Opening Reception: Sunday, September 8, 1-3pm

After the City’s Tree Warden ordered five magnificent Sycamore trees on Trumbull Street to be cut due to disease,  printmakers reclaimed the  remaining stumps with eco-friendly woodcuts and public art. With Logan Bishop, Nathan Lewis, Enrique Figured, Jesse Peck and Maria Posada.

Opening Reception: Sunday, September 8, 1-3pm

A new MFA graduate of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago presents her first solo exhibition. Mesoma Onyeagba’s work delighted New Haven audiences in the Embodied Knowledge 2023 Open Call exhibition.

Featured Artists:
Austin Bryant
Lauren Cardenas
Adrian Martinez Chavez
Kim Kyne Cohen
Carolina Cuevas
Melissa Dadourian
Jen DeLuna
Sebastián Cole Galván
Alondra M. Garza
Donté K. Hayes
Kristen Heritage
Sunnie Liu
Jo Lobdell
Marie-Josè
Sebastián Meltz-Collazo
Robert Mirek
Julia Oldham
Vick Quezada
Jacoub Reyes
Samnang Riebe
Raphaela Riepl
Linda Sok
Loretta Violante
Aura Xuanyi Wang
Ying Ye
and an entrance by Nadine Nelson

Forest Bathing is a group exhibition curated by Alex Santana, using the Ely Center’s 2024 Open Call to find the included artists.

"Mirroring the expansiveness of the forest, much like underground mycelial networks and rhizomatic plant stems, as a practice, forest bathing otters us an entry point for interspecies communication, understanding, and reciprocity.”

—From Curator Alex Santana’s exhibition text, Fall 2024.

BRIAN SLATTERY: NEW HAVEN INDEPENDENT
Artist Tap Into the Roots | Sept 26, 2024

ELIJAH HUREWITZ RAVITCH: YALE DAILY NEWS
Ely Center of Contemporary Art showcases nature, memory and cultural identity in three new shows | Sept 12, 2024

PATRICIA GRANDJEAN: DAILY NUTMEG
Into the Woods | Sept 5, 2024

ECOCA @ Upstate Art Weekend
Opening Reception Friday, July 19, 5-7pm
Exhibition Dates: July 18 - August 10, 2025

80 Smith Ave, Kingston, NY @ ArtPort Kingston’s Midtown location

ECOCA is pleased to present “How did we get here?” an exhibition with artists whose work asks the viewer to look, then look again. Art builds a path between the personal and the universal: our collection spotlights the moments when that path can become a winding, narrative journey. “How did we get here?” is as important a question for the onlooker as “Where are we meant to go from here?” The work of art is a lens into the maker’s intentions, but the audience is already looking through many lenses at once: cultural, political, intersectional. It is in the second look–and beyond–that the viewer squints, considers angles, negotiates a way into the stories our featured works contain.

KARLYN BENSON, TWO COATS OF PAINT:
Recommended exhibitions + events: Upstate Art Weekend, July 18-21, 2024

Featured artists: Faustin Adeniran, Natale Adgnot, Emmanuel Amoakohene, Scott Azevedo, Shweta Bist, Ramón Bonilla, Leah Caroline, Jeanne Ciravolo, Melissa Dadourian, Leila Daw, Lesley Finn, Christian Amaya Garcia, Cadence Giersbach, Shanti Grumbine, Donté Hayes, Swati Jain, Brian Kaspr, Josh Kramb, Patrick Li, Valerie Lyons, Caitlin McCormack, Aisha Nailah, Caroline Voagen Nelson, Ariana Padovano, Línda Perla-Giron, Vick Quezada, Claudia Renfro, Roxy Savage, Cate Solari, Katherine Spencer, Jacquelyn Strycker, Susan Tabachnick, Jason Ting, Emily Weiskopf, Kim Weston, Ying Ye

Live 1-4pm, Opening Reception Sunday, June 23rd, 3-5pm

Artists:
Logan Bishop
Enrique Figuerado
Nathan Lewis
Jesse Peck
Maria Porada

On June 23rd, 5 artists will activate 5 stumps on Trumbull Street (sycamores that had to be cut due to disease) via a public printmaking event. Some of the prints created from this event, along with other works by the artists will be on display in the flat file. This is a merging of performance, printmaking and public art to activate an awareness of ecological issues happening here and now. Curated by John O'Donnell.

