Video Room – Kelley O’Brien: American At Work at Real Art Ways

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Video Room – Kelley O’Brien: American At Work

 

On view in our Video Room is American At Work by Ohio-based artist Kelley O’Brien.

In her multidisciplinary practice, O’Brien explores how social systems are created and maintained through architecture, both physical and constructed. In American At Work, we watch Angel, a naturalized American citizen from Mexico City and General Services Administration employee at the Anthony J. Celebrezze Federal Building in Cleveland as he performs one of the duties of his position. While he removes and replaces the outgoing portraits of Barack Obama and Joe Biden with that of Donald Trump and Mike Pence, the viewer is reminded of the continued effort of the current administration to wall off his homeland.

From her artist statement, “I produce interruptions that act to reveal the affective dimensions of architectural and social systems. My practice takes the form of site-specific works, to provide alternative contexts by which to understand lived environments. Through the creation of aesthetic interventions such as: radio broadcasts, historical landmarkers, personal interviews, and literal maps I aim to locate myself, individuals, and communities within the intangible context of their social relations.”

For more information on Kelley O’Brien and her work, visit her website.

Featured image: American At Work still

Artist Talk: Hong Hong & Megan Craig

 

Shining Some Glory: Hong Hong’s Dark Segment

Join artists Hong Hong and Megan Craig for a conversation surrounding the exhibition Dark Segment and Craig’s essay commissioned by Real Art Ways. The reception will open at 2:30 PM, with conversation beginning at 3:00 PM. Admission is free, with light refreshments available.

While at Real Art Ways, Visual Arts Coordinator Neil Daigle Orians has worked with both artists in producing solo exhibitions. Commenting on their work, he said, “Hong Hong met Megan Craig at the opening for her 2018 Real Art Ways exhibit Shields. Their connection serves as a beautiful metaphor for how Real Art Ways supports and connects artists, creating community along the way. Craig’s essay is a fantastic exploration in the concepts and impacts Hong’s massive paperworks create. I am excited to hear their conversation and join in.”

Click here to learn more about Dark Segment.

Visit Real Art Ways to pick up a copy of Craig’s essay, Shining Some Glory: Hong Hong’s Dark Segment.

Dark Segment was supported by the Edward C. & Ann T. Roberts Foundation’s Creation of New Works Initiative.

Featured image: Composition for the Blue Shoulders of Evening; 2015 to present; Kozo, sun, dust, hair, pollen, water, repurposed paper, fiber-reactive dyes; Dimensions variable.

Hong Hong, Public PourArtist Hong Hong presented a large scale paper pour workshop with Real Art Ways members on September 22, 2018. Photo by Neil Daigle Orians

EBK Appreciation

 

Real Art Ways will host an evening of appreciation for EBK Gallery, Eric Ben-Kiki, and the artists who presented work during the last 5 years.

Projections throughout the evening will showcase images of the various artwork and events hosted by EBK.

This is an opportunity to celebrate his prolific exhibition history at the Pearl Street space, meet and mingle with artists, and learn more about the past and future of EBK.

Admission is free, light refreshments will be available.

Click here to read Visual Arts Coordinator Neil Daigle-Orians’ op-ed about EBK in the Hartford Courant.

Niki Kriese: Chewing the Scenery

 

Artist Talk: Saturday, March 9 | 2:30 PM 

2018 Real Art Award recipient Niki Kriese presents new works in her solo exhibition Chewing the Scenery. In her paintings, Kriese utilizes vernacular locations like gardens or skateparks to craft complex figure ground studies. The resulting images contain a strong sense of nuance while delving into issues surrounding duality, specificity, and sense of place. Her compositions contain a playful weirdness while simultaneously referencing abandonment.

Says Visual Arts Coordinator Neil Daigle Orians, “Niki’s work allows, and in fact encourages, the viewer to imagine a space that is familiar, but not too familiar. During a studio visit, I fell in love with her process of collaging images that ultimately become the disjointed, technicolor spaces of color and texture.”

On view January 17 – March 31, 2019
Opening reception: Thursday, January 17, 6-8 PM during Creative Cocktail Hour
Artist talk: Saturday, March 9, 3 PM

About the Artist
After barely graduating with her MFA from Rhode Island School of Design in 2007, Niki Kriese moved to New York in search of fame, fortune, and falafel. She doesn’t remember anything before that. She makes art and lives in the Hudson Valley with her husband and freaking adorable kids.

