Exhibits Opening in September at Silvermine Challenge the Boundaries of Perception

7/29/2019 Exhibits Opening in September at Silvermine Challenge the Boundaries of Perception

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

1037 Silvermine Road New Canaan, CT 06840 Phone: 203-966-9700 www.silvermineart.org

Contact: Robin Axness

Director, Marketing & Development203-966-9700, ext. 18

[email protected]

EXHIBITS OPENING IN SEPTEMBER AT SILVERMINE ARTS

CENTERCHALLENGE THE BOUNDARIES OF PERCEPTION

August 2013 --- The set of exhibits opening at Silvermine Arts Center, located in New

Canaan, CT September 15th

will challenge the boundaries of perception. There will be a

group exhibition which questions assumptions of what a book can be to; Amy Bildens

tactile domestic inspired sculptures; and the symbolically rich mixed media nature-based

work of Christine Aaron. The opening reception will be on Sunday, September 15th

from

2pm to 4pm. The exhibitions run through October 26th

.

Christine Aarons new exhibit Liminal States: Beneath the Surfacefocuses on themesof memory, loss and the passage of time in this rich mixed media nature-based work.

Trees serve as a metaphor for the cycle of life; symbols of dormancy, growth, strength

and renewal. Trees hold the record of their lives in their rings. These inner marks

remain hidden from view, the way humans hold within the physical, mental and

emotional marks of personal experience, states Aaron. This intellectual and emotional

content directly guides the artists selection of materials, technique and imagery.

Printmaking and encaustic allow me to develop through layering much the way human

perception and memories are formed, and convey a visual sense of the action of the

archeological act of recollection. I embed, deconstruct and reconstruct images

approximating the way in which we re-visit and re-evaluate our memories and

experiences as we ourselves change. Metals are rusted and oxidized so that time itself

becomes an integral part of the completed work.
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]


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Christine Aarons award winning artwork has been exhibited widely at museums and

galleries, including Kenise Barnes Fine Art (Larchmont, NY), Hunterdon Museum of Art

(Clinton, NJ), Westchester Community College (Valhalla, NY), Pen and Brush Gallery

and Gallery 928 (Manhattan). In Connecticut, she has been featured at the Center for

Contemporary Printmaking (Norwalk), Flinn Gallery (Greenwich), Bendheim Gallery

(Greenwich), Silvermine Arts Center Galleries (New Canaan), and Ridgefield Guild of

Artists (Ridgefield). In Massachusetts she has exhibited at A Gallery, Gallery Ehva and

ArtCurrent(Provincetown). She is a member of the Silvermine Guild of Artists (New

Canaan, CT), the Center for Contemporary Printmaking (Norwalk, CT), the RidgefieldGuild of Artists (Ridgefield, CT), the National Association of Women Artists (New

York, NY) and the Mamaroneck Artists Guild (Mamaroneck, NY). With a BS from

Cornell University and MSW from Hunter College, Christine currently lives and

maintains a studio in New York.

The themes for Norwalk artist, Amy Bildens new exhibit, Inheritance,revolve around

domesticity, including topics such as identity, sexuality, gender, and care giving. Her

tactile domestic inspired sculptures map the artists emotional and physical space, using a

monotonous process in which she connects her internal and external landscapes. Simple

daily household tasks can prompt a current theme in her art making. Material usage is

important because of its innate history and meaning. Cultural and personal ideas of

home life are constantly appearing in all that I create and are enhanced by the daily tasks

and work I am employed to do, says Bilden of her art work.

