by | Dec 4, 2024 9:23 am | Comments (0)
Craig Frederick
Breath.
Craig Frederick’s Breath looks lighter than its materials. If it were a sea creature, it appears like it could be spiraling through the water. If it were in flight, it could seem like it was made of paper, corkscrewing through the air. It makes space for itself in the gallery, as if it’s just passing through, and we happen to be there when it stops for a minute.
by | Nov 26, 2024 8:27 am | Comments (0)
Brian Slattery Photos
Parlay Droner, with his "toys."
Music on stage. Art on the walls. Pizza and drinks on the table. Pickles in the corner. The latest installment of Mood Maker Mondays at The Cellar on Treadwell in Hamden featured all of the above, mixed together for a healthy-sized Monday night crowd who came out to hear experimental musician Parlay Droner and veteran surf rockers the Vulture, partake of Jam City Pizza’s Detroit-style pizza, check out the fantastical art of Thomas Drew, and sample the vinegar delights of Mo Piklz.
Continue reading ‘Cellar On Treadwell Mixes It Up On Monday’
by | Nov 22, 2024 7:40 am | Comments (0)
Illusion by Robert Jacoby
FREEWHEELING
City Gallery
New Haven
Nov. 20, 2024
FREEWHEELING is a solo exhibit at City Gallery featuring the artwork of new gallery member Robert Jacoby.
by | Nov 21, 2024 7:30 am | Comments (0)
A piece of pottery by Robin Simpson on display in the Etcetera exhibit
Etcetera Exhibit
Manchester Town Hall
Manchester
Nov. 18, 2024
Art is not just what we can see and hear. It’s also what we can feel.
I was reminded of that by the Etcetera Exhibit located at the Manchester Town Hall. The Manchester Art Association has an ongoing exhibit at the town hall, where for three months they feature a different single medium. This quarter’s medium is “Other,” which includes artwork that doesn’t fit into the other traditional categories of pastel, oil & acrylic, watercolor, and photography. As such, there was some fascinating art on display that catered to the sense of touch (not that I touched them; this is an art exhibit after all).
by | Nov 20, 2024 8:09 am | Comments (1)
Raheem Nelson
The Alchemy of Art.
The small portrait of New Haven arts maven Ann Lehman welding in her studio is instantly recognizable to anyone who visited “The Alchemy of Art,” the show devoted to her work last year at Creative Arts Workshop. But New Haven-based artist Raheem Nelson’s graphic surrounds that portrait with a constellation of ideas that distills much of that complex exhibition and the various reports of it. In less than 10 seconds, we get a snapshot of who Lehman was, what her contributions to Creative Arts Workshop and the city were, and why we continue to celebrate her legacy. And our curiosity, perhaps, is whetted for more.
by | Nov 19, 2024 2:55 pm | Comments (10)
Thomas Breen photo
Whoa!
Lisa Reisman photo
Payton, Ellis, and Anaya with muralists Jessie Unterhalter and Katey Truhn: “This is why we’re doing this.”
The challenge was steep. To scour the globe for a muralist to lend such pizzazz to a 240-foot blank warehouse wall that it would bring life to a faded stretch of town.
In the end, one factor sealed the deal: cartwheels.
by | Nov 19, 2024 8:17 am | Comments (1)
Bill Healy
Self Portrait, King Nothing, Princess Leia.
Bill Healy’s three collages cover three subjects, from the real to the imaginary, but are united by their distinctive personalities, half playful, half unsettling. In each face, there are a few delightfully recontextualized shapes. In Self-Portrait, the grimace is an Amazon smile turned upside down. One of King Nothing’s eyes is a bowl of soup. The middle of Princess Leia’s face is a tire. It’s the kind of lateral thinking that marks the most engaging collage art, and in another place, another space, the artist might be parlaying it into a social media following. But Healy — along with the rest of the artists in the show — isn’t on social media, and the work might not have made it to a gallery wall without a keen eye paying attention.
by | Nov 15, 2024 7:00 am | Comments (0)
An image of a father carrying his children at the Devotion exhibit at the Widener Gallery.
Devotion: Photographs from the Collection of the Watkinson Library at Trinity College
Widener Gallery
Austin Arts Center
Trinity College
Hartford
Nov. 11, 2024
Devotion is an exhibition of 25 images from the collection of the Watkinson Library, developed between 1925 and 1981 by 11 different photographers. The exhibition covers subjects from sexuality to children playing; the images of family caught my attention most.
by | Nov 14, 2024 9:33 am | Comments (0)
Robert Jacoby
Essence 13, Essence 15, Essence 9.
