A Visual Spectrum of Exhibits Opens at Silvermine Arts Center in February

Silvermine Arts Center, located in New Canaan, CT will be opening a new set of exhibits February 24^th, ranging from the dazzling abstractions of Sharon Cavagnolo to the visually complex installation by Mary Jo McGonagle.  There is also the hyper-real figurative paintings of Anca Pedvisocar and the aptly named “Human Touch” figurative print group show featuring Karen Butler, Helen Cantrell, Alanna Fagan, Nancy Lasar and Nomi Silverman.  The show runs through April 5^th.  All are welcomed to the opening reception on Sunday, February 24^th 2:00pm – 4:00pm.

In her exhibit, “New Paradigms,” artist Sharon Cavagnolo deals with chaos and the human need to control and come to terms with it.  For the artist, a gestural or impulsive movement often serves as the beginning of an idea for a painting, with subsequent layers imparting balance, line, color and pattern.  The creation of the ‘whole’ represents a new place to be.  “If I’ve seen it before,” says Cavagnolo, “it holds no interest.  The sole purpose in painting for me is get to these new paradigms.”  She goes on to say that “I have always thought that a painter with a different way of seeing things can never be understood without the opportunity to show an ample body of work.  As with friendships, we develop a familiarity and relationship with work as our experiences deepen.  We develop a rapport, open ourselves to it, accept a bit, and as it becomes a part of our interior life, we find ourselves coming back and wanting more.”

Sharon has always focused on art.  She graduated from the High School of Art and Design, and the Parsons School of Design.  She pursued her graduate work at Pratt and NYU, and studied painting with Larry Rivers, Elaine deKooning and Jane Wilson. Prior to moving to the Mt. Kisco, NY area, Sharon worked for several years as a textile designer and art director.  Her installations have included work for the White House and the Governor’s Mansion in Virginia, and have been showcased in magazines including Architectural Digest and Southern Homes.  A past president of the Katonah Museum Arts Association, Cavagnolo has exhibited at the Carriage Barn Arts Center and the Katonah Museum of Art.  A recipient of the Journeyman Award from the Isabel O’Neil Studio in New York, Sharon now devotes herself to painting full time and producing a cohesive body of work.  She has been a member of the Silvermine Guild of Artists since 2010.

“(Dis)connect” is the new site specific installation by Silvermine Guild Artist, Mary Jo McGonagle.  Combining video and signature wall coverings and paintings, the installation reflects her fascination with how relationships take place in our everyday lives, hovering between humor and desperation.  Time-based media in conjunction with painting creates the overall environment.  McGonagle’s work is a multi-disciplinary exploration of images and narratives of sublimated family dynamics and the idea of the suburban home as an environment of contradictions.  “I strive to make people aware of the complexities that take place within one’s ‘private’ space and bring these issues forward to the ‘public’ space,” says Mary Jo.  In her exhibit, she uses decorative wallpapers, patterning and colorful language to conceal contemporary phrases.  The phrases are camouflaged within the wallpaper patterns.  There is an element of discovery, revealing our innermost feelings which deal with the  unspoken, “not so nice,” thoughts that we all share.

Mary Jo McGonagle earned her M.F.A. from Massachusetts College of Art and Design and her B.F.A. from School of Visual Arts.  She is an award-winning artist who has shown throughout the country and extensively in the Northeast in many prestigious exhibitions. She was recently recognized in the April/May 2011 issue of New American Painter and nominated for the 2012 Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant.  A resident of Southport, CT, Mary Jo became a member of the Silvermine Guild of Artists in 2011, and is also a member of the College Art Association, Fine Art Work Center in Provincetown, MA, and the Creative Arts Workshop in New Haven, CT. 

Anca Pedvisocar’s exhibit “Take 2” is about second chances given to forgotten moments in forgotten lives of forgotten people, to be re-lived in a different way by people of our time.  For this artist, the most difficult part in her work is choosing what to do next and why.  Anca will look over the many black & white snap shots she has collected of the last century before choosing the most significant “insignificant” moment in time worth painting.  The central theme of Pedvisocar’s paintings is a mixture of tension and solitude that seems to bring people together, while simultaneously pulling them apart.  This conflict makes itself visually apparent in people’s most inconsequential and mundane actions and postures, glossing their figures with an unmistakable varnish that makes them impervious to one another and to themselves.  “I find this captivating and let these traits reveal themselves when I represent people as I find them in the photographs, which are often my point of departure.  I start to turn and twist these photographs until some of the subjects ephemeral presence in the world (and on my canvas) is affirmed, and their vulnerability becomes solid.  Only then do I consider that the image made its transition from the conventionality of a casual photograph to the compelling, almost archetypal power of an old film poster, which I feel my work is most related to.”  The treatment of the figures in her paintings are restrained, as in a black and white movie, while exalting the color of the background, evoking the presence of an old, skipping soundtrack and a narrator’s voice starting to tell their story.

Anca Pedvisocar was born in Bucharest, Romania where she studied mural painting at the Fines Arts University, receiving her MFA.  The scarcity of mural painting opportunities in Bucharest led her to begin working in easel painting and she soon exhibited in various international shows in Paris, Geneva, Monte Carlo, Barcelona and Tokyo.  She left Romania in 1984, emigrating first to Israel and then Paris before coming to the U.S.  When she arrived in the U.S., Anca restarted her career as a mural designer, then as a textile designer and finally returned to easel painting.  She has participated in numerous group exhibitions in New York City and Connecticut and last year had a solo show at the RIVAA Gallery in NYC.  A member of the Silvermine Guild of Artists since 2010, Pedvisocar lives and works in New York City.

The Guild group exhibition, “The Human Touch: Five Printmakers,” showcases new figurative works by Silvermine members Karen Brussat Butler, Helen Cantrell, Alanna Fagan,  Nancy Lasar and Nomi Silverman. The five artists share a love of printmaking, exploring contemporary interpretations of the figure in a variety of print techniques including woodcut, intaglio, lithography and other media. 

This Guild group show continues the Silvermine Arts Center’s long tradition of involvement with the printmaking arts. The Silvermine Gallery has recently expanded its print involvement with flat files and a small gallery devoted to works on paper, making its large collection of prints more available. 

For more information on these exhibits and other events at the Silvermine Arts Center, please visit our website at www.silvermineart.org or call 203-966-9700 ext. 20.