Guild Artists Collaborate For Five Theme Shows At Silvermine

NEW CANAAN — Silvermine Gild artists will launch their first multi-theme exhibition with a public opening reception on February 11 from 2 to 4 pm. Continuing through March 18, the exhibition features five different shows, each with a unique, provocative theme conceived and developed by several individual Guild members working in collaboration. Guild members were invited to submit proposals for a theme exhibit. The five concepts, selected by a jury of artists, are entitled “NEOmadonna,” “Industrial Archeology,” “Winter White,” “Art Noir” and “Back Home, Away from Home.”

“NEOmadonna” features work by Leslie Guiliani, Eve Stockton, Joan Wheeler and Patrick Maisano. The four stylistically diverse artists have created a total environment comprised of paintings, drawings, mixed media and sculpture to explore the many images conjured by the potent word “Madonna.” Raphael’s classic image of Madonna serves as inspiration for both modern and historical interpretations.

While the term “Industrial Archeology” explores the evolution of modern industry using scientific methodology, American artists have interpreted industry with their passions for the Silvermine show. From Charles DeMuth’s early 20th Century vision of grain elevators being as monumental to America as the great pyramids were to ancient Egypt, artists have celebrated the machine and factory with such originality that America is the only country in the world with a tradition of industrial landscape painting.

Silvermine’s “Industrial Archeology,” exhibit, which combines jewelry design, sculpture, paintings, drawings and assemblage, has several subthemes. In “The Age of Steam,” Jim Felice — a sculptor, craftsman and “amateur industrial archeologist” who operates a professional auto body shop — has created sculptures derived from his old steam locomotive smokestacks.

In “Automania and Other Artifacts,” drawings by Bob Keating render automobiles and their eager consumers with biting humor. Works by Alex McFarlane, Christy Gallagher and Robert Dancik complete the installation.

“White Winter” is a metaphor allowing the viewer to move toward an inner space. Painters Lou Hicks and Juliet Holland and sculptor Sharon Wandel have chosen the theme to reflect the deep impact of their shared experience in Japan with Japanese artists and the profound effect of the quiet and meditation of Japanese culture.

“Art Noir,” a show of black and white narrative images and sculpture, explores psychologically charged subject matter using visual allegory and/or metaphor. Sculptor David Boyajian, painter Ann Chernow and painter/printmaker Mitchell Friedman say their goal is to emphasize the directness of the images, and the “message or moral of the stories is hidden in the shadows as something to be deciphered by the individual viewer.”

In “Back Home, Away from Home,” Nash Hyon and Tertuliano Delgado express through postcard-sized photographs, toned, hand colored and transferred images, the various concepts of “What is Home?” and “Where is Home?”

Focusing on Italy, which has felt like home to Ms Hyon since her first visit in 1990, and the Cape Verde Islands off the coast of West Africa, which was the birthplace of Mr Delgado, the artists explore the many factors that makes anyone feel at home; among them the culture, language, memories, pace, look or light in a particular place.

Silvermine Galleries are open Tuesday through Saturday from 11 am to 5 pm, and Sunday from 1 to 5 pm. The galleries are at 1037 Silvermine Road in New Canaan. For further information, call 203/966-5617.