New Members Exhibition

January 10 - February 20, 2016

Artist talks
Tuesday, January 26, 6pm
Tuesday, February 9, 6Pm

Michael Brennecke - Born in Westport, Connecticut, painter Michael Brennecke received his B.F.A. at Tufts and continued his art studies at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and the School of the Visual Arts.  His early immersion into the work of Paul Klee was a jumping-off point for his own art.  Brennecke sees Klee as a “master of color,” one who “could successfully meander back and forth between imagery and abstraction.”  Brennecke’s initial work often has the suggestion of a geological landscape.  “I consider that a good starting point,” he says.  “It’s like an archaeological find and now I have to recreate the history, the story that’s behind it.”  Brennecke is also a veteran creative director with 25 years of experience in a wide range of media.
Leah Caroline, who lives in New Haven, was born in Brooklyn in the Chassidic community of Crown Heights.  She received her B.F.A. at the Lyme Academy of Fine Art and has been a Weir Farm artist in residence.  She is co-founder of and artist-teacher at the Connecticut Artists’ Beit Midrash.  She has had solo exhibitions at the Slifka Center at Yale and the Hadas Gallery in Brooklyn. Leah Caroline works in cyanotype printing, digital media and installation. Her cyanotypes in brilliant Prussian blue are made with a multi-layered process involving digitally manipulated photographs, personal writings, and Biblical or other communal texts.  She brings nature, the self, and the community into each composition.  In her statement, she cites Henry David Thoreau:  “The only people who ever get anyplace interesting are the people who get lost.”
Eric Chiang, who grew up in Taiwan, spent 23 years at Goldman Sachs before taking up a full-time career as a painter in 2007.  Chiang often includes musical instruments in paintings that represent layers of thought and feeling.  According to Chiang, “one technique I use is to transform the subject into a musical instrument. This leads you to hear their voices in a highly-paced and mechanical civilization.”  The subject of one painting is damaged cellos floating aimlessly in a vast universe; the subject of another is musical instruments welded to circuit boards.  Chiang likes viewers to come away with a sense of music and voice, of contrast and complexity.
Chris Coffin is a surfer, ocean lifeguard, open-water swimmer, and art educator.  The coastlines and waterways of New England, Brooklyn, and Long Island Sound are a significant influence on his work, which spans a variety of media including drawing, photography, video and performance.  In one drawing series, “Islands and Coastlines,” he depicts the water’s edge in rippling, repetitive graphite lines reminiscent of waves, seismic maps and electrocardiograms.  His direct experience of the coastline—by swimming, kayaking, or surfing—is a springboard for his art.  Coffin is a two-time New York Foundation on the Arts grant recipient, a Rema Hort Mann grant nominee, and a Fulbright Scholarship nominee. Coffin holds a B. A. from Providence College, an M. A. from Pratt Institute, and an M.S. from Hofstra University. He is a resident of Fairfield, Connecticut.
Sara Conklin’s paintings, works on paper, and works in mixed media often reveal aspects of life that we try to conceal or protect. Drawing from nature, landscapes, and abandoned or secluded places, she sometimes combines her lush, dream-like landscapes with the cool, clear lines of a photographic image.  The serene and the ordinary both have a place in her unique and irresistible vision.  Born in Connecticut, Conklin now lives in New York City and Washingtonville, NY.  When she is not at work in her studio or enjoying plein-air painting in the Hudson Valley, Conklin works as a sales account manager for a technology company. She received her B.A. from Springfield College, and attended both Banff Center of the Arts in Alberta, Canada, and The Art Students League in New York City.  She has been a member of the Ceres Gallery in New York since 2008.  Among the venues where Conklin has exhibited are the Ridgefield Guild of Artists, Broome Street Gallery in New York City, The Delaware Valley Arts Alliance, and The Long Island Museum.
Lauren Cotton explores color and physicality with pieces of adhesive-backed vinyl applied to surfaces to create an architecture of form, color, and composition.  Her three-dimensional works made with two-dimensional materials resonate in physiological and psychological ways. Cotton also works in more traditional sculpture.  She creates sculptural pieces that are made from wood scavenged from local building sites.  Chopped, painted and screen-printed, the separate sections are then joined together to create relief-style wall-mounted works.  In her words, “this three-dimensional format pushes color into a realm where its materiality exemplifies an otherwise undisclosed taciturn expression.”  Photography is yet another medium she explores.  She thinks of her photographs as a documentation of the art-making process as well as a documentation of the artist as a prop to her art. Cotton received a B.F.A. in Textile Design with a Photography Minor in 2004 from the Moore College of Art and Design in Philadelphia.  She received her M.F.A. in Fibers and Fabric Design in 2006 from Temple University’s Tyler School of Art.  Lauren Cotton lives in Wilton, Connecticut.
