by | Jul 13, 2018 12:13 pm | Comments (3)
Carly Wanna Photo
Local artists meandered between guns lining a gallery floor Thursday night. But the firearms were decommissioned, disarmed, and the dismantled pieces were free for the taking.
by | Jul 12, 2018 5:26 pm | Comments (15)
In New York, a Democratic candidate introduced herself to primary voters with the above get-to-know-the-candidate video in the hopes of igniting passion.
by | Jul 12, 2018 7:58 am | Comments (0)
Courtesy New Haven Museum
Gilbert Nelson Jerome and his airplane in France.
To commemorate the end of World War I a century ago, the New Haven Museum has added a second exhibit alongside the comic flash of “The Courier.” This exhibit, titled simply Gilbert, focuses on the experience of one pilot from New Haven in the Great War, and in doing so, makes this vast historical event utterly personal.
by | Jul 11, 2018 12:02 pm | Comments (0)
Carly Wanna Photo
Roommates Eliran Ben Yair and Abdullah Salha stroked a cerulean sea across a 48-foot canvas sprawled on the New Haven Green Tuesday afternoon.
The boys didn’t sleep very well the night they met. By the time they were painting together, they’d become friends.
That was the point, of the mural project and the summer program they enrolled in.
by | Jul 11, 2018 7:45 am | Comments (0)
John Goto
Society.
In an impossibly pastoral setting — fading classical architecture, a swooning, partly cloudy sky, distant mountains rising from the shores of a lake — a wealthy family is more interested in keeping up appearances than celebrating the day, while a few of its members fumble with lawn furniture. Elsewhere, possibly in another part of this vast estate, two men beat the living crap out of a third man under gathering clouds and circling birds.
Welcome to the works in John Goto’s “High Summer,” a collection of campy, funny, and sometimes menacing images that do a thorough job of tearing down the past and pointing us toward an uncertain future.
by | Jul 10, 2018 7:34 am | Comments (0)
Karen Ponzio Photos
Craig Gilbert with one of his 3D FLOW pieces.
What do a Tyrannosaurus Rex carrying a Hobbit in its mouth, a lederhosen-wearing man and his pregnant wife standing outside their trailer with a three-legged dog, and a bunch of big eyed ducklings sliding down a rainbow emitting from a unicorn’s backside have in common?
Well, they actually have three things in common. First, they are all characters from New England Brewing Company’s beer labels. Second, they are all on display at an art show at Kehler Liddell Gallery that premieres this Saturday, July 14. And third, they were all birthed in the mind of artist Craig Gilbert.
by | Jul 9, 2018 8:34 am | Comments (0)
Michael Zack
Attendees.
Shadowy ciphers stand in a crowd, their relationships to each other unclear. Some of them are on their phones. Some are walking. Some are standing. Are they talking to one another or just passing by? Do they even notice one another?
by | Jul 5, 2018 11:39 am | Comments (1)
Allison Park Photo
As the sun set and the anticipation started to rise, the first few fireworks were shot off close to 9 p.m., creating a canvas of white smoke over the sky.
by | Jun 28, 2018 12:14 pm | Comments (0)
Amy Browning
The Last Time We Met (Ascent).
Amy Browning and Robert Bienstock’s abstract exhibitions — titled, respectively, “Island Musings” and “Fun with Lines” — will be up in the Kehler Liddell Gallery on Whalley Avenue in Westville through this Sunday, July 1, when there will be a closing reception and artist talk at 2 p.m.
See it while you can.
Continue reading ‘There’s Method In The Chaos At Kehler Liddell’
by | Jun 28, 2018 7:49 am | Comments (0)
Maura Galante
Tributary.
The whorl of a shell floating beneath a dripping shock of blue greets you as you enter the gallery at Creative Arts Workshop on Audubon Street. The work — Tributary by Maura Galante — combines solid forms and abstract color, sharp lines and flowing textures, a small encyclopedia of printmaking technique and fitting title page to “Expressions in Print: An Exhibition of Printmaking,” which showcases the far-ranging possibilities for what printmaking can do.
by | Jun 26, 2018 7:39 am | Comments (0)
Anahita Vossoughi
Caterpillar.
