Art Exhibit Makes Matter Matter

A patchwork quilt made of moving blankets. Ice cream made of cement. A painting made of bananas. These and other playful yet thought-provoking pieces are part of ​“Matter,” the latest exhibit in the gallery at Creative Arts Workshop on Audubon Street. The works in the exhibit — by artists Olivia Bonilla, Howard el-Yasin, Joe Fucigna, Alan Neider, and Thomas Stavovy — call attention to the ways the stuff around us shapes our lives.

Curated by Steven Digiovanni, ​“Matter” runs now through Sept. 25, with a reception on Sept. 13 at 6 p.m.

One of Neider’s paintings hanging near the doorway to the gallery perhaps catches the eye first. They’re almost more like quilts, built with layers of fabric that turn out to be from moving blankets and, as Neider explains in a statement, ​“used coffee bean bags from around the world found on eBay and stores in the New Haven area.” Neider is also inspired by ​“the fascinating artist Ibrahim Mahama from Ghana,” who he came across at a show in New York. The layers are designed to conceal as much as reveal, to ​“make the viewer want to see what is beneath.” In the choice of materials, Neider’s pieces also echo our everyday lives, of piles of laundry, papers on desks, stacks of books and mail on tables. By making it art, he invites us to give it meaning.

To make her pieces, Olivia Bonilla ​“transforms gypsum cement into brightly hued, absurdist confections,” the accompanying notes state. ​“Within her towering cupcakes one can often discover such objects as pills, fake gems, or toy cars. Olivia’s work playfully points to consumerism, excess, lust, and desire.” Bonilla’s work also reminds us how everyday objects can fool us. She makes cement look like cupcakes and ice cream. But what makes real cupcakes and ice cream those brilliant colors?

With a ​“sensitive and delicate touch,” the accompanying notes explain, Thomas Stavovy ​“employs humble materials” to make pieces that ​“invite and reward close, quiet scrutiny.” These notes offer a way into appreciating the art. The curl of the cardboard, like a ski jump, also calls attention to the roughness of the plaster, the shine of the metal. Stavovy brings out the texture in all these materials. The table the piece is resting on is flecked with paint. It suggests that piece isn’t quite done (is a piece ever really?). What else might be added. How else might it be changed?

Joe Fucigna ​“employs industrial materials” to create pieces that are ​“evocative of biological or architectural forms,” the notes say. He ​“highlights both the intrinsic properties of the materials and the processes involved with their transformation into art.” He shows how industrial materials can be used to make pieces that look lighter than they are. Particularly with the piece above, he also reminds us that the hoses and mesh aren’t so different from arteries and connective tissue — and that medical progress increasingly means that some of us end up with just such materials in our own bodies, prolonging and improving our lives.

Meanwhile, Howard el-Yasin’s piece — a painting made from banana peels — ​“identifies the culturally significant nature of frequently discarded materials. His works speak to processes of valuation by rendering equivalences between the concepts and structures of art and those of our socio-political condition.” Taken overall, ​“Matter” is essentially a story about progress and the way it has led to the accumulation of ever more and more varied stuff. El-Yasin’s piece reminds us of the cost of that progress, and invites us to do something about it.

“Matter” runs at the gallery in Creative Arts Workshop, 80 Audubon St., through Sept. 30, with a reception on Sept. 13 at 6 p.m. Visit CAW’s website for more details.