Thinking Inside the Box and Art of the Album: And All That Jazz, plus New Exhibits by Marlene Siff and Camille Eskell, Highlight New Art at The Westport Library

Thu, Mar 28, 2024
EJ Crawford

Clockwise from top left: Marlene Siff's Fanfare (2018), Thinking Inside the Box, Camille Eskell's Useless Females: Don't Stand There Like a Bloody Momo (2019), from And All That Jazz.

Music and Women’s History Month are the themes running through four new art exhibits at The Westport Library, with three exhibitions inspired by VersoFest, all currently on display along with a collection of mixed media works by Camille Eskell.

Thinking Inside the Box is being hosted in the central grandstand on the Library’s main level. An idea put forward by artist and author Melissa Newman, Thinking Inside the Box isa unique installation that brings together 21 artists from around the area to create original multi-dimensional works. Participating artists include Tina Puckett, Chris Perry, Marc Zaref, Elizabeth Petrie DeVoll, Rebecca Ross, Janine Brown, Darcy Hicks, Nina Bentley, Miggs Burroughs, Sooo-z Mastropietro, Tom Bernsten, kHyal, Melissa Newman, Mary Ellen Hendricks, Katherine Ross, Five Fingaz, Tammy Winser, S’aint Phifer, Linda Colletta, Mollie Keller, and Norm Siegel.

Running simultaneously in the Sheffer Gallery is Marlene Siff’s Finely Tuned, which features five large dimensional paintings named for, and linked to, a specific expression found in music, along with several maquettes she created prior to construction of the final pieces. Visitors to the gallery can scan a QR code next to each piece and listen to the musical selections that the artist used as inspiration. Finely Tuned runs through June 10, with a reception and artist talk moderated by Miggs Burroughs on Sunday May 5, from 2 to 4 pm.

Also running through June 10 is Eskell’s exhibit, Scheherazade: Storyteller, displayed in the South Gallery. Eskell’s reception and talk will be held Wednesday, May 1, from 6 to 8 pm, also moderated by Burroughs. Part of her series, The Fez as Storyteller, Eskell’s digital photo-based collages incorporate textiles such as saris, hand-made paper, cast sculpture, trims, jewels, and more, to explore self-perception, societal attitudes, and psychological states related to gender bias.

Rounding out the new exhibits is Art of the Album: And All That Jazz, album covers from the collection of Ellen and Mark Naftalin, displayed in the Jesup Gallery. And All That Jazz features album covers of some of the pioneering jazz musicians who changed the face and sound of American music forever.

“Coinciding with Versofest, as well as Women’s History Month, we hope our current exhibits add an engaging and diverse visual arts component that can be enjoyed by the public at large, as well as the extended community that attends this year’s VersoFest,” said Carole Erger-Fass, the Library’s exhibit curator.

L to R: Camille Eskell, Marlene Siff, Mark Naftalin

Siff describes herself as being born with a paintbrush in hand. The Bronx native attended the High School of Music and Art in New York City and earned a BA in Fine Arts from Hunter College, where she studied with Richard Lippold, William Baziotes, Raymond Parker, and William Rubin. After graduation, she began her professional career as a teacher and went on to create bed linen and kitchen collections for J.P. Stevens. After finding commercial success, she designed kitchen and dining room collections for JCPenney before devoting herself full time to her art.

Siff’s work has been juried into 153 competitions across the United States and has won 45 awards. She has exhibited in museums, galleries, and universities throughout the U.S. and abroad, including the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Ridgefield, the Katonah Museum of Art, the New Britain Museum of American Art, the Mattatuck Museum, the Attleboro Arts Museum, Columbia/Barnard University, the University of Texas, the Walsh Art Gallery at Fairfield University, Eastern Kentucky University, and The Capitol building in Washington D.C.

“As a child, I studied classical music for over 10 years and have always listened to music while studying at school and working in my studio,” said Siff, who is now based in Westport. “My love of music inspired a desire to develop a new interpretation of music in art. These ideas were influenced by the rhythm, structure, and sounds of the musical compositions and songs I chose for each one of the interactive, multi-dimensional paintings.

“Working on 7 Finely Tuned + 1 became a creative, emotional, and spiritual adventure. My hope is to inspire strength, power, courage, and happiness at this particular time of great stress in our country.”

As a first-generation American and the youngest of three daughters from a Middle Eastern Iraqi-Jewish family from Mumbai, Eskell’s purpose has been to examine her cultural history and familial heritage through a feminist lens in her work. For Eskell, the converging of these three ancient societies compounded the underlying disparagement of women they shared, which deeply impacted her as it played out in the family dynamic.

Through her art, Eskell aims to unearth the influences of embedded patriarchal systems and inequitable gendered traditions that persist across generations. In The Fez as Storyteller, she tackles the power of these beliefs and perceptions and their broader social and psychological legacy.

Eskell exhibits her work in solo and group shows throughout the U.S. and internationally, including Mexico and South America. Her work is in numerous public and private collections, such as the Hudson River Museum, Chrysler Museum of Art, the Housatonic Museum of Art, and the Islip Art Museum. She received Artist Fellowship grants from the New York Foundation for the Arts in drawing, the Connecticut Commission on the Arts in painting, and the CT Office of the Arts in mixed media. She has also received reviews and features in numerous publications including The New York Times, CT Post, The Hartford Courant, Art New England, the Huffington Post, and online journals Art Spiel, Posit 19, and Ante Mag, among others.

Art of the Album: And All That Jazz, is the fifth in a series of exhibits exploring the history of album art and design, and was curated by Ellen Naftalin from their extensive album collection. Mark Naftalin is a Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee who rose to fame as the keyboardist with the influential Paul Butterfield Blues Band. In the San Francisco Bay Area, Naftalin produced more than 1,300 blues radio broadcasts on three FM stations, in addition and more than 30 blues festivals. Since moving to Ellen’s native Westport in 2002, he has also hosted a monthly broadcast, The Mark Naftalin Show, which is now in its eighth year on Bridgeport's WPKN 89.5 FM.

For more information on these exhibits, and more, visit the Art at the Library page.

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