Couples →

January 18, 2016

Couples
by caseymcdougal
"I thought you might want to perform."
Me? Perform? Nahhhh. :)
Kathleen Zimmerman has an exhibit called "Couples" at the Kehler Liddel Gallery in New Haven, CT. She and I have been talking for the past few years about collaborating at some point on a project, but nothing has really stuck. Until now!
The theme of "Couples" is present in much of her work, and also aligns well with Valentine's Day, the last day of the exhibit. So, from there, I had pretty much free reign to write about whatever I wanted, which is:
awesome.
and also - terrifying.
I had to once again come face to face with the trap that many artists put themselves in, which is making themselves write about a certain thing in a certain way. I kept trying to delineate specific topics and relate them to specific pieces of art in the exhibit, but then I realized I was missing the point.
It wasn't until a couple of weeks ago, when I sat down one afternoon with zero distractions and just let myself write, that 1.5 hours later, I had the solid foundation for my performance piece.
I have performed solo many times, but I have never done quite what this will be.
So I am working in an artistic coupling (ha) for my piece, by using the gallery space and incorporating the artwork as a background and foundation for my acting performance, but I also have another layer of collaboration in this.
I asked artist Alyssa DelCampo to create something based off a horrible sketch (I am not the visual artist here) in order to create a fun program for me to hand out before my performance. I just received the original piece in the mail yesterday and I am so excited because not only did she do an amazing job, but it just reiterates how creation is happening around us and through us all of the time.
This particular project has been built upon a series of impulses. An impulse to work with artists of other mediums, an impulse to follow through on wacky ideas so others can build them into something more beautiful, and an impulse to trust myself 100%.
While writing this blog, a documentary filmmaker friend called me and we got to talking about - well, everything, but she said, "Follow your path. Use your voice and share your gifts. You are here for a reason."
While the above quotation may seem cliche, it is completely true. Each of us is here to do something so extremely specific, which is to BE OURSELVES. I think many people often agonize over this, because we are such a results-driven society, but in my experience, the more you allow, the more room you have to figure out what you really want to do.
My wish for myself, for you, and truly everyone is to make this year a radical one. If that means being nicer to yourself, or finally finishing that project, or taking that class you have always wanted to take, I hope you do it. Because it is way more boring and at times, painful to just have a brilliant idea and do nothing with it. Creation is an action, not just a thought.
On that note, I hope you will join us on Sunday, January 24th from 3pm-6pm to see some beautiful visual art, partake in some chocolate, wine, and cruelty free food, and of course, see my performance (4:30opm-5pm) as well!
Have a great radical weekend.

Space Series - Saturn Siesta, intaglio print with charcoal, printed at Dog's Eye Print Studio, artwork and copyright by Kathleen Zimmerman — *Space Series - Saturn Siesta*, intaglio print with charcoal, printed at Dog's Eye Print Studio, artwork and copyright by Kathleen Zimmerman

Kehler Liddell Gallery Presents "Couples"

December 13, 2015

Article by Jen Payne

(Photos by Zimmerman Fine Art Studio)

On the cusp of Valentine’s Day, New Haven's Kehler Liddell Gallery will present COUPLES, featuring the evocative work of artist Kathleen Zimmerman. Her drawings, prints and sculpture will be on display from Thursday, January 14 through Sunday, February 14, with an Opening Reception on Sunday, January 24, 3:00 - 6:00 p.m. Casey McDougal, (SAG-AFTRA), an award-winning actor, will perform a devised work inspired by Zimmerman’s exhibition.

In all of her work, Zimmerman’s love affair with form is evident. Her special way of seeing the underlying abstract shapes of her subject matter inspired one of her professors to remark, "you draw like a sculptor." She earned artistic merit scholarships and academic grants from the University of Hartford Art School in West Hartford, Connecticut, where she received a BFA concentrating in sculpture and printmaking. Zimmerman’s work has been exhibited in solo and group shows around the country and is part of both public and private collections. Most notably, her life-sized sculpture, Melody, is part of the renowned Benson Sculpture Garden in Loveland, Colorado. When asked about her work she said, “My art communicates day-to-day life as well as more profound ideas surrounding relationships, stages of life and culture. I use symbolism & surrealism, which creates a mythical quality adding layers of meaning.”

Kehler Liddell Gallery is located at 873 Whalley Avenue in New Haven, Connecticut. Gallery hours are Thursday through Friday from 11:00am - 4:00pm: Saturday and Sunday from 10:00am - 4:00pm. It is free and open to the public. For more information, visit our website, www.kehlerliddellgallery.com, or call 203.389.9555.

