Westport Book Shop Welcomes February Artist

WESTPORT, CT — The Westport Book Shop will welcome artist Niki Ketchman as its guest art exhibitor for the month of February at the book shop's Drew Friedman Art Place.

According to a news release, Ketchman is exhibiting several pieces from her "Resination Series," the title of which is a play on words such as resonations, resolutions, renovations or realizations, combined with the fact that each of the artworks in the series is coated with resin.

Ketchman begins each piece with an image either painted directly on a canvas, or printed on archival, watercolor paper and adhered to the canvas. After other elements are added, the entire piece is then coated with resin, which Ketchman says makes the work more of an object, makes it shine and gives it a feeling of extra depth.

"While working on this series," Ketchman said in a news release, "I explore actual depth versus the illusion of depth, what is visible and invisible, and subconsciously arrived at imagery."

Ketchman is a sculptor and collagist. Her sculptures incorporate welding, sewing, weaving, braiding, winding, draping and decorating.

Many of her sculptures are composed of a combination of industrial and domestic materials. Others are all soft.

Ketchman's works have been exhibited at numerous museums and galleries, including one-person exhibitions at the Katonah Museum, the New Britain Museum of American Art and the DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park, and group shows at the Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, The Bruce Museum, Grounds for Sculpture and the Neuberger Museum of Art.

Her art is in the collections of the New Britain Museum of American Art, The National Museum of Women in the Arts, Housatonic Museum of Art, among others, and is in the Westport Public Art Collection. Photographs of many of Ketchman's sculptures, as well as a more complete resumé, are available at www.nikiketchman.com.

Westport Book Shop, a nonprofit used book store, is downtown Westport’s only source for used and antiquarian books, vintage vinyl records and other media. Located at 23 Jesup Road, right across Jesup Green from the Westport Library, the book shop's "Drew Friedman Art Place" is an area of the store dedicated to exhibiting the work of community artists year-round on a rotating basis.

Miggs Burroughs, a trustee of the Drew Friedman Community Arts Center and a founding member of The Artists Collective of Westport, is curating these exhibits, which change monthly.

The art exhibit is open to the public during the book shop's business hours, and Ketchman’s artwork will be on exhibit through Feb. 28. All artwork on exhibit is available for purchase.