The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Women featured in new Five Points shows
TORRINGTON — Five Points Gallery, 33 Main St., is presenting three new exhibitions.
The West Gallery features the installation Flood 2.0, by Water Women Art.
The exhibition focuses on environmental concerns associated with floods. The TDP Gallery showcases Meredith Miller & MJ Millington’s collaborative project, Dreaming Animals, which combines photography and poetry in an effort to raise awareness of declining biodiversity.
The East Gallery exhibition, Nature Remains, features work from the late Margaret Grimes who lovingly painted the forests and landscapes of New England.
Krisanne Baker, Susan Hoffman Fishman & Leslie Sobel — Flood 2.0: Water Women Arts, formed by artists Krisanne Baker, Susan Hoffman Fishman, and Leslie Sobel addresses the environmental factors of climate change specific to issues surrounding water.
This exhibition is a result of the Five Points Arts Center’s first lowresidency program which took place in the summer of 2022.
The Water Women have honed their attention to imagined predictions of a future apocalyptic flood and destruction of the environment caused by human behaviors.
The exhibit incorporates video projections and historical images of the Flood of 1955 which decimated much of Torrington and the Naugatuck Valley. Also included are painted scrolls imitating the motion of water, and a makeshift boat complete with sails, and a mast.
The goal of the installation is to use art, mythology, and history to inspire community dialogue on local water issues.
Meredith Miller & MJ Millington — Dreaming Animals: The work selected for this exhibition focuses on declining biodiversity and endangered species.
Miller re-photographs prints from the digital collection of Yale University’s Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. She then collages the imagery with related household objects.
The resulting compositions fuse vintage and contemporary aesthetics in ways that draw connections between animals, objects, and Miller’s childhood memories. Each photograph is paired with a poem by artist MJ Millington.
Inspired by the individual animals represented in the print, Millington said, “I follow the clues inside it, think about what kind of associations I have with that animal and what it means to me … One of the rewarding challenges is that many of the animals that Meredith has chosen to focus on are endangered, and thus not something with which I have lived experience; it requires a different way of conceiving of and writing a poem than I’m used to.”
Margaret Grimes — Nature Remains: In memory and honor of Margaret Grimes (1943 — 2020), Five Points Gallery is exhibiting various paintings from the artist’s vast career. Grimes’ complexity of form and detail is derived from her on-site observations and studies of the woodlands that surrounded her studios in Connecticut and Maine. Her vigorous, sensuous paint handling captures the stillness, magic, and ominous power of the forest in ways that inspire contemplation of the natural world.
To reach the gallery, call 860-618-7222.
A to the opening reception, a Virtual Artist talk will be held at 6:30 p.m. May 26.
All artwork is for sale. Five Points exhibitions and educational events are free and open to the public. Five Points respects your masking preferences per CDC guidelines.