Imagine | Francisco Del Carpio-Beltran

Location: 19 Elm Street

Medium: Illustration on Vinyl

Link: @Lonewolf08

Statement:

As kids, there were no limitations but just dreams and time. Sometimes we would get lost in our own world and feed our curious minds with possibilities. Lost, a kid is found creating bubbles with different animal shapes as she sees herself and her little brother chasing after them to take a better look and learn from them. “There are so many kinds and shapes!” It only takes a second to teleport to a place where we are always young and the impossible does not exist.

Bio:

Francisco Del Carpio-Beltran is an artist, graphic designer and illustrator, who has lived and attended school in New Haven for two decades. He has worked for Svigals + Partners in Ninth Square beginning in 2007; first as an intern and then made his way to becoming a full-time contributor to the S+P’s Art Integration and Marketing team. Francisco served as the lead artist for the mural Ninth Square in Bloom on Center Street, and has contributed to large-scale art installations and other murals at multiple local projects including ConnCAT, Lincoln-Bassett School, and Biohaven Pharmaceuticals’ headquarters on Church Street.

MicroFiberOrganism | Sooo-z Mastropietro

Location: 841 Chapel St

Medium: various textiles

Link: https://www.mastropiece.com/

Statement:

MicroFiberOrganism is a large-scale amalgamation of colorful fabric tubes stitched into organic geometric shapes. The shapes dangle from the ceiling en masse to create a multi layered curtain of dangling creatures. The floor hosts more tubes connected to a "coral reef" which creates a pseudo-underwater environment. The recycled, found, and acquired fabrics demonstrate the abundant waste of the textile industry and how it is harming our planet. The project celebrates sustainability and innovation.

Bio:

Hailing from the tranquil surrounds of the Hudson Valley, Sooo-z channeled an unusual energy from her docile environment. It was here that she first experimented with fashion and fabric construction and eventually harnessed her present day aesthetic. A graduate of the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York with a BFA in Fashion Design and Textile Design, Sooo-z parlayed her talents into unfettered territories including costume design for a rock band as well as for local community theater. With an official career that began in the interior design sector as an Art Director for a high end custom art rug gallery, her greatest affirmation came as a special collaboration featured a layout in a “Before and After” segment in Architectural Digest.

The birth of “Mastropiece”, which now serves as a working title, started as a silk painting business to create and sell accessory and apparel designs that infused art with utilitarian purpose. Her wares were sold at high-end craft shows at the Puck Building and the Armory. Clever themes, interesting colors, and innovative fabric manipulation became her artistic signature. The recent development of the ‘Knitiot Savant’ title, both self-deprecating and distinguished, describes the witty fabric tube medium she has invented and developed as her own unique artform. Her latest work has been shown regionally and throughout the country.

Community contributions range from beloved public fiberglass sculptures in The Stamford Cow Parade of 2000, The Car Parade of 2001, Dinosaurs Rule of 2015, The Piano Project 2021, to Project Return birdhouses, to artistic development for the Art About Town event through the WDMA, artist residencies in schools, and ArtSmarts in the Westport Public Schools. Her most recent public art focus has been anonymous pandemic yarnbombing starting in March 2020, which has yielded over 80 projects so far.. She has judged several regional fine art shows and curated over 60 themed art shows for various spaces in Fairfield County including the Maritime Garage Gallery and the Mayor's Gallery of Norwalk. Through her own varied experiences as an artist, musician, and designer she has also been able to give back by helping other artists gain exposure and creating new viewing opportunities for art.

Second Life | Ellen Kebabian & Sonya Ursell

Location: 196 Crown St

Medium: canvas and recycled furniture

Link: @ellenkebabian

Statement:

Second Life is a display about renewal, specifically through the lens of used furniture, which is widely available though often underutilized and undervalued. Yet these pieces deserve a “second life:” what was old can be new again; what was useless can have purpose again; and what was drab can again bring joy. Through several furniture displays, viewers will be inspired to apply their own creativity and individuality to their surroundings; even a mundane piece of furniture can be seen as an opportunity and a canvas for personal expression. Any object can thus bring renewed interest and joy to its owner, challenging the patterns of throwaway culture that have become too commonplace and harmful to our environment.

Bios:

Ellen Kebabian is an Interior Designer based in New Haven. She is passionate about serving her clients in the various forms of design as to create holistic environments where one can thrive and grow. With a background in evidence-based design alongside strong interests in environmental psychology and sustainability, Ellen constantly explores the correlation between the built environment, the natural world, and the individual being. She wants to better understand the connections human beings have with their surroundings as to improve design spaces that

serve the person(s) as well as the natural environment.

Sonya Ursell is an architect based in New Haven. The scale of her interests ranges from the architectural to the everyday object, specifically in how material properties contribute to a

meaningful and personal spatial experience. She is also working on a project that explores storytelling through architectural imagery, combining dual passions for architecture and writing.