Activating the urban landscape by envisioning the potential of the stumps that remain from the felled local trees, ECOCA is inviting five artists to reclaim the remains of felled trees on Trumbull Street in New Haven.  Building on a long history of woodcut printmaking, these selected artists will use their skills as established printmakers to create art by carving into the existing stump to make an image.  The image is carved into the wood and can be printed like a huge stamp.  The process is eco-friendly and a great way to activate overlooked aspects of the relationship between trees and urban settings.  Traditionally, printmakers produce art in a print studio, which is a relatively private activity.  This project Is a way to help artists and audiences reconsider traditional approaches to printmaking, public art, and ecological issues affecting our community.  

Each artist will carve an image that can be printed by hand, using eco-friendly ink or a wax rubbing crayon.  The process will involve the artists working on the stump with traditional wood carving hand tools or more contemporary dremel tools. The artist will informally demonstrate their process and help community members understand printmaking reimagined in a new context.  The fun part will be people attending the opening will see the artists printing from the stumps.  In many ways, this is a merging of performance, printmaking, and public art to activate an awareness of ecological issues happening here and now. We invite you, the community members, to participate in this collaborative and interactive artistic process.

Stump 1 Nathan Lewis

Stump 2  Logan Bishop

Stump 3  Maria Porada

Stump 4   Jesse Peck

Stump 5 Enrique Figuerado

Opening Reception Sunday, June 23rd, 3-5pm

Miradero is a Spanish word that translates to watchtower or lookout point.

In Bonilla’s artwork the concept of degrowth is used to propose a downshifting from a boundless economic expansion and unsustainable consumption to a post-consumerist future addressing current environmental and social issues. Resource depletion decelerates to achieve ecological flourishing, social equity and quality of life. Furthermore, Bonilla’s personal notions about the metaphysical encompassing beliefs about God, existence, the Cosmos, a non-material realm transcending our observable physical domain and the afterlife provide an additional dimension to the discourse of degrowth and sustainability in his work. These seemingly disparate ideas intersect in profound ways. Alternative futures of human progress prompt reflection of humanity's longing for harmony, purpose, and interconnectedness. Prosperity beyond material accumulation conveyed through principles of simplicity, frugality and conviviality. By pointing to the concept of the afterlife his work considers the transcendence of our actions, a purposeful life, our relation to the Cosmos and our legacy after exiting this world. His work comtemplates ways of thinking about responsible stewardship of the environment, the importance of ethical conduct and towards materialistic world views. It is a call to transcend notions of progress based solely on material wealth and shift towards an existence fulfilled by cultivating a profound sense of fellowship, gratitude, and respect for life. Using his imagination and resilience in the face of systemic barriers and harsh realities, Bonilla finds solace in an enduring hope for a brighter tomorrow, whether in this life or beyond. Through his artwork Bonilla aims to spark conversations about possible futures.

BRIAN SLATTERY: NEW HAVEN INDEPENDENT
Artists Embrace Change, Trasformation | July 23, 2024

Ramón Bonilla has a BFA from Escuela de Artes Plásticas de San Juan, Puerto Rico. He has been featured on 5280’s Home magazine as one of the “The Five Local Artists To Watch And Collect”. His work has been commissioned for The Gates Building; Nexus BSP in Denver; Stanley Marketplace in Aurora, CO; The Bonfils-Stanton Foundation in Denver and through Muros, Chicago. His work is also part of the art collections of Le Meridien Hotel Denver and The Four Seasons Hotel and Resort Beverly Hills. He has been represented by Michael Warren Contemporary and Simon Breitbard Fine Arts in San Francisco. Currently he has representation through Space Gallery Denver. He has shown with Direction/Instruction, an international art group organized by Hyland Mather, and showed his work at Paradigm Gallery in Philadelphia. He has also shown his work at Understudy Denver and 516 Arts in Albuquerque, NM. Bonilla is an alumni of Redline Denver where he completed a two year residence and is a recipient of the Inside Fund which is funded by the Andy Warhol Foundation.

Opening Reception Sunday, June 23rd, 3-5pm

Línda Perla-Giron’s installation Corn-munion is a work of three parts.

1. At 4pm on Sunday, June 23, "Corn-munion” is a 30 min performance that invites audience members to enter a corny corn-struction of your not so typical typical communion. It’s giving drag. It’s giving Our Father Who Art Corn. It’s giving theater of a mythical self. It’s giving memories that all seem to slip into themselves and become a new history to be passed down instead of digging up what seemed to never be yours to begin with. It's giving a moment to settle into corn-munity care and breathe together — only happens on Sundays.

2. A booklet — handmade with paper made of grass, wood block print, and typewriter ink.

3. An installation archiving the making of “corn-munion” includes journal entries, recipes, drawings,  documentation of pre-performance prep and performance stills.

