Artist Photo
“Layers III,” acryllic on canvas, 2012.
When Don Wunderlee moved his studio from Westville to Erector Square, he had to cram into a reduced 400 square feet of space and hang his paintings-in-progress chock-a-block and atop each other.
That constriction gave him some new visual ideas that he now has plenty of room to show off.
They’re hanging in a unique new gallery space in town that is literally a city block long.
Wunderlee’s show stretched only 140 feet; there was room to grow.
Wunderlee’s dozen new acryllic on canvas paintings hung side by side with previous work spanning a decade in the newest show mounted at Gallery 360.
That’s the cavernous and long — - literally a city block long — lobby space of the 360 State Street apartment tower, where the show runs through Aug. 20.
Wunderlee’s newer works, which he has executed without brush but with “alternate applicators” like rags and pieces of wood — stretch only (!) 140 feet all along the northern wall of the space.
Their bright colors rush along vertically or horizontally with cloud formations of darker blacks and blues interrupting the current and changing the mood.
The new works are decorative at first glance.
Yet they also offer a visual side trip into depth of field and hints of representation and landscape for those willing to take a few moments from their headlong dash from the State Street entry doors to either the elevators or to the doors at the end of the corridor leading out onto Pitkin Plaza.
Artist Photo
“Hopper’s Door,” oil on canvas, 2000.
In a city where every restaurant seems to dangle art on walls above tables with steaming cups of coffee, or mounts work in the nearly accessible corridors on the upper floors of a bank, this lobby space is a success. It is brightly lit, spacious, and unimpeded.
Several dozen people attended Thursday night’s opening reception for Wunderlee’s new show, Looking Backward/Looking Forward. In the course of a half hour, at least three paused not only long enough to look, but also to admire, and to buy.
“These began as two separate paintings, and I stalled” on them, Wunderlee said. He was in his new space, much smaller than where he had worked when he ran Wunderlee Art, a gallery and guitar store in Westville from 1998 until last year. (Wunderlee plays and teaches the instrument and also does puppetry.)
So he hung the paintings one on top of each other, lived with them a while in the studio, then rehung them, reversing position until he liked what he saw. He made adjustments. Voila! It worked.
“They sort of had this nice relationship,” he said.
He considered entitling another piece “Please Stand Back,” for the discoveries you make by changing the point of viewing.
In the case of some of his other works, they are hinged together so that you can show them hung in two different directions.
Wunderlee said that came from perhaps his sense of whimsy. “I’m quite a clown,” he added, in between taking checks from two admirers.
Gallery 30 Manager Lennox with the Cat Balco 40-foot mural.
Lauren Lennox (pictured), who runs Gallery 360 as part of her managerial responsibilities, said she chooses shows based on, among other criteria, what she thinks will give pleasure to residents and their guests, and their feedback.
It’s a coup for the selected artists because unlike at for-profit or non-profit cooperative galleries in town, a show at 360 State comes complete with up to a $2,000 stipend to cover costs of transportation, hanging and marketing. 360 State doesn’t take a fee; all sale proceeds go to the artists.
“I like the range from dark to light. I like the pops of red and black clouds,” said Westvillian Lynn Price, who purchased “Cavern 1,” her fourth Wunderlee.
Since the building opened, the gallery has shown the work of Oi Fortin, Robert Klopp, and, most recently before Wunderlee, Laurie Auth. Lennox said she always tries to choose local artists from the city or the Greater New Haven area.
The only permanent art in the lobby is the bright dancing orange mural along the opposite wall created by Cat Balco
Next up will be “Something Off the Wall,” the Arts Council’s benefit exhibition, which Gallery 360 will be hosting in September.