Burgeoning | Katie Jurkiewicz

Location: 137 Orange St

Medium: acrylic on unstretched canvas

Link: www.katiejurkiewicz.com

Statement

This large scale painting attempts to completely surround the viewer with larger than life natural forms in bold vivid hues. The piece examines the shapes, patterns, and the interactions between a variety of plants, flowers, weeds, grasses and trees. Plants grow, mix and tangle on a human scale.

Bio

Katie Jurkiewicz is a painter from New Britain, CT. I make human scale work that surrounds the viewer in the natural world. I have an MFA from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design and a BA in Studio Art from Trinity College. I work in the field of art and design professionally at the non-profit Artspace in New Haven, CT and as an independent designer.

Pas de Deux of “Step of Two” | Francisco Del Carpio-Beltran Location: 63-65 Audubon St
Medium: illustration cut on vinyl
Follow: @lonewolf08

Statement

Pas de Deux tells a story across five window panes. Two people approach each other from opposite places. The more they move towards the middle, the more their shared talents join into one dance. The flowing lines show the movement of the figures as they dance. These illustrations were based on photographs of dancers performing at the neighboring New Haven Ballet.

Bio

Francisco Del Carpio-Beltran is an artist, graphic designer and illustrator, who has lived and attended school in New Haven for two decades. He worked for Svigals + Partners in Ninth Square beginning in 2007; first as an intern and then made his way to becoming a full-time contributor to the S+P’s Art Integration and Marketing team. Francisco recently painted The Bloom of Ninth Square- a 700 sq.ft. mural commissioned through Straight Up Art program. He has contributed to large-scale art installations and murals at other local projects including ConnCAT, Lincoln-Bassett School, and Biohaven Pharmaceuticals’ headquarters on Church Street.

Longing To Remember | Jason Ting
Location: 212 Crown St
Medium: video rear projection (6:12, video)
Follow: @jzlabs https://www.instagram.com/jzlabs/

Artist Statement

Longing To Remember​ was made after hearing the news that a grand jury in Kentucky did not charge anyone for the killing of Breonna Taylor during the botched raid on her apartment.

The work depicts an ethereal place somewhere between heaven and earth. A curtain of glimmering light evokes longing and memory; this light is held in tension with shadows of pain and loss. It is in this liminal space where the viewer is invited to both remember and lament.

Artist Bio

Jason Ting is a new media artist based in New Haven, Connecticut. He uses a variety of creative coding tools to create abstract animated visuals that explore the interaction of form, color, and motion. His work is inspired by forces found in nature, geometric patterns, and light. He is a graduate from UC San Diego's Interdisciplinary Computing and the Arts program.

Network of Shells | Margaret Roleke
Location: 96 Church St
Medium: spent gun shells, wire
Link: https://www.margaretroleke.com/

Artist Statement

"Network of Shells" explores the theme of gun violence. At a distance the viewer is unsure of what exactly are the colorful pieces in the artwork. Only on closer examination does one realize what they actually are -- spent gun shells. Guns are the second leading cause of death among children and teens. The need for nonviolence and gun safety is urgent. Black children and teens are 15 times more likely than white children and teens to die by gun homicide (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. WISQARS Fatal Injury Reports, Leading Causes of Death, United States – 2016.) A percentage of all Margaret Roleke's art sales is donated to organizations that work to prevent gun violence.

Artist Bio

Margaret Roleke is a sculptor who also creates prints and “mail art”. She has lived and worked

in New York and Connecticut for most of her life. Her work has been exhibited often in a variety

of venues including Art Space New Haven, ODETTA Gallery, NYC, Pulse Art Fair, NYC and

Spring Break Art Fair, NYC. Roleke has been reviewed in The New York Times, Hyperallergic, Artnet News, The Guardian, and additional publications.

Chromatic Synesthesia | Marta Machabeli
Location: 85 Orange St
Medium: acrylic on canvas
Link: www.martamachabeli.com

Artist statement:

“When you gaze long into an abyss the abyss also gazes into you” - Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil. This very quote sums up the philosophical concept behind my inspiration for my piece “Chromatic Synesthesia.”

The work composed for this project carries the weight of a deep self-reflective process we all go through at some point in our lives. My artwork is predominantly inspired by philosophical, mystical and spiritual concepts. I have devoted my life to expressing words, thoughts, and feelings through the use of vivid vibrant colors by means of the abstract genre. I find abstract art to be the best medium to tap into the unknown subconscious/unconscious mind, and draw it out from within us as a form of release while, at the same time drawing the outer world (an observer) secretly in.

Artist Bio:

Marta Machabeli is a New Haven-based, Tbilisi-born artist who has studied painting in the republic of Georgia at "The Georgian National Academy of Fine Arts". She arrived in the USA in 2001, and this is where her style has taken its true shape.

