GLOW

The Flinn Gallery is pleased to present GLOW, featuring four abstract artists: Ryan Crotty, Susan Meyer, Linda Kamille Schmidt, and Audrey Stone. These two- and three-dimensional artworks intersect with themes of color, transparency, process, and materiality. Opening Reception, Thursday, February 9, 6 – 8 pm, Flinn Gallery. Curated by Ellen Hawley, “GLOW invites visitors to lean in and examine the close relationship between colors and discover the way ambient light plays upon color illuminating artworks that appear to glow, pulsate, and float in space.”

Linda Kamille Schmidt flexes her visual-spatial intelligence as she masterfully composes colorful textiles in single, double, and triple layers of opaque and translucent panes. Created for GLOW, these approximately 8’ hanging works are shown alongside framed pieces.

The geometric sculptures by Susan Meyer are constructed of wood, acrylic, paint, and mixed media. Ambient light catches the colorful panes of acrylic in “Plinth,” an impressive 5’ 5″h x 9’ 5″w sculpture that includes smaller pieces reminiscent of scholars’ rocks. Also on view are geodesic orbs composed of acrylic and wood polygons.

Audrey Stone’s acrylic paintings defy their two-dimensions when viewers gaze upon them closely. Her paintings are smart and meticulous with lines of subtle color gradients that seem to pulse. She is intrigued by “the way the eye and brain process these adjacent hues, generating visual vibrations that are simultaneously exciting and calming.”

Ryan Crotty’s color field paintings glow and inspire. The viewer experiences “material deception” as if neon tubes are illuminated through the high gloss frames. Crotty achieves this magic by adding, removing, and mixing layers of translucent gel paint with a squeegee, highlighting visual evidence of the canvas support structure, surface imperfections and material composition. Crotty notes, “The canvas acts as a support for pigment and binding medium that allows color and light to coalesce. Primary colors blend to create secondary and tertiary minimalist color field paintings.”

According to curator Ellen Hawley, “the Flinn Gallery is in its 94-year and has exhibited the greats from Picasso to Pollack, Matisse to Motherwell, yet through the decades, has maintained a focus on showing affordable art. In the 1960’s and 70’s, the Gallery (then known as the Hurlbutt Gallery) curated a series called Mr. & Mrs. Hirshhorn Select: Art for the Young Collector where renowned artists priced their works from $25-$500. The artist list is over 100 names long and includes: Josef & Anni Albers, Jean Dubuffet, Al Held, David Hockney, Alex Katz, Louise Nevelson, Ad Reinhardt, Edward Ruscha, George Segal, Frank Stella, to name several. The Gallery is fortunate to occupy a stunning space designed by Cesar Pelli in a state-of-the-art library where we host related programming.”

Events:

Thursday, February 9, 6 – 8 pm, Opening Reception, Flinn Gallery

Posting Thursday February 16, online
Artist Talk: Rita A. Fucillo, Publisher of Art New England, met with GLOW artists online. Watch the pre-recorded Zoom interview on our website, link to come.

Thursday, February 23, 7 pm
Lecture by Fritz Horstman of the Josef & Anni Albers Foundation, Marx Family Black Box Theater, Greenwich Library

Friday, March 3: 5:00 – 6:45 pm, Art Lounge,, Flinn Gallery
To be followed at 7:00 pm by a screening of documentary film Beyond Visible: Hilma af Klint in the Berkley Theater, part of the Library’s Friday Film Series.

The Flinn Gallery is funded and sponsored by the Friends of Greenwich Library. We are located on the second floor at 101 West Putnam Avenue, Greenwich, CT, 06830. The Gallery is open daily Monday to Saturday, 10-5, Thursday until 8pm, and Sunday 1-5pm. Visit www.flinngallery.com for details.