Westport, CT - The Westport Arts Center is thrilled to announce the artists selected for its eleventh annual summer member artist exhibition, SELECTS 2017. The exhibition will be on view July 14 – September 2, 2017.
An opening reception will be held on Friday, July 14 from 6 – 8 p.m. at the Westport Arts Center. The event is free and open to the public.
SELECTS 2017 was juried by Charlotte Strick, Art Editor of The Paris Review literary magazine and Claire Williams Martinez, former Chapter President of AIGA (American Institute of Graphic Design) Chicago.
The jurors are also the co-founders and principals of the Brooklyn-based multidisciplinary design firm, Strick&Williams, where they collaborate with cultural institutions and clients in the arts, education, publishing and non-profits.
The exhibition includes a wide diversity of works and technique, including photography, painting, archival pigment prints, and other mixed media.
The jurors reviewed over 100 entries and selected the following eight artists to participate in the exhibition:
- Eric Chiang (Westport, CT)
- Louise Flax (Norwalk, CT)
- William Glaser (Weston, CT)
- Tracy Hoffman (Chappaqua, NY)
- Linda Lindroth (New Haven, CT)
- Xiao Mai Kong (Westport, CT)
- Richard Silverspoon (Hartford, CT)
- Jarvis Wilcox (Westport, CT)
Of their selections, the jurors stated, “The SELECTS 2017 exhibition brings together the works of eight regional artists, each with a very different perspective, but all bringing a high level of formal ability to their craft. We selected these artists from over one hundred entries, based on the conversations we hope their individual works will have with one another in the gallery. While the works themselves represent a variety of media and varying interest in conceptual thinking versus a mastery of traditional skills, we feel that these artists collectively share a common spirit and energy, and we are excited to celebrate their work through the Westport Arts Center and the wider community.”
The member exhibitions are one way in which the Arts Center celebrates the artistic talent and diversity of its artist members. Now in its eleventh year, the summer member exhibition is designed to showcase new works of art by talented artists in the region, and allows collectors, gallerists, and other museum curators to discover new and noteworthy artists.
The summer member exhibition has historically featured esteemed jurors including Douglas Hyland, Former Director of the New Britain Museum of American Art (NBMAA) in New Britain, CT (SOLOS 2016), Richard Klein, Exhibitions Director of The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Ridgefield, CT, and Patricia Hickson, the Emily Hall Tremaine Curator of Contemporary Art at the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, CT.
For any questions the exhibition or other visual arts programs, please contact the Westport Arts Center at 203.222-7070 or visit westportartscenter.org.
About The Jurors
Charlotte Strick is a principal at the multidisciplinary graphic design firm, Strick&Williams, founded with her longtime friend and colleague, Claire Williams Martinez, in 2014. The studio collaborates with cultural institutions and clients in the arts, publishing, education, non-profits and everything in-between. For fourteen years prior, Strick was a designer turned art director at Farrar, Straus and Giroux, where she designed book covers for much-loved authors like Jonathan Franzen, Roberto Bolaño, and Lydia Davis. Her work has been featured in the AIGA 50 Books / 50 Covers show, the TDC Annual Exhibition, Print magazine, and in many books about cover design. The proud owner of a coveted Silver Cube from The Art Directors Club, Charlotte is also Art Editor of the distinguished literary magazine, The Paris Review. Her writings on art and design have been published by The Paris Review, The Atlanticand The Huffington Post. A graduate of Parsons School of Design, Charlotte lives with her husband and their twin boys in Brooklyn, New York.
Claire Williams Martinez was raised by parents who worked for the United Nations, so her humanitarian interests were formed early in life. As a graphic designer she loves to work with clients who have community, art, and education at heart, and she pursues work with this focus. Claire's career began with five years in New York book publishing, where she designed covers for the trade paperback imprint Vintage Books. Love and marriage then took her to Chicago, where she spent her first three years working with the talented teams at VSA Partners, building corporate communications campaigns. This indispensable experience was followed by a joyful five years designing for museums and cultural institutions at Studio Blue. In the last two years, before returning to New York, Claire was honored to serve AIGA Chicago as Chapter President. In 2014 Claire founded the design studio Strick&Williams with her colleague and art school friend, Charlotte Strick, where the quest for culturally meaningful work endures.
About the Westport Arts Center
The Westport Arts Center, a nonprofit organization dedicated to connecting community through the arts, reaches more than 11,000 people annually through outstanding programs in visual arts, arts education, and the performance arts of Chamber music and jazz.
The Westport Arts Center also receives philanthropic support from the Katherine and Howard Aibel Foundation; Anthropologie & Co.; Artur and Heida Hermanns Holde Foundation, Inc.; Bernstein Private Wealth Management; Cohen and Wolf, P.C.; Connecticut Office of the Arts; Critical Mix; Delamar Southport; Design Within Reach; Dragone Motor Cars; Fairfield County Bank; Fairfield County's Community Foundation; Fairfield County Hunt Club; 4th Row Films; GWAY Print Solutions; Hal Prince Music; the Hall Art Foundation; The Hofstetter Baron Group; J.P. Morgan; Land Rover/Jaguar of Fairfield; Moffly Media; Newman’s Own Foundation; Northeast Tent; Random Acts; Rosenkranz Foundation; Serena & Lily; Shack Sackler Foundation; Sontag Advisory LLC; Steven Mancini Salon; Success Printing & Mailing; Teich Gardens; Tito's Handmade Vodka; Verde Energy USA, Inc.; Wells Fargo Advisors; Westport Now; Westport Resources, a division of United Capital; William J. Rosenbloom Charitable Trust; WPKN and WSHU Public Radio Group.
For 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.