Marta Machabeli’s diverse range of paintings and photography—although with affinities to artists such as Odlion Redon, among many others—is, first of all inspired by her unique vision, which, in my experience in watching it unfold over the past ten years, manifests in every aspect of her work, from the lines that draw the viewers’ gaze through a labyrinth of colors and spaces; to the eyes that appear, again and again, in her portraits, looking straightforward without so much calling upon the viewer to return their gaze, than inviting the viewer to enter into the mode of direct, penetrating wakefulness that they reflect. A lover of Rumi and Goethe’s Mephistopheles, she paints in ways that mercurially move between the dual aspects of mysticism, enlightenment and diabolical questioning—and beyond. -Kristina Mendicino

Black Kid Joy | Isaac Bloodworth

Medium: Graphic design, vinyl decal

Link: @way_ward_17

Artist Statement:

I wanted to create a joyful piece in this time that represented my feelings on being black. A black kid surfing waves of juice on a lollipop surfboard captures this spirit of freedom and delight. It not only symbolizes liberation but understanding that all our actions are trailblazing for the future of the youth.

Artist Bio:

Isaac Bloodworth is a puppeteer, art handler, and graphic designer. He graduated from the University of Connecticut with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in puppet arts.

Forever Quilts | Marsha Borden

Medium: Single-use grocery bags and New York Times newspaper film bags

Link: www.marshaborden.com

Artist Statement:
Quilt making is an art form that has existed in all cultures since ancient civilization. A quilt helps its maker define and express traditions and stories. Quilts, by their very nature, provide important historical information and allow us to see - in visible, tangible ways - how people interact with their environment and with the world around them. Quilts create a legacy, providing future generations with messages and information for remembrance, contemplation and meaning.

This installation uses over 1,800 single-use grocery bags and New York Times newspaper bags, a tiny portion of the estimated 1,000,000,000,000 (one trillion) plastic bags used and discarded worldwide annually. The bags have been individually hand-cut, hand-pieced and hand-stitched using traditional quilting techniques. Each quilt is surrounded by sculptural cascades of rain; together, the quilts and the rain remind us of the environmental impact of too much plastic.

As I reflect on plastic, I understand that it is a living part of our natural world. Plastic is in our bodies. We eat, drink, and breathe much of the plastic we have collectively thrown away. Plastic is in nature – it clogs our oceans and mars our mountains and meadows. Plastic is literally raining down on us. And yet, for better - and for worse - we are interconnected, interdependent, entangled, enmeshed, ensnared, embroiled and entrapped by plastic. We depend on plastic and plastic depends on us, for life.

As environmental activist Dr. David Suzuki suggests, we are but one brief generation in the long march of time. Our legacy is plastic, and plastic is forever.

Artist Bio:
Marsha Borden is a New Haven County, Connecticut-based artist who works primarily in textile-based mediums. Through stitch, she brings a contemporary, relevant touch to old-fashioned textile techniques. Much of Borden’s current work is focused on turning ordinary objects, like the single-use plastic bag, into social commentary. Her work has been juried into numerous national and local exhibitions; a recent solo show of her work with plastic was held at Ives Gallery, New Haven Free Public Library, Connecticut. Borden’s new plastic work is currently featured at Perspectives Gallery in Hamden, CT. Reviews of her work note, “Borden examines, with equal parts playfulness and pensiveness, the strange dynamic in the way we casually acquire and dispose of single-use plastic bags in our day-to-day lives” and “(she) transform(s) what we might otherwise throw away into an intentional meditation on waste.”

Untitled | Caryn Azoff

Medium: colored pencil, gouache, acrylic paint on paper

Link: www.carynazoff.com

Artist statement:
Paintings/works on paper begin with a hand-drawn grid structure. From here, the shapes and colors intuitively inform the work. Mediums include colored pencil, watercolor, gouache, and flashe/acrylic paint. The simple geometric forms encompass each page, working in a 8 x 8" structure - each piece to form a grid presentation on the wall. The inspiration of color and form comes from the illuminated text and Bauhaus influence.

Artist Bio:
Caryn Azoff lives in New Haven, CT, and works out of her studio at West River Arts 909 Whalley Avenue.

Tending Girl | Josephine Ankrah

Medium: illustration, vinyl

Link: https://josephineankrah.github.io/

Artist statement:

My relationship with art began in elementary school. If you asked 7-year-old me what my favorite class was I would've answered "art", and if you asked who my favorite teacher was, I would've answered, "Mrs. Hauer", my art teacher. Once in 4th grade, I received a bad grade on a math test and was reprimanded and told that I'd have to stop drawing and focus more on math. I vividly remember that day because from then I lost the passion I had for making art. I'm happy to say that many years have passed and in my adulthood I decided to start creating again. This process of reclamation began with simple line drawings with black marker on index cards (some of which now are displayed on some bus shelters around town)! These line drawings often depict me doing things I love, such as, going for winter walks or hoola-hooping, as well as things that are necessary, like coming to terms with my body or raising my voice. By sharing my work, my hope is that other young women and girls are inspired to be free and to share their voices with the world.

Artist Bio:

I was born in Ghana, grew up in West Haven and have been living in New Haven since 2018. I received a BA in Human Development and Family Studies at the University of Connecticut in 2016 and a Master of Public Health (MPH) degree from Southern Connecticut State University in 2018. After obtaining my MPH, I moved to New Haven and worked as a Research Coordinator at DataHaven for about a year and a half. I am most thankful for my time there because, through my job, I got to learn about and fall in love with New Haven and its residents while participating in community-based research and writing about gender and health equity. I wanted a more hands-on impact on the quality of life of my community so I am currently studying to become a Physician Assistant (PA). I am in my first year of PA School at the University of Bridgeport and plan on working in New Haven after graduation. In my free time, in addition to drawing, I love tending to my plant babies in my apartment, salsa dancing, and hanging out with my really supportive friends and family.