About the Real Art Awards
The 2018 Real Art Awards competition was open at no charge to artists living in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine. Niki was one of six artists chosen from a field of 286 applicants. The three jurors were multimedia artist Saya Woolfalk; New Britain Museum of American Art Director Min Jung Kim; and Real Art Ways Executive Director Will K. Wilkins.

The 2018 Real Art Awards is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts and The Edward C. and Ann T. Roberts Foundation.

Featured image: Between Us (detail), 2018, 20” x 24”, acrylic on canvas

National Endowment for the Arts

 

Barbara Hocker: Downstream

 

Downstream is an exhibition of sculptural paper works by artist Barbara Hocker. Her work explores nature, creating experiential installations and pieces that engage the viewer in a serene manner.

From her artist statement:
Viewers have often told me that my work is very peaceful, quiet, and serene. I think this comes from my love of being alone in the woods or at the shore and trying to bring that feeling to my art making. My ongoing practices of Tai Chi/meditation and study of East Asian metaphysics and aesthetics also inform my art practice. Yin and yang, being and nonbeing, stillness and movement, light and dark, sea and sky, surface and depth, artist and viewer, self and nature – I am interested in exploring how one can see beyond polarities to sense the invisible and mysterious unity underlying them.

Says Visual Arts Coordinator Neil Daigle Orians, “Part of what makes Barbara’s work so fascinating is the forms and structures she utilizes to convey her imagery. By utilizing books as an artform, she’s tapping into the history of language and the culture of story. Her flatworks exploit the flexibility of the medium, taking digitally printed images and crafting painterly compositions that mimic the fibrous nature of her kozo papers.”

About the Artist
Barbara Hocker is a Connecticut native with extensive experience creating and exhibiting work including solo shows and projects in Hartford, New Haven, Newport, and Boston. She has work in several corporate and private collections, including the permanent collection of The Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in Manhattan and several related hospitals in New York and New Jersey. Awards received include an Individual Artist Fellowship from the Greater Hartford Arts Council, a Creation of New Work Initiative Grant from the Edward C. and Ann T. Roberts Foundation, and an Artist Resource Trust Fellowship from the Berkshire Taconic Foundation. She holds a degree in Fibers from Syracuse University’s College of Visual & Performing Arts and attended Cranbrook Academy of Arts. Barbara lives in Bolton, Connecticut and maintains a studio in the Arbor Arts Center in Hartford. Her art process has been informed by her practice of Yoga, Tai Chi and Qi Gong for more than 25 years.

Learn more at her website.

Featured image: Woven Water XXII (detail) – 2018, 23″ x 90″, pigment print, monotype, rice paper, encaustic medium

Keri Halloran

 

Utilizing the camera as a mark making tool, Keri Halloran creates images that exploit the painterly possibilities of photography. In this body of work, I bet burning alive would be beautiful., Halloran captures ambiguous images that exist in a liminal space between reality and fiction, literally blurring the lines between what is and is not recognizable. Combining this with a sensitivity to materials and installation methods, the result allows the viewer to engage in her photographs as objects, images, and an expansive collage on the wall.

From her artist statement:
“As each perspective gets layered onto one’s self, it has an affect on one’s perceived reality. The viewer receives from the disparate images emotions that are communicating with each other in a positive and negative way. The vagueness and ambiguity within the visuals lends itself to the vagueness that the self can embrace as well.”

About the Artist
Keri Halloran is an artist from Hartford, Connecticut who focuses on visual sensations within images. She received a Bachelors of Fine Arts in photography at Hartford Art School at the University of Hartford. Keri is actively showing throughout Connecticut while working full time in commercial photography.

http://www.kerihalloran.com
Instagram: @keri.halloran

Real Wall is a series of wall mounted exhibitions taking place in between formal gallery spaces. Artists are invited to engage with the space in experimental ways meaningful to their practice in short-run exhibitions.

January Riverwood Poetry Series

 

The Riverwood Poetry Series at Real Art Ways continues with Kate Rushin, author of The Bridge Poem and The Black Back-Ups.