Rose-Marie Fox - After a career in business and investment banking that spanned over 40 years in the U.S. and China, Rose-Marie Fox retired to pursue her lifelong passion of painting.  Enrolling in Silvermine School of Art in 2011 as a full time student (4-5 days per week), she studied with the school’s master teachers to develop and hone her skills. In the past 12 months, this dedication began to reap its benefits with entrance into juried shows at Greenwich Arts Society’s Bendheim and Flinn galleries, and the Rowayton Arts Center.  She was awarded 2nd place in the current Ridgefield Guild of Artists 38th annual juried show.  Fox also had a first solo show, “Color Emotion Space” this summer at the Handwright Gallery in New Canaan.  Fox, a Darien resident, has become actively involved in the Silvermine Arts Center as a Trustee and now Chair of the Silvermine Board. “With the acceptance to Silvermine’s Guild of Artists,” said Fox, “a lifelong dream of mine has come and now I am more energized by my colleagues at the Guild to aspire to new and better artwork.”
Elisa Keogh - Born in England and raised in Belfast, Northern Ireland, during the height of political unrest, Elisa Keogh was drawn early on to street art and art that focused on content.  She is both an artist and designer and works primarily with photographic images.  Each piece in her recent “Memory Series” is created by layering, ghosting and repeating multiple photographs (not necessarily taken from the same location) to compose a single scene. Her cover design for Annie Lennox’s DIVA album was nominated for a Grammy in 1993.  Since moving to Connecticut (she currently lives in Norwalk), she has worked as an assistant to fine art portrait photographer Ben Larrabee and has been an after-school art instructor for private students and also in the Norwalk Public Schools.  She pursued her art education at Harvard University, the Silvermine School of Art, Duke, University, Parsons, Norwalk Community College and the School of Visual Arts.  Her work is in private collections in the U.S. and U.K. and in the permanent collection of the Cooper-Hewitt Design Museum.
Michael David Kozlowski - Painter and Trumbull resident Michael David Kozlowski has participated in numerous group and solo shows in Connecticut, New York City, and Vermont.  In 2014 Michael was awarded a grant and residency with the Vermont Studio Center and upon returning to Connecticut was a featured artist in New Haven’s City Wide Open Studios—an honor repeated in 2015.  Also in 2015 Michael was one of only 8 artists chosen by juror Richard Klein to participate in Westport Art Center’s “SOLOS,” and soon after was awarded best in show at Greenwich Art Society’s Flinn Show “Emergence,” by Christie Mitchell of the Whitney Museum of American Art. This past summer he was chosen to participate in several public art projects in New York City including Sing for Hope’s “Pianos” and “100 Gates NYC.”  He studied art at the Art Students League in New York, the School of Visual Arts, and Southern Connecticut State University where he earned a B.S. with a minor in Fine Arts.
Dan Makara has painted murals for the Barnum Museum in Bridgeport and historic murals for a private estate in Greenfield Hill.  Self-taught in the art of silk-screen printing, he became Master Screen Printer for Old Lyme Artworks in the 1980s.  He experiments with abstract painting involve cutting and re-composing abstract works, or photographing and collaging them.  Makara, who lives and works in Redding, Connecticut, is also the producer, writer and director of a documentary on a 96-year-old cartoonist friend.  The film, called “Irwin, a New York Story,” premiered at the 2010 Columbia Film Festival.  His work has been exhibited at the Bruce R. Lewin Gallery.  Makara has worked as a painter since 1980. When asked for an artist statement, he replied “I’m still trying to figure out an artist statement (it might take a few more years).”