Chorus | Althea Rao
Medium: felt, paper, reed, light
Link: https://altheamrao.myportfolio.com/

Artist Statement:
An estimated 45% of US adult individuals with vaginas live with symptoms of urinary incontinence due to unique health events associated with the female reproductive system.

The Windowed World, Chorus, is part of Althea Rao’s larger community art project that advocates for and dignifies the adults who must cope with urinary incontinence in their daily lives.

Installation elements of Chorus were first created during 2019 CWOS as a visual representation of this year-long community project. Using vulva shaped felt petals and light sculpture, this highly visible public installation will “casually” expose a series of very stigmatized and often private subjects in polite, frank and playful manners, challenge unhealthy norms traditionally associated with our body and its natural deteriorating process, and set new ground for normalcy.

In Spring 2021, 12 community members whose lives have been impacted by incontinence will be assembled at Artspace New Haven. Led by Artist in Residence Althea Rao, they will form a radical Vagina Chorus to vocalize previously unheard stories.

Through guided use of an FDA approved smart Kegel trainer, Perifit, the performers will exercise their pelvic floor muscles, and rehearse for a vaginally generated live music theater. The enlightening and sensational music harmony will transform a context of reconciliation, prompting both the performers and viewers to consider why and how the barriers to treatment exist, and reflect on strategies to overcome them in the future.

Vagina Chorus is a recipient of “Awesome Without Borders” grant (The Awesome Foundation x The Harnisch Foundation) and Arts Workforce Initiative Sponsorship (New Haven Art Council). Perifit, a fun and effective pelvic floor training solution developed with pelvic floor therapists, has donated their devices to Vagina Chorus free of cost.

Artist Bio:
Interdisciplinary artist Mengxi “Althea” Rao creates social engagement models to facilitate open and playful conversations around topics that are traditionally associated with shame and negativity, such as inherited privilege, mental illness, gender and sexuality. Her works empower individuals and help them find reconciliation with their cultures and selves. “Humans exist in the physical realm but my art does not.” Mediums Rao has explored include but are not restricted to: film and video, projection mapping, physical computing, contact improvisation, light sculpture, public space activation, rituals, and choir singing.

Rao has lived and worked in China, Japan and the US, and received training in journalism and filmmaking. She was most recently one of the eight Social Impact Fellow at Halcyon Arts Lab in Washington DC and her work on gender equity was featured during By the People Festival in 2019. During her time in the nation’s capital, she has set up multi-iterations of public space activations at the Goethe Institut, Corcoran Gallery, Smithsonian Freer|Sackler Gallery, The French Embassy and Hirshhorn Museum.

Rao is currently an artist-in-residence at Artspace New Haven.

Connection with Strangers | Mackenzie Pikaart

Medium: Pin Back Buttons, Chain, Found images, Drawings, LIFE Magazines, National Geographic Magazines.

Instagram: mvpstudio.me

Artist Statement:

Connections with Strangers is a piece comprised of (originally) 15,000 pin back buttons ( I now have around 10,000). All the images came from LIFE magazines from the 50's-70's and National Geographic's from the 70's-the early 2000's alongside other fashion, Philly, and art Magazines that were scored from around the Philadelphia Area. Each button's image is to act as a trigger, to bring the viewer back to a memory of their life, a book they read, a dream they had, movie or music experience. When two strangers meet at the wall the buttons can act as an ice breaker of sorts. It can help people connect by shared experience, and start a conversation maybe about something that they haven't thought about in a while. Memories are extremely important to me mainly because I don't remember most of my childhood or young life. I luckily have amazing parents and a supportive community, but had a hard internal childhood, I was really mad and frustrated a ton. The only real memories that I have are from when I was doing things that were mean or throwing a tantrum. I don't have any memories from all the fun things that I experienced as a child, or how others interacted with me as a kid. Connections with Strangers is a fun, interactive, conversation starter and community builder. It gives space to remember, forgive and rejoice in life.

Artist Bio:

Mackenzie V Pikaart is an artist that lives and works in Philadelphia where she received her BFA in Crafts concentration in Ceramics. She is a Studio Tech and Facilities Manager at a local ceramics studio, and an accomplished installation artist. Pikaart's ceramic work focuses on the fact that everyone deserves to eat out /drink from a handmade vessel. Her work is most frequently showcased in communal dinners, supper clubs, and in her home. Both her ceramics and installations have shown in many Philadelphia galleries and shops, alongside The Philadelphia International Airport. Pikaart has also shown many of her installations at Trinity Episcopal Church on the New Haven Green, and has installed around downtown of New Haven CT. Pikaart always returns to New Haven, not only for the BEST PIZZA IN THE WORLD!!!, but also because this was here home for her childhood. Pikaart grew up outside of New Haven, and spent most of her young life as an active member of Trinity Church. She and her family would spend a long Sunday in New Haven with church in the morning, brunch out with her friends and families from the congregation, back to church for a meeting and youth group in the evening. Trinity was and continues to be a safe place for Pikaart to be herself wholeheartedly.