BRIAN SLATTERY: NEW HAVEN INDEPENDENT
Artists Embrace Change, Trasformation | July 23, 2024

Línda Perla-Giron

Opening Reception Sunday, June 23rd, 3-5pm

Reminiscent Reflection is born in a small attic space. Dark and old, the room is shaped like a capital A underneath the bar in the middle, yet a window facing the street lets in plenty of light. Materials in hand, scraped and collected for intended use of another sculpture, remnants from a recent (de)installation, a noticeable color discrepancy on the wooden floor, and a sanctuary of angled ceiling covered in tearing-down wallpaper seem to be scarce of things to begin with. The air in the room must have been filthy with collected dust and things over time, but the light itself isn’t. A beam of light brings in all the contrasting freshness, springiness, and liveliness from the outside, penetrating right through the hard glass surface.

Some things let light go through, some reflect, some smear and absorb, and some may be a combination of those. Reminiscent Reflection may be a combination of all. Perhaps the clear paint drops hold the light a bit longer, as if taking time to dry into tiny round dots.

Observing the passing time and changing light through Reminiscent Reflection during the daylight sparks condensed memories of certain days, events, or emotions, all in a smoothly progressive yet swift motion. A change of a material state- from solid to liquid, cold to warm, young to old- can be documented simply as before and after, but the process in between is rather ambiguous for a clean definition, thus often referred to as a state of chaos or a journey to the unknown.

The change in state causes us to look forward to the future while also reflecting on the past. Reminiscing how things were is a process of having the solid history melt into nostalgic memory particles. Often with a contrasting present reality and a bit of regret, a song of wishes and hopes commemorating past beauty our nostalgia plays.

BRIAN SLATTERY: NEW HAVEN INDEPENDENT
Artists Embrace Change, Trasformation | July 23, 2024

Esthea Kim is an interdisciplinary artist integrating sculpture, installation and painting. Her works represent a captured notion from memories and express the sensed and theorized through fading and poetic imagery in a visually succinct way. Transposed from her perception, her painting transfers atmospheric vastness into repeated gestural brushstrokes and built up textures. While fleetingly capturing light in-between layers, these brushstrokes combine with hard-edged elements, condensing infinite views and the unseen into a single flattened composition. Esthea’s sculptural objects and installations are industrial yet organic. Focusing on the inherent qualities of materials, she expands the use of prefabricated and utilitarian items into more organic forms.

Opening Reception Sunday, June 23rd, 3-5pm

“The new millennium invites the artist to keep up with its complex understanding of reality. The bridge between painting and sculpture (a philosophical dimension) can be achieved visually with the use of several flat surfaces, canvas strips, optical illusion, and real objects.” -Panaitisor

Panaitisor refers to his work as SDED, neither two-dimensional nor three-dimensional. His work created during the Keyhole Workspace Residency addresses points of scientific breakthroughs and discoveries while literally breaking through a painting’s surface. His reverence to optical illusions beckons the viewer for double and triple inspections for dissection; much as we need to see the world around us, though a critical lens.

BRIAN SLATTERY: NEW HAVEN INDEPENDENT
Artists Embrace Change, Trasformation | July 23, 2024

Opening Reception Sunday, June 23rd, 3-5pm

"One brought fire🔥, One brought frost ❄".

This series of works, primarily made up of Palm stems and fronds were excavated from forest fires, ice storms and deforestation around the country. Some of these incidents occurred just feet from my own home.

The works in this exhibition aim to bring contemplation and new narratives between us and the earth. I believe that the notion of care cannot be separated from the notion of harmony with Nature. I consider architecture, formal elements, traditions of ancient and Indigenous art, and utilizing familiar historical craft techniques as a visual language in which to further explore critical environmental and social quandaries of our time. I aim to build consciousness and healing while emphasizing social impact alongside environmental concerns that reimagine the politics and ethics of care while drawing out a balance between artistic intervention and the raw material.