Join us on the second Tuesday of the month through May 2019. Each night begins with an open mic, followed by a poetry reading featuring regionally-or nationally-known poets.

About Kate Rushin
Kate holds a B.A. from Oberlin College and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Brown University as well as fellowships from the Artists Foundation, The Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown and The Cave Canem Foundation. 

Her work is widely anthologized and has been published in Callaloo, Stone Canoe and The Cape Cod Poetry Review. She has read her work at many colleges and festivals and has received commissions from The International Festival of Arts and Ideas and The Hartford Public Library. 

Kate has taught at Wesleyan University and has led workshops for Poets House, The Mark Twain House and the Connecticut Office of the Arts. She currently teaches for Hartford Youth Scholars.  

Kate can be heard on “The Nose,” the arts and culture panel of The Colin McEnroe Show, on WNPR.  She performs her poetry with Nat Reeves State of Emergency. Kate is proud to be a recipient of a 2018 Realie Award from Real Art Ways.

About Riverwood Poetry Series
Riverwood Poetry SeriesThe Riverwood Poetry Series, Inc. is a non-profit arts organization committed to the promotion and appreciation of poetry in Connecticut. RPS, Inc. is invested in providing entertaining and thought-provoking programming, while responding to the needs of our neighbors through community outreach and collaboration. From their Facebook page: “The Riverwood Poetry Series has innovated many programs since our inception, all of them free to the public. We provide entertaining and thought-provoking poetry in a relaxed atmosphere.” Learn more at their website.

Riverwood Poetry Series Dates

Tuesday, February 12, 7 PM
Tuesday, March 12, 7 PM
Tuesday, April 9, 7 PM
Tuesday, May 14, 7 PM

Papo Vázquez Concert & Parranda

 

Papo Vázquez & Mighty Pirates Troubadours

Real Art Ways welcomes trombonist, composer and arranger Papo Vázquez for a concert and holiday parranda.

All are invited to celebrate a special night of music, food and dance.

– Afro-Caribbean Jazz Performance        
– Community Holiday Parranda
– Traditonal Puerto Rican Holiday Food & Drink

Band of Pirates
Papo Vazquez – Trombone, Leader
Willie Williams – Ten. Sax
Manuel Valera – Piano
Ariel Robles – Bass
Alvester Garnett – Drums
Carlos Maldonado – Perc.
Reinaldo De Jesus – Perc.
Jose Mangual Jr. – Vocals, Perc. – Special Invited Guest

Local Musicians
Bring your instruments and join in! Musicians should RSVP to namulenb@realartways.org by Dec. 1 to participate.

Parranda
Parranda, of Parranda de aguinaldo (Christmas folk music), is an Afro-Indigenous musical form played during the holidays in various Caribbean countries including Puerto Rico, Cuba, Trinidad, and the coastal area of the states Aragua and Carabobo in Venezuela.

Leader, Composer, Innovator
“During the 1970s, Vázquez was a key player in the New York’s burgeoning jazz and Latin jazz scene. He performed with jazz luminaries Slide Hampton, Tito Puente, Dizzy Gillespie, Frank Foster, Mel Lewis, Hilton Ruiz and toured Europe with the Ray Charles Orchestra. He is also a founding member of Jerry Gonzalez’s Fort Apache Band, Conjunto Libre, and Puerto Rico’s Batacumbele.

Vázquez is known for fusing Afro-Caribbean rhythms, specifically those from Puerto Rico, with freer melodic, harmonic elements and progressive jazz.

Recently, Vázquez was honored by Arturo O’ Farrill and the Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra as one of the great sidemen of Latin jazz. His most recent recording, Spirit Warrior has received accolades from fans, critics and Jazzdelapena.com, Latin Jazz Network, The Latin Jazz Corner and the New York City Jazz Record, who cited it as “one of the Best Latin Jazz Albums of 2015.” – Latin Jazz Network

Learn more at his website.

December Riverwood Poetry Series

 

The Riverwood Poetry Series at Real Art Ways continues with an interactive workshop led by Nadia Colburn.

Join us on the second Tuesday of the month, from September 2018 through May 2019.

