Show opening at Kehler Liddell on Sunday

Kehler Liddell Gallery
873 Whalley Ave., New Haven, (203) 389-9555
Overtones Undertones: Blinn Jacobs & Marjorie Wolfe
Through Dec. 6, 2009
Artists' Reception: Sun., Nov. 8, 3—6 p.m.
Artists' Talk: Sun., Nov. 15, 2:30 p.m.

Press release

Tone, transparency, texture, color, geometry—these are apparent elements in the paintings of Blinn Jacobs and photographs of Marjorie Wolfe.

Blinn Jacobs' monochromatic surfaces are overtones of color that give way to undertones of barely visible incised lines. Whether a single work or presented in series, the colors and lines reverberate. There is both depth and delicacy to this tension of color and line. This exhibit features a new square painting series that builds off earlier honeycomb cardboard "drawings." In the cardboard works, the surface reveals the properties inherent in the material, while in her paintings the linear structure is wholly created.

Jacob's began this series during a fellowship at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts in the spring of 2009, her 5th residency, and notes she has gone each time with a concept in mind yet is always influenced by the surrounding seasonal landscape.

Marjorie Wolfe presents several groupings of photographs. Prominent are her greenhouses, a subject Wolfe has been working with for over 15 years. The newest compositions in this series include multiple images within a frame, a reconfiguration of many sites. Overtones of mystery and curiosity permeate as the greenhouse materials become an unrecognizable, abstract subject.

Other groupings continue to play off multiples and comprise a variety of objects with an emphasis on similarity of shapes, colors and subjects such as manhole covers, trees, or built structures.

Wolfe's photographs share a formalistic compositional coherence. It is evidence of her studied and deliberate—yet slightly skewed—view of the world. Overtones and undertones happen simultaneously as her photographs move near and far, sharp then out of focus, abstract to the familiar.

The resulting Overtones Undertones exhibition is a quietly intellectual and vividly visual continuum from both artists, expressing their specific and unique interests in repetition, abstraction, and inspiration.

There will be an artists' reception this Sun., Nov. 8, from 3—6 p.m. and an artists' talk the following Sun., Nov. 15, at 2:30 p.m.

Painting & collage show opens Saturday in New Haven

New Haven Free Public Library Art Gallery
133 Elm St., New Haven
How I Got Here: Paintings & Collages by Dr. Felix Bronner
Through Dec. 11, 2009
Artist's reception: Sat., Nov. 7, 2:30—4:30 p.m.

Press release

Felix Bronner is an award-winning Geometric-Abstract painter, inspired by artists such as Adolph Gottlieb, William Baziotes, and Mark Rothko. He studied with William Cowing, Cary Smith, and Zbigniew Grzyb.

Dr. Bronner is professor emeritus at the University of Connecticut Health Center in Farmington, a physiologist with primary interest in bone biology. It is Bronner's interest in the mysteries of nature that has led him to his art.

Layers of transparent shapes, over expanses of softened colors, interact with opaque geometric forms dominating the canvas. The artist builds shapes into a vague architecture, connecting geometric forms with thin lines, like girders in an unfinished building.

"In my painting, I wish to appeal to humankind's positive potential to capture the complexity of nature," writes Bronner. "This appeal is reflected in the interplay of shape and color, responding to the mystery that surrounds us, on the large scale in which we move, and on the microscale that underlies all matter."

Felix Bronner has exhibited widely in the Northeast, including galleries in Boston, New York, and Hartford. His works are in the collection of the University of Connecticut Health Center (Farmington), Homer Babbidge Library (Storrs), Alexey von Schlippe Gallery (Groton), and the Mandell Jewish Community Center (Hartford).

There will be an artist's reception for this show on Sat., Nov. 7, from 2:30—4:30 p.m.

Cartographers of memory and experience

The Akus Gallery
Shafer Hall
Eastern Connecticut State University
83 Windham Street
Willimantic, CT
860-465-4659
Wayfinding
Tuesdays and Wednesdays: 11am-5pm
Thursday: 1-7pm
Saturdays and Sundays: 2-5pm

Yvonne Jacquette, Metropolitan Triptych, 2006, pastel on black paper.

