The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Five Points opens 3 shows
TORRINGTON — Five Points Gallery, at 33 Main St. in downtown Torrington, will open three concurrent shows, Heidi L. Johnson’s “Polytechnicolor,” Cheryl Agulnick Hochberg’s “The Work of Birds,” both solo shows, and “Menagerie,” a group show, that will run Thursday through Feb. 9.
“Polytechnicolor,” a solo exhibition of Heidi L. Johnson’s densely layered, compelling paintings of animals, will be shown in the East Gallery.
She says that the physical act of painting with oils, a time-based process, “is both a reconciliation and a reaction to this world, where sped-up virtual reality and Internet culture is so prevalent.”
As in 17th-century Dutch still lifes, “via our computers and media culture, we theoretically can exist in many different times and places at once.”
In the TDP Gallery, “The Work of Birds” is a solo exhibit of Cheryl Agulnick Hochberg’s work. About the installation, she writes, “My work intermingles the magical, the uncanny, the impossible and the real. While I depict the natural world, the results are taken from moments of direct observation, but recombined to embody a more existential reality.”
On a trip to Morocco,
she was struck by the pervasive white storks that “build their large, messy nests comprised of not only natural materials, but also with the detritus of the city.”
The West Gallery features “Menagerie,” a group show of six artists who address various aspects of the animal kingdom in their work, as they try to understand the human condition.
Anna Broell Bresnick, using collage and other mixed media, references birds as a way to reflect wider concerns about the ecological health of our planet. Alexis Crowely’s drawings of fighting animals are a raw interpretation of contemporary life. Sculptor and painter Danielle Mailer’s strongest influences are her Peruvian heritage, her artist mother’s rescue dogs and abstract expressionist paintings, and her late father, Norman Mailer, who told her, “Paint what you know.”
For ceramicist Alison Palmer, animal imagery has always been her “chosen expression. I strive to achieve a lighthearted meld of the human and animal form.” The emotional oil paintings of Brian Keith Stephens suggest a modern fable that engages the viewer with its ambiguity. “Like animals, we are all wild and fearful, but unlike animals, we have to live in this world of rules.” he says. “We must balance all of this while also navigating the web of past, present and future.” Incorporating burnished minerals, cut paper, copper engravings on silk and layered glazes, Clay Witt’s complex visual narratives “seek to inhabit the fluctuating space between the mythological world and its natural inspiration.”
All three exhibitions are sponsored in memory of Marion Muschell.
Five Points Gallery will hold two events in conjunction with the exhibitions: an opening reception on Friday, Jan. 11, 6 to 8:30 p.m.; and an artists’ Panel Discussion in the gallery on Friday, Jan. 25, at 6:30 p.m. Gallery hours are Thursdays through Mondays, 1 to 5 p.m., and by appointment. There is no admission charge. Five Points exhibitions and educational events are free and open to the public. For more information, visit www.fivepointsgallery.org.