by | Aug 31, 2020 8:08 am | Comments (2)
Love’N Co set up fast at the end of the block on Orange and Crown Streets and brought joyous songs to Black Art Matters, an art, music, and craft fair held on Saturday from 12 p.m. to 7 p.m. that — masks and social distancing and all — brought the arts back to New Haven’s summer streets, with a message.
Continue reading ‘Black Art Matters Brings Arts Back To The Street’
by | Aug 17, 2020 11:32 am | Comments (3)
Eamon Linehan
Sarahi Zacatelco painting a new bench on Grand Ave.
Local artists Sarahi Zacatelco, Eamon Linehan, Israel Sanchez, and Joel Celi faced a blank canvas in the form of a freshly painted white bench right outside of Evolution SD Hairstudio on Grand Avenue.
by | Aug 14, 2020 8:15 am | Comments (1)
Titus Kaphar
Analogous colors.
On one wall of NXTHVN’s gallery is a possibly already-iconic painting: A Black mother, eyes closed, her hair kept from her face by a headband, cradling only the silhouette of a baby. New Haven-based artist Titus Kaphar painted it in reaction to the killing of George Floyd, and in June it ended up being on the cover of Time magazine.
Facing that image, on the opposite wall, are a series of black pieces of paper that contain faces and words and crossed out lines. One side of the gallery is a short shock; the other is a lake of layers to sink into.
Together, they make up “Pleading Freedom,” a small but deep exhibition of work by Kaphar in collaboration with memoirist, poet, and attorney Reginald Dwayne Betts that has much to say about the condition of being Black in America at a time when people’s ears are prepared to hear that message as much as they have been in a generation.
by | Aug 13, 2020 9:30 am | Comments (2)
Brian Slattery Photo
Clinard.
Statues stand together, a small family of them, somehow radiating both fear and total resolve. A pair of shadows huddle under rafters. Another group stands together, bearing witness, demanding to be counted. The pieces are all part of a larger exhibit by New Haven-based sculptor Susan Clinard focusing on refugees, migrants, and border crossings, for a new journal seeking to use groundbreaking ways of representing art to perhaps change hearts, minds — and policy.
Continue reading ‘Sculptor’s Work Crosses Borders, Breaks Ground’
by | Aug 12, 2020 11:01 am | Comments (0)
Brian Slattery Photo
Mueller.
The crisp rim shot from the snare drum snaps out the beat to start “ReRecorded Syntax,” from Revisionist: Adaptations & Future Histories In The Time Of Love And Survival, the new album by June of 44 and its first in 21 years. The bass joins, pulsing on the groove, followed by two guitars that work in unison to create a mood that’s both urgent and atmospheric. The vocals only heighten the vibe, with lyrics that are both fractured and focused. The picture is clear; we just can’t see all of it. “Without air, still breathing,” the voices intone.
by | Aug 7, 2020 10:30 am | Comments (0)
Gregory Antollino
Grande Olde Flag.
She stands with a U.S. flag umbrella over her shoulder, wearing a top made from red, white, and blue ribbon. But she’s no ordinary patriot. There’s a spark in her eyes that suggests something more complicated.
We don’t have the context for photographer Gregory Antollino’s image. Was it at a protest or a Fourth of July parade?
Either way, there is something nonconformist going on, fueled by an energy born from age, not despite it. “I’m age 81 but my parade is not done,” her sign reads. Everything in the photograph would lead us to believe her.
by | Aug 6, 2020 7:06 pm | Comments (2)
Sophie Sonnenfeld Photo
Vibrant fish, turtles, and other water critters have been popping up out of storm drains across New Haven this summer, reminding New Haveners to keep their trash away from the drains.
The last batch of these “runoff art” creatures came to life on Thursday in front of the Christopher Columbus Family Academy at the corner of Grand Avenue and Fillmore Street.
Continue reading ‘Storm Drain Creatures Emerge on Grand Avenue’
by | Aug 6, 2020 9:48 am | Comments (0)
Amanda Duchen
I Am … A Dreamer.
