Category: Connecticut Travel

The Westport Arts Center is presenting Two Steps Forward: Contemporary Cuban Art, an exhibition featuring a diverse and compelling range of works by emerging and established Cuban artists, on display through June 4.

Two Steps Forward: Contemporary Cuban Art features a significant collection of contemporary Cuban art from the private collection of Greenwich, Connecticut residents Terri and Steven Certilman. The Certilmans, who have sourced pieces directly from the artists during their travels to Cuba over the last decade, are dedicated to promoting the country’s artistic talent.

Steven Certilman offers the following insight into the Cuban art world, “The unique political, social and economic conditions in Cuba have combined to catalyze what may be the world’s highest concentration of artistic talent. Their works are as diverse as the country’s rich cultural heritage. It is said that the eyes are the windows of the soul. Art is the window to the Cuban soul.”

The painting and sculpture in the show, curated by Certilman and guest curator Arianne Faber Kolb, explore Cuban identity, its diverse cultural heritage, and the political climate and its resulting geographical isolation and emigration. The works are expressions of the soul, beauty, and fortitude of the Cuban people, and how they have met and overcome the circumstances imposed upon their lives.

The Two Steps Forward title refers to the current political and artistic climate in Cuba and the thaw in relations with the United States. The lifting of travel and trade restrictions between the two countries has allowed artists to have access to more resources and to gain more exposure. However, change is slow and economic strains continue for much of the population. Thus, the title is designed to imply a reference to the adage, “two steps forward, one step back.”

The artists represented in the exhibition include established figures, such as Abel Barroso, Luis Enrique Camejo, Manuel Mendive, Juan Roberto Diago, Jose Roberto Fabelo, and Kcho. Barroso’s wooden sculptures and intricately constructed mixed media works made of pencil shavings are witty and humorous commentaries on the economic situation. Kcho’s images of precariously stacked rafts refer to the desire and the risks involved in fleeing from one’s circumstances. Fabelo’s monumental and iconic Mermaid’s Dream depicts a sleeping figure (Cuba) detached from reality and surrounded by drifting boats.

The young artists emerging on the art scene and making their mark include Joniel Leon, Harold Lopez, William Perez, and Mabel Poblet. While Leon and Lopez describe the desires of Cubans through their highly crafted drawings and paintings, Poblet and Perez make statements about the Cuban identity by employing a variety of materials in innovative ways.

FFor more information, contact the Westport Arts Center at (203) 222-7070 or www.westportartscenter.org. The Westport Arts Center gallery is open Monday – Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 51 Riverside Avenue, Westport, CT. For more area information www.visitfairfieldcountyct.com

Recent research has noted that asparagus is one of the world’s healthiest foods and that it is being heralded as an anti-inflammatory food because of its nutrients. Among these anti-inflammatory nutrients are asparagus saponins, including asparanin A, sarsasapogenin, protodioscin, and diosgenin. It is also rich in vitamin C, beta carotene, vitamin E, and the minerals zinc, manganese, and selenium.

What better way to celebrate this vegetable, that has been considered a delicacy since ancient times than to go to the 9th Annual Asparagus Festival at White Silo Farm and Winery located on 32 Route 37 E in Sherman on May 21 and 22.

White Silo has planned to serve six scrumptious dishes prepared from their freshly picked asparagus that they grow on the farm. The menu includes: asparagus BLT’s, asparagus gelato, asparagus flatbreads, asparagus frittata, asparagus carpaccio and grilled asparagus with White Silo Quince mustard. Food items are $5 – $6.

To add to the fun, there will also be tours of the winery and farm as well as live entertainment on both days. On Saturday, Guy Tino will perform and on Sunday Martin Meyer will provide the entertainment. This is a child friendly event. Admission is free and reservations are not required.

For more area information http://www.litchfieldhills.com

The businesses in the charming riverside village of New Preston located at the foot of scenic Lake Waramaug have planned several exciting events, sales and art exhibits for the month of May and in early June.