In a world so out of alignment, poetry can help us come back to our center, speak the truth and expand our perspective. In this workshop we’ll look closely at poems from different spiritual traditions (Rumi, Hopkins, Oliver, Gay). We’ll discuss poetry as a contemplative practice. We’ll meditate, write poetry and share our work.

About Nadia Colburn
Nadia Colburn is the founder of Align Your Story, holistic writing classes and coaching. She holds a Ph.D. in English from Columbia University, is a student of Thich Nhat Hanh, a yoga teacher, mother and environmental and social justice activist.

Her poetry has been published in more than 50 publications including The New Yorker, American Poetry Review, Boston Review, and Harvard review. Her poetry collection The High Shelf will be published in 2019.

For free meditations and writing prompts visit  www.nadiacolburn.com

About Riverwood Poetry Series
Riverwood Poetry SeriesThe Riverwood Poetry Series, Inc. is a non-profit arts organization committed to the promotion and appreciation of poetry in Connecticut. RPS, Inc. is invested in providing entertaining and thought-provoking programming, while responding to the needs our our neighbors through community outreach and collaboration. From their Facebook page: “The Riverwood Poetry Series has innovated many programs since our inception, all of them free to the public. We provide entertaining and thought-provoking poetry in a relaxed atmosphere.” Learn more at their website.

Riverwood Poetry Series Dates

Tuesday, January 8, 7 PM
Tuesday, February 12, 7 PM
Tuesday, March 12, 7 PM
Tuesday, April 9, 7 PM
Tuesday, May 14, 7 PM

Day With(out) Art: Alternate Endings, Activist Rising

 

Real Art Ways is partnering with Visual AIDS and AIDSCT (ACT) on the 29th annual Day With(out) Art, for a one-night film screening of Alternate Endings, Activist Rising and a round table community discussion to follow.

Taking place in our video gallery, this is a special opportunity to compare and contrast the various methods and programs presented in the film with local organizers and activists here in Hartford. 

Deputy Director of ACT, Shawn Lang and Real Art Ways Visual Arts Coordinator, Neil Daigle Orians will help lead the roundtable talk asking critical questions such as: How is the AIDS crisis still affecting us in Hartford and Connecticut, and what are people doing about it? 

Visual AIDS is the only arts organization fully committed to raising AIDS awareness and creating dialogue around HIV issues today.  They produce and present work, assist artists living with HIV/AIDS, and have a commitment to preserving and honoring the work of artists with HIV/AIDS and the artistic contributions of the AIDS movement.

ACT, with its partners, increases Connecticut’s capacity to ensure that all people impacted by HIV/AIDS and related health issues have access to health, housing and support services.

Free Admission.
All are invited to attend and add to the conversation.

About the film
Alternate Endings, Activist Rising highlights the impact of art in AIDS activism and advocacy today by commissioning compelling short videos from six inspiring community organizations and collectives—ACT UP NY, Positive Women’s Network, Sero Project, The SPOT, Tacoma Action Collective, and VOCAL NY. The program represents a wide range of organizational strategies, from direct action to grassroots service providers to nation-wide movement building, while considering the role of creative practices in activist responses to the ongoing AIDS crisis.

The film seeks to reflect the persisting urgencies of today’s HIV/AIDS epidemic by pointing to pressing and intersecting political concerns, including:
– HIV criminalization
– Big Pharma
– homelessness
– and the disproportionate effects of HIV on marginalized communities.

At a moment of growing interest in the histories of AIDS activism, Alternate Endings, Activist Rising foregrounds contemporary engagements between activists, artists, and cultural workers on the front lines.

Lauren Bakst: Group

 

Group is a single-channel video installation; a monologue on repeat.

Artist Statement
The word “monologue” comes from the Greek monologos, which translates to “speaking alone”.
Obvious but also; what an oxymoron.
Each of the performers in Group are people I met in a group – “group therapy”, or group analysis, to be more precise.
We rehearse every week.

About the Artist
Lauren Bakst is an artist and writer living in New York. She works in, with, and through dance to approach performances as an object of inquiry. She has recently held residencies at NARS and Chez Bushwick and has performed her work twice at Klaus von Nichtssagend Gallery. Her work has also been presented at Danspace Project, SculptureCenter, Pioneer Works, Movement Research at Judson Church, Abrons Arts Center and The Drawing Center, among other spaces. Lauren is the Managing Editor of the Movement Research Performance Journal and her writing was recently published in Women & Performance: A Journal of Feminist Theory. She teaches in the School of Dance at University of the Arts.

