New Techniques, New Ideas

Even before the next Lakeville Art Night — scheduled for Saturday, July 4 — Judith Singelis is opening a new show at Argazzi Art gallery.

   Miya Ando — half Russian, half Chinese — creates quiet, abstract “environmentsâ€� on steel panels.  But the process is anything but quiet:  Using metal finishing techniques — patinas, solvents, other chemicals — to alter the color of the steel, Ando etches and oxidizes the surfaces of her panels with acids and heat.  

   There’s also grinding, polishing and burnishing (among other sanding techniques) brought to her work.  In the end, multiple coats of lacquer are applied.

   The resulting pieces are quiet, austere and somehow elegant after the near violence that created them.  A palette of many shades of gray is deepened by the heavy lacquer coating, which also reflects changing light (and shadows) around the pieces. And the mirror-like surface reflects the viewer in a way that makes him or her a part of the work, gives it depth.

   Elsewhere there are three shows of note:  In Poughkeepsie, NY,  the Palmer Gallery at Vassar College is presenting “Voyages:  The Art of Evelyn Metzger.â€�

  Metzger, who graduated from Vassar in 1932, traveled extensively throughout her life and recorded her impressions of the world in a variety of styles that mirror artistic trends of the 20th century.

   Forty-two of the artist’s works have been assembled by Palmer curators to show the range of her style and subjects. You can read about her life and work in “The Age of Grandeur and A Woman Who Lived It:  Artist Evelyn Metzgerâ€�  by Brett Topping and Nancy G. Heller.  Metzger’s work is in the Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C.

   And, finally, at the great Yale Center for British Art women are featured, too:

   “Paintings from the Reign of Victoria:  The Royal Holloway Collection, London,â€�  brings Thomas Holloway’s splendid examples of mid-Victorian figurative and landscape paintings to Yale for the first time.

    The women shown in many of the works are beautiful and simply posed with none of the sentimentality we (often wrongly) associate with the Victorian period. (It was very long, and styles changed dramatically in 64 years.)

   Also at Yale is a small show of the work of Jules Dalou, who was exiled from France to England in 1871 (after the fall of Napoleon III) for anti-government activities.

   During the nine years of his stay in England, Dalou concentrated on domestic themes; and the Yale presentation centers on five exquisite and intimate statuettes of what Dalou considered “modern womanhood.â€�

   Works by other, if lesser, French artists in London during the period are also shown.

     Argazzi Art is at 22 Millerton Road in Lakeville.  “Quietude,â€� runs through Aug. 30. Call 860-435-8222.

     The James W. Palmer III Gallery is at Vassar College, 124 Raymond Ave., in Poughkeepsie, N.Y.

   “Voyagesâ€� runs through Friday, July 31.  

    The Yale Center for British Art is at 1080 Chapel St. in New Haven.

   For information, call 203-432-2800.

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