J. Seitz and Co., for example, a fine furniture, accessories and apparel store is celebrating the work of Michael Quadland, currently artist-in-residence at the Ann Norton Sculpture Garden in Palm Beach, on Saturday, May 14th from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. Inspired by the WPA and Ashcan schools of American art, where artists found beauty in unadorned industrial landscapes, artist Michael Quadland uses acrylic paints to create layered, textured abstractions.

For those of you that love to arrange flowers, be sure not to miss the flower arranging class at Dawn Hill Antiques on May 21 from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. This workshop will feature two fantastic talents in the world of flowers and design: Nicolette Camille of The Little Flower School, and Frances Palmer of Frances Palmer Pottery. Nicolette will do a demonstration, followed by a class in which each participant can create an arrangement in their own limited edition vase created by Frances Palmer especially for the class. Tickets to the class are $350, which includes a limited edition Frances Palmer vase, and all flowers. For reservations all 860.868.0066 or 917.767.6384.

On May 28, the Smithy will have an artist’s reception for Ella Crampton-Knox whose artwork will hang in the gallery through July 10. Ella paints stunningly beautiful, light-filled paintings of our breathtaking Connecticut countryside and shoreline. The work of Emily Kennedy will also be on display. With a unique artistic eye, Emily shoots photos of her surroundings that continue to inspire her, including the nature and landscapes right outside her back door.

On June 1, the Private House has organized its annual Backyard Sale at the George Platt Field in New Preston located on 16 Church Hill Road. This event held under a big tent features the wares of many antique dealers displaying all manner of treasures at affordable prices. The tent is just up at the top of the hill, behind the New Preston shops.

For more area information www.litchfieldhills.com

Flanders Nature Center & Land Trust is holding a “Paint the Farm” Artist Challenge, a timed event for artists to create works of art during the popular Flanders Farm Day event on May 21st. This non-juried event is open to all plein air artists working in all media and includes a “Wet Paint” exhibition/sale from 3-4 at the hay wagon main stage. Visitors and art buyers can place bids in the silent auction or “buy it now” to take home newly created artwork. Flanders commission is 30% from Wet Paint Sales. Plein air artists are required to arrive by 11AM and must finish a painting by 2 PM to participate in the judging and wet paint sale.

Both the Farm Day event and the Artist Challenge will be held at the Van Vleck Sanctuary located on Flanders Road in Woodbury. The surrounding areas of the Van Vleck farm offer a wide range of subjects, including historic barns, water views, gardens, antique machinery and farm animals.

Musicians, period correct costumed Colonial and Native American demonstrations, happy families enjoying the fun filled day of farming experiences and many other colorful outdoor views will inspire paintings.

Monetary prizes will be awarded including a Popular Choice award where farm day visitors will vote for their favorite art. There will also be a Natalie Van Vleck Best in Show Award named after the founder of Flanders who was a well-recognized artist. Artist participation is limited to the first 50 entrants, so please register soon. An entry fee of $10 is required at time of registration. Those interested may register online at www.flandersnaturecenter.org or call 203-263-3711, ext. 10, for more information.

For more area information www.litchfieldhills.com and don’t forget to check out our Facebook page!

Franklin Street Works, University of Connecticut-Stamford’s Women’s Genderand Sexuality Studies Program, and Sacred Heart University’s Masters of File and Television Program have collaborated to co-curate “All Byte: Feminist Intersections in Video Art,” an exhibition of video works informed by intersectional feminist approaches. The exhibition will be on view at Franklin Street Works through July 10, 2016.

Feminist conversations and scholarship around the inseparability of class, race, country of origin and other factors when contemplating gender are reflected in artworks that, among other things, encourage viewers to listen across difference and explore matrixes of power. Through a call for submissions, the curators also sought out emerging artists in order to explore “fourth wave” feminist approaches to video and film. “All Byte” features works made between 2013 and 2015 by nine artists or collectives: Michelle Marie Charles, INVASORIX, Kegels for Hegel, Sarah Lasley, Nicole Maloof, Virginia Lee Montgomery, Sunita Prasad, Legacy Russell, and Maryam Tafakory. This original exhibition is co-curated by the Program Director of Sacred Heart University’s Film and Television Masters school, Justin Liberman; Director of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at the University of Connecticut-Stamford, Ingrid Semaan; and Franklin Street Works’ Creative Director, Terri C Smith.

