2008 Premiere: AvS gallery opens first exhibit of the year

The Alexey von Schlippe Gallery of Art at UConn Avery Point opened its premiere exhibition for 2008 March 14 in the Branford House Mansion. The exhibition highlights the talent of local artists Gretchen Higgins of Groton, Pamela Pike Gordinier of Stonington, Annelie Skoog of Norwich, and Lise Lemeland of Alfred, N.Y.

Photographer Gretchen Higgins is an events coordinator at Mystic Arts Center. Her photo essay In Black and White, featuring photos of New York City and New London, is part of the premiere exhibition. Director and curator of the Alexey von Schlippe Gallery Julia Pavone describes Higgins on the gallery’s Web site as creating “stark, poetic, emotionally moving photographs in black and white that tell an in-depth story, pretty or not, to the viewer.”

“She brings to this exhibition, portraits of two cities, their grit and their beauty, in the form of intense photo essays/installation on New London and New York City,” Pavone continued.

“I had been an avid collector of black-and-white photography for over 30 years when I was given my first camera, took a class, and became hopelessly addicted to the magic of the darkroom,” Higgins said.
Higgins describes her work on display at Avery Point as photographic essays of New York and New London and their commonalities. 

“There are approximately 50 small images of Lower Manhattan, mounted, hinged, and arranged in a zigzag fashion down the center of the space,” she explained. “Eighteen framed prints of downtown New London line the walls.”

When taking pictures, Higgins said she snaps anything that might satisfy her quirky sensibility and has enough contrast to be effective in black and white.

“For an exhibit this size, I usually shoot about 10 rolls of film, make about 100 prints, and edit those,” she said. 

She admitted that her least favorite picture on display is her photo of the front of a wine shop on Bank Street in New London because it took her more than three hours in the darkroom to prepare for exhibition.
“It is included because it is one of the many signs of renewal in New London,” Higgins noted.

Pamela Pike Gordinier, Pavone said, is an artist who teaches privately at the Mystic Arts Center and alternative high school students. Higgins added that Gordinier is part of the center’s board of directors.

Gordinier’s work results in a different type of image and manages to turn the wheels in the minds of her viewers. For her current exhibit at Avery Point, Gordinier stated on the gallery’s Web site that she asked friends, neighbors, and strangers: “If God exists, what one question would you ask?”

“This exhibit is a visual representation of those myriad questions—the hopes, fears, and ideas that connect and divide us,” Gordinier continued. “It is my hope that by becoming aware of each other’s viewpoint, we can begin a dialogue for understanding and change. As I collected and read the questions that had been sent, I cried, laughed, and was awed by how personal and profound they were. I am indebted to the people who have participated in this project.”

She said to present the ideas people had provided, she adapted a labyrinth as a metaphor for questioning one’s life journey and hung illuminated books of questions. She also created a vessel to receive a “feast of ideas” and an urn.

Visitors to the gallery are welcome to participate in the experience and submit their own questions to deposit into the vessel. Gordinier explained that names will not be attached to the questions but will be documented for a potential book, and the questions that are collected during this exhibit will be burned and placed into the urn.

Also a member of the Mystic Art Center, artist Annelie Skoog displays her watercolor exhibit, mentioning marine environment and nature as her inspiration.

“I work almost exclusively in watercolor, because I like the transparent and luminescent quality of this medium,” she said on the gallery’s Web site. “I am largely self-taught, but have taken a number of evening classes in drawing, composition, and watercolor. For the past two years, I have shared a studio with a group of other artists in New London. Close-up, detailed views are my favorite way of working with an image. This is because I find that the close-up view tends towards an abstract quality that is appealing to me. I also use my detailed paintings to help me really see the world surrounding me, to allow my mind to dwell on one specific image until I understand it beyond the surface.”

Displaying detailed and vibrant patterns, Lisa Lemeland stated on the gallery’s Web site that her aquatints and mixed media on paper in the exhibit were inspired in part by Indian carpets.

“My fascination with textiles, however, is not limited to rugs, but extends to many fabrics including lace,” she said in her statement. “Lace, embroidery, and lace elements have become an integral part of the patterning on my most recent paintings. My work is a result of a longtime fascination with pattern in its many forms and related theoretical discourses. In a broader sense, my painting is a response to certain preconceptions about decoration and its secondary status is contemporary art theory.”

From Indian and Turkish to South and Central American carpets, Lemeland said these types of carpets have provided the structural foundation for her paintings.

The premiere exhibition of 2008 at the Alexey von Schlippe Gallery of Art runs until Sunday, April 20, For more information, visit  www.averypointarts.uconn.edu or call 860-405-9052.