Flux | Paier College of Art

Medium: paper, illustration

Link: https://www.paier.edu/

Student artists:

Kassady Couillard

Alexis Tonelli

Astrid Rodriguez

Kimberly Hyatt

Alecia Massaro

Darlene Vasquez

Marcus Fort

Andrew Verderome

Jennifer Sandholm

Sherry McNeill

Cassandra Ibitz

Gianni Higham

Instructors:

Vladimir Shpitalnik is a set and costume designer, painter, and illustrator whose work has been showcased across the United States, Europe, and in Asia. His Off-Broadway theatrical credits include set designs for American Place Theatre and SoHo Rep. Regional dance and theater credits include set and/or costume designs for the Joffrey Ballet, Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center, Stage One Theatre, New Harmony Theatre, Seacoast Rep, Voice and Vision Theatre, Yale Cabaret, and Elm Shakespeare Company. International credits include the Moscow Art Theatre Studio, Kazan Theater for Youth, Yermolova Theater, Gorky Cinema Studio. Book illustration credits include children's books for Random House/Knopf and Soundprints. A founding member of Alliance TCC, a theater construction consultancy, Shpitalnik has collaborated on the development of numerous art and performance venues, including the Oakdale Theatre, Meadows Music Theater, and Madison Art Cinemas in Connecticut, and most recently, SubCulture in New York City. Shpitalnik is a faculty member at Paier College of Art and Southern Connecticut State University and is a member of United Scenic Artists and the Society of Illustrators. He holds MFA degrees from the Yale School of Drama and the Moscow Art Theatre School. Shpitalnik is a recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts/Theatre Communications Group’s Designer Fellowship.

Molly Gambardella is an up and coming American artist who works in 2D and 3D media. She graduated from Paier College of Art with a BFA in illustration in 2017. Molly continues to receive commissions and show work internationally. Molly’s work has been featured in 3x3 Magazine, Creative Quarterly Journal, Girl Talk Art Magazine, Business Insider Art, among others. Molly currently works from her studio at West River Arts in New Haven, Connecticut.

At the Center | Molly Gambardella

Medium: multiple

Website: https://www.mollygambardella.com/

Artists’ Statement:

The three churches shown (from left to right) are replicas of Trinity, Center and United Church on the New Haven Green entirely constructed of cardboard. Below the churches is part of the design (aerial view) of the New Haven Green. Surrounding the cardboard structures are lichen, an organism that is formed by the symbiotic relationship between algae and fungi. The fungus provides shelter for the algae and the algae provides food for the fungi. Lichens do not have roots; instead they receive all their nutrients from the atmosphere. Since lichen absorb nutrients from what’s around them, they cannot exist in toxic environments. If you look around the New Haven Green, you can find lichen on rocks, trees and the ground - New Haven is a very wonderful place to be!

Artists Bio:

Molly Gambardella is an up and coming American artist who works in 2D and 3D media. She graduated from Paier College of Art with a BFA in illustration in 2017. Molly continues to receive commissions and show work internationally. Molly’s work has been featured in 3x3 Magazine, Creative Quarterly Journal, Girl Talk Art Magazine, Business Insider Art, among others. Molly currently works from her studio at West River Arts in New Haven, Connecticut.

Mail Art | Molly Gambardella

Medium: multiple

Website: https://www.mollygambardella.com/

Artist Statement:

A call for mail art was put out worldwide using social media, the result was overwhelmingly successful. Over 200 submitted pieces came to New Haven from over eight participating countries. Each submission was individually photographed, edited, posted, inventoried and if any clues were left on the envelope, the artist was contacted for any information they wanted posted with their work. This quickly created a community of artists worldwide - sharing ideas, thoughts, processes and individual stories. There are only 81 out of the 200+ submissions displayed in this window. If you would like to see photos from the previous exhibition or are interested in a publication including all of the submissions, please go to https://www.mollygambardella.com/mailart. Thank you to the many individuals who made this possible, especially anyone who sent a piece in - you made this exhibition something remarkable.

Artist Bio:

Molly Gambardella is an up and coming American artist who works in 2D and 3D media. She graduated from Paier College of Art with a BFA in illustration in 2017. Molly continues to receive commissions and show work internationally. Molly’s work has been featured in 3x3 Magazine, Creative Quarterly Journal, Girl Talk Art Magazine, Business Insider Art, among others. Molly currently works from her studio at West River Arts in New Haven, Connecticut.

