3 New Exhibitions Open At Silvermine Arts Center In January

NEW CANAAN, CT - From Silvermine Arts Center: Silvermine Arts Center will open 2018 with three new exhibitions: the annual New Members show introducing 17 new Guild members; JudithSteinberg’s exhibit, “Memories and Desire;” and Dan and Jill Burkholder’s mixed-media photography exhibition, “Two of a Kind.” An opening reception will take place Sun., Jan. 7,2-4pm, and all exhibits run through Feb. 4. The Galleries will host two separate ArtistTalks—one on Jan. 16 at 6pm with Judith Steinberg, and a second on Jan. 23 at 6pm with the new members of the Guild.

The 17 new members of the Silvermine Guild of Artists excel in a wide range of artistic media, and this year’s New Members show will be an abundant and varied exhibition of sculpture, printmaking, painting, drawing, and mixed-media art. The Guild’s new members, in alphabetical order, are: Lexi Axon of Brooklyn, NY; Rita Baunok of South Salem, NY; Paul Baylock of New Britain, CT; Bruce Campbell of Brattleboro, VT; Andrew Graham of Redding, CT; Elizabeth Higgins of Darien, CT; Myke Karlowski of Wanamassa, NJ; Ethan
Newman of New Hartford, CT; Jesse Nusbaum of Weston, CT; Laurie Peek of Tappan, NY; Claudia Renfro of Pound Ridge, NY; Robert Sachs of Norwalk, CT; Sebastian Smith of Jamaica Plain, MA; Rashmi Talpade of Wallingford, CT; Meg Tweedy of Darien, CT; Susan Wilson of Putney, VT; and Matthew Yanchuk of Brooklyn, NY.

Criteria for members of the Silvermine Guild of Artists include excellence of technique; cultural or social relevance, clarity and continuity of style, and professional accomplishment. These artists have exhibited their work regionally or nationally. All are exploring new territory in their particular disciplines or media. They join a distinguished group of professional artists comprised of over 300 members who work in a wide array of media and are represented in prestigious museums and private and corporate collections.

Judith Steinberg, “Memories and Desire”

Judith Steinberg, a Connecticut-based artist, is perhaps best known for her abstract sculpture including her Corten-steel “Links” at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield. In her recent work, “Memories and Desire,” she has turned to painting. Of her abstract and primarily three-dimensional work, she says “that world has been pushed aside by a paintbrush wielding an array of characters that cavort across the canvas, panel, and paper.
Narrative has come back into her work.

According to Steinberg, a Carrie Fisher line also quoted by Meryl Streep, captures the impetus behind the enormous changes that have occurred in her studio in the years since her husband’s death: "Take your broken heart, [and] make it into art.” The transition to the new works has been gradual. “Bits of flora and fauna began popping out here and there, soon demanding more space and definition. When my world disappeared, a new world came to life in my studio.”

Dan Burkholder and Jill Skupin Burkholder, “Two of a Kind”

Dan Burkholder was one of the first fine art photographers to champion digital technology by creating the digital negative in 1992. His platinum/palladium prints combine the control of digital technology with the classic beauty of the handmade darkroom print. Jill Skupin Burkholder is a photographer/artist whose work includes handcrafted techniques such as bromoil printing, an alternative photography process using brushes and lithography ink to create an image, and encaustic techniques using beeswax and resin. She began working with photography in 1985 and studied both traditional and digital photography experimenting with various alternative photography techniques. Prints by Dan and Jill Burkholder have been exhibited regionally and nationally, and their work can be found in private and public collections.

Their new exhibition at Silvermine is a mixed-media photography show, with lush and evocative images that allow glimpses of parallel universes, secret worlds, and moments at once timeless and time-stopped.

Both Dan and Jill are current faculty members teaching photography at the Silvermine School of Art. Their work will be exhibited in the Farrell Gallery as part of a series of exhibitions of work by Silvermine faculty.

Silvermine Arts Center is one of the oldest artist communities in the United States. Its 5­acre campus in
New Canaan, Connecticut, consists of a nationally renowned artist guild, an award­winning school of art
offering classes for all ages, an arts and fine crafts shop, and a gallery offering over twenty contemporary
and historic exhibitions annually. Silvermine is a non­profit 501c3 organization that also offers an Outreach
Education Program, Art Partners, and hosts lectures, film screenings, and special events. Silvermine
Galleries are open Wednesday through Saturday, 12 pm to 5 pm and Sunday from 1 pm to 5 pm. For more
information, call (203) 966­9700 ext. 20 or visit the website: www.silvermineart.org.

Image by Myke Karlowski, courtesy of Silvermine Arts Center