Press Release:

"These seven artists explore where we are in the world physically, politically, culturally or spiritually, and then map or chart their experience visually," said Gallery Director Elizabeth Peterson. "They use disparate methods and materials - some ancient such as the hand ground and tinted marble dust sand paintings of Tenzin Wangchuk, and some contemporary techniques such as topographical map-like plywood and cardboard constructs of Itamar Jobani.  All act as 'cartographers' of memory and experience," said Peterson.

Artists include:Janice Caswell, Itamar Jobani, Tenzin Wangchuk, Yvonne Jacquette, Nina Katchadourian, Joyce Kozloff and Sandy Litchfield.

Cultural constructs of masculinity

Jorgenson Center for the Perfoming Arts
University of Connecticut, Storrs.
Brad Guarino: Man to Man
Through Dec. 11 2009.

An Imprecise Center of Gravity, oil on canvas(diptych), 48x90" (122x228cm)

Press release

Brad Guarino’s paintings and drawings confront issues of masculinity. They are narratives aimed at exploring the struggles that men face when trying to understand their own maleness and while attempting to connect with one another. Guarino is interested in the ways in which our cultural constructs of masculinity operate to both enhance and thwart bonds between men. His visual narratives employ humor and an implied sense of threat to emphasize the sometimes absurd preconceptions and behaviors that influence relationships between men. As an accomplished artist, Guarino has received many awards including: a Fulbright Fellowship, two Griffis and Orpheus Foundation fellowships and an Artist Fellowship program grant from the Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism. He has also won awards from the Society of American Graphic Artists and at Connecticut State Artist’s Exhibitions. Guarino holds an MFA from the University of Connecticut and a BFA from Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts. Guarino teaches painting and drawing at Eastern Connecticut State University and the University of Connecticut, Storrs. He lives and works in New London, Connecticut.

Graffiti round table Thursday night in Bridgeport

The Gallery at Black Rock
2861 Fairfield Ave., Bridgeport, (203) 814-6856
Off the Grid
Through Nov. 19, 2009
Roundtable & live art: Thurs., Nov. 5, 6:30—9 p.m.

Press release

This Thurs., Nov. 5, from 6:30—9 p.m., there will be a discussion with artist from the Gallery at Black Rock's current show Off the Grid. The Artists will discuss graffiti culture, graffiti code and techniques.

Following the discussion the artists will be available to customize your t-shirt or any article of clothing you bring. Some t-shirts will be available for sale at the Gallery.

The Artists will also do your name or sentiment graffiti-style. Suitable for framing. This will make unique and beautiful gifts. Custom work $25.

Mural project at Hartford Public Library

Hartford Public Library
500 Main St., Hartford, (860) 695-6300
American Mural Project
Oct. 28—Nov. 29 2009.
Exhibit opening: Wed., Oct. 28, 11 a.m.
Artist's reception: Fri., Nov. 13, 5:30—7 p.m.

Press release

At 11 a.m. on Oct. 28, Hartford Public Library will open an exhibit of giant painted sections from the American Mural Project. When completed, this huge three-dimensional painting—120 feet long, 48 feet high, and 6—8 feet deep—will be the largest indoor collaborative artwork in the world. The exhibit is free and open to the public through November 29th during library hours.

"Hartford Public Library and the American Mural project is a win-win partnership. The Library's glass walls and natural ambient lighting, combined with a 25-foot ceiling, will offer Connecticut artist Ellen Griesedieck's amazing three-dimensional artwork a truly unique exhibition space. The Library is delighted to be able to provide people of all ages and backgrounds in our community the opportunity to participate in American art culture," said Mary Crean, chief development officer, Hartford Public Library.

A tribute to the American worker, the American Mural Project (AMP) was founded by artist Ellen Griesedieck. She is visiting all 50 states and working with people of all ages who are helping her create pieces that will be included in the final artwork.

After eleven years of work, more than one third of the mural is finished and over 10,000 people have contributed to the effort.

The exhibit will feature pieces of the mural, some up to 30 feet high, as well as walking tours, lectures, and projects scheduled all month for students and adults at the library. Throughout the month, AMP will also be leading art activities with kids from local schools, the Wadsworth Atheneum, and many other organizations around the city.

"Eleven years ago, when I started this project as a tribute to working people in America, I could never have imagined it would morph into this giant barn raising of art."

Ms. Griesedieck will be at the library on Oct. 28 and 29 and Nov. 11, 17, 18, 24 and 28. On those days, visitors will be invited to paint, draw, and write on one of AMP's eight-foot recycled paper-pulp 'links,' which will be included in the finished mural along with other similar links that people are now creating across the country. This is your chance to contribute to the piece that will represent the Greater Hartford area.

