February 1-19, 2022
Opening Reception: February 12, 2022 4:00-6:00pm*
Reception scheduled to change due to COVID-19
FIRST STREET GALLERY is pleased to present an Invitational Exhibit by The Contemporary Art Network and six of its artists. CAN supports a small, diverse group of artists whose work is curated on a regular basis and seeks to promote their work. The exhibit will feature selections from bodies of work from each artist. All of the works are classified as either paintings or mixed media.
The artists in the exhibit are – Jyoti Desai, Ellen Gordon, Oli Kambeitz, Bob Kuperman, Lina Morielli, Mary Newcomb, and Marina Shrady. All of the award-winning artists live and work in Connecticut and have shown their works regionally and nationally. Their works reflect a diversity of styles and imagery ranging from conceptualized and evocative figurative paintings to playful and explosively colored abstractions to a selection of mixed media drawings done on each day of 2020 starting in March at the inception of Covid lockdown.
Jyoti Desai’s spontaneous use of her materials reflect a highly personal sense of balance, composition, and color which are all filtered through both her design sensibility and her Indian heritage.
Ellen Gordon’s paintings explore the complex spaces created by fractured shape and form. Her sophisticated use of color and patterned design create elegant yet offbeat rhythms akin to jazz.
Oli Kambeitz reflects on her Brazilian heritage for inspiration in her spontaneously conceived works of lushly colored and beautifully textured abstractions.
Bob Kuperman’s masterful draughtsmanship and use of color create polymorphous organisms existing in self-contained, quasi-geometric spaces.
Lina Morielli’s selected mixed media works on paper and paintings are the result of over 300 preliminary drawings done at the beginning of the pandemic in 2020. The work expresses chaotic yet delicately balanced worlds in which internalized despair erupts into explosively playful compositions.
Mary Newcomb’s densely textured paintings evoke a quiet and minimal façade that is layered over an excavation of form and surface from an almost ancient place and time.
Marina Shrady’s contemporary figurative paintings place figures in stylized environments and spaces. Her refined painting technique lends itself to the fanciful, mythical and enchanted feeling of her imagery.
Visit www.contemporaryartnetwork.com to see more work and for artists’ websites.