As you explore this unique show, you’ll find that Zimmerman often relies on pairs in her work. Sometimes as separate but related images as in WoMan Series, or mirrored images as in BlockHead Series or two main subjects in one work as in Lovers Series or two different interpretations of the same image in her EastWest Series. She has even married both two-dimensional and three-dimensional in works such as in CosmicCow Series or BearHug Series.

COUPLES runs concurrent with NEW YEAR/NEW WORK, which compliments and works with Kathleen's solo show, featuring 20 of Kehler Liddell Gallery’s other member artists in a full range of media, from painting, printmaking and works on paper, to photography and sculpture.

Founded in 2003, Kehler Liddell Gallery has grown to represent some of Connecticut's highest achieving mid-career and emerging artists in a full range of media, from painting, printmaking, works on paper, photography and sculpture. The Gallery is dedicated to representing critical perspectives that challenge and illuminate our culture and enrich our aesthetic experience, and is committed to establishing New Haven as an important center of arts and culture. Its programs have included collaborative group shows, projects with musicians, theatre troupes, filmmakers, authors, actors, dancers, creative entrepreneurs, and events like the Westville ArtWalk.

Note: Kathleen's exhibition Couples runs from January 14th through February 14th, 2016. Kehler Liddell Gallery is located at 873 Whalley Avenue in New Haven, Connecticut.

It's a Wonderful Life: Celebrate with Art

October 15, 2015

A Group Holiday Exhibition featuring drawings, paintings, prints, photographs and sculpture.

Kathleen Zimmerman is exhibiting a graphite drawing, an intaglio print and five digital archival prints in Kehler Liddell Gallery's holiday show. As the title suggests, all the work in this holiday show is about celebrating life and art. Kathleen Series' Dance and Music as well as her newest creation, Spirit Guide or what some call "Over the Hills and Through the Woods" will be on display. SpiritGuide is part of her DogDaze Series, which she started earlier this year. This graphite drawing and intaglio print were inspired by Kathleen's daily walks with her beloved dog and walking companion, Izzy, at a series of trails not far from her home. When asked about it she says that Izzy's free spirit and the beauty of this area fill her with joy everytime she goes. This made her want to try to capture how she felt about her time with Izzy and this particular place in this drawing. As you can tell, this work like her whole body of work, uses symbolism and surrealism to communicate in Kathleen's unique visual language.

Kehler Liddell Gallery is the first to exhibit SpiritGuide and cordially invites you to come to see her as well as our other artists work November 19 - December 20, 2015 Thursday through Sunday 11 - 4. Kathleen and the rest of the artists at Kehler Liddell hope to see you and yours at the Opening Reception: Sunday, November 22, 3 pm – 6 pm to celebrate art and this wonderful life.

Note: This exhibit is at the Kehler Liddell Gallery, 873 Whalley Avenue, New Haven, Connecticut.

Meet Kehler Liddell's Newest Artists

September 02, 2015

Meet Kehler Liddell Gallery’s Newest Artists
Kehler Liddell Gallery introduces five new artists in a New Member Exhibition on view from Thursday, September 10 through Sunday, October 11, with an Opening Reception on Sunday, September 13 from 3:00 - 6:00 p.m. The show runs concurrent with Mexicans, a photography exhibit by Sven Martson.

The New Member Exhibit presents an exciting collection of work by Kehler Liddell’s newest artists, highlighting the key elements of design: form, space, texture, color and shape. Featured artists include:

Laura Barr
Laura Barr lives and works in Stony Creek, Connecticut. She received a BA from Tufts University and a BFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. She also attended Tyler School of Art in Rome, Italy. “I have always drawn inspiration from direct observation,” Barr says. “My instinct is to simplify form and enhance color, distilling and embellishing what I observe, while paying close attention to strong composition.” In her recent series, which include Water Glass, Quarry Depths, Rock Water: Thimbles, Rock Water: Quarry and Waterline, her work explores color, transparency, reflection and the material qualities of light.
Roy Money
Roy Money has been involved in photography for 40 years, including a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Delaware, teaching at multiple schools and universities and exhibiting widely. But it was a 2008 trip to China that reinvigorated his commitment to making art and stimulated a connection between the artwork and his then existing practice of zen meditation. That connection continues to be a major influence on his use of the camera – exploring the limits of awareness and the porous boundary between self and everything else. “Photographing affords me a way of affirming and exploring my place in the single world we humans share with all manner of animate and inanimate matter,” he explains.
Liz Antle-O’Donnell
An Elm City native, Liz Antle-O’Donnell has been an active member of the New Haven arts scene as a teacher, arts administrator and participating artist for close to a decade. Though primarily a self-taught artist, she studied printmaking and studio arts at New York University, Paier College of Art, and Rhode Island School of Design. “The central theme in my work is the conversation between the natural and urban landscapes,” she explains. “Perhaps more typically considered a clear-cut, good vs. evil scenario, this dialogue is represented as a harmonious struggle, a relationship full of fractal symmetries and fluid dichotomies.”
Jaime Ursic
Jaime Ursic received a BFA in Painting/Drawing from the Pennsylvania State University and a MFA in Painting/Printmaking from the Yale University School of Art. She has taught and lectured at universities and museums around the country. Ursic's artworks demonstrate the experimental and playful nature of her production. “I create inspired by my visual accounts of the moment’s circumstances, searching for ways to best achieve what I see,” she writes. Her palette is inspired by her surroundings, working with locally found materials, layering them onto a variety of inked surfaces. “The final effect is comparable to an archeological dig, calling on the viewer to sift through and inspect the final image, mining the work for visual treasure.”
Kathleen Zimmerman
Kathleen Zimmerman’s love affair with form is evident in all her work. Zimmerman attended the University of Hartford Art School in West Hartford, Connecticut on artistic merit scholarships and academic grants where she earned her BFA in sculpture and printmaking. She has worked in the fields of art casting, carpentry, metal fabrication, printmaking and teaching art. She currently works at Zimmerman Fine Art Studio, as well as Dog Eye’s Print Studio, producing intaglio prints and mixed media sculpture. “My art communicates both day-to-day life as well as more profound ideas surrounding relationships, stages of life and culture,” she says, “I use symbolism and surrealism to lend a mythical quality filled with layers of meaning.”

Founded in 2003, Kehler Liddell Gallery has grown to represent some of Connecticut's highest achieving mid-career and emerging artists in a full range of media, from painting, printmaking and works on paper, to photography and sculpture. The Gallery is dedicated to representing critical perspectives that challenge and illuminate our culture and enrich our aesthetic experience, and is committed to establishing New Haven as an important center of arts and culture. Its programs revel in the excitement of cross discipline collaborations—including collaborative group shows, projects with musicians, theatre troupes, filmmakers, authors, dancers, creative entrepreneurs, and events like the Westville ArtWalk.

Please join Kehler Liddell Gallery for these upcoming fall and winter shows:
   October 15 - November 15: Keith Johnson and Edith Morrison
   November 19 - December 20: Kehler Liddell Artists, Holiday Show
   January 14 – February 14: Kathleen Zimmerman Solo and Gallery Artists Show

Alexey von Schlippe Gallery presents "Late Summer Show"

August 29, 2015

Article published Jul 28, 2014
Alexey von Schlippe Gallery presents late summer show
AMY J. BARRY, Special to The Day

Four accomplished regional artists working in very different mediums and techniques are featured in the Late Summer Exhibition at the Alexey von Schlippe Gallery of Art in Groton. But what these artists
do have in common, according to gallery director Julia Pavone, is their expression of human emotion.
"All of these artists seem to want to strip away the things that falsely guide you to places that make you forget your natural self - the feeling and needs of others, and the very basics of life," Pavone says. "They each express visually, though in very different ways, the raw emotional states that make us human, that make us all part of one larger family, and the rich textures of life that we all search for."

KATHLEEN ZIMMERMAN OF WILLINGTON

Zimmerman is displaying her series of graphite drawings that were drawn during the five years
she lived in China.

"They're not necessarily about China, but they were influenced by that five years of my life and
what I was thinking about during that time," she says.Zimmerman says she works in graphite because she wants the ideas and forms to be the dominant force in her work."Graphite lends itself to being very expressive without taking over," she says. "Some artwork is all about the materials, but that's not what I'm interested in. Also, there's an intimacy about a hand-drawn image, which I love … whatever I put down on the paper is what I get. It is a meditative experience and a real joy in being able to capture the creative act so purely."In describing her work, Zimmerman says, "I use symbolism and surrealism to transform my subject matter into archetypal images, which gives them a mythical quality."

"Kathleen's intricate, delicately layered graphite drawings each appear to come together to form
the complex entity," Pavone points out. "As with life, each lovely drawing is made up of so many
ethereal textures, shades and shapes that you want to look at more deeply to experience the
emotions visually laid out before you."