A mound of flesh, skin stretched by clips. Livid coloration, like a bruise.
Caterpillar is an entry into Anahita Vossoughi’s “Beige Thick Golden Glue,” an exhibit running at Artspace on Orange and Crown until June 30. “Created over the past two years,” as the accompanying literature explains, “these works continue Vossoughi’s career-long investigation into the anxiety of the contemporary body and its anatomy, asking how and why bodies are fashioned, manipulated, maintained, imagined, and represented by the self and others.” What do we do to ourselves for other people? Why do we do it?
The questions — especially in our current political climate — become that much more pointed when Vossoughi addresses them to women. In artspeak, Vossoughi “proposes a new ambivalent language for an aesthetics of desire and fetish written by and for women.” It’s about wanting things, and about wanting control over wanting things. It’s about who gets to make the decisions, and what for. And placed in this context, the pieces in this exhibit speak.
by | Jun 20, 2018 12:50 pm | Comments (0)
Brian Slattery Photos
The first sign that you’re heading somewhere when you walk into the Institute Library might be the cluster of oars hanging from each skylight, seemingly floating in space. The oars have souvenirs from the trips they’ve taken. A map of a river mouth. Fishing lures. Abstract designs. A ribbon that reads “invasive spirits.”
We’re being encouraged to travel ourselves. We’re also being encouraged to think about it.
Continue reading ‘Institute Library Takes Long, Strange Trip’
by | Jun 9, 2018 10:04 pm | Comments (15)
Allison Park Photos
Imagine a life of forced removal from a war-ridden home at just two years old, and relocation to a foreign country where education was scarce, support was inadequate, and comfort was not an option. For Gladys Mwilelo, this consumed 13 years of her life.
Continue reading ‘Public Exhibit Offers Intimate Portraits Of Immigrants’
by | Jun 1, 2018 8:09 am | Comments (0)
Isis Davis-Marks Photo
Nasty Women Connecticut’s Luciana McLure, Louisa de Cossy, Abbie Kundishora, and Attallah Sheppard at Sunday’s event.
One woman speaks of how men on the assembly line harassed her and her female colleagues, one of whom was taunted for wearing yoga pants and bending over.
Continue reading ‘“Testimonials” Message: #metoo Isn’t Just White Women’
by | May 29, 2018 12:03 pm | Comments (1)
Brian Slattery Photos
Camp and Szirbik.
There’s a new space for arts events on Chapel Street. Is it an art gallery? A place for workshops? A pop-up record store and small concert space?
All of the above, according to Shawn Szirbik and Allen Camp of Hull’s Art Supply and Framing, who have turned over a second-floor space above the store to be a space for New Haven’s arts community to use — for free.
by | May 23, 2018 1:01 pm | Comments (0)
Alfonsina Betancourt
The Drummer.
He sits in the kind of light that a nobleman might sit for in a 17th century portrait. Or it could be the light from a naked bulb over his head. The light sets his shoulder ablaze, deepens the shadows below his knees. It obscures his face a little, too, but not the tattoos on his arms. He’s defined by his occupation here, or maybe his vocation — a drummer — and you get the sense that’s how he wants it, to be valued not by what he has, but by what he does, what he brings into the world.
by | May 22, 2018 11:15 am | Comments (3)
Brian Slattery Photos
Detail of Aliza Shvarts, Cite/Site.
There’s a startling collage on the wall of Artspace on the corner of Orange and Crown. Cropped photos of Tawana Brawley, Anita Hill, and Monica Lewinsky. A photo that looks like a crime photo from a rape scene. All scattered throughout four grids amid a series of quotes, many as potent as the images. “Genovese syndrome,” reads one. “I believe the women,” reads another. “She used her menstrual blood as a way to inscribe her message and was not heard.”
by | May 21, 2018 2:09 pm | Comments (0)
Nancy Eisenfeld
Whirl.
