FLEX:// /  by Ely Center of Contemporary Art

Exhibition Dates: June 20 -August 31, 2025   

The Ely Center of Contemporary Art is proud to present FLEX://, curated by JLS Gangwisch. Best viewed on a computer.

To celebrate Pride 2025 the Ely Center of Contemporary Art and the New Haven Pride Center partner to launch MUSCLE, an intermedia exhibition of artworks by local and regional artists featuring the vitality of the LGBTQIA+ community.  

FLEX:// is the sister exhibition of MUSCLE and is the first exhibition in a relaunch of Digital Grace, the Ely Center’s online exhibition space, now with an instagram account that will feature interviews with the artists! The interviews will be released throughout the run of the exhibition. Follow the new Instagram account HERE.


These works articulate social power.  They are evidence of both personal and collective gains made through determination, will, and grit.  They remind us of voluminous resistance to adversity alongside the constant, quiet, domestic assertion of an authentic life.  They illustrate the transmutability of our bodies and our bodies politic.  They demonstrate lives lived openly, freely, and truthfully.  They are tinged with past violences and future threats.  They demonstrate the diversity of our community while speaking to our solidarity, our shared vision, and our united desires.  They invite us to play with each other, to work together. 


2025 is a year that demands muscle. This moment calls us to exercise our authenticity, flex our coordinated joy, and balance the tension of being too seen with the bravery of allowing ourselves to be seen. Pride celebrations were born out of resistance; through resistance we build and exhibit  MUSCLE, our powerful creative strength.
-JLS Gangwisch

Featuring the work of Joseph Annino, Kelsey Archbold, Finley Doyle, Ana Maria Farina, Diego Horisberger, David Kuehler, Kayce Lewandowski, Caroline McAuliffe, Michael Morgan, Cate Solari, Matthew Towers and Yves François Wilson

MUSCLE is an in person exhibition celebrating Pride located at the New Haven Pride Center, 50 Orange Street, New Haven.

Love-Struck /  by Ely Center of Contemporary Art

February 1- March 31, 2024

Curated by: Juliet Byrne

Love-Struck is themed around Valentine’s Day with an overall focus on love. It hopes to acknowledge the abundance of love around us and the many forms it comes in. Valentine’s Day emphasizes the romantic side of love, but that isn’t the only type of love worth celebrating. Love comes from many other places: self love, love for our family and friends, love for the world and the people in it. That’s why this show emphasizes being grateful for all love. Cherishing the loving relationships in our lives is central to our humanity and our togetherness. 

Matt Becker, Sandra Cavanagh, MUCA, Courtney Dudley, Shelley Feinerman, Soule Golden, Danny Huff, Ali Hval, Agnes Jackiewicz, Patrice Lorenz, Lauri MacLean, Pol Morton, Lake Newton, Tim Nighswander, André Kit Ramos, Claudia Renfro, Alisa Sokolov, Ariana Stoll, J Suyi, Johnny Taylor, Thuan Vu, Cindy Zaglin. 

Weather Patterns /  by Ely Center of Contemporary Art

October 1- December 31, 2023

Featuring artists from our 2023 Open Call

Our environment is our future. We are experiencing its fragility and the need to advocate for sustainability. This includes transforming our daily practices. This exhibition highlights threatening conditions- imagining what happens if we wait much longer, as well as the beauty of nature and our need to nurture it and develop solutions.

Featured Artists:

Leslie Alexander, Connecticut
Stephanie Angelo, New York
Hilary Houston Bachelder, New York
Jeff Becker, Connecticut
Harriet G Caldwell, Connecticut
Tsai Chih-Fen, Taiwan
Claudia Cron, Connecticut
Heather Bird Harris, Louisiana
Katie Jurkiewicz, Connecticut
Ryan Kalentkowski, Connecticut
Susan McHale, Connecticut
Maureen Murray, Rhode Island
David Ottenstein, Connecticut
Kate Rusek, New York
Erin Starr, U.S.
Jami Taback, California
Andrew Wharton, California

Process Driven /  by Ely Center of Contemporary Art

September 1- November 30, 2023

Featuring artists from our 2023 Open Call

Material exploration can be a conceptual driver for art. These artists employ, manipulate, de/reconstruct, and re-contextualize found, raw, fabricated items into artwork to create meaning and cultural relevance.