A cluster of heads floating like balloons on stalks. An oil painting of a woman eating a hoagie. A connection with a goddess. All these and more are part of “I Am…,” the latest riotous exhibition at Kehler Liddell Gallery, which is now open by appointment and for limited weekend hours.
by | Aug 5, 2020 1:54 pm | Comments (4)
Laura Glesby photo
The green bridge in its largely green surroundings.
Don’t look now — but a 121-year-old bridge is changing color. By popular vote.
by | Aug 5, 2020 11:02 am | Comments (0)
Kwadwo Adae
Kerry, Addys, Norm, Sarah, Vanessa, Ericka.
We know the subjects of the paintings are protestors because of the crowds assembled behind them, silhouettes gathered with raised arms and picket signs. One carries a bullhorn. Another has the Puerto Rican flag emblazoned on a tank top. Another throws a fist in the air to reveal a tattoo on the wrist.
As the accompanying notes say, “New Haven painter and activist Kwadwo Adae celebrates his compatriots and heroes” in these series of portraits.
The subjects are Kerry Ellington, Addys Castillo, Norm Clement, Ericka Huggins, Sarah Pimenta, and Vanessa Suárez. Adae has depicted them in their “protest armor.”
In putting them side by side by side, Adae deftly connects past to present. He shows that the protests of 1970 over the Black Panther trials in New Haven have cast a long shadow, and suggests further that they are part of a continuum, an even longer thread stretching back perhaps to the beginnings of the country.
by | Aug 4, 2020 9:44 am | Comments (12)
Mural in process.
Paul Mayer, owner of Cafe Nine on the corner of State and Crown, looked up at the mural of jazz legend Sun Ra that now graces the side of the building that houses his bar.
“I’m blown away,” he said. It was his first time seeing it in person, along with the accompanying boom box painted on a Dumpster.
by | Jul 24, 2020 9:36 am | Comments (0)
Anne Doris-Eisner
Trees no. 1, 2, 3.
“It’s wonderful to see all your smiling faces,” said artist Anne Doris-Eisner. The Zoom audience of about 30 participants assembled before her on Thursday morning had come to hear her talk about her art and life, in the latest installment of Coffee Break and Culture, an ongoing series from the Jewish Community Center of Greater New Haven. In that discussion, the hard-earned wisdom Doris-Eisner had gathered over the years connected in deep ways to the current hardships of life during pandemic.
by | Jul 17, 2020 11:08 am | Comments (3)
Thomas Breen photos
Sidewalk stormwater art on Chapel Street. Design by fifth-grade artist Nick Ruiz.
Student artists Assata Johnson and Trinity Ford.
A half-dozen high school student artists brightened up a West River corner with painted sunflowers and swirling waves of water as part of an eco-friendly summer work project.
Continue reading ‘“Runoff Art” Flows Thru West River Corner’
by | Jul 17, 2020 10:48 am | Comments (1)
Tom Brooks
Silent Refuge.
It looks like classic New England; it could be in Vermont or New Hampshire. But New Haveners with a keen eye will know it’s from East Rock Park, that the photographer has just stepped off the covered bridge spanning the Mill River at the dam at the Eli Whitney Museum, and is just heading out on the trail that circles the water. The photograph, Silent Refuge by Tom Brooks, won the People’s Choice award in photography in “The Art of Aging,” the annual art exhibit hosted by the Agency on Aging.
In the past, the exhibit has graced the walls of the agency’s offices at Long Wharf. This year, due to the pandemic, the exhibit, featuring dozens of artists, is running virtually — making it, in some ways, that much easier for New Haveners to see these artists show their take on what it is to age creatively.
by | Jul 10, 2020 2:42 pm | Comments (4)
Dana King photo
The head and, behind, the body of the new William Lanson statue coming to the Farmington Canal.
Sculptor King working in her Oakland studio.