BRIAN SLATTERY: NEW HAVEN INDEPENDENT
Artists Embrace Change, Trasformation | July 23, 2024

Emily Weiskopf (b. Syracuse, New York) creates a multifaceted body of work that shifts across mediums that include sculpture, ceramics, drawing, and photography. She received a BFA from the Hartford Art School(CT) and an MFA from the Tyler School of Art(PA) /Rome, Italy. Weiskopf’s work has been featured in Artnet, Gallerist NY, DNAinfo, the Contemporist, the Brooklyn Rail and exhibited with M.David&Co(NY); David Hall Fine Art (MA); Shin Gallery(NY); Tiger Strikes Astroid; among others including Deanne Evans Projects Flatfile (2022). In 2013, the NYC D.O.T commissioned Weiskopf’s first large scale public installation, Unparallel Way. Weiskopf was nominated for the Rome Prize in 2011, awarded the Robert Rauschenberg Award 2021, Walter Hodes Memorial Award, and numerous fellowships and residencies including the Artist Pension Trust(2013), Vermont Studio Center (2011/2021), the Wassiac Project (2012) the Atlantic Center for the Arts (2023), ECOCA Keyhole Workspace (2024), Jentel (WY) 2024. She was among the 2021 ReClaim Award winners in Cologne, Germany, selected for Chico Photography Review (2022) and is currently developing a permanent public artwork with the City of Austin, Texas due to debut in 2024.

She has held Lecturing positions at Fashion Institute of Technology (NY), Monseratt College of Art(MA) and Texas State University(TX). In 2014 she was in an 18-wheeler car accident that left her with life-altering injuries and permanent mobility and cognitive constrictions that paused her practice until the end of 2019, shifting the direction of her work exponentially. Weiskopf currently lives and works in the Northeast.

Opening Reception Sunday, June 23rd, 3-5pm

When Morelli decided to downsize his space, he became creative in where and how to work. No longer using models for large scale paintings, Morelli has been sitting at G Café in New Haven, painting outside in small notebooks. He has been working from intense memories of places throughout his life, spanning from California, Michigan, New York and Connecticut. Each work has the date of its creation as well as the location and date of the memory.

BRIAN SLATTERY: NEW HAVEN INDEPENDENT
Artists Embrace Change, Trasformation | July 23, 2024

Opening Reception Sunday, June 23rd, 3-5pm

“Similar to the first cold day of the year, when you grab a coat you haven't worn in a while and put your hands in the pockets, and find a piece of a receipt, a used tissue, a caramel wrapper, and a band-aid, also used. And not recognize who these fragments belong to.

I thought self as something innate, an enduring thread for the most part. Though it is more fragile, self can fragment, dissipate. It is difficult when memory becomes contested or one cannot reason with their doing.

At loose ends, such fragments became tangible comforts. Material had memory, in how a tissue soaked and how an envelope scuffed. It rendered progression.

I have been working these materials into collages. The degradation of these elements is integral to how I contemplate themes of belonging, selfhood, and decay. In addition, I approach this degradation through printing monotypes in succession without cleaning the plate, so the image degrades with each subsequent print.” - Can Yağız

Can Yağız was born in İstanbul, Türkiye, and currently lives and works in New Haven. Can received his Bachelor of Fine Arts from Maryland Institute College of Art, and Master of Fine Arts from Yale School of Art.

BRIAN SLATTERY: NEW HAVEN INDEPENDENT
Artists Embrace Change, Trasformation | July 23, 2024

Opening Reception Sunday, June 23rd, 3-5pm, following a screening of the film “America Unfiltered” 12:30 pm at the Yale Art Gallery

At the height of the pandemic, two immigrant filmmakers – one from Panama, the other from Russia – journeyed across the United States uncovering an unfiltered, unflinching portrait of America. What if we could better relate to one another and heal our nation’s divides by seeing that we share so much beneath the surface? What if we found the courage to ask questions and just listen, overpowering our natural instinct to react?
Seeking to build empathy amidst a fractured country and uncertain future, America Unfiltered sets out on a cross country journey to photograph people and record their stories about what it means to live in America today. Arising from a series of raw and emotional encounters touching on topics from politics and race to love and immigration, the film and accompanying photography exhibition present an unvarnished vision of our shared humanity and engender hope for our country’s next chapter. For more information please visit Marquínez’s website.

BRIAN SLATTERY: NEW HAVEN INDEPENDENT
Photographer Sees America, No Filter | July 16, 2024

Opening Reception Sunday, June 23rd, 3-5 pm

The Ely Center of Contemporary Art is pleased to present new works by the second cohort of the Keyhole Workspace Residency.

Climate change is more than just weather patterns- it connects and affects every aspect of life. Ramón Bonilla, Esthea Kim, Adrian Panaitisor, Línda Perla-Giron and Emily Weiskopf are the five artists in residence whose work examines these many avenues. 

Opening Reception Sunday April 14, 2024, 1-3 pm

FLATFILE features a series of Seth Callander’s pastel drawings.

