Tag: art gallery

New Gallery at Greenwich Audubon opens Dec. 1

The Greenwich Audubon has combined forces with Joel Oppenheimer, the venerable natural history art gallery located in Chicago and Charleston. This gallery is best known for the work of many outstanding naturalist artists and painters including John James Audubon.

The Greenwich Audubon, the first established nature education center in the country by the National Audubon Society has a long history of protecting birds and their habitats as well as teaching people the principles of conservation.

The gallery will be located in the newly renovated Kiernan Hall and will feature four exhibits a year. The first exhibition, opening December 1 explores all the editions of Audubon’s work in the Nineteenth Century. A highlight of this exhibition is that it will show comparative examples of nine prints in the different versions including Havell, Bien, Octavo and watercolor editions. The subjects that will be featured in the exhibit are the Osprey, the Great Blue Heron, the Carolina Parrot, the Gyr Falcon, the Great Egret, the Passenger Pigeon, the Louisiana Heron, the Ruby Throated Hummingbird and the Dusky Duck.

Joel Oppenheimer, president of his namesake gallery, author, and one of the foremost Audubon experts in the world, sees this collaboration as an opportunity to educate and bring Audubon’s rich history to life, “John James Audubon is considered to be perhaps the greatest natural history artist of all time. His body of work in ornithological art is iconic. Collectors and admirers of his works continue to be enthralled with his accomplishments and how he shaped the genre of natural history art. Audubon brought images of birds and mammals to life during his time of exploration and we want his work to continue to inspire current and future generations.

We are grateful to have this opportunity to collaborate with The Audubon Center of Greenwich both in its conservation efforts and in telling Audubon’s story,” said Oppenheimer. It is the hope of the Audubon Greenwich that these ornithological masterpieces will inspire and engage people in the conservation of birds and their habitats.

At the December 1st grand opening reception, Joel Oppenheimer will talk about the significance of Audubon’s contribution to art and conservation. His remarks will begin at 7:00 p.m. Private showings of the exhibit can be scheduled from 1:00 – 4:00 by appointment. All prints in the exhibition can be purchased either framed, or without. Thirty percent of the proceeds from sales will be donated on an ongoing basis to The Audubon Center of Greenwich. The opening reception will be held on Dec. 1 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.

To R.S.V.P. for the Grand Opening on December 1, 2012, or to make a gallery appointment, contact Audubon Greenwich by phone (203-869-5272 x239) or by email (greenwichcenter@audubon.org)

About Joel Oppenheimer

Established in 1969, the fine art galleries of Joel Oppenheimer, Inc. in Chicago and Charleston offer a stunning array of natural history art from the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries, as well as fine art framing, and complete conservation and restoration services. As a natural history art gallery, Joel Oppenheimer, Inc. is dedicated to the connoisseurship of collecting and preserving the art of natural history and celebrating the contributions of the explorers who recorded the flora and fauna of the past three centuries. Joel Oppenheimer, Inc. strives to provide collectors with an unsurpassed selection of the finest examples of prints and paintings from the golden age of natural history art including rare works by John James Audubon, Pierre-Joseph Redouté, Dr. Robert Thornton, John Gould, Basilius Besler, and many others.

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Artist’s Studio Restored

Julius LeBlanc Stewart,
In the Artist’s Studio, 1875, oil on
canvas, 21½ x 28¾ in. Andrea family
private collection, photograph courtesy
Sotheby’s, New York.

To celebrate the restoration of the room at Bush-Holley House that served at various times as the studio of Childe Hassam, John Twachtman and Elmer MacRae, the Greenwich Historical Society will present an exhibition exploring the changing concept of the artist’s studio. Representations of an American art student’s Parisian garret, William Merritt Chase’s opulent Tenth Street studio in New York, Dorothy Ochtman’s view of her father in the studio they shared in their Cos Cob home and the repurposed farm sheds used by artists in Old Lyme: these and other paintings will suggest the wide range of spaces in which turn-of-the-century artists worked and will provide a cultural context for the restored studio.

The studio originally doubled as bedroom and workspace for its occupants. To augment the natural light from windows on the northern and eastern exposures, the owners, the Holley family, added a dormer around 1900. Illuminated by windows on three sides, the room offered views of the abundant gardens behind the house, the millpond to one side and the bustling harbor across the street. Now when you visit the Bush-Holley house, you can more easily imagine the vistas the artists enjoyed.

Dorothy Ochtman,
A Corner of the Studio, 1928, oil on canvas,
30 x 25 in. National Academy Museum,
New York, Bequest of Dorothy Ochtman
Del Mar, 1971, 1749-P.

