This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Arts & Entertainment

Get It Fresh! New RGA Shows Ready for Their Closeups

Two shows, Fresh Pics and Kindred Spirits, opened at the Ridgefield Guild of Artists this weekend.

It's rare to see a Connecticut gallery opening as crowded as "Fresh Pics" and "Kindred Spirits" were on Saturday. Cars filled two parking lots and lined both sides of Halpin Lane all the way to the top.

Once in the gallery, it was even more congested. It was difficult to navigate the space, though the crowd was friendly and accommodating.

The two shows, running jointly on separate floors of the Ridgefield Guild of Artists, approach the idea of families in different ways. "Fresh Pics," curated by Norwalk-based uber-art consultant Camilla Cook, brings together more than 50 of her clients into a sort of family of local artists.

Upstairs, "Kindred Spirits" explores familial female relationships. The pieces in this smaller show are by a Redding painter, Kim Hanna, her sister, Berlin-based photographer Constance Hanna and Kim Hanna's 15-year-old daughter, photographer Lucy Hanna Whitehouse. The women collaborated through the whole process, which took a few months.

"It wasn't easy with family," Kim Hanna said with an easy laugh, "but it was, to a certain degree, really magical."

She noted the difference between the two photographers' work. Her sister's work is realistic, and she can take all day to create a few shots with a labor-intensive film camera and a bag full of lenses. Her daughter, on the other hand, takes countless digital shots and the work comes later, in the manipulation of the images via computer.

The three were shocked by how similar some of their ideas were. They all used water as a subject for their work, and mother and daughter's color palettes seemed to run to the same red-gold-green palette often found in nature in the fall.

"Fresh Pics" curator Camilla Cook works with many regional art talents.

"This exhibition was an opportunity that the Ridgefield Guild presented me with where I would be able to feature artwork by my clients," she said. There is no overarching concept of theme that unites these, except that I know these artists and their work very well, and I selected works that I thought would have an interesting synergy together."

"It's a celebration of artists, from fiber work to glass sculpture to printmaking and more," Cook continued. "I see it as celebrating the diversity of artists and artwork styles that are in the area." She noted that her collaboration with the Guild was great because "we are both advocates of and resources for the art community."

Collage artist Lori Glavin, of Darien, contributed a monotype to "Fresh Pics." The piece "Untitled (Orange and Grey)," incorporates pieces of her grandmother's lace and pieces of her own knitting as vehicles for paint transfer into a work with an unusual modern-meets-homespun vibe.

"For this series, I'm really interested in taking things from the home, domestic things, and incorporating them into my artwork into interesting and chaotic combinations," she explained. The piece also features inter-generational themes of relation and a sort of homage to Glavin's ancestors and the lives they lived. "I remember  my grandmother so vividly with her doilies. I always thought they were so beautiful but they never really fit into what I was about," Glavin mused. (Until now.)

Torrance York, another featured artist, does photography that references traditional landscape portraits with newer technology, both in photography and the world. Her contribution "N41(degree sign)46.557'W073 (degree sign)50.863'" is from a series of photos taken in New York's Hudson Valley. The piece's unusual names reference the GPS coordinates for where she was when she took the shot. Her otherworldly pieces are in sharp relief in the forefront and fade to soft fuzziness at the back.

As the afternoon at the Guild faded to its own soft, fuzzy conclusion, the amazing snacks from Nature's Temptations were packed up, the artists were saying their 'thank yous' and 'goodbyes' and attendees were smiling and strolling back to their cars. Even the police officer directing traffic looked pleasantly content.

"Fresh Pics" runs through Feb. 20 while "Kindred Spirits" hangs until Feb. 14.

Find out what's happening in Ridgefieldwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?