Image: Still from digital video, 41 min 59 sec.

HSO: Intermix – Dance Card

 

HSO: Intermix is intimate, inviting, and interactive!

HSO: IntermixGet up-close and personal with the HSO. This program, led by Carolyn Kuan, includes a thrilling combination of contemporary and traditional music set amongst innovative multidisciplinary artwork.

Experience Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings in a fresh, new locale and staging alongside Jennifer Higdon’s raucous, rhythmic, and riveting Dance Card.

Current exhibitions were used as inspiration for several of the music selections. Niki Kriese’s solo exhibition Chewing the Scenery inspired the inclusion of Ligeti’s Six Bagatelles, which mirrors the artwork’s complexities. The calming ebbs-and-flows in Nielsen’s Wind Quintet, Op. 43 pair perfectly with Barbara Hocker’s sculptural paper works, Downstream, which take inspiration from the sea and sky.

Program
Barber: Adagio for Strings
Diehl: Improvisation, pas de deux- the Music Lesson
Higdon: Dance Card
Ligeti: Six Bagatelles
Nielsen: Wind Quintet, Op. 43

Enjoy music, cocktails, conversation and more at the HSO: Intermix!

How to Buy Tickets
Online
www.hartfordsymphony.org/tickets

Call
Single Tickets and Flex Cards: 860-987-5900
Subscriptions: 860-244-2999
Monday – Friday, 10 AM- 5PM

In Person or Mail
HSO Box Office at The Bushnell
166 Capitol Ave., Hartford, CT 06106

Questions?
tickets@hartfordsymphony.org

Noé Jimenez: Real Wall

 

Using a technicolor palette, Noé Jimenez’ work creates layered connections ranging from pop culture references to pure abstraction. Organic compositions within his small paintings are then mimicked through his clustered installation on the wall. Alongside collage, the physicality of his painting fully exploits the fluid and viscous nature of his materials.

Connecticut Art Review

About Noé
Noe Jimenez lives and works in West River Arts Studios in Westville, CT. He graduated with a BFA in Painting from Paier College of Art in 2012, and has studied painting at Colegio de España, Salamanca, Spain, University of Urbino, Italy and Altos De Chavon, Dominican Republic. In 2014 he was a resident at Norðanbál on Hrisey Island in Iceland. His work has been included in solo and group shows in Connecticut, California, Rhode Island, New York, Massachusetts, and private collections. You can see more of his work by visiting his website or his Instagram.

Real Wall is a series of wall mounted exhibitions taking place in between formal gallery spaces. Artists are invited to engage with the space in experimental ways meaningful to their practice in short-run exhibitions.

November Riverwood Poetry Series

 

The Riverwood Poetry Series at Real Art Ways continues with Claire Schwartz, author of bound (Button Poetry, 2018).

Join us on the second Tuesday of the month, from September 2018 through May 2019. Each night begins with an open mic, followed by a poetry reading featuring regionally- or nationally-known poets.

6:45 PM sign up for Open Mic: First come, first served. One page/one person.

About Claire Schwartz

Claire Schwartz is the author of bound (Button Poetry, 2018). Her writing has appeared or is forthcoming in The Believer, The Iowa Review, The Massachusetts Review, Los Angeles Review of Books, Virginia Quarterly Review, and elsewhere. She is a PhD Candidate in African American Studies, American Studies, and Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies at Yale.

About Riverwood Poetry Series
Riverwood Poetry SeriesThe Riverwood Poetry Series, Inc. is a non-profit arts organization committed to the promotion and appreciation of poetry in Connecticut. RPS, Inc. is invested in providing entertaining and thought-provoking programming, while responding to the needs our our neighbors through community outreach and collaboration. From their Facebook page: “The Riverwood Poetry Series has innovated many programs since our inception, all of them free to the public. We provide entertaining and thought-provoking poetry in a relaxed atmosphere.” Learn more at their website.