Bilden received her BFA from the University of Montana and participated in artist-in-

residence programs in India at the Lotus Art Centre and the Global Arts Village, upon

graduation. In 2011, Amy was awarded the Artist Fellowship Grant from the Department

of Economic and Community Development, Connecticut Office of the Arts as well as an

emerging artist grant from the St. Bolotof Foundation. She has had solo and group


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exhibitions at galleries and venues such as the Brink Gallery (Missoula, MT), Saint

Botolph Club Foundation (Boston, MA), Brooks Brothers (Greenwich, CT), Mizel

Museum of Judaica (Denver, CO), Prince Street Gallery (NYC), Gravity Artworks

(Norwalk, CT) and Loft Artists Association (Stamford, CT). Her works are also in

permanent collections, including the Montana Museum of Arts in Culture and Lotus Art

Centre in New Delhi, India. Actively involved in the arts community in Fairfield County

curating and exhibiting, Amy Bilden currently teaches art in Greenwich.

The Guild Group show, Beyond the Book,questions assumptions of what a book can

be. Seven artists: Kerry Brock, Shiela Hale, Barbara Harder, Stephanie Joyce, ElisaKhachian, Claudia Mengel and Susan Newbold, use the concepts, craft and content of

books as a springboard to create artworks that go beyond the book. Six of us are here

because of the seventh, Susan Newbold, who inspires the journey through the expansive

Illuminated Journal workshops. Working individually and in collaborative

conversations, employing a wide range of media, the group set out to explore and

elaborate diverse pathways to and from the book. The result includes paintings, prints,

drawings, sculpture and furniture.

The work of Weston artist, Kerry Brock, explores the mysterious connections that bind

human beings in this realm, and perhaps others. The day I learned to make an artist

book was a sky parting, of sorts, a new framework for self-expression that leveraged the

exacting craft skills I learned as a child growing up on a farm. Craft and art are revealed

on the covers, the hand painted papers, the sewing and the objects she worked into each

design. Her book designs have evolved in larger scale drawings and as book-width strips

of painted paper, mylar, and canvas, manipulated into three dimensional compositions.

They represent a new version of connectedness; Beyond the Book yet, at the same time,

very much of it. Bold graphics, story telling and landscape influence Brocks art

practice, steeped in personal and professional history. Wherever she has roamed, Kerry

has pursued the arts.


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For artist Shiela Hale, books are an important part of her life as texts for reading, as

handmade artists books and as sculptural objects. I fabricate tables and shelves, which

are used to display or contain books, both in my artwork and in every day use. It is of

particular interest to me to challenge the boundaries between fine and functional art,

between art and design. The natural world has always been to me a source of wonder and

refuge as well as artistic inspiration. Ephemeral natural materials are frequently

included in Hales work to convey a sense of intimacy and collaboration with nature

rather than detached observation. A resident of Katonah, NY, Hale studied art at

Syracuse University and received her BA from Pace University and her MA from SarahLawrence College. She has been making art all of her life.

The cycle of life is presented in the works by New Canaan artist, Stephanie Joyce: the

ephemeral to the ethereal. In my work forBeyond the Book, strands of poetry are

intertwined with organic form and dream symbols through a series of bookbinding

techniques including the Coptic, Accordion and Piano Hinge. Paper lithographs of

landscapes at dusk are printed on a variety of metals and Japanese papers, and combined

with smoke paintings to evoke the mysterious quality of nature and her cycles. Stephanie

earned her BFA at the Parsons School of Design in NY. Following her studies in Paris,

she worked as a designer and colorist in New York City. Primarily influenced by her

mother, an artist, and her fathers love of nature, both her parents fostered a deep rooted

appreciation of the natural world in Stephanie.

I work from real life, which I so enjoyed doing for the work in the books, says Fairfield

artist Elisa Khachian. I record, report, collect, arrange and rearrange, using my color

placement and symbols to tell the stories. As I become involved physically, emotionally

and intellectually with the subject, it becomes an extension or reflection of me. It is close

to my heart. A graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design with a BFA, Khachian

has had solo and group exhibitions throughout Connecticut. Her main medium is


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watercolor, an invitation to intimate, spontaneous expression. Line is her strongest

design element, trying to be sensitive to gesture and placement. For Elisa, there is no

separation between work and life; the satisfactions are deep and long lasting.

