Norwalk, CT – The Norwalk Art Space is proud to announce its upcoming exhibition, “SIGHT AND SOUND: Artists Consider Long Island Sound”, in the main gallery from June 12 through August 28, 2025. This dynamic exhibition features eleven contemporary artists whose work explores Long Island Sound’s beauty, history, and evolving environmental story—one of the region’s most vital yet often overlooked natural landscapes.
Designed by notable artist, writer, and curator Richard Klein, SIGHT AND SOUND invites audiences to delve into the Sound’s significance through diverse artistic perspectives, shedding light on its ecological resilience, rich cultural history, and striking natural beauty. In designing this exhibit, Klein remarked, “Over eight million people live in the watershed of Long Island Sound, yet for most of the adjacent population, the Sound has a certain invisibility. Other estuaries, for instance, Chesapeake Bay or Puget Sound, are revered and storied. Why has this expansive body of water boasting over 600 miles of coastline—failed to attain the same cultural mystique of its peers?”
Klein’s personal connection to the Sound deepened in September 2024, when he became the first artist-in-residence at Peck’s Ledge Lighthouse, an initiative sponsored by The Norwalk Art Space. His extended time at this historic beacon between Norwalk and Westport provided a unique vantage point from which to explore and study the Sound’s intricate relationship with its surrounding communities.
While the Sound has indeed drawn artists to its shores, most notably the art colonies founded in the late 19th century in Cos Cob and Lyme; a new generation of artists has focused on what former president of Yale College, Timothy Dwight, called “this fine piece of water.”
SIGHT AND SOUND brings together artists who engage with Long Island Sound through a variety of media, including painting, drawing, photography, sculpture, and video. From traditional landscape depictions to contemporary conceptual interpretations, the exhibition showcases a breadth of artistic responses, offering visitors an immersive experience of the Sound’s complexities.
Participating artists include:
- Frances Ashforth (New Canaan, CT)
- Christopher Baker (Brooklyn, NY)
- Marion Belanger & Martha Willet Lewis (Guildford & New Haven, CT)
- Christopher Coffin (Fairfield, CT)
- Keneth Martin (Norwalk, CT)
- Brechin Morgan (Milford, CT)
- Constance Old (New Canaan, CT)
- James Prosek (Easton, CT)
- Duke Riley (Brooklyn, NY)
- Alexis Rockman (Warren, CT)
- Jeremy Slater (Brooklyn, NY)
- Beth Stewart-Kelly (West Haven, CT)
- Catherine Vanaria (New Fairfield, CT)
- Admission is free and open to the public.
- For more information, please visit thenorwalkartspace.org
About Richard Klein
- Richard Klein is a Connecticut-based artist, curator, and writer. He has exhibited widely throughout the US, including two solo exhibitions in 2021: The Understory at ICEHOUSE Project Space in Sharon, CT, and Richard Klein—New Works at Kenise Barnes Fine Art in Kent, CT. Reviews of his work have appeared in Two Coats of Paint, Whitehot Magazine, The New York Times, Sculpture Magazine, Art in America, and The New Yorker.
- From 1999 to 2022, he was the Exhibitions Director of The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Ridgefield, Connecticut, where he organized over 80 exhibitions.
- His essays on art and culture have appeared in Cabinet Magazine and included in books published by Gregory R. Miller & Co., Damiani, Picturebox, Ridinghouse, Hatje Cantz, and the University of Chicago Press, among others.
About The Norwalk Art Space
The Norwalk Art Space is a nonprofit arts organization dedicated to increasing equity and opportunities in the visual and performing arts. The Art Space offers free art and music education to under-served students, sponsors and promotes local and regional artists through their Resident Artist program and exhibitions, and provides the public with an exciting venue to explore art, music, community, and culture. Our beautiful building, ADK House, was named in honor of our founder, Alexandra D. Korry, whose vision inspires everything we do. Since opening in 202,1 we have welcomed more than 60,000 visitors.
Exhibition Support
SIGHT AND SOUND: Artists Consider Long Island Sound has been generously supported by the O’Grady Foundation, ROAN Development Ventures, and the Tauck Family Foundation.