ABSTRACT

Edith Borax-Morrison and Keith Johnson: 2 solo shows at Kehler Liddell Gallery, New Haven

Edith Borax -Morrison and Keith Johnson are featured in simultaneous solo exhibitions at Kehler Liddell Gallery in New Haven from April 19 - May 20, 2012.

Morrison's exhibit of abstract ink drawings is titled "Alternative Pathways." Her drawings range from geometric studies to sinuous organic forms which intertwine on paper.

Johnson's exhibit of photographs is "Recent Work." Johnson's use of the grid in his "Extended Landscapes" led to his current work. Some photographs are completely abstract, and others use familiar objects as elements that form patterns in the larger work. Water surfaces, the sky and airplanes are recurrent motifs.

Both exhibits open on Sunday, April 22, from 3:30 - 6:30 pm with live music by Notattoos from 5:00 - 6:30 pm. Morrison and Johnson will also be speaking about their work.

Kehler Liddell Gallery is located at 873 Whalley Avenue, New Haven, CT.

"Intellectual Property: New Work by Gene Gort" at the Gallery at Still River Editions

"Intellectual Property: Stolen #3"
© Gene Gort
The solo exhibition "Intellectual Property: New Work by Gene Gort" opens at the Gallery at Still River Editions on Saturday, April 21, 2012 with a reception from 4 - 6 pm. The show runs until Friday, June 29.

The exhibition features ten new abstract digital print editions by Gene Gort, a multi-disciplinary artist from Avon, CT. Gort received his MFA from the University of California, San Diego and his BFA from Hartford Art School, University of Hartford where he is currently Professor of Media Arts, a program he designed and directs.

From Gene Gort's artist statement:

"I have recently become interested in NOISE; visual and sonic. The current project, "Intellectual Property", focuses on the visual noise generated from attempting to extract video from copyright encrypted commercial DVD's. As an educator who uses video clips as a mainstay of my classroom practice, I am always showing samples from various sources.

Recently, while attempting to extract sequences from mainstream movies, I was struck by the endless variation of intentional visual noise this process generates in order to keep me and everyone else from illegally copying movies. [...]

The images in this series are screen-grabs from this process; a kind of performance that I do responding to the real-time events I am watching on screen. The titles are an ironic pairing of "intellectual property" and the film title, like "Stolen", "Catch Me If You Can",  "Precious", "Babel" or "Gone with the Wind". [...]

The images here represent a visual equivalent to the collision of the video, computer code, encryption algorithm and extraction process,  my aesthetic sensibility and performance acumen - an equivalency that is independent of the content of the original source."

See a video interview of Gene Gort

The Gallery at Still River Editions is located at 128 East Liberty St., Danbury, CT.

Our Winter Exhibit is Fourteen Threadless Needles: Photographs by Vito Pasquale

"Pink"
© Vito Pasquale

The Gallery at Still River Editions is pleased to announce:

Fourteen Threadless Needles
Photographs by Vito Pasquale

January 5 - March 30, 2012
Opening reception Saturday, January 28, 2012 4-6 pm*
*Snow date: Saturday, February 4, 2012, 4 - 6 pm


Vito Pasquale is a photographer and writer from Mount Kisco, NY. He is one of those people who, upon retiring from the full-time job he'd done in corporate America for almost thirty years, began to "peek down, as Frost would call it, 'the road not taken'". In 2008, Pasquale returned to writing after a long hiatus, and in 2009 he began taking photographs that reflected some of the themes in his writing. His book of poetry, Fourteen Threadless Needles, was published in 2011.

Many of Pasquale's photographs are abstracts and photo-manipulations that go beyond taking the world at face value. In his poem, "(Somewhere) After Silence (and) Before Regret", Pasquale refers to ". . .the surprisingly elastic properties of a dream." The photographs dance around that dream-state in the everyday.

Included in the show are several photographs that relate to Pasquale's history in the Danbury area. He grew up in Mount Kisco, NY and his father worked in Danbury until 1966 at a construction company that was located near the site of the train station just up Liberty Street. Coincidentally, this is a short distance from the Gallery at Still River Editions.

The fourteen photographs are connected to poems posted online via QR codes, which viewers can scan using their smart phones, or look at online in the gallery.

Nancy Lasar to present at The Affordable Art Fair, NYC

The Affordable Art Fair NYC takes place this weekend from Thursday, May 5 to Sunday, May 8 at 7W New York, 7 West 34th St. (near 5th Ave / the Empire State Building), NYC.

"Adagio"
Digital, Acrylic, and Mixed Media,
36" x 30", 2010
© Nancy  Lasar
Printmaker and mixed-media artist Nancy Lasar of Washington, Connecticut will be represented by A.I.R. Gallery's Booth A-2 as part of the multi-gallery initiative Art x Women.

On Sunday, Lasar will be doing a short talk on cliché verre (a printmaking technique) she uses in conjunction with digital printmaking at 1:30 pm at booth A-2.

Edith Borax-Morrison at Kehler Liddell Gallery, New Haven

© Edith Borax-Morrison
Edith Borax-Morrison is showing recent drawings at Kehler Liddell Gallery, New Haven from August 19-September 26, 2010. Also showing are new paintings and pastels by Lisa Hess Hesselgrave. There will be an artist reception on Sunday, September 12 from 3-6 pm with an artist talk at 3 pm.