Featured Artists:

Natale Adgnot, New York
Meg Bloom, Connecticut
Leah Caroline, Connecticut
Gabriella Gentile, Pennsylvania
Sandra Guze, Connecticut
Alcy Hart, Connecticut
Michelle Lisa Herman, Washington D.C.
Margaret Jacobs, New York
Erinn Kathryn, Oregon
Katelyn Kopenhaver, U.S.
Stephanie Lanter, Connecticut
Jenna Lash, New York
Susan Mastrangelo, New York
Pol Morton, U.S.
Catherine Nelson, Louisiana
Martin O'Toole, Connecticut
Donna Payton, New Jersey
Lorna Ritz, Massachusetts
Danyang Song, Rhode Island
Remy Sosa, Connecticut
Connie Newton Stancell, Connecticut
Amy Vensel, New Mexico

About Home /  by Ely Center of Contemporary Art

August 1- October 31, 2023

Featuring artists from our 2023 Open Call

What does home mean to you?  Home is not just a place, it's a cultural concept. It's not easy to define, but you know it when you're there..It can be a place of domestic bliss and well-being or a place of extreme discomfort, disconnection, or longing. 

Memories of home are often attached to sensory experiences- an aroma of cooking, peeling wallpaper,  mothballs in the attic trunk. The pandemic with lockdown changed the meaning and experience of home and many have redefined what it means. The artists in About Home, through diverse media, present works that look at their relationship with place and security. 

Featured Artists:

Constance Brady, New York
Julia Cella, Connecticut
Sarah Crofts, New York
Vincent Dion, Connecticut
Sharon Draghi, New York
William Evertson, Connecticut
Ran He, China
Caroline Jennings, Massachusetts
J Myszka Lewis, Wisconsin
Patrice Lorenz, New York
Caroline McAuliffe, New York
Heidi Mortensen, California
Cathy Osman, Vermont
Martryce Roach, New Jersey
Gary Schwartz, New York
Remy Sosa, Connecticut
Christine Stoddard, New York
Heather G. Stoltz, New York
Patricia Weise, Connecticut
Tonya Whitney, Vermont
Corrine Yonce, Vermont

Other Worldly /  by Ely Center of Contemporary Art

July 1- September 30, 2023

Featuring artists from our 2023 Open Call

Does Life Exist Elsewhere? How do our dreams inform our daily life, our connection to ancestors, or the future? Other Worldly brings together artists who share an interest in the spiritual, dream states, altered reality, interstitial spaces, unknown dimensions, and in general, notions of life that exist outside the world we know.

Featured Artists

Caroline Blum, Connecticut
Julia Cella, Connecticut 
Marc Chicoine, U.S.
Gary Cruz, New York
Vincent Dion, Connecticut
Mari Firkatian, Connecticut
Michelle Lisa Herman, Washington D.C.
Renée S. Hughes, Connecticut
M Johnson, Connecticut
Louise Laplante, Massachusetts
Madison LaVallee, New York
Mary Louise Learned, Connecticut
Roy Money, Connecticut
Andrea Morganstern, New York
Sue Mullaney, Connecticut
Donna Namnoum, Connecticut
Hilary Nylander, North Carolina
Judith Ornstein, New York
Aleksandra Paranchenko, Ukraine
Madeline Richard, Florida
Anne Rynearson, Minnesota
Olivia Springberg, Washington D.C.
Yige Tong, England
Yoshie Tsuzuki, Japan
Amanda Walker, Connecticut
Karen Wheeler, Connecticut
Qiaosen Yang, New York

Hard Edge /  by Ely Center of Contemporary Art

July 1- September 30, 2023

Featuring artists from our 2023 Open Call

The works in this show are marked by precision, and clarity, to explore abstraction, geometry, and color in all its configurations and possibilities. Works pay tribute to 1960 pioneers who rejected painterly abstraction and turned to geometric and color field painting.  The artists in this exhibit incorporate these tenets into forms reflective of current ideas. 