They bombed in Bridgeport: Street art show with a mission

The Gallery at Black Rock
2861 Fairfield Ave., Bridgeport, (203) 814-6856
Off the Grid
Through Nov. 19, 2009

According to Eileen Walsh, director of the Gallery at Black Rock in Bridgeport, there used to be a legal outlet in the city for graffiti writers to practice their art. Called "Fame City," she says it was a truck bay on Boston Avenue.

"The kids made great use of it," Walsh tells me as I check out the street art-oriented show Off the Grid in the gallery. "There was so much of it that the paint is so heavy it's literally coming off the wall. There's like 40 layers of paint."

But that location is locked now. Walsh says the Off the Grid show has something of a mission: "We want to get the city to devote some walls for free expression. There are so many abandoned buildings here," she notes. These are canvases going to waste! Walsh adds that some cities have done exactly that, creating tourist attractions in the process. (Walsh details the process of putting the show together on her blog.)

With the exception of "legitimate" artist Peter Consterlie aka "Pete from Across the Street"—Consterlie is influenced by graffiti style—all the artists in the show are "active graffiti artists," according to Walsh.

"If you're around Bridgeport, you'd recognize recurring names and recurring characters," says Walsh. She adds that a couple of them have issues of "property damage outstanding that they want to avoid dealing with."

"They've absolutely learned in the street 100 percent. There's no education in art for any of them," she says, referring to all but Consterlie.

The works are displayed in the small two-room gallery "visual assault style." The participating artists, besides Consterlie, are Sketch, Filth, Snook, Equip, Mercedes Espinoza and Greg Brown. Equip and Sketch are the standouts. Equip is from Norwalk; the other artists are from Bridgeport. All the works, according to Walsh, were created within the month prior to the show's Oct. 16 opening.

Equip's works are painted on ripped "canvases" of drywall. The torn edge aesthetic suits the spray paint-on-the-run imagery. He is notable because he works with a subdued color palette. Using stencils and layers of color he creates an illusion of depth. "Landscape" delicately balances two seemingly contradictory sensibilities—the urban and the pastoral. As the title indicates, it is a landscape, a sunrise on the horizon over a river bounded by soft green shores. But the color is built up through stencils, spray painted tags, suggesting perhaps a yearning for the garden amid the city. All of this is bordered by the ripped, crumbling edges of the drywall panel. Others of his paintings feature stylized imagery of club deejays or skateboarders; one has a convincingly rendered portrait of the rapper and actor Ice Cube.

Much of this work is graphic shorthand and self-promotional imagery indebted to a now international subcultural language. It is influenced by the goofiness of TV cartoons but with a twist of the macabre: skulls and x-ed out eyeballs are recurring tropes.

The use of repetitive elements and bold colors derive from the need/desire to grab attention quickly. This is important when your canvas is often a surface glimpsed by viewers traveling at 65 miles per hour. But a desire to snag eyeballs isn't necessarily accompanied by concessions to easy readability. The paintings by Sketch owe the most to and are most typical of iconic graffiti style. They feature both a signature recurring cartoon image of a "monster"—a head with a wide open mouth with big teeth, x's in circles for eyes in a helmet-like head covering—and almost unreadable convoluted lettering. His text features three-dimensional characters that jostle and writhe around each other like riders in an overcrowded subway car. Most often these letters spell out "Sketch" but in his Obama portrait, they spell out "hope." There is also a table in one room that displays one of Sketch's sketchbooks showing how meticulously planned his imagery is.

It's a thought provoking show even if much of the work has a distinct amateurish tinge. Graffiti is a decidedly mixed phenomenon. It is true that most of it amounts to little more than another layer of blight in districts already marginalized by postindustrial capitalism. But where the serious writers take the time to exercise their explosive craft, the work can be a bracing visual element in a decaying landscape. And much more rewarding than that other graffiti that spreads like kudzu through our physical and psychic environment: advertising. Here's hoping Bridgeport can meet these artists halfway and designate some free spaces for grassroots artistic expression.

Parachute Gallery opening Tuesday evening

Parachute Factory
Erector Square, 319 Peck St., Bldg. 1, New Haven, (203) 772-2788
Out of House and Home
Oct. 27, 2009—Feb. 5, 2010
Opening reception: Tues., Oct. 27, 5—7 p.m.