Plurality of Voices | Maria Morabito

Medium: Industrial felt

Link: www.morabitoart.com

Artist Statement:

Abstraction is my way to see and understand the world. In my sculptures and paintings I explore memories and mental associations inspired by natural forms and cultural landscapes. My works reflect my interests in the interconnections between humans and the biological environment, and in human creations and alterations of the landscape. My sculptures are driven by my interest in the expressive potentials of materials, the interplay of volumes and shapes, and the free assembly of elements to create new forms. Starting from an idea, I use materials as varied as industrial felt, metal, wood, papier-mâché, and polymer clay. The final form is the result of a continuous dialog with the piece, giving it the opportunity to develop into something with its own individuality. The series entitled New Idea originated from the interest in investigating the potential of shapes in creating a number of volumes and combination of shapes. The sculptures were cut by hand to form organic shapes that can be hung in various conformations. I see the fluidity of their shapes as a metaphor for the possibilities implicit in change: fluidity of gender and identity, diversity and plurality, ability to reinvent humanity.

Artist Bio:

Maria Morabito was born in Italy and grew up in Rome where she developed her love for abstraction in painting and sculpture, and for organic forms, biological systems, nature, architecture, and history. She lived in New Haven and has been part of its artistic community many years, coming back yearly for the City Wide Open Studios in Erector Square. Now Maria lives and works in Manhattan, New York.

She works with different materials and techniques predominantly in sculpture, oil painting and mixed media. She studied at the University of Cincinnati in Cincinnati, OH, the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, in Boston, MA, and Creative Art Workshop in New Haven.

Maria was awarded Honorable Mention by Robert Storr, Dean of the Yale School of Art. She has shown in NYC and nationally and is represented in several public collections in the US and private collections in the US and Europe.

Light Cycle | Audrey Knight

Medium: colored gels

Artists’ Statement:

These playful kaleidoscope-like pieces are an ode to my innocent perspective on religion and spirituality as a kid growing up with two priests as parents, living in an apartment above the church they ran, and being a part of this Christian Mysticism organization named “The Center of Light.” I designed their physical nature to possess a spell of childlike character with their colorful and whimsical mandala flower patterns crafted out of elementary shapes. The five wheels are crafted out of foam board, hot glue, and colored gels. They hang from fishing line and have the ability to spin on their center axes. The pinwheels invite the nature of light to work its magic through projection onto the blank wall behind them, both from the nighttime illumination of clamplights and from the natural flood of sunlight during the daylight hours. They hang as an impression of stained glass, in salute to my childhood wonder, untainted by time or change.

Artists Bio:

Audrey Knight created her piece “Light Cycle” in her light installation sculpture class at ECA (The Education Center for the Arts) from which she has recently graduated from after attending for four years. Audrey is eighteen years old and has lived in New Haven for most of her life. Over the course of her high school career at ECA she has gotten the opportunity to learn from artist mentors who are experts in their field. She has worked in seven different mediums: drawing, painting, sculpture, digital photography, dark room photography, video, and printmaking. At graduation, she received the award of “Appetite for Production,” reflecting her ambitious projects and her love for creating big. She draws inspiration from nature, from her personal identity, and in elevating the mundane.

Hustle | Faustin Adeniran

Medium: American detritus

Link: www.adeniranartstudio.com

Artist Statement:

Hustle is a life-sized sculptural piece made with aluminum cans. This piece is about an encounter I had with a can scavenger African lady in New York named Aminata. She had migrated from Sudan with her son. Without proper documentation, she struggled to find work and began collecting cans on the streets of New York just like many immigrants did when they first arrived in this country. Like many immigrants, she thought that the United States was the land of opportunity. When I reflect on my own struggle and sacrifice to make a better life here, the American Dream is not always as glamorous as it seems. Hustle represents the hard work and dedication to succeed no matter what and raises awareness about valuing all members of our community, even those who are often marginalized and overlooked.

I believe that my art installation is an important and urgent project for New Haven that will shed more light and provoke a thoughtful dialogue.

Artist Bio:

Faustin Adeniran is a contemporary visual artist originally from Nigeria. He has spent five years in New Haven, Connecticut, working at his studio in Erector Square and has developed a body of artwork that addresses cultural identity, migration, social justice and environmental preservation in our communities. Faustin employs aluminum cans and other found materials to create three-dimensional works that defy categorization. Part mosaic, part assemblage, they feature fields of dazzling color crafted from an array of cans cut into strips and lozenges. American detritus is his medium, and American brands stand for status. In his works, there are hints of familiar logos--Arizona Iced Tea, Coca-Cola, and Lacroix seltzer--but also beverages we've never heard of, sourced from local New Haven can collectors.

A Little Slice of Heaven | Amira Brown

Medium: painted cut paper and paper weavings

Link: amirahb.com

Artist Statement:

My goal for my art is to connect and share the experience of fine art in an accessible way. I use zines, comics and contemporary art practices to expand what comics can be interpreted as and what art can be viewed as. I look to bring strange, exciting and complex worlds with different interpretations to my viewers.

Artist Bio:

Throughout Amira's life, reading and art has been the cornerstones of my life and impacted them in a positive way. Through these disciplines they was able to connect and grow as a person. After realizing their impact Amira went to Paier College of Art and graduated in Illustration. But after bouncing back and forth between writing, art and comics for 3 years, they combined them into an interdisciplinary practice. They've exhibited through CT and New Haven.