Featured Artists

Beverly Marya Bajek, Massachusetts  
Yvonne Buchanan, New York
Olivia Carle, New Hampshire  
Beth Caspar, New York
Cynthia Cooper, Connecticut
Kathleen DeMeo, Connecticut
Andrzej Dutkanicz, Connecticut
Ellen Gordon, Connecticut
Dan Gries, Connecticut
Eddie Hall, Connecticut 
Richard King, Pennsylvania
André Kit, Brazil
Stephen Klema, Connecticut
Medusa Moon, Connecticut
Lina Morielli, Connectitcut
Jane Sangerman, New York
Robin Sherin, New York
Alexandra Wahl, Connecticut

Signs of Life /  by Ely Center of Contemporary Art

Featuring artists from our 2022 Open Call

The unfurling of a first bud; a soft cry of a newborn; the discards of daily routine. All of these symbols offer signs of life, the subtle indication of action beginning by humans and nature alike, peeking through what has existed before.

Featured Artists
Aspasia Anos
Mary Begley
William Butcher
Julia Coash
Carin Kulb Dangot
Rima Day
Daisy Diamond
Cynthia Dobie
Daniella Dooling
Anne Doris-Eisner
Mary Dwyer
Ruth Jeyaveeran
Ryan Kalentkowski
Lisa Kellner
Zofie King
Kelly Kuykendall
Zoe Matthiessen
Susan McHale
Aleksander Popovic
Heather Renee Russ
Martha Savage
Jamie Wilson

Inner World /  by Ely Center of Contemporary Art

Featuring artists from our 2022 Open Call

How do artists give visual presence to the realm of the interior—our thoughts, beliefs, and sense of identity? Our inner terrain, the territory of the Self that deals with our emotions, offers a fertile ground for creative expression.

The artists in this show, each through their unique creative process, explore ways to communicate the vast landscape of the mind.

Featured Artists
Nuria Gonzalez Alcaide
Richard Bottwin
Kadiatou Coulibaly
Jennifer Croson
Ajav Designs
Marianne DiBrino
Ed Grant
Adam S. Hoch
James Johnson-Perkins
Colleen Kiely
Cecilia Kim
Janet Leombruni
Ralph Levesque
Janet Maher
Crystal Marshall
Diane Novetsky
Chancellor Page
Joe Poon
Barbara Ringer
Anne Rynearson
George Schaub
Danielle Schmitt
Sarah Schneiderman
Elizabeth White
Jiaming You

Pattern Recognition /  by Ely Center of Contemporary Art

Featuring artists from our 2022 Open Call

Are our brains essentially pattern recognition machines?  We are all wired to see patterns - fractals in nature, trends in events, even behaviors that reoccur over time. Patterns help us create a sense of order and balance in our worlds, and allow us to attach meaning to objects and experiences.

Pattern recognition has been an important and powerful evolutionary tool that allows us to make meaningful connections, gain new perspectives, and increase our understanding of the world leading to new discoveries and innovations.

Explore Pattern Recognition and see how each of our featured artist reckons with life’s patterns and the meanings they ascribe to them.

