Parlors, Plastics, and Plants
I visited the three art galleries located inside the Westport Library in Westport, Connecticut. Each exhibition is a solo show featuring three artists with three drastically different artistic styles, themes, and practices.
Signs of the Times in the Sheffer Gallery is an “ongoing mixed media series by kHyal — unclassifiable, Rorschach-like work that tugs at perception and dares you to look closer. Built from objects reclaimed from dumpsters, flea markets, and the ocean, each piece explodes the flaws and foibles of a plastic society with raw, dazzling precision.”
I enjoy how the artist infuses her social commentary into her assemblage artwork on the dangers of plastics to the environment and to our health. Her art resembles the mixed-media art of Dr. Mel Wolk which was previously on exhibit in the Everhart Museum of Scranton, Pennsylvania. Reviews of Dr. Wolk’s are posted on my Art Critic in 1 Minute series. Artwork featured below: Seek Joy. The horse reminds me of the Breyer collectible horses I had as a child.
On to the South Gallery of the Library, featuring Mari Gyorgyey’s Rooms in Bloom “Flowers and furniture, here, aren’t about beauty — they’re about character: how a presence shapes a space, and how a space shapes it back. Every flower has an attitude and a reason according to Mari Gyorgyey.” Her artwork evokes feelings of nostalgia. I enjoy the contrasting, eclectic patterns of the wallpaper and furnishings of her paintings, and how she denouces photorealism in her paintings. They remind me of book illustrations. Artwork featured (top): Hungarian Vase.
In the Jesup Gallery, is Fruma Markowitz’s solo exhibition Willful Alchemy. “Willful Alchemy is a collection of lumen prints born from 21 days of unhurried experimentation during a 2022 artist residency at Weir Farm National Park — camera-less, light-driven work made by rising early, setting compositions in the sun, and letting the process lead. The farm became both laboratory and sanctuary.” Weir Farm in Wilton, Connecticut inspires many artists. Fruma’s interpretation and photographs are abstract and psychedelic. Artwork featured is Weir Farm, Botanical Lumen. If you look closely, you can see the outline of the leaves. It is almost as if the plants have auras and energy fields around them.
The exhibitions are on view through May 31st. The Westport Library will also be hosting a reception and artist talk from 6-8pm on Wednesday, May 27th.
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