Pool Noodle Tapestry | Dan Bernier & Dan Gries

Materials: Pool noodles, thread

Artist Bios:

Dan Bernier is a software developer and generative artist. His work explores the limits of the ways we use programming language to describe complexity in data and process. Dan Gries is a mathematics and computer science educator and generative artist. His work focuses on algorithmically generated images and coded imperfection. His background in mathematics informs his work and shows through it. Bernier and Gries both live in New Haven, CT, and have collaborated on public art installations in the city, using pool noodle pieces to construct images designed using computational techniques.

Oracle | John T. Fallon III

Medium: acrylic, inks

Website: johnfallonart.com

Artist Statement: I have painted continuously for the last 45 years in a wide variety of styles and mediums. My primary focus has been abstract work of a constructiveness nature, exploring color, symmetries and spatial illusion. I am presently employing extensive patterning in multi-panel works, some flat other tilted also exploring mono-tone palettes and more random pictorial structures. I am not quite sure what an artist statement should be. Should we describe what we do so others might want to see it. Should we describe in some vague way what we think or feel about our work. When I work the medium is the message, the form is just the container of the process. The individual work though appearing precious become less important than the new work that is the current focus.

ECA Makes Art at Night Market

Medium: oil stick, vinyl

Artists: Yadavi Patil, Ruby Hernandez-Gonzalez, Milton Coburn, Fetty Brockenberry, Amber Ventura

All 5 of these works were created by Educational Center for the Arts students during the May 2019 New Haven Night Market.

Expired Systems VI | Johanna Bresnick

Medium: multiple

Website: http://artistwebsitepro.com/Artist/Johanna_Bresnick/index.cfm

Artist Statement:

As a teenager, I worked in this very Church Street building when it was still a mall. After Buffalo Wild Wings left, I walked by the storefront every day on my way to teaching at Gateway and would take pictures of the scarred exterior left behind by the bar’s former sign and logo. My installation fills the jagged holes with small, foam-core-and-plaster sculptures of other New Haven architectural landmarks that have subsequently gone by the wayside. Within the negative space, you can see replicas of the New Haven Coliseum, English Station, the former public housing complex Masonic Gardens, and the bush-hammered concrete typical of Brutalist buildings like the city police and fire headquarters. It speaks to the sort of economic entropy that results when buildings are vacated and torn down.

Artist Bio:

Johanna Bresnick received an M.F.A. in 2001 from the University of Illinois at Chicago and a B.A. from Macalester College. She is currently the Chair of the Visual Arts Department at the Educational Center of the Arts. Before her tenure at ECA, she founded and ran the alternative space Grand Projects, which presented a series of experimental solo exhibitions. In 2015 she chaired the Visual Arts Committee at Artspace (in New Haven, CT) and coordinated its City Wide Open Studios from 2002-2005. Bresnick's work investigates the imposition of geometry on nature; the engineering of environments and conditions by means of architecture, economics, time, geopolitics, social behavior, familial structure, or personal code. The materials vary widely. Her work has been exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL, Galerie für Landschaftkunst in Germany, Wadsworth Athaneum in Hartford, The Rose Museum, Brandeis College, Waltham, MA, the Jewish Museum in New York, and at the Museum of Modern Art.

Untitled | Brittany Solem

Medium: recycled materials

Link: www.brittanysolem.com

Artist Bio:

Brittany Solem is a photographer, stylist, and set designer based in New Haven, whose work has appeared in Vogue, PHOSPHENES, and other fashion and design magazines. With toothpicks, coffee filters, plastic cups, utensils and other disposable products used throughout daily life, Brittany constructed a siren emerging from the coral reef. Her window display calls attention to the tragic impact plastics are having on our oceans and offers a visual warning against humanity’s careless consumer habits.

Paper Over III | Jacquelyn Gleisner & Ryan Paxton

Medium: Paper, paint

Link: www.jacquelyngleisner.com/

Artists’ Statement:

The idiom “paper over” means to patch or gloss over something, especially as a way to present a semblance of unity. This third iteration of the installation is composed of recycled paintings and drawings on paper. In this context, the paintings are reborn as an installation. Materials are reused, while color and space are simultaneously flattened and enhanced.

During the Renaissance, color was sometimes described as the unruly sister of drawing, which was historically perceived as a less arbitrary, more muscular endeavor than painting. This sentiment was echoed by the nineteenth-century French art critic and theorist, Charles LeBlanc, who categorically ranked color below drawing. Parallel divisions have also been applied to painting and sculpture, as well as craft and fine art. This installation blurs the boundaries between painting and sculpture, drawing and color, as well as fine art and craft traditions as a means to resist these hierarchal classifications.

Artists Bios:

Jacquelyn Gleisner is an artist, writer, and educator. She holds an MFA from the Cranbrook Academy of Art and a BFA with honors from Boston University. Her work has been exhibited across the United States, as well as internationally in Italy, Finland, and Botswana. Jacquelyn was awarded a Fulbright grant to Finland in 2010, and she also participated in an artist's exchange in Botswana through the Art in Embassies Program in October 2015.

