want it to mean?
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Allan Appel |
Oct 31, 2022 9:52 am
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Melissa Bailey file photo
The late Winfred Rembert at his Newhall St. home.
Allan Appel photo
Prof. Erin I. Kelly with Rembert book and art on Thursday.
His tale of triumph through art, grit, and love in Georgia’s 1960s cotton fields, including seven years on a chain gang and a near lynching, is already taught at Yale — and well might become required reading in high schools and colleges throughout the country.
And a major motion picture should also be a consideration to get the story out far and wide.
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Brian Slattery |
Oct 31, 2022 9:33 am
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Brian Slattery Photos
Artist Arizona Taylor.
On Friday evening, the small park between Shelton Avenue, the Farmington Canal Trail, and Hazel Street bloomed into a small arts festival that warmed the cool evening with an explosion of color, sound, and good conversation. It was the beginning of the Artspace-organized Open Source Festival’s weekend of making visual art appear across New Haven, not only from downtown, Westville, and East Rock, but from Newhallville and Dixwell to the Hill and Mill River.
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Karen Ponzio |
Oct 31, 2022 9:25 am
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Calendar cover.
Three Sheets New Haven is well known for its dog-friendly patio, and some of the dogs that frequent there have become as familiar to its patrons as some of the human regulars.
For the third time since the bar/restaurant’s inception, a calendar featuring 13 of those patio pups was created to help raise money for Friends of the New Haven Animal Shelter. On Sunday night, Three Sheets threw a Pup-O-Ween-themed release party to celebrate the 2023 edition of that calendar, complete with the first look at this year’s edition, raffles, and, in keeping with the holiday, costumed pooches.
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Brian Slattery |
Oct 28, 2022 9:19 am
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On Thursday evening, the storefront space at Never Ending Books was filled with shadows — not only in the images lining the walls, but from the people who came to visit the dimly lit spot, transformed into a gallery as part of the Open Source Festival organized by Artspace. The show on display was “Spectral Musings,” by artists from the Bridgeport-based URSA Gallery, now up at the State Street arts collective through Oct. 31. That date isn’t an accident; in time for Halloween, the art on the walls features artists investigating the darkness that lies within — and ways to move into the light.
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Brian Slattery |
Oct 27, 2022 8:49 am
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Brian Slattery photos
On one side of Kehler Liddell Gallery is a panoply of children’s faces, caught in a thousand different expressions, a snapshot of both the feelings of dozens of different people at any given moment and the range of emotions that all of us are capable of across time. On the other side of the gallery are more abstract pieces, forms with faces that appear to be mid-transformation, the expression of something more interior.
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Brian Slattery |
Oct 26, 2022 8:56 am
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Antonius-Tín Bui
Không Có Gì Bãng Mà Với Con.
Even from the outside of the building, it’s clear that the gallery at Creative Arts Workshop has been transformed, by a gigantic, shimmering web of fabric. The piece is by artist Antonius-Tín Bui, and it’s made from traditional Vietnamese garments, and as a note explains, they are “a safety net of embrace, the promise of renewal, and an undeniable statement of the Vietnamese people’s vibrancy and connectedness throughout past, present, and future generations.” The piece is also a flag welcoming visitors to not one, but two shows at CAW — “Băng Qua Nước: Across Land, Across Water” and “Common,” both running now through Nov. 26, with a reception scheduled for this evening at 5:30 p.m. — that are part of the ongoing Open Source Festival organized by Artspace.
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Brian Slattery |
Oct 24, 2022 8:44 am
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Dennis Carroll.
The process of moving from drawing and painting to working with fiber. The limitations — and the opportunities — presented by fabrication machines, and the connection of that to old Atari video games. The ways that the materials an artist uses can deepen the theme of the art, about climate change and impending extinctions. Such were a few of the conversations on offer for those who visited Erector Square this weekend, as dozens of artists in the warren of studios in the former factory building in Fair Haven threw open their doors to visitors for the first full weekend of Open Source, the citywide visual arts festival organized by Artspace.
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Brian Slattery |
Oct 19, 2022 9:23 am
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Diane and Tim Nighswander
Uterus.
The poster isn’t trying to be subtle. It’s an expression of protest, and the anger underneath it. That the message is delivered so clearly is a testament to the people who made it — professional visual artists, photographers and graphic designers Diane and Tim Nighswander.
