Running concurrently with Solos Shows, Cover Story is an exhibition of contemporary book jacket design by local artist/designers to celebrate the Westport Public Library’s 100^th birthday.



Opening reception: Friday, June 20 from 6:30-8:30 pm

Artists featured:
Leonard Everett Fisher
Ana Rogers
Karen Salsgiver Coveney
Eric von Schmidt
Charlotte Strick

Jacket design and illustration by Leonard Everett Fisher SKY, SEA, THE JETTY AND ME By Leonard Everett Fisher Marshall Cavendish, 2001	Jacket design and art by Eric von Schmidt Positively 4th Street: The Lives and Times of Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Mimi Baez Farina and Richard Farina By David Hajdu Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2001

Jacket design by Charlotte Strick Beijing Coma By Ma Jian Jacket photograph by John W. Clark Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008	Jacket design by Karen Salsgiver Coveny The History Of The Tuna Club  1898 – 1998 Cover art: 1910 map of Santa Catalina island, Tuna Club button. Farrior	Jacket design by Ana Rogers The History of Beads: from 30,000 B.C. to the present By Lois Sher Dubin Jacket image: a necklace of mosaic glass beads and small carnelians from the Phoenician to the early Islamic period [c.400 B.C. – A.D. 900]. Harry N. Abrams, Inc, 2004

The Solos Show is an annual show that features the work of 7 Westport Arts Center member artists in mini-galleries built within the Westport Arts Center Gallery. It is designed to showcase the extraordinary talent within our community and among WAC membership. The jurors this year are Jocelyn Braxton-Armstrong, Liz Dexheimer, Nate Gibbons, Eve Stockton and Karen Vogel.

Artists:
Serge Clement & Marina Kamena
Elisa Keogh
Peter Kinseley
Willard Lustenader
Constance Old
Margaret Roleke

Opening reception: Friday, June 20 from 6:30-8:30 pm
Come meet the artists in the juried portion of the Westport Arts Center members shows.

Margaret Roleke War Series: Missals and more (detail), 2007	Serge Clement & Marina Kamena The Spring, Triptych. 2005-2008
Constance Old Stripe sampler: blue + green, 2007	Elisa Keogh Horizons: Westport, CT, 2007
Willard Lustenader Cut-outs, 3 white, 1 yellow, 2006	Peter Kinseley Morning Light, 2007

An Artistic Discovery 2008 Congressional Arts Competition

“An Artistic Discovery” began in 1982 as an attempt to offset reductions in federal grants for arts programs by giving our creative high school students the chance to have their talents recognized nationwide. Since then, more than 650,000 students have participated in the competition, and the works of thousands of young American artists have been showcased in a passageway to the U. S. Capitol. 

The winning artwork will hang for one year beside works from other congressional districts in the passageway between the House office buildings and the United States Capitol. The winner will receive round-trip transportation for one to Washington, D.C., compliments of Warren Travel of Westport, for the opening reception. The works of the two runners-up from the Fourth District will be displayed in the local offices of Congressman Shays, one in Bridgeport, the other in Stamford.

Harvee Riggs is a New Haven-based artist who creates mixed media assemblages that juxtapose objects, typically within a box.

Color in 3D: Found, Applied & Readymade is a vibrant exhibition of contemporary sculpture and installation by some of today's leading artists, curated by Saul Ostrow, chair of visual arts and technologies, head of painting at the Cleveland Institute of Art.

Opening Reception:  Friday, April 18 from 6:30 – 8:30 pm

Curator's Talk: Wednesday, April 23 at 7:00pm

Public Art in Context Talk: Wednesday, May 14 at 7:00pm

Art in Context Talk: Installation Art: Friday, May 23 at 9:30am


About the exhibition: We’re used to the notion of painters and other two-dimensional artists as “colorists” but when it comes to sculpture, we think mostly about form; color is secondary. The artists in this show use color as an essential organ of their art; color defines the work in a sensational, almost in-your-face way. COLOR IN 3D is an exhibition of contemporary sculpture by artists who use color that is “found” as an inherent aspect of the materials, or “applied” as an additive process, or “readymade” in the manufactured materials used in the work. Some of the work falls into all three categories.

Artists: Diana Cooper, Lucky DeBellevue, James Clark, Lisa Hoke, Russell Maltz, Curtis Mitchell, John Monti, Paul O’Keeffe, Bruce Pearson, Sheila Pepe, Jessica Stockholder, and Guenter A. Werner.

Exhibition highlights:

Curtis Mitchell Natal, 2008	Guenter A. Werner Ballet, 2007	Sheila Pepe Your Granny's Not Square, 2008

The Paradox of Water is an exhibition juried by Mary Sabbatino, Vice President and Partner of of Galerie Lelong in New York City.
Artists were invited to submit works in all media that explore the significance and diversity of water as it relates to beauty, pollution, politics and destructive forces as well as how water affects our lives, other cultures, and all living beings. The exhibition also includes participation by students from Bridge Academy and Greens Farms Academy. Their artwork with voiceovers of student poetry related to the theme of water will be on view the gallery.

Opening Reception: Friday, March 7 from 6:30-8:30pm. Awards presented at 7pm.

Artists:

Lead sponsor: Connecticut Light and Power

Exhibition support provided by: the Connecticut Commission on Culture & Tourism, the National Endowment for the Arts, the O'Grady Foundation, and the Aquarion Water Company of Connecticut.

In the way that the locomotive was introduced into Hudson River School paintings as a harbinger of progress, contemporary artists portray cell phone towers and casinos, or explore aspects of the landscape that is often concealed from contemporary viewers.  Exhibiting artists include Colin Brant, Gregory Crane, Kevin Duggan, Peter Edlund, N.W. Gibbons, Cadence Giersbach, Jason Middlebrook, Alison Moritsugu, Jon Rappleye and Peter Seward.

WAC’s alternative exhibition space features the work of Connecticut photographer Ivaylo (Ivo) Stoilov, who says his images of wooden statuettes share the symbolic content of this ancient and compelling story in a way that “leaves us with more questions than answers.”

Artist Statement:

Last year I found myself sorting through things brought on my table by chance or habit. Several objects were visually intriguing so I decided to use them in a series of sculptural compositions. Since it was not possible to preserve each group as a physical entity, I started taking photographs. Among the objects were two wooden statuettes of a man and a woman. They were the lone human figures in the collection. Placing a red apple between them was a natural instinct. Later, while examining the photographic record, I felt that number of images shared symbolic content reminiscent of the story of Adam and Eve hence the title of the show.

WAC’s alternative exhibition space features a thought-provoking installation of photographs by artist Sandi Haber Fifield. A resident of Westport whose work is in numerous public collections including MOMA, Fifield’s photographs navigate the territory between thinking and feeling:

Like the light that pours through the stillness of a room, outlines emerge, and I frame my vision in the moments presented.  When I glance at a young woman looking out of the airplane window, I see more than what is in front of the camera as I think about the panoramas and possibilities her journey will reveal.

“More than 250 member artists are showing their work this summer at the Group Shows,” said Emily Hamilton Laux, WAC gallery coordinator. “The Members Group Shows and the Solos Show are a strong testimonial to the vibrant creative community we live in. These shows are also a real meeting ground for our artist members, some of whom may be exhibiting work for the first time, while others are established, well-known artists.”