“These were made at the end of a difficult two year period, and in a way, it was this work that returned me to the studio. They reflect a response to loss and illness, but have come to represent a recovery. I found the way in was in nature, an allegory of our place in the world, and the forces we face. After dozens of them, they began to become sculpture in a figurative sense, and after this episode of working solely on paper, I was able to begin to again to make literal sculpture. These are the bridge between events, and their translation into the structure of the world we live in- in all its seen and unseen dimensions. 

It all starts with drawing.” - Seth Callander

For more information please visit Callander’s website.

Opening Reception Sunday April 14, 2024, 1-3 pm

Sunburnt features Cruet’s video performance 'Sun Simulacrums.’ The title alludes to the history of human civilizations and the use of the sun as a symbol of god, energy, power, and clarity. Ultimately, the performance challenges viewers to reflect on our role in the climate crisis and the delicate natural world on planet Earth. Other works featured include ‘As far as the eyes can see’ print series, ‘Exercises to understand how to be together (Hand open)’, a series of carbon prints, and ‘Without Horizons’, a large scale painting on polyethylene canvas. This industrial material is used in high risk areas and the orange color is indicative of caution and/or danger. Cruet uses these multiple media, which include experimental digital printing processes, performance, and audiovisual installations, to confront issues concerning ecology, geopolitics, and technology. 

Lionel Cruet was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and lives and works in both New York City and San Juan. He received a Bachelor in Fine Arts from La Escuela de Artes Plásticas y Diseño en Puerto Rico, a Master in Fine Arts - DIAP (Digital Interdisciplinary Art Practice) and  from CUNY - The City College of New York, and a Master in Education from the College of Saint Rose. 

For more information please visit Cruet’s website.

Periódico El Adoquín
“Sunburnt” de Lionel Cruet en el Ely Center of Contemporary Art en New Haven, Connecticut, May 9, 2024

BRIAN SLATTERY: NEW HAVEN INDEPENDENT
Artists Stare Into The Sun, 5/16/24

Opening Reception Sunday April 14, 2024, 1-3 pm

Hanlyn Davies is a Welsh-American painter and printmaker whose work has been widely exhibited and is included in public and private collections both in the United States and abroad. His current exhibition, This Bad Apple at the ECoCA, stems from his interest in growing apples in his New Haven backyard. It was observing the natural decay of these apples, while musing about the representation of ‘the apple’ in art, mythology, and folklore, that led to the work in this exhibition. This Bad Apple, 2019-2023, is a cautionary, allegorical tale for our current times. It is visualized in three works of archival pigment prints: one work is comprised of a set of thirteen prints; the other two works are individual prints. Each work uses an apple on its entropic journey to tell the tale.

For more information on Davies’ biography and portfolio, please visit his website.

BRIAN SLATTERY: NEW HAVEN INDEPENDENT
Artists Stare Into The Sun, 5/16/24

April 14 - June 2, 2024

Opening Reception Sunday April 14, 2024, 1-3 pm

The exhibition, Embedded Memory, addresses issues of identity, culture, and the act of making in relation to the Land. Sariah’s work asks important questions about how intrinsic identity informs what and how we make, and speaks to the devastating effects of overconsumption on the environment. This exhibition features work that repurposes textiles and damaged materials into new forms through her printing with waste series. Sariah’s work shows the transformation of material made immaterial, craft as a form of ceremony, and the transfer of energy and spirit into a living process, striving to become in balance with the natural world.

Sariah Park is an interdisciplinary artist of European and Indigenous descent, and an enrolled member of the Chiricahua Apache Nation. Sariah’s work has been featured in Hyperallergic, the Wall Street Journal, Women’s Wear Daily, Vogue, Elle, and Harper’s Bazaar. She is a recent recipient of a Pollock-Krasner Fellowship in 2019, as well as artist grants from Creative Capital, Foundation for the Arts, and the CERF+. Her work is included in portfolios, traveling exhibitions, and private collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. She is currently Assistant Professor of Fashion Design and Social Justice at Parsons School of Design where she has been teaching art and design for the last thirteen years.

For more information please visit Park’s website.

BRIAN SLATTERY: NEW HAVEN INDEPENDENT
Artists Stare Into The Sun, 5/16/24

Opening Reception Sunday April 14, 2024, 1-3 pm

During the summer of 2022, while undergoing treatment as an inpatient at the Institute of Living, Hernandez Rosa read "What You Practice is What You Have" by Zen awareness practitioner Cheri Huber. The book’s primary “practice tool” is a recording of “reassurances”, defined as “True statements, made by one’s center… meant to solidify the relationship between the human being (oneself) and the wise, compassionate awareness (the centered self)”. The book goes on to assign “In your own voice, make a recording that reminds you of everything you need to remember so that you can make the choices you know you need to make, from center, to have the life you know is possible for you.”