Perry Obee - Painter and Printmaker Perry Obee has exhibited his work widely in Connecticut and New York galleries including the Washington Art Association, the Westport Art Center, Denise Bibro Gallery (New York) and Blue Mountain Gallery (New York). His paintings can be spare and sculptural with a restrained palette or full of Matisse-like color and detail. “Subject matter,” he says, “comes from observing the world. Each creation is a recorded moment in the ongoing search for self.” Obee was born in Cleveland, Ohio.  He earned his B.F.A. in Painting and Printmaking at Ohio Wesleyan and his M.F.A. at Western Connecticut State College.  He has been an artist in residence at the Vermont Studio Center and the Chautauqua School of Art.  He was awarded a State of Connecticut Individual Artist Grant in the area of painting in 2012. His prints are held in collections at the Slater Memorial Museum in Norwich, CT, and the Print Club of Albany in Albany, New York.  He lives in New Haven and has taught classes in drawing, painting, and art history at the University of Connecticut, Paier College of Art, Southern Connecticut State University, and Middlesex Community College.
Born in Hartford, CT, Mary Elizabeth Peterson is an American abstract artist whose work has appeared in galleries and museums throughout the Northeast. She is a graduate of the University of Connecticut and The Corcoran College of Art + Design. Peterson has lived in Pittsburgh and Washington, DC and currently resides in Westport. She received an artist residency grant from The Vermont Studio Center in 2014. Her paintings are abstract yet strongly tied to the objective tradition. Her signature work consists of hybrid materials ranging from acrylic and oil crayon to plastics, woven vinyl, construction mesh and fabric applied to canvas, boards and paper.  In her words, “My art originates from visual memories of remote landscapes, waterways and intriguing natural objects like seedpods. I sort the images of this “mental slideshow” and cull out elements that are not strictly representational but strike me as being familiar.”
Bryan Reedy - Born in Flagstaff, Arizona, Bryan Reedy lives and works in New York City.  He was educated at Hunter College/CUNY (B.F.A.) where he received the Kossak Painting Fellowship.  As an architecture student at the Cooper Union, he received the Frank Caldiero Humanities Award.  He will be an artist in residence in 2016 at the Vermont Studio Center in Johnson, Vermont. Bryan Reedy’s recent sculptural mixed-media pieces, one of which was chosen for the 2015 Art of the Northeast, are made with acrylic or oil with linen on custom stretchers.
Marlene Siff’s paintings, works on paper, and sculpture, in her words, “depict imagery of personal events and psychological issues. They are expressed through geometric shapes, color, light, space, texture, edges and movement each interplaying with one another engaging the viewer to participate.” Siff’s works often blur the boundaries between sculpture and painting.  Siff, a Westport resident, has exhibited in museums and galleries throughout the United States and abroad, including the U.S. Capitol Building, Washington DC (2011), Columbia/Barnard University, NY (2011), Katonah Museum of Art, NY (2009), the B’nai B’rith Klutznick National Jewish Museum, Washington, DC (1998), the Aldrich Museum, CT (1992), and Galerie Musée in Nagoya, Japan (1994). Her work has been sought out by major corporate and private collections around the United States, most recently for the Nevin Welcome Center at Cornell University. Siff was born and raised in the Bronx and graduated from the High School of Music and Art in New York (now Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts).  She received her B.A. from Hunter College, where she was elected to Kappa Pi, the International Honorary Art Fraternity.
Ian Beckett Smith describes his paintings as satiric in nature.  They deal with cultural and sociological ideas and issues such as the environment, class relationships, and beauty that is skin-deep.  “I enjoy the questions created by a divergent collection of images, each with its own specific symbolism.”  Smith was born in New York City and received his B.F.A. in Painting (with a Minor in Photography) at the Cleveland Institute of Art. His work has been exhibited in the Northeast, as well as in Ohio, Pennsylvania,  and Texas. He lives in Ossining, New York.
Lisa Thoren earned her B.F.A. from Parsons School of Design and studied printmaking in Florence, Italy. She began her career as an art director at Travel and Leisure Magazine and continued working in New York City as an art director at advertising agencies and later in Connecticut, as a freelance graphic designer. For the past 30 years Thoren has experimented with printmaking, painting, and collage-making with a graphic sensibility. Her conceptual mixed-media art work has received awards and recently been recognized in juried exhibitions including the 2015 Art of the Northeast at Silvermine and Parsons School of Design alumni shows in New York.  Thoren's approach to creating is about embracing whimsical surprises while simplifying, subtracting and editing.  Thoren, who lives in Darien, likes to cite Francis Bacon: “The best things just happen-when not anticipated.  Believe in a deeply ordered chaos and the rules of chance."