In addition to her studio practice, Jacquelyn writes about contemporary art. She has been a regular contributor to Art21’s online magazine since 2011, and she has launched two new columns for the site, “Praxis Makes Perfect” and “New Kids on the Block.” Jacquelyn was the Guest Editor for the Sincerity Issue, Volume 11, July/August 2015. She has also contributed to Hyperallergic, the Art New England magazine, the Two Coats of Paint blog, among others. In October 2018, Jacquelyn launched Connecticut Art Review, a writing platform for the arts in and around the state. She currently works as a Practitioner in Residence at the University of New Haven. (View here artist’s CV here.)

Ryan Paxton holds a BFA from the University of Oregon, Eugene. As an artist, Ryan has exhibited his work at the Cue Foundation in New York, Fireproof Gallery, Brooklyn, and the Washington Art Association in Connecticut. In 2017, Ryan founded LensCloud, a 3D scanning business based in Brooklyn, New York. He is skilled in digital/ new media, woodworking, metalworking and ceramics. Ryan currently works as the Production Shop Manager at the Eli Whitney Workshop in Hamden where he designs and creates toys and educational projects for children and leads adult workshops on CNC design and fabrication.

Laser Cut Lanterns | Jacquelyn Gleisner & Ryan Paxton

Medium: Wood, mylar

Link: www.jacquelyngleisner.com/

Artists’ Statement:

The lamps on display were created by participants at an Ives Squared program we held in early May. Participants designed patterns using a template that Ryan and I created for the lamps. Then we cut and assembled all of the lamps to include in this window.

Artists Bios:

Jacquelyn Gleisner is an artist, writer, and educator. She holds an MFA from the Cranbrook Academy of Art and a BFA with honors from Boston University. Her work has been exhibited across the United States, as well as internationally in Italy, Finland, and Botswana. Jacquelyn was awarded a Fulbright grant to Finland in 2010, and she also participated in an artist's exchange in Botswana through the Art in Embassies Program in October 2015.

In addition to her studio practice, Jacquelyn writes about contemporary art. She has been a regular contributor to Art21’s online magazine since 2011, and she has launched two new columns for the site, “Praxis Makes Perfect” and “New Kids on the Block.” Jacquelyn was the Guest Editor for the Sincerity Issue, Volume 11, July/August 2015. She has also contributed to Hyperallergic, the Art New England magazine, the Two Coats of Paint blog, among others. In October 2018, Jacquelyn launched Connecticut Art Review, a writing platform for the arts in and around the state. She currently works as a Practitioner in Residence at the University of New Haven. (View here artist’s CV here.)

Ryan Paxton holds a BFA from the University of Oregon, Eugene. As an artist, Ryan has exhibited his work at the Cue Foundation in New York, Fireproof Gallery, Brooklyn, and the Washington Art Association in Connecticut. In 2017, Ryan founded LensCloud, a 3D scanning business based in Brooklyn, New York. He is skilled in digital/ new media, woodworking, metalworking and ceramics. Ryan currently works as the Production Shop Manager at the Eli Whitney Workshop in Hamden where he designs and creates toys and educational projects for children and leads adult workshops on CNC design and fabrication.

Gen 2 | Joshua Gonzalez

Medium: multiple

Website: @Joshart4e4

Artist Statement:

Gen 2 is a sculptural extension of Josh’s textile and fashion design pieces which he calls Gen 1. Short for Generation, Gen 2 pulls together a variety of fabrics and arranges them into a single scene, in the same way that many layers generate New Haven. Appearing good or bad, our city is a piece of art for everyone. Happiness seemingly comes in all shapes and sizes.

Artist Bio:

Joshua Gonzalez is a student at the Education Center for the Arts, who loves to create and share his passion for the arts. In the future, he hopes to work either as a fashion designer or an art teacher so he can help others‘ dreams take form.

Medium: ribbon, light

Link: https://www.studioinewhaven.com/

Artist Statement:
In a time of high technology that connects us faster than ever, the ability to deepen relationships is the most challenging. Investing in net worth rather than moments that build worthwhile relationships, we are sick with loneliness. It’s an epidemic. This piece reflects the age-old rhyme reminding us where our wealth really lies. “Make new friends, but keep the old. One is silver and the other is gold.”

Artist Bio:
Finding her artistic beginnings through movement and dance, Christina expanded her voice in art while at Southern Connecticut State University, minoring in Fine Art and majoring in Psychology. Discovering her passion for drawing and painting, she continues to bring her imagination to life through portraiture, cartoons, illustrations and immersive experiences. Cofounder and curator at Studio i, she is currently researching connections and landscapes of nature exploring El Yunque Rainforest in Puerto Rico, glacial and volcanic terrains of Iceland and over 300 miles of the Appalachian trail for her written and immersive works. Cultivating dynamic space through her art and consulting, she also continues to teach ballroom dancing for individuals, couples and friends looking to celebrate a special event or learn a favorite dance. Whether on canvas, the dance floor or collaborating with entrepreneurs, Christina loves finding and sharing the beauty of connection.