Ely Center Draws A ​“Full House”

The paintings are as entertaining as they are provocative. It’s not just in the mixed materials that give each of the canvases three-dimensional elements, and bring the clothing to dazzling life, nor is it just in the knowing glances on the subjects’ faces. The titles of the paintings — Ascension to the Throne — Wassup and Coronation Day — Sequel to the Queen — give a clear sense of the inspiration behind the paintings. The old order, the paintings say, is coming to an end. A new aristocracy is coming; one that’s younger, Blacker, and, well, maybe more fun, too.

The sense of hope in the two paintings by The Queen’s Artillery is palpable throughout ​“Full House,” the latest exhibition at the Ely Center of Contemporary Art, running now through Nov. 6. It features works from eight arts collectives — the New Haven-based Connectic*nt magazine, FEED, SomethingProjects, Wábi, and Yale Fabric Lab, as well as the new Port Chester, N.Y.-based arts collective Ice Cream Social, Norwalk Art Space, and the Brooklyn-based sk.ArtSpace — and in its wild artistic diversity, it shows the positive energy that can be created when artists work in community. 

Part of the enjoyment of the exhibition is the evidence of the ways that artists in collectives may swap ideas. The addition of three-dimensional elements that appear in The Queen’s Artillery pieces also shows up in a painting by Symone Wong in the same gallery. But where one artist went with fabric, another went with flowers. Where one piece aimed at a bold public statement, another stays more personal. Both, however, realize the potential of the added elements to break the frame, letting the image not only break the flat plane of the canvas, but spill out beyond the borders of the wood the canvas is stretched on.

It’s possible, too, to see the throughlines in the artists’ work in FEED. The bright colors and boxy shapes in Bauhaus Kindergarten are reminiscent of low-resolution computer graphics. The FEED newsletter on display partakes of the same aesthetic. It all culminates in the next room, which actually features a computer with graphics projected on the wall; in it, the user can manipulate a series of clip art-style graphics to create collages. It sounds simple, but this reporter ended up spending an inordinate amount of time playing it.

Connectic*nt, meanwhile, occupies a secluded corner of the gallery that looks like a small reading room (with appropriate warning that it is perhaps not suitable for children). In the context of the exhibition, it’s a reminder that publications themselves are almost always a collective effort, whether they’re explicitly intended as art objects or not, even as Connectic*nt finds itself one of the more high-profile of the zines on the local scene. Most enjoyable is a mirror the folks at the zine have attached to the ceiling of a hallway; festooned with stickers around the edge, the mirror is big enough to allow a few people to take an interesting group selfie.

Upstairs, the gallery space devoted to the Ice Cream Social collective shows the artists in it to be almost egging each other on, as the room explodes with form, color, and ideas. The media range from paint to found objects, clay to fabric. A bulbous form seems almost to lurch across the floor. Another piece consists of a stack of fabricated books. Still another is a riotous take on a queer pride flag. Perhaps no piece sums up the crackling energy of the collective as much as Nicki Cherry’s Trepans, a series of ingenious sculptures that make it appear as if the art is growing out of the walls. The gallery devoted to SomethingProjects is similarly and pleasantly stuffed, as it pulls details from its statewide treasure hunt collaboration, ​“The Exchange.”

The artists in Norwalk Art Space’s gallery show a predilection for vivid portraiture across a variety of styles, unified by the creativity put into them. Greg Aime’s arresting collage feels like both a recapturing of tradition and a reinventing of it, as if his rearranging of existing pieces points the way toward an entirely new faith to believe in.

Finally, the artists in Kim Weston’s Wábi Gallery are united by a love of bold forms and colors, whether it’s Susan McCaslin’s textured, striking sculpture of a house, Weston’s own swirling photographs, Noé Jimenez’s colorful shapes, or Kwadwo Adae’s luminous painting of flowers, which renders them almost like graphic design while also getting straight to the essence of what draws us (and pollinators) to the genuine article. In the inspiration the artists are giving to each other, and passing along to the viewer, ​“Full House” is filled to bursting.

“Full House” runs at the Ely Center of Contemporary Art, 51 Trumbull St., through Nov. 6. Visit the gallery’s website for hours and more information.