Upcoming Riverwood Poetry Series Dates

Tuesday, December 11, 7 PM

Speak Up

 

Speak Up is an evening of true stories centered on a common theme, told by storytellers chosen for their skill and expertise. Brought to Real Art Ways by Matthew and Elysha Dicks, the event celebrates the craft of live storytelling in the Greater Hartford area.

All stories are 5-10 minutes long, and may not be suitable for young kids. The stories can be unique, compelling, funny and touching, and show change or growth.

The theme of the evening is Transit.

Sofia Plater: Cultch

 

An Artist Talk & Reception will be held on Saturday, Nov. 10, 3 – 5 PM. Visual Arts Coordinator, Neil Daigle Orians will engage with Plater in a dialogue surrounding her work and process.

Real Art Ways is pleased to present Sofia Plater, one of six recipients of the 2018 Real Art Awards, a project supported in part by an award from the National Endowment of the Arts. To learn more about this project, click here.

Plater’s work utilizes found objects and textures to create sculptural installations, forming dialogues between the original objects and newly cast pieces. Construction materials, cardboard, and other miscellania form a cohesive aesthetic that is simultaneously organic and synthetic.

To learn more about Sofia Plater’s work, visit her website here.

Connecticut Art Review
Nov 27 Essay on Sofia Plater: The Resurrection of Salvaged Goods

About Sofia
Sofia Plater is a mixed-media artist from Boston, Massachusetts. She received her MFA from The School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University in 2018 and her BFA in Fine Arts from Boston College in 2011. While enrolled in the Master’s degree program, Sofia received the Montague Travel grant, allowing her to travel and research in Scotland in early 2018. The same month, she curated her first solo show featuring nineteen sculptural works at Factory Mark Gallery in Framingham, MA.

In the past year, Sofia has participated in numerous group exhibitions, and was featured in a twenty-two-page article for Peripheral ARTeries Art Review Magazine. Sofia was the first artist in residence at the 77Art program, in Rutland, Vermont for the month of August 2018. Before pursuing her Master’s of Fine Arts degree, she was the art program director and art instructor at The New Britain Youth Museum, in central Connecticut.

Balam Soto: Intangible Proximity

 

Utilizing high and low-brow technologies, Balam Soto creates interactive sculptures and installations. Soto creates custom software for his pieces, bridging physical objects with coded data, resulting in experiential works that are never the same twice. Intuitive, tactile surfaces allow the viewer to interact and create their own experience in the gallery.

Curated by David Borawski, Intangible Proximity opens Thursday, October 18 6-8 PM during Creative Cocktail Hour.

To learn more about Soto’s work, click here to visit his website.

About the Artist
An award-winning, new media artist, Balam Soto has exhibited in fine art venues worldwide. Venues include the New Zealand Art Festival; Brooklyn Academy of Music; Creative Tech Week in NY; the AluCine Latin Media Festival in Toronto, Canada;  World Maker Faire at the New York Hall of Science Museum in Queens, NY; El Museo del Barrio in Manhattan, NY; Gallery of Oi Futuro in Brazil; Queens Museum of Art in Queens, NY; Everhart Museum of Natural History, Science & Art in Scranton, PA; the Centre Cultural in Brussels, Belgium; the National Library of Cameroon in West Africa; and the Art and Technology Corridor at the Three Rivers Arts Festival in Pittsburgh, PA  among numerous others.

Balam has received six Editor’s Choice awards and one Best in Class award from the World Maker Faire held at the New York Hall of Science Museum in 2010 – 2016.  In 2016, Balam was Officially Recognized by the Hartford City Council (CT) for the positive impact his work has had on the region. In 2009, he was awarded the Latino de Oro [Golden Latino] Award for Arts & Culture in Connecticut; he has also received Official Citations from the Mayor of the City of Hartford, CT and the Governors of Rhode Island and Massachusetts.  In April 2008, Balam was honored with a Diploma of Recognition as a “Maestro,” a Master of Visual Arts, by the National Congress of Guatemala for “being a valuable and outstanding artist with international success.”

Balam is the owner of Balam Soto Studio and co-owner of Open Wire Lab, both located in Hartford, Connecticut.

Maggie Nowinski: DRAWN wHOLE

 

Mixing biology, ecology, and fantasy, Maggie Nowinski’s DRAWN wHOLE presents a series of drawn works that explore systems, both social and biological. Her linework mimics both historic woodcut illustrations and scientific illustrations, creating new specimens out of recognizable shapes and parts.