The term “intersectionality” was coined by feminist legal scholar and critical race theorist Kimberlé Crenshaw in 1989. This analytic frame aimed to disrupt the approach of “single axis analysis,” which treated race and gender as mutually exclusive. Instead, intersectional work looks at how social factors and systems of power interlock and shape each other. The “All Byte” co- curators chose videos that exhibit an understanding of intersectionality and a sophisticated or fresh use of the medium. When taken as a whole, these works address gender in concert with many other factors, including: exploring the queer body through a transformative journey; queering of influential, usually white male, theorists through song; placing the alienated female body in surreal parallel to the predominantly white, male tech industry; addressing the contradictions between the lyrics and images in hip-hop videos that often portray women as sexual props; recounting academia’s gendered power structures through parody and art history; exploring inaccurate, race-based assumptions about citizenship and experience; unearthing colonial histories, preserved in the street signs of a small American neighborhood; gender based medical practices; and more. Through the intersectional feminist lens, these artists shed light on systems that reinforce dominance to the exclusion of others and create narratives of inclusion and understanding.

Franklin Street Works is located at 41 Franklin Street in downtown Stamford, Connecticut, near the UCONN campus and less than one hour from New York City via Metro North. Franklin Street Works is approximately one mile (a 15 minute walk) from the Stamford train station. On street parking is available on Franklin Street (metered until 7 pm except on Sunday), and paid parking is available nearby in a lot on Franklin Street and in the Summer Street Garage (100 Summer Street), behind Target. The art space and café are open to the public on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday from noon – 5:00pm and on Saturday and Sunday from 8:00 am – 5:00pm. Franklin Street Works does not charge for admission during regular gallery hours.

For more area information www.visitfairfieldcountyct.com

The Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art is hosting a new show from May 1- February 5, 2017 called Site Lines: Four Solo Exhibitions Engaging Place. This series of exhibitions will also feature David Brooks, Peter Liversidge, and Virginia Overton, presenting site-specific commissions, ranging from sculpture to drawing and performance-based works.

The exhibitions will encompass both the monumental and the ephemeral, intersecting, interconnecting, or mirroring the Museum’s interior galleries and two-acre sculpture garden, as well as the surrounding community. The artists will utilize materials found on or indigenous to the grounds and the area, offering a response to “site” that underscores the institution’s material history and its visual condition by transforming scale and circumstance.

The works will seek to “frame” the interiority of the galleries against the natural landscape while also accentuating the Museum’s unique architectural features, such as a pitched roofline, paned windows, and a room-scale camera obscura.
Viewers will be able to respond to works from multiple vantage points as they move around the Museum’s galleries, grounds, and the environs. Gravel Mirror (1968), a work by the influential artist and writer Robert Smithson, incorporated gravel found on the grounds of The Aldrich, and was a significant touchstone for the development of this exhibition series.

The Aldrich is located at 258 Main Street, Ridgefield, CT. For more information, call 203.438.4519 or visit aldrichart.org. For more area information www.litchfieldhills.com
The Museum
Founded by Larry Aldrich in 1964, The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum is dedicated to fostering the work of innovative artists whose ideas and interpretations of the world around us serve as a platform to encourage creative thinking. It is the only museum in Connecticut devoted to contemporary art, and throughout its fifty- year history has engaged its community with thought-provoking exhibitions and public programs.
The Museum’s education and public programs are designed to connect visitors of all ages to contemporary art through innovative learning approaches in hands-on workshops, tours, and presentations led by artists, curators, Museum educators, and experts in related fields. Area schools are served by curriculum-aligned on-site and in-school programs, as well as teachers’ professional development training.