The reception for my show at the Constance Lavino Bell Library Gallery will be September 28, 6-7 p.m.
There is also an exhibition of photographs by Dan Mead and Sally Eagle in an adjacent gallery on campus.
Ethel Walker School
230 Bushy Hill Rd, Simsbury, CT 06070
https://www.ethelwalker.org/
Below are some installation photos of my current exhibition Splice at the Constance Lavino Bell Gallery at the Ethel Walker School.
This show includes two related installations and several works on paper that repeat the double helix form. Together the works create a bridge between genetic engineering, textile traditions, and abstract art. Spreading across a corner, the installation appears viral and organic. Upon closer inspection, a viewer can see that the paper forms have been delicately woven together, mimicking the intricate perforations of lace. Textiles, like DNA, are often rooted in patterns. The connection between the two elements shows that our desires to see and create patterns originates in our genetic makeup.
The show is on view through November and there will be a public reception at the end of September.
Co-Curated with Daphne A. Deeds, State of Abstraction is now open! The exhibition will be on view through June 16 at the Washington Art Association and the Judy Black Memorial Space.
Washington Art Association & Gallery, 4 Bryan Memorial Plaza, Washington Depot, CT 06794
Tuesday - Saturday, 10 am - 5 pm
Sunday, 10 am - 2 pm
Featuring: Cat Balco, Melanie Carr, Julia Coash, Kevin Daly, Deborah Dancy, Howard El-Yasin, Roxanne Faber Savage, Joseph Fucigna, Elizabeth Gourlay, Hong Hong, Blinn Jacobs, Zachary Keeting, Bob Knox, Connie Pfeiffer, Janet Lage, David Livingston, Ken Lovell, Olu Oguibe, Ryan Paxton, Tim Prentice, Suzan Shutan, Matthew Weber, John Willis
New Entry to the Washington Art Association
Suzan Shutan
Zachary Keeting, John Willis, and Hong Hong in the Judy Black Memorial Space
I'm delighted to be included in the New Faculty show "At Work" at the University of New Haven's Seton Gallery. Join me for the opening Reception next Wednesday, October 4th from 4 - 7 p.m.
Through October 12th
Featuring works by David Livingston, Jacquelyn Gleisner, Caroline Valites, Serdar Arat, and Luis Victori
Seton Gallery, University of New Haven, Dodds Hall, 300 Boston Post Road, New Haven, CT
Read about my current installations in Peterborough and Newburgh at the links below:
"Folds of the Cloak" will be on view at the Sharon Arts Center in downtown Peterborough, NH until September 17, 2017.
"The Interaction of Colour" continues at the Ann Street Gallery in Newburgh, NY through October 14, 2017.
“I would love for a person to look at one of my photos and be reminded of something else.”
Read my article about Maureen Drennan's series 'Highway to the Sun' on the Art21 magazine here. This series of photographs was inspired by the epic road trip of four friends—one of whom was Drennan's stepfather—departing from Hanover, New Hampshire, on a five-thousand-mile trip to Alaska.
http://www.maureendrennan.net/
Check out Drennan's photography at the group show 'Portals' at Transmitter Gallery in Brooklyn, on view through September 10, 2017.
Transmitter Gallery, 1329 Willoughby Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11237
Maureen Drennan. Estacada, Oregon, 2013. Digital c-print; 24 x 30 inches. Courtesy of the artist. © Maureen Drennan.
We finished installing at the Ann Street Gallery yesterday evening. Here's a shot of the finished installation.
Other artists in the show: Cree Bruins, Susan Greer Emerson, Gloria Klein, Jill Levine, Conny Goelz-Schmitt, Judy Thomas, and Shawn Watrous, among others
Saturday, August 19th, 6:30 - 8:30 p.m.
I'm excited to include an installation in the "Interaction of Colour" show at the Ann Street Gallery in Newburgh, New York.
A view of my studio in New Haven, CT
in progress shot for the upcoming installation
The Ann Street Gallery
104 Ann Street
Newburgh, New York 12550
"Interaction of Colour" opens August 19th from 6:30 - 8:30 p.m.
The show is curated by Virginia Walsh.
