University In West Hartford To Open Poignant Art Exhibit This Week

WEST HARTFORD, CT — A series of works by Connecticut artist Gerald Saladyga reflecting on the 1994 genocide in Rwanda will be featured this fall at the Art Museum at the University of Saint Joseph.

"100 Days in Eden: Gerald Saladyga's Rwanda Series" opens with a reception Thursday, Sept. 24, from 5 to 7:30 p.m. and will remain on view through Dec. 12.

USJ and the art museum are located at 1678 Asylum Ave., West Hartford.

The exhibition features 34 works on paper created by Saladyga in 2011 and 2012.

The works were his response to the genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, during which more than 800,000 people were killed over approximately 100 days in 1994.

According to the museum, the series explores the roots of genocidal violence as well as conflict resolution, reconciliation and peace.

Saladyga said one of his challenges in creating the series was determining how to make works that "pulled viewers into paintings depicting horrific violence rather than repelling them."

He also sought to explore "how to imply an unknowable and deep sorrow, which I have never experienced — and then, perhaps, a sudden hope of redemption."

The title "100 Days in Eden" references both Rwanda's natural landscape and the biblical Garden of Eden, connecting the works to themes of humanity's common origins and shared identity, according to the museum.

Saladyga, an award-winning Connecticut artist, studied at the Art Students League in New York and has exhibited extensively in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New York City.

He has received grants from Connecticut arts and cultural agencies and the Weir Farm Trust Visiting Artist Program.

The exhibition comes from a recent gift of the series to the museum and also includes the one work from the series that remains in a private collection.

The exhibition is supported in part by the Karen L. Chase '97 Fund.