The three paintings are a celebration of abstraction, and abstraction of a particularly kinetic variety. The canvases convey the energy of a brush moving fast, decisions made at speed, less like deliberation and more like reaction, like a skier weaving through the woods. But the painter’s experience shows in the overall decisions made about the painting. The color choices set them off from one another, making each hue vibrate just a little more intensely. Most important is the decision of when to stop; even moving fast, the artist kept an eye on the whole, and in this case, let all that white space speak for itself.
by | Nov 13, 2024 8:33 am | Comments (0)
Red Deb by Deborah Kass
A Jewish Perspective on Deborah Kass’s Single Red Yentl with Rachel Spiegel Gerstein
Wadsworth Atheneum
Hartford
Dec. 12, 2024
How much does identity matter when it comes to art?
Continue reading ‘How "Triple Elvis" Spawned Quadruple Barbra’
by | Nov 12, 2024 8:15 am | Comments (0)
Brian Slattery photo
The first floor of the Ely Center of Contemporary Art was full of bright colors and bold shapes, the sounds of insects and cartoons, even a few smells. Melanie Carr’s installation exemplified the first category, with its simple geometry, friendly colors, and a shape that conveyed its pillowy texture. Touch this, the piece all but screamed — a message spelled out with notes on the wall, inviting visitors to use their hands.
But this was an art exhibition at a gallery space, a place where, as children, we learn not to touch anything, ever. That’s why I hesitated for a comically long time, pushing against decades of learned behavior to navigate museums without bumping into anything, let alone reaching out to make contact with something. Finally, feeling a little like I did when I first jumped off a diving board as a kid, I put out my hand and touched the art. The material itself felt like I expected. The act of touching the art felt like hitting cool water on a hot day.
by | Nov 7, 2024 3:36 pm | Comments (0)
In My Cell by Elmer Saenz
Prison Arts Annual Show 2024
CT State Community College
Manchester
Nov. 6, 2024
When I was 8 years old, my father went to prison. I remember going to see him during the nearly two years he spent incarcerated. The cold gray walls were contrasted against different activities that the guards allowed my brothers and me to take part in with our father. And at the end of the day, regardless of how normal everyone tried to make it seem, we were still all in prison for a few hours.
by | Nov 7, 2024 7:45 am | Comments (0)
One of the pieces on exhibit in Past Curfew by John Guzman.
Past Curfew
Real Art Ways
Hartford
Nov. 4, 2024
When I took a look at the artwork in John Guzman’s Past Curfew, my first thought was: This is the world that existed once human beings retreated to the dream world.
by | Nov 1, 2024 8:49 am | Comments (0)
Brian Slattery photo
It’s two photos of people engaged in the same act — one a child and one an adult — practicing a custom centuries old. For the viewer, it’s a glimpse into a space usually not seen outside the community.
The label below the photo on the left quotes an Afghan woman named Seema: “Prayer is very important for us and our children. We start teaching our children to pray when they are about 5 years old; mainly mothers are the ones who teach them at home. When bad things happen, Afghan women go to Allah and ask for help. My husband had an accident, and this is my 5‑year-old daughter; after prayer, she is saying her du’as and asking for help for her dad. Here she is holding a tasbih and wearing the hijab, at this age they only wear the hijab for prayers. I’m so happy when I see them praying to God — to Allah.” As Aryana, quoted at the bottom of the photo to the right, says, “Afghan women love their religion and trust God.”
Continue reading ‘The Lives Of Afghan Women, Through Their Own Lens’
by | Oct 31, 2024 10:09 am | Comments (0)
Without knowing anything about them, on viewing Windy Day, Summer by Vivaldi, and the series of paintings that surround them, it’s possible to imagine that they’re all the work of a singular, bold hand, unafraid of the canvas, expressing a singular vision. In fact, those paintings are the result of a group effort.
by | Oct 29, 2024 2:21 pm | Comments (10)
Lisa Reisman photos
U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy and Honda Smith with firefighters from Engine 15 who work with kids at The Shack ...
... as artist David Coardes stands before mural of Alder Smith painted by Imani Roberts.
In the midst of a spirited game of Bingo among a group of senior citizens at The Shack, there was an interruption. It was U.S. Senator Chris Murphy stopping by — to get an up-close look at what makes the West Hills community center work so well.
Continue reading ‘Shack Teaches Senator Community "Formula"’
by | Oct 28, 2024 8:57 am | Comments (0)
Brian Slattery photos
Awilda Sterling-Duprey in "...blindfolded" ...
... soundtracked live by Jesse Hameen II, Morris Trent, and Johnathan Moore, at NXTHVN.
In the large common area at NXTHVN on Henry Street, a temporary, two-segment wall was erected, mounted with black paper. Artist Awilda Sterling-Duprey moved in that small space, a blindfold over her eyes, large pastels in her hands — improvisational jazz helping guide her way, during the last weekend of New Haven Open Studios.
Continue reading ‘A Month Of Art Ends "Blindfolded," Sublime’
by | Oct 23, 2024 9:52 am | Comments (0)
Edwin Austin Abbey
Compositional Study for The Hours in the House of Representatives Chamber of the Pennsylvania State Capitol, Harrisburg.