Press release

The Arts Council of Greater New Haven presents Out of House and Home, an exhibition curated by Debbie Hesse and Joy Pepe that explores the comforts and securities of home and the uncertainties and anxieties brought to bear by the recent mortgage crisis, record foreclosures, and plummeting real-estate values.

The exhibition will be on display at The Parachute Factory, Erector Square, 319 Peck St., Bldg. 1, New Haven, from Tues., Oct. 27, 2009 through Fri., Feb. 5, 2010. An artists' reception is scheduled for Tues., Oct. 27, from 5—7 p.m. The public is invited to attend.

Out of House and Home (the second of a two-part exhibition, Work/Place, which explores the environments on which our survival depends) examines the places that friends and family, neighbors, strangers, and the otherwise invisible call home.

Participating artists, whose work takes us from the comforts of home to the struggle for survival in the most primitive of shelters, include Tim Applebee, Roland Becerra (see image), Ron Dunhill, Lucas Foglia (Web), Elaine Kaufmann, Jaime Kriksciun, Thomas Lail, Yelizaveta Masalimova, Denise Minnerly, David Ottenstein (Web), Anne Percoco, and Cindy Tower (Web).

The Parachute Factory is a collaboration of the Arts Council of Greater New Haven, Yale Program for Recovery and Community Health, and Community Services Network of Greater New Haven. Out of House and Home is presented by The Parachute Factory in partnership with Columbus House. The Parachute Factory hours are Wed., 10 a.m.—2 p.m.; Thurs. and Fri., 12—5 p.m.; and by appointment.

Artist reception at New Haven Public Library Saturday

New Haven Free Public Library Art Gallery
133 Elm St., New Haven
The Rapture of Art: Paintings by Jesse Guillen
Through Oct. 30, 2009
Artist's reception: Sat., Oct. 24, 2:30—4:30 p.m.

Press release

New Haven artist Chucho (Jesse) Guillen's interest in painting started from a young age and has since been fueled by his travels, life experiences, and was inspired by his experience studying with Fr. William B. Wasson (1924—2006) in Arizona.

Mr. Guillen's technique is motivated by freedom that forms uninhibited brush strokes, and a sense of the artist's passion and inner-energy emerges in his art works.

His vibrant style and fresh look allows the mundane to become a point of departure, which in turn becomes revitalized and invigorated. This emotionally and energetically charged approach to painting develops a fresh perspective to art.

Mr. Guillen paints murals and is very involved in public art in New Haven, Connecticut, whilst also being privately acquired by collectors and large companies in the USA. Mr. Guillen has developed a following in Amherst, Massachusetts, SoHo in New York City, and many other venues. His painting "Woman in Rapture" was accepted to the 2009 Biennale Chianciano in Chianciano Terme, Tuscany, Italy, and is included in the Biennale Catalog.

Barbara Harder show opens Saturday at City Gallery

City Gallery
994 State St., New Haven, (203) 782-2489
Barbara Harder: J Topog Continuum
Oct. 22—Nov. 15, 2009.
Opening reception: Sat., Oct. 24, 3—6:30 p.m.

Press release

City Gallery is presenting J Topog Continuum, a mixed media exhibition by artist Barbara Harder, from Oct. 22—Nov. 15, 2009. The Opening Reception is Saturday, Oct. 24 from 3—6:30 PM.

Based on observations of natural and man-made objects, Barbara Harder's artwork reflects her Irish Catholic upbringing married with a respect for the Asian sensibility. Using the image of a Tokyo tree and through the process of printmaking, Ms. Harder transforms the images onto paper, wood panels and veneers, and the tree is reconstructed into a new life. Some trees make there way across an old Concordia of the Bible to reflect her heritage, while others are printed onto layers of translucent, billowing paper that provide a interesting juxtaposition with the strong, angular wood reliefs. This installation of the disparate, yet related imagery, offers both a sense of serenity and of energy, inviting the viewer to explore the similarity of forms yet also to peek through layers to see exciting new spaces.

Barbara Harder teaches at Quinnipiac University and at Creative Arts Workshop, where she heads of the Printmaking Department. She has been a guest artist at the Yale University Art Gallery, Fairfield University, Connecticut College and the Center for Contemporary Printmaking as well as a curator of numerous printmaking exhibitions. Her artwork is held in private, corporation and museum collections throughout the country and she exhibits internationally.