Morrison's ink drawings are simultaneously explosive and controlled. She has characterized her work as "mind fibers", and her titles give insight into the concepts behind each drawing. Her meticulously executed abstract forms seem to undulate on the paper on which they are drawn.

From the press release: "Morrison’s works relate to Gego’s wire sculptures and Escher’s drawings, or more recently to the work of James Siena.  They reference influences from both Eastern and Western culture, including African masks, folklore and memory, beaded jewelry and maps."

Kehler Liddell Gallery is located at 873 Whalley Ave., New Haven, CT.

~Lys

"Durante / Fucigna" at 22 Haviland Street in Norwalk

"Durante / Fucigna" is an exhibition of collaborative and individual works by Chris Durante and Joe Fucigna at 22 Haviland Street Gallery in South Norwalk, CT.

Both Durante and Fucigna are art professors at Norwalk Community College, and have exhibited extensively. Fucigna's work is mainly sculpture, and his drawings seem to hold volume. Durante's eye is informed by graffiti, comic book art, and found marks, and his line is pure and confident. Their abstract drawings on Claybord feature similar shifting shapes, and the feel is almost juicy. As the works were passed back and forth several times, Durante said that the individual contributions became less recognizable, even to the artists themselves. The distinction between the artists may not always be obvious, but watching the resulting conversation play out on the wall is total eye candy.

The exhibition runs from April 16 to May 30, and there will be an opening reception on Friday, April 16 from 6-9 pm. A talk with the artists will be held on Sunday May 2 at 2 pm.

Chris Durante exhibiting at Fairfield Arts Council, reception Friday 9/25










© Chris Durante

Chris Durante is exhibiting at Fairfield Arts Council from September 25 to November 7 along with Mary Jo McGonagle. Durante's recent abstract drawings combine elements from his earlier comic book inspired pieces. These are fractured and exploded until they no longer resemble their representational forebears. His lines are incredibly fluid; in addition he uses marks that are culled from daily life, like coffee stains, and burns. Those marks are used with equal gravity.

McGonagle's multi-layered, abstract, large-scale images combine painting with monotype. I think the artists are a great pairing, and I'm looking forward to seeing the show.

The reception for this exhibition is Friday, September 25 from 6-8 pm. Fairfield Arts Council is located at 70 Sanford St. Fairfield, CT (near the train station).

There is a brown bag lunch discussion with the artists and curator Laura Einstein on Thursday, October 22 from 12:30-1:30 pm.

Chris teaches drawing at Norwalk Community College, and also owns a framing studio in Danbury. He prepares artwork for many galleries, museums and private collectors in and around the area. He is a Silvermine Guild artist and will be showing there in January.

See you around.

~Lys





Chris Durante at the opening
© Photo by Mark Savoia

Edith Morrison at H. Pelham Curtis Gallery in New Canaan











"Betrothed," © Edith Borax-Morrison

Edith Borax-Morrison is currently showing Penweave Drawings at the H. Pelham Curtis Gallery at New Canaan Library. The show is up until October 12, 2009. Borax-Morrison calls her spectacular abstract, and free-flowing mandala drawings "penweaves." The textures created resemble fibers, and the process by which Borax-Morrison creates them recalls the meditative qualities of weaving. The New Canaan Library is located at 151 Main St. New Canaan, CT.

~Lys

Nancy Lasar in two Litchfield County exhibitions










© Nancy Lasar

Nancy Lasar, from Washington Depot, Connecticut, often utilizes new technologies along with traditional printmaking in her unique, multi-layered images.

She and Inga-Britta Mills are in the exhibition "Inscripted Earth: An Exhibition of Prints and Paperworks" at Minor Memorial Library, 23 South St., Roxbury, CT from July 25 to September 9. There is a reception on Saturday, July 25 from 2-4 pm.

Also from July 25-August 23 she is exhibiting with her brother John Davis and Stephan Fowlkes at New Arts Gallery, 513 Maple St. Litchfield, CT. There will be an artists' reception from 3-6 pm on Saturday, July 25.

So if you time it right, you can go to both exhibition openings. Sounds like an ideal afternoon to me.

~Lys











A few snaps from the opening at New Arts Gallery
Photo © Mark Savoia

Edith Borax-Morrison at Kehler Liddell Gallery, New Haven

Client Edith Borax-Morrison, and Emilia Dubicki are featured in the two-artist show No Constraints at the Kehler Liddell Gallery, 873 Whalley Avenue, New Haven, CT. The exhibition runs from June 4-July 5. There is an artists' reception this Sunday, June 7, 3-6 pm, and an artists' talk Thursday, June 18, 7 pm. In addition, there is a poetry reading Sunday, June 28, 3 pm.

I liked this tidbit from the gallery's description of the show, "No Constraints defines an attitude, a self motivating creative directive and its results. [...] Unstressed discipline, intellectual curiosity, and a joyful compulsion to work are evident in this exhibition of abstract art."

Both artists work abstractly. Morrison's work is visionary and intricate; her drawings are "pen weavings" of "mind fibers". I encourage you to go see her work, and to meet her at the reception.

~Lys








Edith Borax-Morrison at the opening.