Featured Artists
Lexi Arrietta
A. Bascove
Harriet Caldwell
Jeanette Compton
Cynthia Y. Cooper
Rosemary Cotnoir
Tielin Ding
Pauline Galiana
Carla Goldberg
Eliska Morsel Greenspoon
Michela Griffo
Elena Grossman
Erin Karp
Carole Kunstadt
Florence McEwin
JoAnne McFarland
Terrence Lavin
Tim Nighswander
Susan W. Rood
Linda Stillman
Catherine Vanaria
Despina Zografos

Amerikrainian Flags /  by Ely Center of Contemporary Art

Recent Works by Jay Bright

“This series of inscrutable, imagined flags connects to the weight of world news, and my inner life. I hesitate to interfere with the viewer’s interpretation, so only supply the clue of the upside-down flag a distress symbol. The moods range from celebratory, puzzling and lost in the fog of war. Some levity seeps in with the titles like Ukramerican and Amuk in later variations.

I started making a few small Ukrainian flags to put in my windows. Out of nowhere, I began drafting the US flag canton (rectangle for the star field) and stripe pattern. I laid out the star field (a few short due to a drafting mistake) and enjoyed Xing in the stars. I added yellow stripes because my original field was too orange. Later I added lighter blue stripes to lighten the top field. Unsatisfied with the remaining orange, I scribbled more yellow and blue to punch up the color, finally arriving at an image where the US flag is almost totally obscured-suggesting the fog of war. More recently I have been inverting and mirroring the elements to get reflections and inscrutable jumbles.

So far, the works are small 4” x 6” - 8 ½” x 11”. They are done in water-soluble pencil, watercolor, ink, graphite & colored pencils, acrylic, gouache and archival ink jet on colored matt board, Stonehenge paper and on 20# bond with Krylon Preserve It! spray. The prints cannot have the glow of the computer screen, so I am happy to have a digital show that celebrates the brilliance I found by editing in Picassa, a primitive version of Photoshop. The collection has grown to 124 images, including prints displayed in windows in distant locations. Sizes and pricing are on my website.

I have sent this image to art friends, relatives, associates and politicians with links to vetted charities, hoping they might be able to donate — donations can be made here and here. Donors will receive a print of the Amerikrainian flag; reach out via my email or website to receive your print!

My second goal is for folks to put this image in their windows and send a photo to jaybright33@gmail.com. So far it is in AL, CA, CT, DC, IL, MI, WA, PA and Paris!”

The Winter Bloom /  by Ely Center of Contemporary Art

Peggy Bloomer
If winter comes
2020

Curated by Stephanie Gonzalez

Featured Artists
Liz Albert
Julia Whitney Barnes
Kraig Binkowski
Peggy Bloomer
Barbara Boeck
KK Kozik
Barbara Mink
Nancy Rose Tommasini
Kathy Weinberg
NC Whitcher
Doug Winter

Curator’s Statement
“Now that winter has finally melted away,
and spring has blossomed to a hot summer day…

This exhibition represents the cycle from winter to summer, emphasizing the significance of color in this shift; I am interested in the way the dark, cold colors of winter evolve into warm, bright colors of spring. The order of the works that I have selected reflect this cycle of change.”

About The Curator
Stephanie Gonzalez is an upcoming University of New Haven graduate, born and raised in Puerto Rico. She is interested in studying Art Restoration and Conservation, and has felt livelong inspiration from artist Francisco Oller.

Serenity /  by Ely Center of Contemporary Art

Isadora Stowe
Blissed Out
2020

Curated by Sarah Butler

Featured Artists
Carol Green Bouyoucos
Robyn Ellenbogen
Shorty Greene
Antone Könst
Soumiya Krishnaswamy
Charlotte Mouquin
Cat Rigdon
Scott Roberts
Isadora Stowe
Darren Thompson

Curator’s Statement
“When curating this exhibition, I was really drawn to artworks that emitted a sense of calmness and tranquility. I zeroed in specifically on artworks that used the color blue and other cool tones to relay this feeling.”

About The Curator
Sarah Butler was born and raised in Syracuse, NY and is an upcoming graduate of University of New Haven. She has aspirations to be an art educator and to create public art initiatives for youth.