In addition to depictions of American artists’ studios in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the exhibition presents the models for Childe Hassam’s work in Cos Cob and a sampling of work done outside the studio in the environs by Hassam, John H. Twachtman and Elmer MacRae. A complementary exhibition, Historic Artists’ Homes & Studios, on loan from Chesterwood (the home and studio of Lincoln Memorial sculptor Daniel Chester French), will feature photographs that focus on the fascinating and eclectic living and workspaces of famous American artists including (among others) N.C. Wyeth, Jackson Pollock and Augustus Saint-Gaudens.

Attributed to Frederick MacMonnies
Atelier at Giverny, 1896 or 1897, oil on canvas,
32 x 17 in. Terra Foundation for American Art, Chicago, Daniel J. Terra Collection, 1999.91,
Photography ©Terra Foundation for American Art, Chicago.

A Good Light: The Artist’s Studio in Cos Cob and Beyond will be on exhibition through January 6, 2013. Wednesday through Sunday, Noon to 4:00 pm. Members: free; nonmembers: $10; seniors and students $8 The Greenwich Historical Society Storehouse Gallery is located on 39 Strickland Road in Cos Cob. www.greenwichhistory.org

For area information www.visitfairfieldcountyct.com

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Mattatuck Museum Presents Connecticut Art from the Depression Era Federal Art Project

Beatrice Cuming, Saturday Night New London

The Mattatuck Museum celebrates the opening September 13 of its exhibition Art for Everyone: The Federal Art Project in Connecticut. The exhibition, Art for Everyone, will be on display until February 5, 2013.

During the Great Depression, Franklin D. Roosevelt and his administration set up the Federal Arts Project to create jobs. As a result of this project, 173 Connecticut artists created over 5,000 works of art many of which disappeared. The Mattatuck Museum and the Connecticut State Library have been working together to collect and catalogue both known and unknown works.

George Earle, Bridgeport Parking Lot, courtesy of Southbury Training School

Art for Everyone examines art produced for the Federal Art Project in Connecticut. Ralph Boyer, Beatrice Cuming, James Daugherty, George Marinko, Spencer Baird Nichols, Joseph Schork and Cornelia Vetter are among the artists represented in this exhibit of more than 80 works.

This exhibition is the culmination of a multi-year, multi-part project that was instigated in 2007 by the work of Amy Trout, Connecticut River Museum, and draws upon the archives and data base of the Works Progress Administration artists at the Connecticut State Library. This exhibition places the art and artist in the broader context of American artists during the Depression Era.

Ralph Boyer, Westport WPA Art Committee

Visit www.MattatuckMuseum.org or call (203) 753-0381 for more information on all of the museum’s adult and children’s programs, events and exhibits. The Mattatuck Museum is a member of the Connecticut Art Trail, a group of sixteen world-class museums and historic sites (www.arttrail.org). Located at 144 West Main Street, Waterbury, the museum is open Tuesday through Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday noon to 5 p.m. Free parking is located behind the building on Park Place.

For area information of where to stay, dine and shop visit www.litchfieldhills.com

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New Exhibits Open at the Silvermine Galleries

On Sunday, September 23 there will be an opening reception from 2pm to 4pm at the Silvermine Galleries located on 1037 Silvermine Rd. in New Canaan. This new exhibit will run from September 23 through November 3. The Gallery is open Wednesday – Saturday: 12p.m. – 5 pm; Sunday: 1 – 5 pm. For additional information visit www.silvermineart.org or www.visitfairfieldcountyct.com.

The art show will consist of four superlative artists and includes the work of

Camille Eskell: “Ezekiel Project”

“Dry Bones: Aurora” by New Canaan artist, Camille Eskell from her exhibit “The Ezekiel Project”

A new series of work reflecting the uncertainty, vulnerability and hope for restoring today’s cultural climate in 2- and 3-D media. The series title also alludes to the artists family name before it was Anglicized in the early 1900’s to better fit into American society. Close examination reveals hints of lace designs in her artwork, an emblem of a long-held family business.

“Creature Wood” by New York City artist, Mikhail Gubin from his exhibit “Splintery Configurations”

Mikhail Gubin: “Splintery Configurations”

The works in this new exhibit are all united by one idea, the use of recycled materials, and unified through the use of collage. The artist focuses the viewer’s attention on the issue of caring towards nature and to the earth’s dwindling resources and how it is manifested in our daily life.

“Untitled” by Easthampton, NY artist, Susan Halls from her exhibit “Head to Head”

Susan Halls: “Head to Head”

The scrutinizing ceramics faces fill the gallery with a continuous seam of small sculptures that penetrate the space and force the viewer to confront each piece as if they were looking at a criminal line up. The observer becomes the observed, the faces invite and repel, and hopefully, disturb. No one sculpture is larger than the hand, and the intimate sale draws the viewer in close.