“Although I found solace in the teachings of Huber's book during my recovery, I hesitated to create my own reassurance recording. I grappled with the notion that the ego-self and conditioned mind, as discussed in the book, might render statements centered around "I" or self-improvement debased. This artwork serves as my attempt at composing reassurances, albeit straying from the book's original purpose as a practice tool for a self and instead opting to share words apt for love in its pure form, and boundless freedom.” -Kevin Hernandez Rosa

For more information please visit Rosa’s website.

BRIAN SLATTERY: NEW HAVEN INDEPENDENT
Artists Stare Into The Sun, 5/16/24

Opening Reception Sunday April 14, 2024, 1-3 pm

Shedding My Toxic Core Part III is the continuation of work by the mother/daughter duo Yvonne Shortt and Rebecca West. The concepts of scarcity and abundance have become more and more prevalent in how Shortt addresses her artistic practice. Scarcity is found across industries such as art, education, for-profit and not-for-profit organizations; essentially in society at large. Examples of what Shortt defines as scarcity are: competition, gatekeeping, hierarchies, and exclusivities. The concepts of abundance, Shortt finds, are found in “intentionality and freedom as well as sustainability from a financial, emotional, and environmental perspective.”

The act of making art is almost always tied to a material. One must take a material from its natural state to create, often with environmentally harmful means of manipulation. Shortt and West have been approaching sustainability from a materials perspective in their practice. They collaborate with beavers, using their discarded sticks to create pieces for play, conversation, and energy shifts. Shortt and West will continue to investigate these concepts as they invite others to work with them in the gallery space for the duration of their exhibition, using abundance to source their art making techniques, such as creating paint from soil.

For more information please visit Shortt’s website.

BRIAN SLATTERY: NEW HAVEN INDEPENDENT
Artists Stare Into The Sun, 5/16/24

Opening Reception Sunday April 14, 2024, 1-3 pm

Krisanne Baker, Susan Hoffman Fishmen and Leslie Sobel, the three artists who make up the Water Women are established artists whose individual practices focus on water in the context of climate change. 

Flood 2.0 links future apocalyptic flood predictions to the ancient flood narrative of Noah and the world’s first apocalyptic flood. In the original Noah story, the Earth was flooded as a result of human greed, selfishness and immorality. Similarly, the predicted future apocalyptic flooding will occur as a result of the same human behaviors, which, this time, have caused significant environmental damage to the Earth itself. 

The installation is comprised of 3 video projections, 45+ scrolls painted to imitate the motions of flood waters, a make-shift boat, sails and mast, and the performance of a Greek Chorus, which tells the story of Noa, the lone female survivor whose name in Hebrew means “action.” Flood 2.0’s goal is to use art, flood mythology and history to inspire community dialogue on local water issues. Water Women selected New Haven, CT as the site of the project’s second iteration because of its close proximity to both the Long Island Sound and the Connecticut River. The project’s videos incorporate documentary images of New Haven’s waterways and past floods. Flood 2.0 was first installed in 2023 at Five Points Gallery in Torrington, CT, a small inland community with a history of catastrophic flooding.

For more information please visit the websites of Krisanne Baker, Susan Hoffman Fishmen and Leslie Sobel

Reviews:

KAPP SINGER: ARTS PAPER
Water is in the Air May 10, 2024

BRIAN SLATTERY: NEW HAVEN INDEPENDENT
Artists Stare Into The Sun, 5/16/24

Opening Reception Sunday April 14, 2024, 1-3 pm

Exquisite River is a collaborative installation created by members of the Think About Water collective (TAW). TAW includes over 30 environmental artists/activists in the US and abroad whose work addresses global water issues. Exquisite River is composed of 19 works of art evoking rivers. The images are connected to one another to form one continuous flowing river—a river of images of rivers.

For the exhibition at ECOCA, the 19 artists were inspired by the format of the Surrealist Exquisite Corpse game, in which one artist drew a head, folded the paper so it could not be seen, passed it to another artist who drew the next part of the body, and so on until the paper was unfolded to reveal the whole figure. In the spirit of artistic play and mimicking the fluid nature of rivers, the TAW collective has created an Exquisite River.

For the exhibition, each artist created a section of a river in his or her own studio using their distinctive materials, processes and intentions and without seeing other artists’ contributions. The sections were then assembled into one long river that winds across the gallery walls. The goal of the exhibition is to bring awareness to the importance of rivers to the health of the environment and to encourage visitors to appreciate a river in their own lives. 