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Brian Slattery |
Oct 14, 2022 9:09 am
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The Queen's Artillery
Ascension to the Throne — Wassup and Coronation Day — Sequel to the Queen.
The paintings are as entertaining as they are provocative. It’s not just in the mixed materials that give each of the canvases three-dimensional elements, and bring the clothing to dazzling life, nor is it just in the knowing glances on the subjects’ faces. The titles of the paintings — Ascension to the Throne — Wassup and Coronation Day — Sequel to the Queen — give a clear sense of the inspiration behind the paintings. The old order, the paintings say, is coming to an end. A new aristocracy is coming; one that’s younger, Blacker, and, well, maybe more fun, too.
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Brian Slattery |
Oct 11, 2022 8:59 am
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Rita Hannafin’s quilt, front and center on the back wall of City Gallery, is at first glance a piece immersed in a folk tradition. But look closer and Hannafin’s more playful nature comes out. The first of the nine boxes in the center is full of patterns and colors — among the more abstract shapes are prints of cars, glasses, leaves, and helicopters. In the next box over, one of the sections of the box is replaced by a white box with a square peephole in it, from which a small pattern peeks out. In the next large box over, another white box appears. This plan repeats all the way through the piece; there’s a sense of those peepholes taking over, each iteration making it more geometric and more abstract. And in veering away from old patterns of quilting but establishing a new one, Hannafin is stretching the form without breaking it. She’s showing what else can be done.
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Brian Slattery |
Oct 6, 2022 9:37 am
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A large red empty speech bubble stands on the sidewalk outside NXTHVN in Dixwell. Its object lies in “inviting visitors to rest, contemplate and reflect,” as an accompanying explanation puts it. But as it stands on Henry Street, it also feels like a portal, setting expectations for what’s in store for the rest of the show. Through it, one can see people milling about in the foyer of the gallery space — and beyond that, a commotion of mylar, and anyone who’s in it moving around like they’re in a snowstorm. What’s happening in there?
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Brian Slattery |
Oct 3, 2022 8:57 am
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Brian Slattery Photos
Sunday afternoon found Trumbull Street between Whitney Avenue and Orange Street closed for the Ely Center of Contemporary Art’s first block party — featuring the gallery’s latest shows inside the John Slade Ely House and a bazaar of art, zine, clothing, and food vendors lining the street, serving a steady stream of visitors. As DJ Dooley‑O headed into a festive set outside and the Ely Center filled with voices inside and out, the block party felt true to its name.
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Brian Slattery |
Sep 27, 2022 11:10 am
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Joy Bush
Loose Screw.
The title photographer Joy Bush gives to the image — Loose Screw — suggest something about the sense of humor she wants the viewer to have in looking at the piece. But it also offers some direction for how to look at the image. The first thing that jumps out, after all, is the chair. But the story, whatever it is, starts with the screwdriver balanced on the power outlet. What’s it doing there? And where is the screw it was brought out to tighten? Is it between jobs? Has it been forgotten? Where is the owner of that chair? There’s a sense of incompletion; something hasn’t happened yet, but it’s about to.
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Brian Slattery |
Sep 22, 2022 10:32 am
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Ilana Harris-Babou
Still from Leaf of Life.
The tree in the image from the short film Leaf of Life has spread its branches wide, offering inviting shade, protection — and perhaps nourishment. The fruits that artist Ilana Harris-Babou has placed in its branches are healthy enough, but the way Harris-Babou has rendered them, there is something fake about them, a little suspicious. We want to eat well. We want to be healthy. We want to live better lives, in greater harmony with our neighbors and with nature. But how do we know when we’re doing that? How do we know if we’ve been had?
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Brian Slattery |
Sep 21, 2022 8:44 am
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Moshood Olúṣọmọ Bámigbóyè
Ẹnìkan Ìí Pèrò or Ẹnìkan Kìí Pa Èrò (Two Heads
Are Better than One).
