Three exhibitions will open on January 8 at the Silvermine Arts Center. Work by new members of the Silvermine Guild of Artists will be on view alongside new acquisitions to the Gabor Peterdi International Print Collection, which will include one work from Andy Warhol’s flower series. In Flights of Fantasy and Game Changes, artists Nina Bentley, Kim Hanna, and Jane Lubin explore the hidden truths in myth, fantasy, fairy tales, and games of chance. A free reception, open to the public, will take place Jan. 8 from 2-4pm.
New Members, Silvermine Guild of Artists
The twelve new members of the Silvermine Guild of Artists excel in a wide range of artistic media, and this year’s New Members show will be an abundant and varied exhibition of sculpture, printmaking, painting, drawing, and book art. Frances B. Ashforth’s prints and paintings are serene meditations on the horizon line and the possibilities of immense open space. Chris Perry’s deft and astonishing book-art sculptures channel the whimsical and the architectural, while sometimes having an almost animal presence. American Impressionist Dmitri Wright, a long-time master teacher both at Weir Farm and Silvermine School of Art, brings his light-drenched colors to Impressionism’s cerebral tradition. These three join the Silvermine Guild this year along with Pam Ackley, Jennifer Cadoff, Cynthia Davis, Carolina Guimarey, Caroline Harman, Barbara Marks, Zeb Mayer, Ben Rosecrans, and Priya Tambe. On January 24, the Silvermine Galleries will host a New Members Artist Talk at 6pm.
Criteria for new members of the Silvermine Guild of Artists include excellence of technique; cultural or social relevance, clarity and continuity of style, and professional accomplishment. These artists have exhibited their work regionally and nationally, some internationally. All are exploring new territory in their particular disciplines or media. They join a distinguished group of professional artists comprised of over 300 members who work in a wide array of media and are represented in prestigious museums and private and corporate collections.
An exhibition of new acquisitions to the Gabor Peterdi International Print Collection will also be on view. The show will feature a work from Andy Warhol’s flower series.
Flights of Fantasy and Game Changes
Nina Bentley, Bound, Mixed media, 36 x 36 x 48 inches; Kim Hanna, Once Upon, Mixed media on canvas, 24 x 36 inches; Jane Lubin, Window to Another World, Acrylic and collage on panel, 12 x 9 inches.
As children, most of us have delved with abandon into enchanting games of illusion, fortune-telling, and supernatural powers. In “Flights of Fantasy and Game Changes,” artists Nina Bentley, Kim Hanna, and Jane Lubin explore aspects of magical thinking in a cohesive exhibition. On Feb. 7 at 6pm, the Galleries will host an artist talk with Nina Bentley and Jane Lubin.
Nina Bentley uses humor and irony to delve beneath the smooth surface of society; and yet she sees the joys and mythical elements of relationships. Her assemblage sculptures relate games to issues we face as we move from childhood to old age. Kim Hanna of Redding mines the Golden Book of Fairy Tales for its diary of symbols including black cats and white owls, crows and kings, beasts and nightmares. Card tricks, fortune telling, tribal and folk art, and the Jungian concept of synchronicity all inform her work. In Norwalk artist Jane Lubin's collages of found images and acrylic painting, fantasy creatures inhabit the gray area between cartoons and real life. Societal concepts of beauty and gender issues underlie her surrealistic and often fanciful images. As an artist, she prizes spontaneity for its psychological import. With influences such as Max Ernst and Hannah Hoch, Lubin, an M.D. as well as an artist, says "I create images that gingerly nip around the edges of the problem of how, and whether we fit as individuals into a highly organized, complex society."
The exhibition includes two-dimensional work as well as sculptural elements. Wall and floor space are integrated into a complex game board. Imagined creatures and game pieces cavort in their own worlds, while the works of art reveal concealed truths.
All three January exhibitions run through February 19.
New Members List with town of residence:
- Pam Ackley, New Canaan, CT
- Frances B Ashforth, Ridgefield, CT
- Jennifer Cadoff, Princeton, NJ
- Cynthia Davis, Harpswell, ME
- Carolina Guimarey, Black Rock, CT
- Caroline Harman, Newtown, CT
- Barbara Marks, Stony Creek, CT
- Zeb Mayer, New Milford, CT
- Chris Perry, Ridgefield, CT
- Priya Tambe, Rye, NY
- Ben Rosecrans, Newtown, CT
- Dmitri Wright, Greenwich, CT
Silvermine Arts Center is one of the oldest artist communities in the United States. Its fiveacre campus in New Canaan, Connecticut, consists of a nationally renowned artist guild, an awardwinning school of art offering classes for all ages, an arts and fine crafts shop, and a gallery offering over twenty contemporary and historic exhibitions annually. Silvermine is a nonprofit 501c3 organization that also offers an educational outreach program, Art Partners, and hosts lectures, film screenings, and special events.
Gallery Hours: Silvermine Galleries are open Wednesday through Saturday, 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. For more information, call (203) 9669700 ext. 20 or visit the website: www.silvermineart.org. 1037 Silvermine Road, New Canaan, CT 06840.