Personal stories about each of the rivers represented in the exhibition, along with information about the artwork, bios of the artists, and links to their websites are available in a digital catalog accompanying the show. 

Contributing Artists: Michelle Boyle, Diane Burko, Betsy Damon, Leila Daw, Rosalyn Driscoll, Susan Hoffman Fishman, Doug Fogelson, Fredericka Foster, Giana Gonzalez, Fritz Horstman, Basia Irland, Sant Khalsa, Stacy Levy, Jaanika Peerna, Ilana Manolson, Aviva Rahmani, Lisa Reindorf, Meridel Rubinstein, Leslie Sobel, Naoe Suzuki

For more information please visit the TAW website.

DONNA DOHERTY: CT INSIDER
Artists Think About Water in New Haven art show. Exhibit has special meaning for Branford artist, May 7, 2024

KAPP SINGER: ARTS PAPER
Water is in the Air May 10, 2024

BRIAN SLATTERY: NEW HAVEN INDEPENDENT
Artists Stare Into The Sun, 5/16/24

Opening Reception Sunday April 14, 2024, 1-3 pm

The Ely Center of Contemporary Art is pleased to present BLACKOUT, a collection of 13 lino prints created by the Nua Collective. Scattered around the world, Nua Collective is a group of professional visual artists that collaborate together to create, share and support one another in their journey as artists. BLACKOUT marks our first physical exhibition.

Featuring 13 artists, this exhibition presents a unique series of lino prints that, in their creation and processing, have traveled the globe. Together, it makes an inquiry about our climate catastrophe and the energy crisis that we face once again.

The climate-related events of last summer have brought a stark realization to Nua Collective, as artists and viewers, forcing them to confront the harsh realities of humankind's impact on the planet. This series of work serves as a poignant reminder of the blackout they experience regarding the urgent need to address the problems that contribute to a steadily warming planet and the dire consequences that result. Starting with discussions and sharing, like all concepts explored by Nua Collective, they digitally came together to understand and consider the theories and ideas that formed BLACKOUT.

Independently, each artist created their works using various materials, such as painting, photography, pastel and other mixed media. Digitally rendered, the final pieces were sent to Scotland, where Nua Artist Robert Jackson laser cut negatives of these artworks and using a 19th- century, traditional Colombian printing press, created unique editions that form the BLACKOUT exhibition.

Contributing Artists: Christina Geoghegan, Carol Healy, Caoimhe Heaney, Luke Hickey, Robert Jackson, Maria Markham, Paul McMahon, John Murray, Saoirse O’Sullivan, Katrina Tracuma, Eamonn B. Shanahan, Josh Stein, Anne Martin Walsh

For more information please visit Nua Collective’s website.

BRIAN SLATTERY: NEW HAVEN INDEPENDENT
Artists Stare Into The Sun, 5/16/24

Boarders at Boundries

curated by Aimée Burg

Art blurs boundaries, but a glance at the news shows the boundary between interior and exterior remains urgent, relevant, even frightening. ECOCA’s Boarders at Boundaries interrogates the divide between inside and out, juxtaposing ten artists’ work about this split against an arresting wallpaper and light-destroying black that defies interstitial readings.

We’re bringing local and regional artists out West- stay tuned for more info and pics of the booth!

Carol Bouyoucos, Srishti Dass, Opal Ecker DeRuvo, Madison Donnelly, Julianna Foster, Tamsen Williams, Lauren Lee, Jihyun Lee, Caroline McAuliffe, Barbara Owen, Andre Rubin

Opening Reception Sunday February 4, 2024, 1-3 pm (storm date February 11, 1-3 pm)

Marlon Forrester, born in Guyana, South America, is an artist and educator raised in Boston, MA. Forrester is a graduate of School of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, B.A 2008 and Yale School of Art, M.F.A. 2010. He is a resident artist at African-American Masters Artist Residency Program (AAMARP) adjunct to the Department of African-American Studies in association with Northeastern University. He has shown both internationally and nationally, concerned with the corporate use of the black body, or the body as logo, Forrester’s paintings, drawings, sculptures, and multimedia works reflect meditations on the exploitation implicit in the simultaneous apotheosis and fear of the muscular black figure in America.

