DANBURY, Connecticut — The Gallery at The Visual & Performing Arts Center at Western Connecticut State University, 43 Lake Ave. Extension in Danbury, will present the exhibit “Meticulous: Methodical Approaches to Making Art,” on view October 24 through December 8, 2024. It features the work of artists Darlene Charneco, Kathy Greenwood, Michiyo Ihara, Nathan Meltz, Aliyah Salmon, and Christopher Werner.
An opening reception is scheduled at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 24. at The Gallery at the Visual & Performing Arts Center. Regular gallery hours are Tuesday through Thursday noon to 4 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday 1 to 4 p.m. Admission to the reception and exhibition is free and open to the public; donations to support the programs of the Department of Art will be accepted. Reservations to attend the opening reception should be made online at www.wcsuvpac.eventbrite.com.
This exhibit gathers artists who have a methodical approach to creating art as an aspect of their practice, employing specific systematic procedures, processes, and techniques in the act of creation. These approaches may lead the artist to utilize distinctive media or introduce distinct parameters to their practice, whether in the initial conception of an artwork or in the physical act of making. The methodology may or may not be conscious or by design; in either case it contributes to a compulsory, organic process that is unique to the artist. Participating artists work in a variety of media including assemblage, drawing, printmaking, painting, textiles and sculpture.
Darlene Charneco has developed a ritual process to create her pieces using hammered nails that create a tactile carpet of “hopes, wishes, and aspirations.” Kathy Greenwood works with salvaged textiles from her home and family life, painstakingly knotting and weaving scraps into new, fortified structures that harken to their previous domestic existence. Inspired by nature, Michiyo Ihara’s abstract pen and ink drawings metaphorically explore the dynamic yet transient nature of existence itself. Nathan Meltz uses experimental printmaking techniques that depict industrial and mechanical imagery in his multi-media works, highlighting technology’s ever-encroaching role in society. Aliyah Salmon has embraced the “slow craft” technique of hand tufted rug hooking, where she combines culturally relevant symbols from the Black/Caribbean community that reframe simplistic narratives of Black American femininity. Christopher Werner mines his own collection of studio, workshop, household, and other objects to create a personal nomenclature that he catalogues and categorizes in assemblage and sculpture.
Biographical notes
Darlene Charneco: Born in New York City, Darlene Charneco is a contemporary LatinX artist whose mixed-media artworks explore people, networks, homes, and communities as part of a larger organism’s growth stage. Her work has been exhibited throughout the United States at venues including the Katonah Museum, the Hunterdon Museum, The Islip Art Museum, and the Parrish Art Museum, and is featured in the book “The Map as Art: Contemporary Artists Explore Cartography” by Katherine Harmon. She was awarded the 2017 Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant and is represented by PRAXIS, NYC. Charneco lives and works on the East End of Long Island. Her art is part of the Guild Hall and Parrish Museums permanent collections and she has created several large-scale commissions for private and national collections in Washington, DC.
Michiyo Ihara: Japanese-born artist Michiyo Ihara uses just paper and pen or pencil to create artwork that expresses the complexity of the universe, inviting viewers into a world where a plant’s delicate beauty intertwines with the human spirit’s ever-changing nature. Through meticulously crafted drawings, she creates a visual narrative that explores the profound connection between the fleeting moments of blossoming flowers and the evolving essence of the soul. Ihara lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.
Nathan Meltz: Nathan Meltz is the founder and curator of the Screenprint Biennial, celebrating its 10th anniversary with an exhibition at the Janet Turner Museum in Chico, California, through Dec. 13. He is a senior lecturer in the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences, at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in Troy, New York. Meltz earned his M.F.A. at the University of Albany in 2010 and uses collage, printmaking, animation and other graphic arts to comment on the ubiquitous presence of technology in contemporary life.
Aliyah Salmon: Aliyah Salmon earned her B.F.A. in textile design from Savannah College of Art and Design in 2018 and currently resides and works in Brooklyn, New York. Her artistic focus investigates the intricate crossroads of black femininity and the Afro-Caribbean diaspora in contemporary America. Through textiles and collage, her work challenges and reframes simplistic narratives surrounding Black identity, while delving into themes like isolation, childhood, and the subconscious. Utilizing traditional textile methods like hand tufting with an Oxford punch needle and bead embroidery alongside modern materials and collage techniques, Salmon embraces “slow craft” to construct dream-like compositions featuring tufted depictions of symbols, products, and culturally significant items from the Black/Caribbean community, serving as shorthand for broader discussions on black femininity, hair politics, and diasporic experiences.
Christopher Werner: Christopher Werner grew up in Columbia County, New York, where being in nature and working in his father’s construction business imbued him with a profound, experiential love for materials and process. He holds a B.F.A. in Sculpture and Drawing from SUNY Purchase, and a B.S. in Chemical and Biological Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where he earned the Coonley Prize. Werner utilizes the synergistic benefits of these two disciplines in his studio practice, and as the director of Engineering at Ecovative (Green Island, New York), a mushroom mycelium technology company. He has been artist in residence at Rural Projects (Gallatin, New York), GREEN Projects (New Orleans, Louisiana), SOLAQUA (Chatham, New York), and Arts, Letters, & Numbers (Averill Park, New York).