Covimetry /  by Ely Center of Contemporary Art

April 19 - June 6, 2021
A partnership between Discursive Geometry and the Ely Center of Contemporary Art

About Mark Starel & Discursive Geometry

Mark Starel (aka prof. Wieslaw Luczaj) is an intermedia artist and creator of Discursive Geometry, living and working in Kielce and Warsaw, Poland. He is active in the field of painting, space organization, digital graphics, and generative art. Mark creates statistical images, inspired by databases or statistical messages, on the social behavior of Poles. The starting point of his work is the assumption that contemporary reality is a statistical reality.

Exhibition Statement

Living with a lifelong passion for Geometry and year-long isolation from the devastating pandemic Covid, artist and curator Mark Starel of Warsaw Poland brought the two together (geometry & mask) with his newest exhibit COVIMETRY.

Today human survival is dependent upon our using an “antivirus” mask covering our most noted communication tool, our mouths, along with noses and much of our face. The mask has hindered our ability to read others expressions and feelings. By adopting the mask as a template and canvas, it now becomes a form for expression- even if just a fragment of a bigger picture of our times metaphorically.

Starel also brought together over 300 artists, uniting continents and likeminded geo-zealots. His intention is to grow the exhibit until it reaches 1000 artists, representing every country as a global community. Different artistic strategies are conveyed, exploring the shape and structure of the mask through the inclusion of a variety of media, styles and techniques that allow for contemporary notions of how geometry is being investigated today.

— Suzan Shutan

Irja Bodén: To Dress A Ptarmigan /  by Ely Center of Contemporary Art

Irja Bodén
To Dress A Ptarmigan IV
2019 - 2020

Irja Bodén (b. Kiruna, Sweden) is a ceramicist who received her BFA from SUNY Potsdam, magna cum laude, in visual arts and a BA in Social Science from Lund University, Sweden.

Speaking on her work, Bodén states, “Ceramics transforms the malleable into permanence, a process that echoes life. We begin as a mere potential ending up reflecting what we see. My sculptures similarly reflect this process. I frequently use stacking as a method of spatial organization. My stacks are built from richly textured, wheel-thrown, and hand-built forms. My work alludes to the natural world and domestic interiors. Each segment is lightly secured, though I also leave forms unattached to articulate precarious balance. My sculptures take some time to achieve a finished state. Multiple firings are not unusual, since I like to experiment with surface techniques, and it can take months to find the right piece for a sculpture. Some of the sculptures contain broken and unrecognizable parts, in reference to how memories diminish overtime. I believe we must cherish the things that we carry with us, even if they break in transit.”

April Fitzpatrick /  by Ely Center of Contemporary Art

April Fitzpatrick
Casualty of a White Lie
2020

The Pineapple Metaphor: Expanding The Narrative

With a background in psychology, an unconventional experience in art therapy, and commitment to visual artistry, April Fitzpatrick has given much attention to the mental health crisis in communities stricken with poverty and crime. Serving as a facilitator for trauma-focused workshops, working as a teaching artist, and navigating the community as a visual artist has afforded April the opportunity to see trauma from several perspectives. 

However, it wasn’t until she experienced a personal encounter with depression and anxiety that she realized the lack of accessible resources and cultural competency that existed for her as a black woman seeking therapy. April remembered how hard it was to find someone who looked like her, who welcomed her cultural experiences, and who was patient enough to get to the core.

It was through this experience that she not only wanted to become an advocate but bring awareness to these issues and act on it. Harnessing her knowledge and skills in creative execution, relationship building, community connection, and innovation, April brings the pineapple to the table to explore our inner core.

Read April’s full artist statement here.

Urban Escapade /  by Ely Center of Contemporary Art

Susan Reedy, Silent Motto

Featured Artists
Elliot Appel
Laurey Bennett-Levy
Susan Berger
Ann Cofta
Sarah Crofts
Nate Lerner
Kate Hooray Osmond
Susan Reedy

With artists selected from our 2021 Open Call, Urban Escapade highlights eight artists whose work centers around the intricacies of urban and city living. Exploring the fleeting moments and forgotten patterns of the hustle-and-bustle of city life, these artists reveal the hidden magic of metropolises and the neighborhoods within and around them.

