KLG Holiday Show Starts The Party

The subjects of Julie Fraenkel’s Party Girls are as the subject says. One after the other, they’re portraits of fun, leisure, unwinding. One of them dances with a lampshade on her head. Another arrives with a large piece of cake and an expression on her face that suggests that she knows the recipient of that slice is going to first politely refuse such a large slice, then acquiesce and eat the whole thing. A third is being borne aloft by balloons. The general public will never know what one party girl was doing, however, because that piece has already been sold.

Fraenkel’s pieces are part of Kehler Liddell’s annual holiday show, this year called ​“Celebrate!” and running at the Westville gallery through Dec. 24. Each of the 26 participating artists has multiple pieces for people to take home, both originals and prints. As in years past, the show also serves as a snapshot of several gallery members at once, as they put their best feet forward for the holiday season.

Near Fraenkel’s pieces, for example, is Amanda Duchen’s Bulbous Beasties Collection, emblematic of Duchen’s sculptural style in their playfulness and friendliness as well as the skill with which they’re executed. There’s also a magnifying effect of the fun it is looking at them as a series — the variety among them invites the viewer to appreciate the small details of each one.

Brian Flinn’s pieces are playful in a different and somewhat more sinister way, titling more sharply into the surreal. The work of the three artists, however, works together. Flinn’s pieces help bring out the seriousness of intention in Fraenkel’s and Duchen’s work, while Fraenkel’s and Duchen’s pieces help the viewer see the humor in Flinn’s images.

Those looking for abstract pieces will find a few options. There are William Butcher’s subconscious-plumbing canvases, which cover every inch in saturated colors.

Amy Browning’s abstract pieces, meanwhile, keep it lighter, her lines and shapes feeling more vivid and kinetic. The two artists side by side help bring out some of each artists’ predilections. Next to Browning’s paintings, Butchers pieces come across almost like still lifes of the mind. Next to Butcher’s canvases, Browning’s works are more like stills from film footage, catching a blurry object in motion, already escaping the frame.

Chris Ferguson’s canvas of Savin Rock captures the essence of one of the New Haven area’s most accessible waterfronts (which this reporter, incidentally, has started to make a habit of visiting regularly during the summer).

Finally, Kehler Liddell’s photographers are amply represented, many of them excelling at capturing those small, fleeting moments in strangers’ lives that seem, when held in suspense on a piece of paper, suddenly freighted with meaning. Among them are tiny photographs from Matt Garrett. His Empire is, first, a fun visual pun; it’s just the name of a variety of apple, after all. But something about the way Garrett renders the image makes it a wry comment — on the orchard? on the United States? As with the apples on the branches themselves, take your pick, and perhaps, enjoy them before they fall.

“Celebrate!” runs at Kehler Liddell Gallery, 873 Whalley Ave., through Dec. 24. Visit the gallery’s website for hours and more information.