Holiday Exhibit Fills The Walls

Amanda Duchen’s aptly-named artwork, The Menagerie, is alive with energy, comical and dramatic. It’s possible to imagine her creature creations all in riotous conversation with one another. Or maybe they’re individual frames in a reel of film. The only problem: One of the frames is missing, and the space is marked ​“sold” with a red sticker. There’s another empty space in the grid nearby, marked with another red sticker that reads ​“I’ve been adopted!” It’s an acute reminder that Kehler Liddell Gallery’s last group show of the year, ​“Deck the Walls,” is also a sale. The art looks great on the walls, but in time for the holidays, you also get to take it with you.

“Deck the Walls,” which runs through Dec. 22, features the work of over 25 local artists, from sculpture to painting to photography, and from playful and abstract to realistic and serious. The thematic chaos is, of course, part of the point: this show is about what a bunch of New Haven’s working artists are up to, all at once, and it means that perhaps in this show there’s something for everyone.

Those with an eye toward the more whimsical might be drawn to Liz Antle‑O’Donnell’s Portals series, which features depictions of the things you might find alongside any road in America, but imbued with a certain style that draws attention to their status as icons — symbols of something else. In a playfully profound way, they remind us of the way we Americans imbue things like gas stations with meaning (road trips! freedom!), while at the same time, they’re just gas stations.

Amy Browning’s series of paintings, meanwhile, emit a serene glow that seems to quiet the space around them.

While nearby, Robert Bienstock’s abstracts have a kinetic crackle to them. Bienstock’s and Browning’s works in proximity to each other almost suggest a narrative, about the dichotomy between the inevitable frenzy of a workday and the calmness we seek at the end of it, or maybe over the holidays.

Gar Waterman’s sculptures, meanwhile, continue that artist’s fascination with the forms of nature. By making the shapes significantly larger than they are in real life, he brings out what is beautiful and alien about them.

Kim Weston’s photograph is emblematic of her series of images of Native American ceremonies and celebrations. She captures all the energy of the dance while successfully protecting the identity of the subject. Weston’s images let us in, while also reminding those of us who don’t share her heritage or the subject’s don’t simply get to have everything.

By contrast, Frank Bruckmann’s detailed landscapes seek to capture as much as possible, with equally absorbing results. This array of artwork — amid nature and documentary photography and the works of so many others — make ​“Deck The Walls” seem almost like a misnomer. The walls are there all right, but the art seems to expand beyond them.

“Deck The Walls” runs at Kehler Liddell Gallery, 873 Whalley Ave., through Dec. 22. Visit the gallery’s website for tickets and more information.