Opening Reception, Sunday, November 6, 2-4pm
Silvermine Arts Center
1037 Silvermine Rd.
New Canaan, CT 06840
2 NEW EXHIBITIONS
Kiyoshi Otsuka: “Soyo Kaze”,
“New Work/New Directions:” a Guild Group Show
Kiyoshi Otsuka: “Soyo Kaze”
Kiyoshi Otsuka grew up in Japan, north of Tokyo, and his abstract paintings have in recent years drawn their inspiration from elemental aspects of nature, especially the movement and energy of water. In his newest work, Otsuka now turns to air. Soyo Kaze, the title of the exhibition, is Japanese for soft wind or zephyr.
“There are so many kinds of wind,” writes Otsuka, “air stream, crosswind, dust devil, gale and gust, headwind, sirocco, trade wind, and tornado. The zephyr is the one that runs as a theme through this show. The soft wind gives a feeling of ease and gentleness, freshness but also a constancy-strength and power that inhere over time.”
Many of the paintings in Soyo Kaze are black and white, a few use color. In each one, space and lightness are as important as movement. Otsuka’s work is often gestural, infused with Japanese sensibilities of landscape, but his work also speaks to an American tradition of generous and infinite space.
Otsuka cites Richard Wilhelm’s translation of the I Ching to elucidate his focus in this new exhibition: “In nature, it is the wind that disperses the gathered clouds, leaving the sky clear and serene. In human life it is penetrating clarity of judgment that thwarts all dark hidden motives. The penetrating quality of the wind depends upon its ceaselessness. This is what makes it so powerful; time is its instrument.”
New Work/New Directions
The depth and breadth of work by the painters, photographers, sculptors, ceramicists, printmakers and other artists who make up the Silvermine Guild, always astonishes. A new Guild exhibition will highlight new work and new directions in a wide variety of media.
Artists include: Ashley Andrews, John Arabolos, Jocelyn Braxton Armstrong, Camille Eskell, Kevin Ford, Mindy Green, John Harris, Jana Ireijo, Elisa Keogh, Michael Kozlowski, Mitche Kunzman, Cynthia MacCollum, Olivia Munroe, Constance Old, James Reed, Marilyn Richeda, Marlene Siff, Arle Sklar-Weinstein and Derek Uhlman.
Organic forms and the colors of Greece’s landscape inform new prints by Cynthia MacCollum of New Canaan. A painting by Norwalk resident Jana Ireijo contains secrets and narratives that lurk beneath the outer facade. Norwalk artist Kevin Ford takes a mocking look at what he calls “the current ‘zombie abstraction’ moment we are in, ” referring to the art world’s recent preoccupation with mediocrity in abstract painting–what critic Walter Robinson calls “Zombie Formalism.” The new Silvermine Guild exhibition is rich in abstraction, and the artists bring complexity, wit, and inventive virtuosity to the table.