A storm stretches a ragged arm of cloudy debris across the wall of City Gallery. Wire tangles in paper mist. Then it all converges in the storm’s eye, a maelstrom of wreckage and energy. It’s a sculpture about destruction, but it’s an act of creation, too, and a meditation on change.
by | May 16, 2018 7:35 am | Comments (0)
Liz Antle-O’Donnell
The New American Dream.
A row of red houses, all the same. Beyond that, another row of houses, same as the red houses, but white. A third row of houses, same as the first two except in blue. Everything’s neat and tidy, in primary colors. Safe behind a stockade of popsicle sticks. The wall looks solid. But one stiff breath, and you might be able to blow it down.
by | May 14, 2018 2:50 pm | Comments (3)
East Wall Westville’s festival installation.
DAVID SEPULVEDA PHOTOS
Green Goat dairy goats begin their assault.
A second New Haven “Goatville neighborhood” was opened in Edgewood Park during Westville’s 21st annual Artwalk festival.
But this “neighborhood,” a wooded and overgrown corner of the park, has real, live goats that will be performing special community service for several years to come.
by | May 7, 2018 1:16 pm | Comments (0)
Eric March
Middle Passage.
It takes a second to get your bearing. There’s a woman gazing out at you from Eric March’s canvas, stoic, angry, accusing. As your eye takes in the full image, you see that the funereal flowers aren’t below the woman; they’re floating on the waves lapping a sandy store. You, the viewer, aren’t standing upright. You’re floating in the air just over the waves, looking down. The woman is under the waves, looking up.
The piece is called Middle Passage, and it’s probably the first thing you’ll see when you walk into the Kehler Liddell Gallery on Whalley Avenue for “How With This Rage Shall Beauty Hold a Plea?” a 53-artist exhibit about art and political outrage running now through May 27.
by | May 2, 2018 12:00 pm | Comments (5)
Thomas Breen photo
Joe Standart and the 68-foot tall photograph of Paulina.
The first photograph in a 50-image series celebrating the dignity and endurance of New Haven’s refugees and immigrants was unveiled on the side of a towering, empty architectural landmark in Long Wharf, reminding city visitors and residents alike that those newest to this country best represent the core American rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
by | Apr 30, 2018 12:18 pm | Comments (1)
Elon Trotman.
Jazz heavyweights and artistic emissaries from Africa will mix with New Haven’s finest talent at the International Festival of Arts and Ideas this year. That’s just the way Chad Herzog, co-executive director of the festival and director of programming, wants it, as the festival continues to deal with a tighter state budget by sinking its roots deeper into the Elm City.
by | Apr 26, 2018 12:22 pm | Comments (0)
DAVID SEPULVEDA PHOTO
Ely Center’s handsome entryway.
Magnolia blossoms blooming outside the Ely Center of Contemporary Art on Trumbull Street added a welcoming touch to the opening reception for “Circling Lev: Artwork of Levni Sinanoğlu,” a new exhibit showcasing the work of a young, impactful, New Haven-based artist who died in his art studio at Erector Square almost two years ago. His legacy now is receiving a much overdue burnishing.
by | Apr 16, 2018 12:11 pm | Comments (1)
Hank Paper
Police and Musicians.
We’re on a sunlit stretch of a city block. From the architecture it could be any city center south of the United States, or someplace in Europe. That the building in the foreground is worn down helps narrow it down. But not as much as the subjects. There’s a policeman on the corner, looking vigilant. To his left, a group of musicians, guitars, shakers, an upright.
It’s Havana, and this image, for photographer Hank Paper, encapsulates his experience of Cuba as much as any picture he took.
Make no mistake, he said — Cuba is a dictatorship, and “when you have police on every corner, you’re not going to have crime.” But then “there are these musicians who convey a whole different spirit about the place.” The repressive politics and widespread poverty; the deep and vibrant culture that fascinates the world. “These are the two forces that we’re contending with.”