Kevin Van Aelst, The Dream of Tears That Floated Away
Opening Reception: Sunday, June 27, 4 - 6 pm
Kevin Van Aelst
John Arabolos
Allison Baker
Gordon Skinner
Jeff Slomba
ECOCA’s Solos 2021 series highlights featured artists selected from our 2021 Open Call. These concurrent solos are presented in tandem with fu·tur·olo·gy and our Creative Collision Artist, Yvonne Shortt.
Summer Public Hours
Sundays 1 - 4 pm
Mondays 1 - 4 pm
Wednesdays 1 - 4 pm
Thursdays 1 - 8 pm
& By Appointment
BRIAN SLATTERY : NEW HAVEN INDEPENDENT
Artists Go Solo At Ely Center | June 17, 2021
Kevin Van Aelst (CT) creates photographs and construction that attempt to reconcile his physical surroundings with the fears, fascinations, curiosities, and daydreams occupying his mind. His work consists of common artifacts, materials, and scenes from everyday life, which have been rearranged and reassembled into various forms, patterns, and illustrations. The images aim to examine the distance between where his mind wanders to and the material objects that inspire those fixations. Equally important to this work are the ‘big picture’ and the ‘little things’—the mundane and relatable artifacts of our daily lives, and more mysterious notions of life and existence.
John Arabolos (CT) is a photographer and installation artist investigating our natural world and the way we perceive and relate to it. He describes his work as being about “the metaphysical act of experiencing and becoming.” Arabolos’ work highlights the chaotic patterns of nature, using symmetry as a tool to highlight these abstractions and compel them into a state of order. The featured “Covid 19 - Spiral of Fire” is a record of the pandemic nights Arabolos spent in front of his fireplace; the burnt remnants of each previous night’s fire were collected and assembled into the current spiral formation.
Allison Baker (MN) is a multimedia artist seeking to actualize abstract theoretical concepts as tangible objects. She utilizes sculpture, video, new media, and medical narrative of “environmental illness” to examine the competing scientific paradigms that currently, but contradictorily, define and govern the “health” and “normalcy” of our post-digital bodies and homes. The thematic subtext of her work revolves around cleaning, caregiving, and labor, while also folding in larger themes of feminist praxis.
Gordon Skinner (CT) is a painter and installation artist exploring the oppression of black communities, specifically in reference to black creatives. His 3/5’s of a man poor-traits solo exhibit is a study of conceptualism, in which the concept or idea involved in his work take precedence over traditional aesthetic, technical, and material concerns. 3/5’s speaks to lack of inclusion and underrepresentation of black artists in museums and other artistic institutions, not as a complaint but a powerful display of proud individuality. Skinner challenges that art is not just a pretty picture, but rather a unique snap shot or point of view of how the individual’s world and personal experiences shape and inform creative expression.
Jeff Slomba (CT) is a sculptural artist whose work zeroes in on figures seeking or facing states of transformation. His use of plastic buckets simulates medieval roundels and Renaissance tondos, reflecting his love of art history. His compositions are also infused with contemporary references and concerns pertaining to sustainable materiality and the effects of a virtual existence. His “narrative puzzles” invite the viewer to ponder both the promise and peril of contemporary material existence.