Press:

CLAUDIA FIKS: ARTSCOPE
Guyana-Born, New England Strong: Forrester & Cromwell Elevate New Haven's Ely Center | March 1, 2024

BRIAN SLATTERY: NEW HAVEN INDEPENDENT
Artists Let In the Light | Feb 13, 2024

Opening Reception Sunday February 4, 2024, 1-3 pm (storm date February 11, 1-3 pm)

Curated by Eric Litke & Peter Hastings Falk

Avant Colony: Unearthing the Westbrook Gallery presents the early history of an artist-run gallery and performance space on the Connecticut shoreline - the Westbrook Gallery, founded in 1956 by West Haven native Aage V. Hogfeldt (1925-2014) a Word War II veteran and 1951 graduate of the Yale School of Art. The exhibition presents original artwork which has not been seen publicly since the period by six artists who constituted the Gallery's core active group in the early years of 1956-64: the aforementioned Hogfeldt, William Kent (1919-2012), Leo V. Jensen (1926-2019), David T.S. Jones (1926-1996), William Skardon (1923-1983) and Robert Alan DeVoe (1928-1992).

Through paintings, works on paper, three-dimensional works, and artist books - as well as printed ephemera, period newspaper articles, photography, and accompanying essay - this exhibition is the first to explore this group of artists and their interest in formal innovation, collaboration, and exchange of ideas. Accompanying the exhibition will be a satellite gallery presenting 1960s paintings by a contemporary of the group, artist Ruth S. Tyler (1922-2006) including works last seen publicly at the Ely Center in 1963.

Avant Colony is being organized in conjunction with related shows at several museums across Connecticut devoted to the work of individual Westbrook Gallery artists.

Leo Jensen exhibition at the Florence Griswold Museum details HERE

Leo Jensen exhibition at the Lyman Allyn Art Museum details HERE

Dalia Ramanauskus exhibition at the Mattatuck Museum details HERE

William Kent retrospective scheduled to open at the New Haven Museum in spring 2024.

Press:

KATIE PELLICO & CATHERING SHEN: CONNECTICUT PUBLIC RADIO
'Avant Colony': Celebrating the history of avant-garde art-making in Connecticut | March 18, 2024

BRIAN SLATTERY: NEW HAVEN INDEPENDENT
Ely Center Opens Window to Art Scene's Past | Feb 22, 2024

Threads of Memory, Beach’s latest installation, consists of large quilt tapestries and a site specific altar. Beach uses quilting and portraiture as a means to connect with the what it means to be black in America.

“My work is rooted in the rich tradition of African storytelling, a thread that runs through each piece I create. My ancestors and those of the African Diaspora are honored in my work, and through performance and installation art, I build sacred spaces for their souls to rest. My ultimate goal as an artist is to transform the horrific into the beautiful, to take the pain and trauma of the Black experience and turn it into something that inspires and uplifts. Recent and historical events related to the African-American experience and anti-Blackness inspire my work, driving me to explore these themes in new and thought-provoking ways.”

PATRICIA GRANDJEAN: DAILY NUTMEG
Everything and More | Nov 28, 2023

BRIAN SLATTERY: NEW HAVEN INDEPENDENT
Three Artists Follow the Moves | Dec 5, 2023

The Ely Center of Contemporary Art is pleased to present Andree Brown: Leaves of Durham. There will be a reception from 1 pm to 5 pm on Sunday, November 12. This event is free and open to the public. 

Brown’s sculptures are organic, abstract, and influenced by forms she finds outside. In her latest series of work, Leaves of Durham, Brown is playful with form and scale, taking liberties with both. Brown’s inspiration came from leaves she foraged in the woods of Durham, CT and has defined their character and given them voice. “There is a direct connection between trees and humans. Without trees humans could not survive and without humans, trees could not live.” Brown uses her sculptures as a means to connect with the natural world and learn how trees communicate with each other and us. 

PATRICIA GRANDJEAN: DAILY NUTMEG
Everything and More | Nov 28, 2023

BRIAN SLATTERY: NEW HAVEN INDEPENDENT
Three Artists Follow the Moves | Dec 5, 2023

Home is a group show featuring work developed during the pilot of our Keyhole Artists in Residence program. Using the former servants’ quarters to provide free studio space, ECOCA invited artists Amartya De, Lesley Finn and Vera Wu whose work touches on the subject of home in various interpretations. We invite you to see how working in the attic rooms of a Victorian mansion inspired and supported their work. Come see the dialogues that emerged during their stay.

PATRICIA GRANDJEAN: DAILY NUTMEG
Everything and More | Nov 28, 2023

BRIAN SLATTERY: NEW HAVEN INDEPENDENT
Three Artists Follow the Moves | Dec 5, 2023