Bruce S. Kershner Gallery at Fairfield Library announces The Dark of Light exhibit
The Dark of Light
Bruce S. Kershner Gallery • Fairfield Library • 1080 Old Post Rd, Fairfield, CT 06824
August 3, 2024 – September 28, 2024
Reception August 8, 2024
The Dark of Light
The public is invited to a reception at The Bruce Kershner Gallery in the Fairfield Library for “The Dark of Light”, the work of Ralph Barkin, Clinton Deckert, and Suzanna Schlemm on October 10 at 5:30 to 7:30 pm. The artists will talk about their work at 6 pm. The show can be viewed during library hours. 1080 Old Post Road in Fairfield. See www.fairfieldpubliclibrary.org.
Ralph Barkin
RALPH BARKIN is a a self-taught photographer. He began using a camera as a teenager, had photography courses as an adult, and then moved into digital photos. He took various workshops and loved photographing landscapes. He then became fascinated with infrared photography.
Since 2010, he has exhibited at the Carriage Barn in New Canaan, the Ridgefield Guild of Artists, and at the Salmagundi Club in NYC, earning several awards along the way. He mostly works in black and white, except when doing infrared photos, which is what he shows in juried exhibitions, and mostly what he is showing in the Kershner Gallery.
Ralph states: “At the heart of my work is a fascination with the way that light shapes our perceptions of the world. By using infrared photography to capture light that is beyond the range of human vision, I hope to challenge viewers to see the world in a new and unexpected way. The non-visible light spectrum also provides a facet of the unpredictable – until the digital negative is being processed, the viewer’s journey within the image cannot be determined. Infrared thus provides me with additional opportunities for expressing my creative vision from capture, to alternative processing techniques, through to printing. Capturing the non-visible spectrum, not always knowing what the result would be was an opportunity to challenge both myself and those who view my work in new ways.”
Suzanna Schlemm
SUZANNA SCHLEMM is originally from Brazil. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Communications and worked as a copywriter in the advertising industry for ten years. In 2001, she moved to New York City to pursue her lifelong interest in painting, attended New York Studio School as a full-time student and also took various classes at The School of Visual Arts, The New York Art Students League, and at Parsons The New School of Design. She returned to Brazil two years later. In 2015, she was accepted to the Alex Kanevsky workshop in Madrid. In 2018, settled in Darien, Connecticut, with her small family. Since then, she has been accepted as a Guild Member of the Silvermine Art Center in New Canaan in 2019, received the prestigious Mercedes Matter Prize from her alma mater in both 2020 and 2022, and has been showing her work in various exhibitions in both Connecticut and New York City.
Suzanna states , “My paintings tell the stories of an imaginary tribe of women, deeply intertwined with nature and the animals that share the land with them, especially birds. They are usually large oil on canvases that I build in layers, in a manner that is grounded on the tradition of painting from observation but that has evolved into a personal technique that leads in the direction of the disruptive realism I am trying to achieve. My imagery comes to me mysteriously and effortlessly as if channeled from a land that actually exists and where I have been finding a familiar sense of quietness and protection since I was a child: Painting for me is both an exploration of this inner sanctuary and an intimate point of connection with the viewer.”
Clinton Deckert
CLINTON DECKERT is a Southington, CT award-winning artist who has exhibited his artwork in Paris, Florida, and locally. He has been curator or juror for regional art events, most recently at the Essex Art Association. His work is in the permanent collection at the New Britain Museum of American Arte, the University of Connecticut, and others. He has been featured in Ink Magazine, the New York Times, Art New England, and on WNPR. He creates paintings and assemblages of found objects.
Clinton states, “… I have always been curious to explore what lurks just beneath the water’s surface, or what’s living under the log. My approach to painting is an extension of that early curiosity. I have developed techniques for creating paintings and found object assemblages that have evolved from those old, blurry and abstracted memories.
My painting process usually begins with random freeform brush strokes, and loose washes of color that will evolve into suggested imagery that drive the painting forward as a higher form of doodling without knowing what the end result will be. The subtle pareidolia type images that are created are similar to what one may see in a clouded sky or reflections in the water. I then take a step back to see what may emerge from these visual riddles. Over time, I strive to develop and resolve these chance images until the color, contrast, and composition seem to balance as a whole. I believe that making art is a two-step process: Creation and Exhibition. The studio life is a solitary creative journey of exploration. The resulting artworks are documents of that experience. Secondly, the artwork can now be exhibited with an audience. It is rewarding to have this exhibition opportunity here at the Bruce S. Kershner. In the end, people will always see what they want to see, and they may interpret the artwork based on their own life experiences and perspectives.”
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