Claudia Mengel, an accomplished painter and printmaker, has said about her work, that

it comes from not looking, but experiencing the world around me, and then translating

these visual and emotional perceptions. With every creation, there is a new discovery, a

new problem, a new solution. Every time I approach the blank white space, I take a

unique journey always unlike the last, and never like the next. It is what keeps me

coming back. A resident of Westport, Mengel received her degree in printmaking fromthe Brainerd Art School at the State University of New York at Potsdam and has

continued her studies at the Art Students League in NY, the Silvermine Arts Center,

Center for Contemporary Printmaking and the Darien Art Center, as well as with private

teachers. She has been studying, instructing and making art for many years and began

concentrating on her art full time when she left her corporate career as Vice President of

Creative Services at J.P. Morgan Chase eight years ago.

In talking about her work in the exhibit, New Haven artist, Barbara Harder uses her

observations of nature, and through the process of printmaking, transforms ordinary

images with unusual juxtapositions. Peripatetic lines dance across the wall on billowing

Asian papers. Soft pools of color puddle on plexiglass panels. More layers hide beneath

wooden veneers. The dialogue of disparate yet related imagery offers the viewer both a

sense of energy and serenity. Harder received her BA in Studio Art from Marymount

College and her graduate study in Printmaking at Southern Connecticut State University

in New Haven. She currently heads the Printmaking Department at the Creative Arts

Workshop in New Haven, CT and teaches at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, CT. She

has been a guest lecturer/instructor, curator, visiting artist and consultant at many

educational institutions, in addition to being the recipient of numerous awards, and is

represented in private, corporate and museum collections.


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Susan Newbold is an award-winning mixed media artist who has exhibited, taught and

studied extensively within the U.S. and abroad. Her work has been collected by private

donors as well as institutions, and she has exhibited at several regional museums,

galleries and art centers. A resident of Fairfield, Newbold has said of her work for this

exhibit: Keeping an illuminated journal has been part of my artistic practice for the past

15 years. Discoveries made while working in these journals have opened up an entirely

new process to me, including ways of approaching line, composition, color, and content.

Ive distilled these experiences into enlarged gicle prints; layered them with multi-media

for a fresh dimension. This expression helps me to translate a complex world beyond the

book. Susan received her BA in Studio Art from Principia College in IL and her MFAin Visual Art from Vermont College. Her final project, an artist book, was acquired by

the Chicago Institute of Art.

For more information about this exhibit and other events at Silvermine Arts Center, visit

out website atwww.silvermineart.orgor call 203-966-9700.

About Silvermine Arts Center

Silvermine Arts Center located in New Canaan, Connecticut is one of the oldest artist

communities in the United States. Located on a four acre campus, the center consists of a

nationally renowned artist guild, award winning school of art offering multi-disciplinary

art classes for all ages, an art and fine crafts shop and galleries, offering over twenty

contemporary and historic exhibitions annually. The center also provides innovative free

and subsidized arts education in Norwalk and Stamford schools through its outreach

program, Art Partners; and hosts a lecture series, performances, and special programs

throughout the year. Silvermine Arts Center is a nonprofit organization.

Sil vermi ne Ar ts Center M ission
http://www.silvermineart.org/http://www.silvermineart.org/http://www.silvermineart.org/http://www.silvermineart.org/


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Grounded in the belief that art is vital to the spirit, creativity and wholeness of human

beings, the mission of Silvermine Arts Center is to cultivate, promote and encourage

growth through the arts; to showcase and serve artists; and to foster arts education and

appreciation opportunities for the greater community.

Gallery Hours: Silvermine Galleries are open Wednesday through Saturday, 12p.m. to 5

p.m. and Sunday from 1pm to 5 p.m. For more information, call (203) 966-9700 ext. 20

or visit the website:www.silvermineart.org.
http://www.silvermineart.org/http://www.silvermineart.org/http://www.silvermineart.org/http://www.silvermineart.org/

Exhibits Opening in September at Silvermine Challenge the Boundaries of Perception

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