Lumia: Thomas Wilfred and the Art of Light, light art compositions by the Danish-American inventor and musician, closed last weekend at the Yale University Art Gallery. The exhibition’s title refers to the name Thomas Wilfred (1889–1968) gave to his kinetic artworks. Arranged chronologically, the works in this exhibition escalate in ambition from Wilfred’s earliest home devices in the “Clavilux” series to a large, public installation, commissioned by the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.
Wilfred created the first “Clavilux” instruments in 1919, nearly a decade before the first electronic television was invented. Light traveled through rotating mirrored surfaces from a painted “color record” onto a screen. The earliest instruments were performed live for viewers. Later, the mechanical projection machines were housed in small cabinets resembling TVs; however, unlike the television, Wilfred’s lumia were intended to be silent. Wilfred was a musician, yet he was adamant about producing an experience of color without sound for viewers.
Wilfred had hoped to sell his luminous light boxes to consumers as a replacement for the television, but as he gained traction with artists, he gradually shifted his focus to museum and galleries. In 1963, the Museum of Modern Art, New York, commissioned his most ambitious public installation, Lumia Suite, Opus 158, which remained on view at the museum until 1980. In 1971, Wilfred had a retrospective at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.
Wilfred’s lumia are beautiful and slow, albeit an awkward replacement for the television. It was difficult for me to consider passively enjoying a Clavilux projection in the same way I consume an episode of “Game of Thrones.” Watching the lumia, I felt my sense of observation was heightened, whereas my senses seem more often dulled by TV.
The cascading colors projected inside his machines made me recall artists such as J.M.W. Turner (1775–1851). In particular, the atmospheric and ephemeral cloudscapes later admired by the Impressionists, especially Claude Monet, recall the slow-moving colors in the lumia. Using washes of watercolor and oil paint, Turner’s layered works achieved the shimmering sensation of light, while Wilfred’s works used light itself in lieu of paint as the primary visual element in his compositions. The lumia works evoke sublime phenomena such as the aurora borealis or gaseous plumes in outer space.
In fact, Wilfred’s innovations preceded works by other light artists. For example, László Moholy-Nagy (1895–1946) made his seminal work, Light-Space Modulator—a light-based sculpture powered by electricity—in 1930. Moholy-Nagy, a Hungarian artist and Bauhaus professor, advocated for the integration of art, industry, and technology. He recognized the innovation of Wilfred’s works, and the lumia were also admired by many other artists of his time, including the Abstract Expressionist, Jackson Pollock (1912–1956). In the foreword of the exhibition catalog, the contemporary artist James Turrell (b. 1943) recounts his childhood encounter with Wilfred’s works at MoMA.
Despite the respect Wilfred earned among artists of his day, his radical oeuvre of light art has not been shown in the last four decades. Lumia Suite, Opus 158 was restored for the occasion of the exhibition, and it concludes the show in a special viewing room, matching the specifications of Wilfred’s original plans. The show reaffirms Wilfred’s role as a visionary artist of both light and color.
Lumia: Thomas Wilfred and the Art of Light closed on July 23, 2017 at the Yale University Art Gallery. The exhibition will travel to Washington D.C.’s Smithsonian American Art Museum in October.
The Folds of the Cloak, the title of my current installation at the Sharon Arts Center, references the last line of the poem “Of the Surface of Things” by Wallace Stevens. I read this poem aloud to my students on the first day of classes last fall, and throughout the year I collected their discarded drawings and paintings to re-use. Viewers can see glimpses of color wheels and other exercises repurposed into pyramid forms.
The title also alludes to paper and textiles, two important materials for my practice as an artist. Paper, an ecological and malleable form, represents flexibility and durability. Textiles are another important source for me, and I regularly reference patterns as well as the cultural importance of fabric, embroidery, and other handicrafts. All the paper and cardboard used in this installation are found or recycled from my previous works or former students, creating a textural map of color, patterns, and time.
Sharon Arts Center Gallery | NHIA
30 Grove Street, Peterborough, NH 03458
Reception August 18, 5 - 8pm
Through September 2017
Hours: Wednesday-Saturday 11am - 6pm; Sunday 11am - 4pm
Come by 30 Grove Street in downtown Peterborough to see my installation in the front window of the Sharon Arts Center. All these forms were made using discarded paintings and drawings from former students and old works of mine on recycled cardboard. Join me for the reception on August 18th! More pictures soon...
Also be sure to check it out at night!
