Opening Reception Sunday, May 4, 1-4:30

OPENING RECEPTION

Please join us this Sunday, May 4, 1-3 for the reception of new exhibitions:

Exhibition Dates: May 4 - June 22, 2025
Opening Reception: May 4, 1-4:30pm
Panel Discussion: Last Artist Standing, moderated by Sharon Louden May 4, 3:00–4:30 PM

The Ely Center of Contemporary Art Presents a Groundbreaking Exhibition Celebrating Artists Who Reimagined Their Creative Paths Later in Life

The Ely Center of Contemporary Art is proud to present Old in Art School, a vibrant and thought-provoking exhibition inspired by the acclaimed memoir of the same name by historian and artist Nell Painter—who will also exhibit her own work in the show.

Featuring twelve artists who pursued or redefined their artistic careers later in life, the exhibition challenges ageist assumptions and celebrates the enduring power of creative reinvention. Each of these artists attended art or graduate school between the ages of 40 and 79, bringing a wealth of life experience, persistence, and unique perspectives to their practices. The exhibition includes painting, sculpture, printmaking, and interdisciplinary works that expand the conversation around what it means to be an artist—and when an artistic journey can begin.

Old in Art School invites viewers to reflect on themes of identity, transformation, and the audacious decision to follow creative passions at any stage of life.

Featured Artists:

Colleen Coleman (MFA, Art Institute of Chicago, age 50s)
Howard el-Yasin (MFA, Maryland Institute College of Art, age 50s)
Sarah Heinemann ( MFA, Hunter College, age 47)
Amos Paul Kennedy Jr. (MFA, University of Wisconsin, age 47)
Mary Lesser (MFA, Lesley University School of Art at age 79)
Susan Luss (MFA, School of Visual Arts, age 50)
Barbara Marks (MFA, Brooklyn College, age 50s)
Barbara Owen (MFA, School of Visual Art, age 55)
Nell Painter (MFA, Rhode Island School of Design, age 64)
Gina Palacios (MFA, Rhode Island School of Design, age 40s)
Carl Patow (MFA, Virginia Commonwealth University, age 60s)
Allison Pasquesi (MFA, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, age 62)

Special Event: Last Artist Standing Book Launch & Panel Discussion

(release date of May 20, 2025, but available for pre-order now)

To kick off the exhibition, the Ely Center will host the first stop of Sharon Louden’s national book tour for Last Artist Standing. A passionate advocate for sustaining creative careers, Louden will moderate a panel discussion featuring Colleen Coleman and Susan Luss, from both the exhibition and the book, alongside emerging voices. The panel will explore the realities of maintaining an artistic practice over time—highlighting perseverance, reinvention, and community.

Kasey Ramirez: Wake
A Selection of Works on Paper

A solo exhibition of Hartford, CT based artist, Kasey Ramirez in our Flat File Gallery.

Exhibition Dates: May 4 - June 22, 2025
Opening Reception: May 4, 1-4:30pm

Ramirez’s work “explores the tension between stability and impermanence by placing architectural structures in consuming environments. I experienced Superstorm Sandy firsthand, and in the wake of increasingly frequent severe storms, my personal sense of vulnerability connects with the impending tipping point of climate change. In my drawings and prints, buildings become a stand-in for humans, a metaphor for manmade efforts to create shelter that are ultimately vulnerable to environmental extremes.” -Ramirez

Prey Drive
a solo exhibition of LA based artist, Ashton Phillips curated by SomethingProjects (Howard el-Yasin & Suzan Shutan)

Exhibition Dates: May 4 - June 22, 2025
Opening Reception: May 4, 1-4:30pm
Artist Talk: June 18, 1-3 PM

We are living in a capitalocene era where everyday objects are fetishized as an effect of mass production, things are made to become quickly disposed of. But once they become waste, do they cease to matter? As vibrant matter, mundane objects also participate in the histories of human and non-human ecology. Who writes our histories and scientific methods, and for whom, has always determined what gets erased (white washed) versus the (often pathologized) epistemologies we’re taught to remember. The anti-wokeness of our current social-political environment, is a reminder that history repeats itself, as does the cycle of life.

Ashton Phillips uses a site-specific wall drawing with 527 ash marks to call attention to the hypocrisy of pseudo Christians, responding to the monumental deadly weight of trans legislation efforts to erase trans people; all of which seems tantamount to hunting prey! Viewers of this installation are also beckoned towards an assemblage of mundane materiality, familiar and peculiar, where mealworms consume Styrofoam for sustenance. Ironically, this synthetic material plays an essential role in their natural cycle of transformation over time. Yet this process of transness is in opposition to the unnatural social construction of gender for humans, which heteronormativity relies upon to normalize desire and maintain the cis-male/female binary.

This antidisciplinary project navigates art, science, and performativity to illuminate the injustice inflicted on queer bodies. The uncertainty of red lights and uncanny sounds prompt somatic stimulation in this haptic, precarious, complex space of queer world-building. From a nominalist position, the inherited gaze of normativity as universalized is flawed.