It’s a painting of time, but it’s portrayed as a celebration, a dance, a whirl of energy. The artist, Edwin Austin Abbey, focused on “the dynamics among the figures and their movements,” an accompanying note states. “The transition from day to night remains unresolved, but the exuberant movement of the daylight hours is described with great clarity.” It’s a 24-hour party — a perhaps surprising way to render the ceiling of the legislative chamber of the Pennsylvania State Capitol.
These days, legislative bodies, state and national, are usually described as slow at best and dysfunctional, even dystopian, at worst. But the mood among public artists in Pennsylvania was different at the beginning of the 20th century, as it was, apparently, in several places across the country.
If an artist were asked to paint the ceiling of a legislative chamber now, what would they be inclined to depict?
by | Oct 22, 2024 5:05 pm | Comments (3)
Paul Bass Photo
An endangered insect defied the trajectory of climate change and landed in a permanent new spot on a brick wall on County Street.
Continue reading ‘City's Largest Mural Enlivens County Street’
by | Oct 22, 2024 9:57 am | Comments (0)
Eddie Hall
Contuse and Reflex.
Eddie Hall’s artwork at first glance comes across as a high-gloss study of bold geometric shapes, akin to the forms produced by fiber artists or, in some cases, older video games. But the reflective surfaces also give something away: look again and you see that the glass isn’t in front of the canvas; it is the canvas, and part of it is transparent, revealing the wall behind it. Even bolder, sometimes the surface is a mirror. Stand in front of it, and you become part of the image.
by | Oct 21, 2024 9:39 am | Comments (2)
Amelia Ingraham artwork
Hey, Erector Square! Who you calling "meat face?"
Erector Square was full of people and art, as the second year of the fully artist-run New Haven Open Studios packed the building complex — so much so that, in addition to the many artists who had flung open their studio doors to visitors, many more had set up displays in entryways, intersections, and hallways, giving the sense that everywhere one went, there was art on the walls, and conversation happening.
by | Oct 21, 2024 9:28 am | Comments (1)
Karen Ponzio Photos
Linda Lindroth.
Old boxes that offered a new perspective, companion paintings that presented an alternate version of freedom, glass beads that each seemed to encase their own miniature world, and a model of a home you could fit in the palm of your hand: all of this and more were available for viewing in the artists’ studios at Marlin Works on Willow Street this past weekend as they opened to the public once again as part of New Haven Open Studios.
Continue reading ‘Marlin Works Open Studios Contains Worlds’
by | Oct 16, 2024 9:40 am | Comments (0)
Allan Greenier
Untitled (Karloff).
It’s a transfixing stare, made more intense by the medium. A woodcut hearkens back to an earlier time — and, in German Expressionism, an earlier mode of expressing anxiety. But Allan Greenier’s much more modern piece makes a strong case for the old medium’s abiding ability to create arresting art. He also gives it an interesting spin, in that the face in the picture is that of Boris Karloff, best known as the monster in 1931’s Frankenstein.
by | Oct 14, 2024 8:54 am | Comments (0)
Karen Ponzio photos
Jasmine Nikole's art ...
... and Redemption, by Linda Mickens, at Amplify the Arts.
A multicolored fabric sculpture created by Kat Wiese seemed to float between the trees that framed one entrance to the Eli Whitney Barn. At the other entrance, visitors were greeted by the vibrant bodies and faces painted in vivid colors by artists Jasmine Nikole on the left and Darnell “Saint” Phifer on the right.
The music of R&B legends, courtesy of DJ Q‑Boogie, could be heard from everywhere, boosting the vibe of each and every artistic creation as Amplify The Arts entered its second year at the storied Hamden location and third year in total, continuing its mission — as reiterated on Sunday by organizer Karimah Mickens — of presenting a space for especially BIPOC, LGBTQ+, and young artists.
by | Oct 14, 2024 8:46 am | Comments (1)
Brian Slattery photos
Sculptor Susan Clinard, as New Haven Open Studios comes to West Haven.
Victor Smith: "If my heart had not been broken, if I had not been in so great distress, if I had not decided to express my hurts through my paintings, I probably would never have been discovered."
Inside Susan Clinard’s Gilbert Street studio on Sunday afternoon, the West Haven space was full of New Haven faces.
People chatted in the corners among the sculptures. One viewer shared a long moment with a figure in a boat. People exchanged waves and hugs. It was all part of New Haven Open Studios’s second weekend, which encompassed Amplify the Arts in East Rock, but reached to the Gilbert Street studios in West Haven as well, where artists threw open their doors — as they will again next weekend, Oct. 19 and 20, in Erector Square and MarlinWorks, and in Westville, NXTHVN, and elsewhere the weekend after that, Oct. 26 and 27.