Five Solo Shows At Silvermine Will Launch New Season

NEW CANAAN — Silvermine Guild Galleries will launch the fall season with five solo exhibitions. All will open on Sunday, September 9, with a public reception from 2 to 4 pm, and will then continue through October 7. Three of the new shows are: “The Red and The White,” featuring paintings and prints by Sergio Gonzales-Tornero of Mahopac, N.Y.; “Symbosis,” paintings and photo-transfer works by Roger Mudre of Weston; and “E Pluribus Unum – From Self to Cosmic Consciousness,” mixed media works by Linda Ross of Greenwich.

Director’s Choice exhibits will feature sculpture by Vera Schupack of Norwalk in a collection called “Past and Present,” and a portfolio of etchings by invited artist Michael Mazur in a presentation called “The Inferno of Dante.” Mr Mazur will offer a gallery talk on his work at 4 pm on September 9.

Sergio Gonzales-Tornero’s recent work has been inspired by a visit to Haida Gwaii, the Queen Charlotte Islands off the coast of British Columbia just south of Alaska which he first discovered in 1992.

“I have remained under a spell cast by the world of Haida and the adjacent First Nations of the Northwest Coast of North America. My recent paintings and intaglio prints are based on their imagery, culture and art,” he has said.

Born in Santiago, Chile, Mr Gonzales-Tornero studied in Chile, Brazil, the United States, England and in France at Atelier 17 in Paris. Recent one-man exhibitions of paintings based on the native arts of the Pacific Northwest have included a museum in the Haida village of Skidegate, the Gallery of Tribal Art in Vancouver, and the Museum of Northern British Columbia at Prince Rupert, as well as galleries in New York and Connecticut.

Roger Mudre’s paintings were inspired by the loss of three close friends to AIDS. He says: “My paintings are not so much about their personal journeys or lives, but about the ugliness of the plague that caused their deaths.”

Mr Mudre has coined a word for his work, “Symbosis” which is derived from the Greek sym meaning “with” or “together,” and osis, a diseased or abnormal condition. His powerful images such as roses, dead leaves, and water symbolize life, decay and the destruction of life, and an illuminating gold background represents spiritual development.

Mr Mudre scans photographs and line art into a computer, manipulates the images and reproduces them on a laser printer. The image is then coated with multiple layers of acrylic paint and applied to canvas, facedown. After it dries overnight the paper is removed.

Linda Ross is concerned with the relationship of the human mind or “self” to “cosmic consciousness.” In her mixed media series, her goal is to “present the paradox of mathematics or overt science and the mystery which transcends it – the mystery of faith.”

“I have tried to create an intimate look at two very vast subjects, the Cosmos and the Divine and the duality which lies therein – to penetrate the fog that obscures research and divinity,” says the artist.

In her assemblages and paintings, dialogue from astronauts has been juxtaposed with astronomical data, road maps and photographs as well as text from the Book of Psalms and Morning Prayer. Evoking a sense of peace and harmony, her images are made from a variety of materials including pigment embedded in beeswax, wire, metal, photographs and paint.

Vera Schupack’s sculpture exhibition encompasses both past and present works that are primarily in wood, sometimes combined with string, rope and/or polyethylene sheet.

“The materials I’ve gathered inspire the works I embark on,” says Ms Schupack. “I play with them until a form suggests itself, then the process of building and refinement begins. Although my sculptures are stationary, I strive to express a sense of energy, movement and sensuality.”

Michael Mazur’s portfolio of etchings, “The Inferno of Dante” was inspired by poet laureate Robert Pinsky’s translation of Dante’s Inferno. The collection was first exhibited at Museum di Castelvecchio in Verona, Italy, and then at American Academy in Rome. Last year the series was included in his print retrospective at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.

 Mr Mazur is well known for a remarkable body of paintings, drawings and prints which have been exhibited in nearly every major museum in the United States, including Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whiney Museum, Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art and the National Museum of American Art, as well as in Canberry, Australia, and Musee des Beaux Arts in Montreal.

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 information, call 203-966-9700 extension 20.