Nowinski says, “I imagine they are specimens in a kind of empirical study and simultaneously examine them as I construct them. As they emerge I am aware that the lived experience in my body is vast and enigmatic and I think about the interplay of resilience and ache in these specimens – triumphant adaptations and self-sufficient, sometimes toxic, systems.”

Curated by David Borawski, DRAWN wHOLE opens Thursday, October 18 from 6-8 PM during Creative Cocktail Hour.

For more information about Nowinski and her work, click here to visit her website.

Connecticut Art Review
Oct 24 Review | Maggie Nowinski: Drawn wHole

About the Artist
Maggie Nowinski is an interdisciplinary visual artist, arts educator and curator who lives and works in Western Massachusetts and has an active exhibition record, showing work regionally, nationally and abroad. She is the recipient of numerous LCC grants through the Massachusetts Cultural Council. In 2017, she was the recipient of the Berkshire Taconic Foundation Artist Resource Trust Fellowship which partially supports her work in this current exhibition. She received her BFA in 1997 and her MFA in 2007.

While her process is rooted in drawing, her artworks frequently take the format of installation and combine traditional and unusual media, audio, video and performative processes. Her work often responds specifically to site or material, and her process is embodied by an awareness of the conceptual and political inevitability of art making. She is also fond of collaborations.

Nowinski is adjunct faculty at Westfield State University in Massachusetts and Manchester Community College in Connecticut and is Artist-Mentor with Vermont College of Fine Arts in the MFA/Visual Arts Program.

Hong Hong: Dark Segment

 

Shining Some Glory: Hong Hong’s Dark Segment
A Conversation between Hong Hong and Megan Craig
Sunday, February 10 | Reception 2:30 PM | Talk 3 PM 

Commissioned by Real Art Ways, Dark Segment is an exhibition of works created during a yearlong investigation by interdisciplinary artist Hong Hong, supported by the Edward C. & Ann T. Roberts Foundation’s Creation of New Works Initiative.

Continuing an ongoing exploration of large-scale papermaking, the exhibit comprises compositions created using whole and torn sheets of handmade papers. Rooted in her research of the temporal parameters of human perception, and its effects on social, cultural, and environmental systems, the exhibition changes over time. Hong will utilize natural means of change (bringing the paper outside so the sun bleaches the color away) as well as human intervention (the artist rearranging her compositions on walls.) The result is a gallery that evolves and changes over time, referencing how time affects perception, memory, and social connections.

About Hong Hong
Born in Hefei, China, Hong Hong is an interdisciplinary artist whose practice spans papermaking, sculpture, installation and performance. Hong earned her MFA in 2014 from the University of Georgia and her BFA in 2011 from the State University of New York at Potsdam. Her work has been exhibited across the United States in shows at the Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art, Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, Madison Museum of Fine Art, New Mexico History Museum and Georgia Museum of Art. She currently works and lives in Connecticut.

For more information on Hong and her work, click here to visit her website.

Read “Making Paper: Hong Hong’s Performative Process” at Connecticut Art Review.

Burnt Sugar Smokehouse

 

Live Music All Day. Food Trucks. Activities For All Ages.

Burnt Sugar ArkestraThe Burnt Sugar Smokehouse: Spicy grooves and lyrics with some “bark” on them are their passions.

“Led by guitarist-conductor Greg Tate, New York’s Burnt Sugar the Arkestra Chamber is a fleet-footed big band, sliding and swaggering through galactic R&B, brawny jazz and electric funk like a Sun Ra-size spin on Miles Davis’ On the Corner band.” – David Fricke Rolling Stone

The sixteen-piece Burnt Sugar Arkestra (BSA) is the main entrée of the day, opening the event at 2 PM and then bringing it home from 6-9 PM.

From 2:30-5:30 PM, enjoy short sets by these tasty side dishes (all BSA member bands):
– Digital Diaspora
– Rivers On Mars
– Creative Apocalypse
– Dope Sagittarius
– BT3
– André Lassalle’s Premonition

Support for this event comes from the Evelyn W. Preston Memorial Trust Fund, Bank of America, N.A., Trustee.

Learn more about the band!