Wonder Working /  by Ely Center of Contemporary Art

Curated by Joy Pepe

Curator’s Statement

The current displays of works of art in Extra Human and Witchy  are about or influenced by witches, their practices, and perceptions and misconceptions about them throughout time. Wonder Working is inspired by what links some of these representations with historical depictions of women with magical or divine abilities—magnificent, sublime, sometimes terrible—as they connect with issues of gender, age, spirituality, and nature.

The exhibit is divided into three themes. Titles and images are links to each of the exhibits.

Body

Throughout the history of persecution of women accused of being witches is their being connected with animals because of their biological systems of menstruation and pregnancy, which the patriarchal systems, in Puritanical America, for example, would associate with sexual compulsiveness and mental instability. In Europe, a religious inquisition within the Dominican order in the fifteenth century, approved by the pope, tortured women allegedly suspected of witchcraft and harm to humanity. Misogynistic hysteria was also expressed by Benedictines, denigrating Eve and associating her original sin with witchcraft, at the same  time as the cult of the Virgin Mary grew. Yet, as Yale scholar Stephen Greenblatt points out in his recent study of Adam and Eve (The Rise and Fall of Adam and Eve, Norton Press 2017), the French medieval painter and humanist, Christine de Pizan, said: If anyone would say that man was banished because of Lady Eve…I tell you that he gained more through Mary than he lost through Eve…Man and Woman should be glad for this sin. (134)”

The Body section considers female biology of menstruation, fertility, the presence/absence of the body, and how biological determinants, rather than recall the despising and fear of woman as witch throughout Western history, disempowers and celebrates the female body  - from misunderstanding as villainous witchy agent of ruin to forthright visual reconfigurations of their bold natural rhythms. 

Nature

It is a truism that throughout Western thought,  nature has always been related to female as culture was to male. One links with instinct, the other with reason. Because of their abilities to conceive and bear children, the fertility of women correlated to nature’s abundance. And, therefore, reason and the resulting complexities of cultural accomplishment was beyond her purview. The witch, in particular, was considered in medieval and Renaissance times to be a subversion of nature, most closely associated with lewd sexual intercourse with the Devil as the starting point for her practice of witchcraft. 

Magic

The previous verse, spoken by the Three Witches or the Weird Sisters as they conjure up Macbeth’s doomed fate with a brew of plant and animal parts, are some of the best known in Western literature that express the actions of evil magic contrived by women over the fates of men. This section explores the bond between witches and magic, and reconsiders the stereotypical wicked intent of witchcraft, whether in its association with the female body and its reproductive ability, its sensuality and sexuality, or its symbiosis with nature’s cycles.

Alexander Churchill: Love In The Time Of Anxiety /  by Ely Center of Contemporary Art

Alexander Churchill, The Travelers

Alexander Churchill was born in San Diego, California and raised in Vermont. He earned a BFA from Green Mountain College in 2008 and currently works as a visual artist in Connecticut.

Reflecting on the Love In The Time of Anxiety series, Churchill states, “This series examines the struggle to achieve multiple levels of love, well being, and equanimity in a time in which fear, distrust, anger, and anxiety are prevalent sentiments in our society. With this work, I aim to address these obstacles at the collective level while attempting to overcome them by scaling them down to a personal one. Through contending with personal melancholia and cynicism that encumber peace of mind I intend to find understanding and forgiveness of my own asshole tendencies and those of others that annoy me while emphasizing and appreciating positive and loving relationships. My goal here is to identify, work through and eliminate harmful negative feelings of impatience, contempt, and disdain for certain people (like lying racist moron con artist presidents and the people that vote for them, or people that crave digital attention at the expense of an individualist truth and general awareness of reality), while simultaneously recognizing a common thread of basic good and humanity.”