by Nora Grace-Flood | Aug 17, 2020 11:32 am | Comments (3)
Local artists Sarahi Zacatelco, Eamon Linehan, Israel Sanchez, and Joel Celi faced a blank canvas in the form of a freshly painted white bench right outside of Evolution SD Hairstudio on Grand Avenue.
by Brian Slattery | Aug 14, 2020 8:15 am | Comments (1)
On one wall of NXTHVN’s gallery is a possibly already-iconic painting: A Black mother, eyes closed, her hair kept from her face by a headband, cradling only the silhouette of a baby. New Haven-based artist Titus Kaphar painted it in reaction to the killing of George Floyd, and in June it ended up being on the cover of Time magazine.
Facing that image, on the opposite wall, are a series of black pieces of paper that contain faces and words and crossed out lines. One side of the gallery is a short shock; the other is a lake of layers to sink into.
Together, they make up “Pleading Freedom,” a small but deep exhibition of work by Kaphar in collaboration with memoirist, poet, and attorney Reginald Dwayne Betts that has much to say about the condition of being Black in America at a time when people’s ears are prepared to hear that message as much as they have been in a generation.
by Brian Slattery | Aug 13, 2020 9:30 am | Comments (2)
Statues stand together, a small family of them, somehow radiating both fear and total resolve. A pair of shadows huddle under rafters. Another group stands together, bearing witness, demanding to be counted. The pieces are all part of a larger exhibit by New Haven-based sculptor Susan Clinard focusing on refugees, migrants, and border crossings, for a new journal seeking to use groundbreaking ways of representing art to perhaps change hearts, minds — and policy.
Continue reading ‘Sculptor’s Work Crosses Borders, Breaks Ground’
by Brian Slattery | Aug 12, 2020 11:01 am
The crisp rim shot from the snare drum snaps out the beat to start “ReRecorded Syntax,” from Revisionist: Adaptations & Future Histories In The Time Of Love And Survival, the new album by June of 44 and its first in 21 years. The bass joins, pulsing on the groove, followed by two guitars that work in unison to create a mood that’s both urgent and atmospheric. The vocals only heighten the vibe, with lyrics that are both fractured and focused. The picture is clear; we just can’t see all of it. “Without air, still breathing,” the voices intone.
by Brian Slattery | Aug 7, 2020 10:30 am
She stands with a U.S. flag umbrella over her shoulder, wearing a top made from red, white, and blue ribbon. But she’s no ordinary patriot. There’s a spark in her eyes that suggests something more complicated.
We don’t have the context for photographer Gregory Antollino’s image. Was it at a protest or a Fourth of July parade?
Either way, there is something nonconformist going on, fueled by an energy born from age, not despite it. “I’m age 81 but my parade is not done,” her sign reads. Everything in the photograph would lead us to believe her.
by Sophie Sonnenfeld | Aug 6, 2020 7:06 pm | Comments (2)
Vibrant fish, turtles, and other water critters have been popping up out of storm drains across New Haven this summer, reminding New Haveners to keep their trash away from the drains.
The last batch of these “runoff art” creatures came to life on Thursday in front of the Christopher Columbus Family Academy at the corner of Grand Avenue and Fillmore Street.
Continue reading ‘Storm Drain Creatures Emerge on Grand Avenue’
by Brian Slattery | Aug 6, 2020 9:48 am
A cluster of heads floating like balloons on stalks. An oil painting of a woman eating a hoagie. A connection with a goddess. All these and more are part of “I Am…,” the latest riotous exhibition at Kehler Liddell Gallery, which is now open by appointment and for limited weekend hours.
by Laura Glesby | Aug 5, 2020 1:54 pm | Comments (4)
Don’t look now — but a 121-year-old bridge is changing color. By popular vote.
by Brian Slattery | Aug 5, 2020 11:02 am
We know the subjects of the paintings are protestors because of the crowds assembled behind them, silhouettes gathered with raised arms and picket signs. One carries a bullhorn. Another has the Puerto Rican flag emblazoned on a tank top. Another throws a fist in the air to reveal a tattoo on the wrist.
As the accompanying notes say, “New Haven painter and activist Kwadwo Adae celebrates his compatriots and heroes” in these series of portraits.
The subjects are Kerry Ellington, Addys Castillo, Norm Clement, Ericka Huggins, Sarah Pimenta, and Vanessa Suárez. Adae has depicted them in their “protest armor.”
In putting them side by side by side, Adae deftly connects past to present. He shows that the protests of 1970 over the Black Panther trials in New Haven have cast a long shadow, and suggests further that they are part of a continuum, an even longer thread stretching back perhaps to the beginnings of the country.
by Karen Ponzio | Aug 4, 2020 9:44 am | Comments (12)
Paul Mayer, owner of Cafe Nine on the corner of State and Crown, looked up at the mural of jazz legend Sun Ra that now graces the side of the building that houses his bar.
“I’m blown away,” he said. It was his first time seeing it in person, along with the accompanying boom box painted on a Dumpster.