Wabi Focus Fellows Pop Up Exhibition of Teen Photographers
CoHort 4

Exhibition Dates: May 4 - May 11, 2025
Opening Reception: May 4, 1-4:30pm

Wábi Gallery offers a one-year FOCUS Fellowship in Photography based in New Haven. CoHort 4 will present a group show of works in their half way point in the program. They will have a second exhibition end of June, 2025.

The FOCUS Fellowship focuses on technical skills in photography, the history of photography, exposure to contemporary photographers, portfolios, and a final exhibition. Wábi provides professional training and development with photographer and educator, Kim Weston and other professional photographers.

GREAT GIVE

More ways to support our programming:

If you were unable to attend our gala but still want to support us please consider donating during the Great Give on May 7th and 8th. Your support during the campaign will help us unlock a matching gift and will help us defray the costs of the upcoming Summer Apprenticeship for New Haven Public School teens, this year led by Sarah Zapata.

IF you missed it….Check out images from our 10th Anniversary Benefit Party HERE

MUSIC AT THE ELY CENTER

Join us May 5, 7:30pm for a night of artistic sounds curated by Chanelle Allessandre

Featuring the sounds of:

Bentley Anderson

Alex Zhang Hungtai

Rear Window : @fcknrx @h_s_f_b @zach___rowden

Jill Shea

This May 8th, come Meet the NEW emcee of Weird Music Night, A. I. Pacino! Will Pervert Savant ever be back to host? We’re not sure, but any persona of John O’Donnell is a friend of ours!

Featuring the sounds of:

Jayden Barber – An experimental sound artist, composer, and award-winning filmmaker from Providence, Barber conjures immersive walls of sound from tape loops, analog drones, and decaying media. His live sets evoke the spectral beauty of cathedrals while dragging audiences through cleansing distortion and cinematic collapse.

The Broken Robots – For over fifteen years, The Broken Robots have turned chaos into communion. Led by vocalist and performance artist Jack Daniel, their fully improvised performances channel the sacred and the absurd—think punk jazz meets séance, filtered through Waits, Zappa, Talking Heads, and the Buddha.

The Regal Drug – Dreamy distortion meets lo-fi euphoria. The Regal Drug crafts emotional, genre-defying soundscapes with an analog heart and a poetic punch. Their performances are haunted lullabies for a glamorous apocalypse.

A.I. Pacino – A satirical performance persona by artist John O’Donnell, A.I. Pacino is a mobster-masked android who raps over "Terminator-type beats" while channeling the absurdity of simulation culture. Inspired by the Max Headroom signal hack, vintage crime cinema, and the slippery terrain of digital identity, A.I. Pacino flickers between parody and prophecy in a performance you’ll never forget (even if you wish you could).

SUMMER APPRENTICESHIP PROGRAM

What is your New Haven Public High School student doing this summer!

We suggest our Summer Apprenticeship Program!

Our Summer Apprenticeship Program’s mentoring artist is the amazing Sarah Zapata!

Applications are live!

UPCOMING

Upcoming @ The Ely Center

May 4, 1-3pm - Opening Reception for Old In Art School: Colleen Coleman, Howard el-Yasin, Sarah Heinemann, Amos Paul Kennedy Jr, Mary Lesser, Susan Luss, Barbara Marks, Barbara Owen, Nell Painter, Gina Palacios, Allison Pasquesi, Carl Patow
Prey Drive: Ashton Philips curated by Something Projects
Fethi Meghelli & Fabiana Comas Risquez
Kasey Ramirez in the Flat File Gallery
May 4, 3-4:30pm - Special Event: Last Artist Standing Book Launch & Panel Discussion to kick off the exhibition, the Ely Center will host the first stop of Sharon Louden’s national book tour for Last Artist Standing, releasing April 25, 2025. A passionate advocate for sustaining creative careers, Louden will moderate a panel discussion featuring artists from both the exhibition and the book,alongside emerging voices. The panel will explore the realities of maintaining an artistic practice over time—highlighting perseverance, reinvention, and community.

May 5, 7:30pm- A Night of Art Sounds, curated by Chanelle Allesandre, featuring the artists Alex Zhang Hungtai & Bentley Anderson.

May 8, 7pm- WEIRD MUSIC NIGHT!

May 24, 7:30pm- Another Night of Art Sounds, curated by Chanelle Allesandre, featuring the artists Virusse (Mid-coast Maine) & Secret Boyfriend (Chapel Hill, NC)

May 25, 1-3pm- Reception for MicroAgressions: Michelle Young Lee & Current Aberations: Fethi Meghelli & Fabiana Comas Rodriguez

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M I S S I O N

The Ely Center of Contemporary Art’s mission is to present contemporary art exhibitions and events—challenging, conceptual, and provocative—that are inclusive, diverse and promote dialogue around global and community issues. Our work reaffirms Grace Ely’s testamentary wishes for an art center where artists, arts organizations, and the public assemble, exchange, learn, and engage through exhibitions, performances, and emerging contemporary practice

ECOCA receives support from Avangrid, City of New Haven, Community Foundation of Greater New Haven, Connecticut Office of the Arts, Connecticut Humanities, New Alliance Foundation, Wells Fargo, Yale University, and Friends of the John Slade Ely House of Contemporary Art.