A seven-foot-tall bronze statue of William “King” Lanson will soon stand along the Farmington Canal — giving a permanent, public, and highly visible form to a Black New Havener who helped build the modern city.
by | Jul 3, 2020 10:11 am | Comments (0)
Susan Tabachnick
Blades. Surgical pliers. A length of wire. Who used them, and for what exact purpose, remains unknown. But used they were, and then discarded and collected by artist Susan Tabachnick. She then made them into new art for a show called “Artifacts,” running now until July 12 at Da Silva Gallery on Whalley Avenue in Westville. The gallery, operating under the guidelines for maintaining social distancing, is open by appointment.
by | Jul 2, 2020 10:35 am | Comments (0)
Kim Weston
The figures in Kim Weston’s four grouped photographs are in frenzied motion, dancing, traveling. The red prayer bundles laid at their feet — a pinch of cherry tobacco wrapped in red fabric, each one signifying one of the 15,000 murdered and missing indigenous women in Canada and the U.S. — feel both like a border marking a sacred space and a road leading from here to someplace far away. Weston’s photographs have been paired with Frank Bruckmann’s paintings for Kehler Liddell Gallery’s first show since its reopening, “Journeying,” which runs until July 12 — and thus will be around for an event KLG is billing as date night.
by | Jul 1, 2020 10:48 am | Comments (1)
Leigh Busby Photos
During the removal of the statue of Christopher Columbus in Wooster Square on June 24, there was a moment that crystallized what it was all about. As city workers secured the ropes around the statue to lift it off its pedestal, it occurred to a few in the crowd that it looked a lot like a lynching, and in that visual echo, they found some restitution.
Continue reading ‘Photographer Chronicles The City’s Upheaval’
by | Jun 30, 2020 10:20 am | Comments (1)
Drawing, said artist and instructor Steven DiGiovanni, is “learning a new language.” But part of that was about removing language from the equation. “What you’re drawing has no name,” he said. That was because it was about the difference between looking and seeing.
Continue reading ‘CAW Teaches Art Students To See Instead Of Look’
by | Jun 29, 2020 10:48 am | Comments (11)
Contributed Photo
Artwork would be displayed in the first floor windows around the Amistad Memorial (pictured).
The City of New Haven Department of Arts Culture and Town Green Special Services District are seeking a New Haven-based artist or artists to design temporary, two-dimensional artwork for display on windows of City Hall next to the Amistad Memorial at 165 Church St. Artwork should reflect the importance of black and brown lives, influences and culture on our New Haven communities.
Continue reading ‘Call For Art On Black Lives Matter For City Hall’
by | Jun 18, 2020 12:04 pm | Comments (7)
Example of Fortier’s zone-threatening work.
Wes Fortier has to drive 40 minutes from home to do his job — giving people tattoos.
It’s not for lack of business in Hamden that he drives so far; it’s because Hamden’s zoning regulations make it tough to do his job there.
by | Jun 15, 2020 1:26 pm | Comments (0)
Maya McFadden Photo
Continue reading ‘Varick Church Prayer, Protest, and Peace March, June 14’
by | Jun 15, 2020 11:01 am | Comments (1)
Maya McFadden Photo
“We are responsible, strong and safe,” said Dixwell resident and neighborhood organizer Fred Christmas, whose vision to recognize and thank his neighborhood celebrated Saturday.
by | Jun 12, 2020 10:50 am | Comments (1)
Brian Slattery Photo
Bush.
A tree’s roots crawl across a sewer grate. A fetching white bird named Murphy cocks its head for the camera. Stars unfold over a wire fence.
These and many other photographs by New Haven-based photographer Joy Bush comprise “Where I Go Is What I See” — the first exhibition for City Gallery’s reopening from quarantine on Saturday, June 13. The photographs are selected from pictures Bush has taken on daily walks of about four miles for the past five years.
“It became a practice for me,” Bush said, of “figuring out what I wanted to show.”
Continue reading ‘City Gallery Reopens With Pictures Of Daily Practice’
by | Jun 11, 2020 10:20 am | Comments (0)
Qrcky (l.) and S. Darius Parker (r.)
Anxious; Loud .
Two online exhibitions at the Ely Center of Contemporary Art speak to the up-to-the-minute concerns of our time, and the deeper problems that have always been with us.