Joan Wheeler: “Time Like a River”

This new exhibit of works consists of figurative, narrative oil paintings exploring mankind’s relationship with the natural world. The paintings reflect the cyclical seasons and interconnectedness of events over time. The title refers to the artist’s belief that events and relationships of today flow by us and become the past, while the events of the future inevitably flow towards us.

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DOMESTIC TOOLS SUBJECT OF CONTEMPORARY ART EXHIBIT AT HOUSATONIC MUSEUM OF ART

Alison Saar

The Housatonic Museum of Art is pleased to announce Reimagining the Distaff Toolkit, an exhibition that explores household tools as metaphor for the social and cultural histories of women embedded in them. Reimagining the Distaff Toolkit will be on view in the Burt Chernow Galleries at the Housatonic Museum of Art from September 6 through October 26, 2012.

The term “distaff” itself refers not only to the tool attached to a spinning wheel to hold unspun fibers, but over time, came to refer to women generally. Solinger points out, “Many of these old tools facilitated….repetitive labor and evoke the various cultural histories of women’s unpaid, often diminished and disrespected status within the household and society. But in the 21st century, at a moment when ‘old tools’ have become aestheticized and expensive, we can look again and see their costly beauty.

Rickie Solinger, an award-winning author, historian and curator, reexamines women’s history by positioning tools used in a domestic setting as the “fulcrum for a contemporary work of art.” The artists in this exhibit place these old tools at the center of their own work: washboard, a dressmaker’s dummy, graters, doilies, an advice book, cooking pans, a basket, a garden hoe, dress patterns, a rolling pin, buckets, darning eggs, a work glove, a needle threader, rug beaters, ironing boards, mason jars and a telephone.

Battle Axe

Twenty-eight artists are represented in this show including Betye and Alison Saar, Lisa Alvarado, Dave Cole, Judy Hoyt, Larry Ruhl, Flo Oy Wong, Debra Priestly, to name a few.

Gallery Hours are: Monday through Friday from 8:30am until 5:30pm; Thursday until 7pm; Saturday from 9am until 3pm; Sunday from Noon until 4pm. For additional information and/or direction please visit our website www.HousatonicMuseum.org

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Botanical Watercolors at Oliver Wolcott Library for Sept. & Oct.

Located in the historic heart of Litchfield, the Oliver Wolcott Library has a long and fascinating history. The library was founded in 1862 and was named in honor of a generous donation from J. Huntington Wolcott, grandson of Oliver Wolcott, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and the Articles of Confederation. His son, Oliver Wolcott served as Secretary of the Treasury under President George Washington and John Adams as Governor of Connecticut.

The Oliver Wolcott Library is located in a house built by Elijah Wadsworth in 1799. Parties were frequently held in the ballroom on the second floor. It is said that President George Washington danced his last minuet in Litchfield in that ballroom. The ballroom was restored by the Society of Colonial Wars and can be viewed upon request.

Over the years the Library has expanded. A modern structure was added by Eliot Noyes who studied at Harvard and went on to become the Director of the Department of Industrial Design at MOMA in New York. Noyes love of modern design, open spaces and geometry is evident in this expansion that marries a historic house with a modern structure.

Among the many programs offered by the Oliver Wolcott Library, art shows are always popular. From August 28th – October 26th the work of Molly O’Neill-Lally will be featured. The opening reception will be held on Thursday, September 6, from 5:00-7:00 p.m.

Molly O’Neill-Lally’s passion for watercolor painting began under the tutelage of internationally respected painter and illustrator, Arthur Getz, through the Washington Art Association. Years of gardening and encouragement from Getz to “paint what you see” motivated Molly to create watercolor paintings of the variety of flowers she has grown. Her gentle brush strokes, smooth shadows and translucent highlights capture the stunning beauty and delicate nature of every flower she paints.

Molly uses a dry brush watercolor technique and smooth hot pressed paper to achieve a clear representation of flowers during precise phases of growth. At times, she will incorporate different stages of development as well as colored pencil into her stunning botanical paintings. After years of owing a framing business, Molly frames and mats each of her paintings to compliment the individual flower.

In the summer, Molly works from live flowers taken from her garden; in the winter she works from photographs, art books and botanical studies to provide the correct information as to what a flower may look like at a certain point in its development.

The Oliver Wolcott Library is located on 160 South Street, Litchfield, CT. 06759. 860-567-8030. www.owlibrary.org.

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