The piece, by famed Nigerian sculptor Moshood Olúṣọmọ Bámigbóyè, depicts two mothers with two twins. The style is soaked in tradition, but the sculptor has also found his own voice within that tradition, and in turn, given his subjects their own voices as well. Look closely, into the abstraction, and you can see the individual expressions of the figures, the things that make them unique, perhaps a mixture of dignity and worry in the adults, a sense of determination and mischief in the children. Look even more closely and you understand more of the relationships among the figures. The two mothers are themselves twins, and they are supporting each other; their outside arms, meanwhile, are there to protect and guide all of their children. They’re a small society unto themselves, even as they’re connected to everyone around them.
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Brian Slattery |
Sep 20, 2022 9:13 am
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The small first-floor gallery of the Ely Center of Contemporary Art is flooded with multicolored light. It darkens the room overall but has the effect of making the atmosphere in there more vibrant. The gallery becomes a place where you might want to linger, the way people linger around any places that are alive with color, from rooms strung with Christmas lights to meadows full of wildflowers. It’s a place to take a breath and, in keeping with the theme of an exhibit currently staged there, think about new beginnings.
Lukman Alade Fakeye set up his tools and a block of African mahogany wood in a large workspace on an upper floor of the Sculpture Department of Yale’s School of Art. It was the first day of a week-long residency as the School of Art’s Fall 2022 Hayden Visiting Artist, during which time he would be creating a new sculpture and speaking with classes and individual students. Fakeye is in the sixth generation of his family’s lineage of Yorùbá woodcarvers, working within a larger tradition that extends back hundreds of years.
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Brian Slattery |
Sep 15, 2022 9:44 am
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Brian Slattery Photo
Iridessa Søul LaFlare performs for PRIDE.
Host Maddelynn Hatter broke in the crowd at Gotham Citi Cafe on Orange Street Wednesday night by establishing a few guidelines regarding drag shows.
“If you ever know any drag queens, you know the most important rule — other than to be able to paint your face — is to be kind,” she said. “All of the queens have passed the test. They are very kind. Which is good, because I am an awful person.”
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Brian Slattery |
Sep 14, 2022 9:03 am
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Kim Weston
The image appears to come apart at the seams in front of you. In one quadrant is a dancer, strong and in her element. But around her the image quick degrades. The colors break apart and crash into one. It’s just the sort of happy accident that some artists, like Kim Weston and JLS Gangwisch, seek out and exploit. “That image was a glitch. People thought we created it together but I thought it was perfect for this show. It’s where Jeffrey and I meet. There are no accidents. That image was supposed to be that way,” Weston said. “There’s such beauty in its technical disaster. Who says that’s not supposed to be there? Why isn’t my whole card destroyed? It was just that image. What energy source or force created that moment? And here, Jeffrey comes around and says he wants to do a show together.”
The show — “Cadence” — is running now at Kehler Liddell Gallery through Oct. 9.
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Brian Slattery |
Sep 13, 2022 9:00 am
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Anne Doris-Eisner
Hidden Lives.
Hidden Lives, Anne Doris-Eisner’s piece submitted to the 2022 active members’ exhibit of the New Haven Paint and Clay Club — on view now until Oct. 8 at the gallery in Creative Arts Workshop on Audubon Street — is immediately recognizable as a natural form, a gnarled part of a tree. But somehow in the way Doris-Eisner has rendered the details of those textures, she has made room for abstraction as well. The more we look, the more we see: figures curled in the bark, shapes suggestive perhaps of more human forms. And, at the same time, it’s possible to stop trying to find anything in the shapes and just accept the texture for what it is, an intricate network of lines, interesting enough as it is to not require us to name it.
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Brian Slattery |
Sep 8, 2022 9:10 am
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The walls of mActivity — like the walls of other New Haven-area businesses — keep getting a little brighter, thanks to an embrace of public art that is now transforming buildings outside and in. In the case of mActivity, the art is the result of series that began in 2017. Curated by Barbara Hawes, the series has hosted a wide array of New Haven-based artists, from public art maestro Kwadwo Adae to graffiti artist Michael Deangelo, from photographers Phyllis Crowley and Sean Kernan to painters Vienna Hinkson and William McCarthy.
For the rest of the month of September, visitors can now see the works of artists Esthea Kim and Eliza Shaw Valk, whose work mirrors the mood of the hottest season and, in keeping with the fitness center’s mission, captures some of the renewed spirit many have found in exercise during the pandemc.
