Suzanne Benton, “First Day,” 2022
Sheffer Gallery
October 27, 2023, through January 8, 2024
Reception: November 1, 6-8 pm (reception: 6-7 pm; talk: 7-8 pm)
Suzanne Benton is a native New Yorker based in Connecticut for 64 of the 70 years she’s practiced her many-faceted art. Her pioneer dedication to feminism and activism has long carried her outreach beyond the borders of home.
The first year of world travel (1976-77) purposely coincided with Women’s International Year. It was then that she began the life pattern of bringing her metal mask making, mask performances, and workshops worldwide. That seminal journey to 14 countries led to decades of grants and invitations that fostered her learning and development as a trans-culturalist artist, highly recognized metal masquer, performer, printmaker, painter, lecturer, and workshop leader. Those opportunities brought her to 32 countries, East and West, and included a Fulbright lectureship in India, multiple artist residencies, generous support from colleges and universities, and frequent hostings by the cultural arm of U.S. embassies. Those amazing times gave a global awareness that’s greatly influenced her life and art.
Suzanne’s exhibitions include more than 200 solo shows, and her artwork is represented in museum and private collections worldwide. The mask tale performances that began at Lincoln Center in 1971, subsequently brought her to Elliot Hall’s 7,000-seat theatre at Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana; Merrick Theater, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA; Harvard University Graduate School of Education; Oberlin College, Oberlin, OH; America Haus, Köln; Bosnian television, Sarajevo; India International Center, New Delhi; Bombay Center for the Performing Arts, India, and on.
Author of The Art of Welded Sculpture and numerous articles, Suzanne is and has been listed in Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in American Art, and Feminists Who Changed America 1963-1975, edited by Barbara Love, 2006. In April 2023, Suzanne received a Lifetime Recognition Award from the Women’s Caucus of Art, Florida.
An upcoming exhibition from March 10 to May 5, 2024, Suzanne Benton: Unmasked will show a selection from her large oeuvre of welded metal masks and monoprints with Chine collé. It will be exhibited at the Mattatuck Museum in Waterbury, Connecticut.
The artist’s current direction, All About Color follows decades of intertwining color, shape, and imagery in distinctive monoprints with Chine collé. Those lengthy visits to India and Bangladesh brought in the palette of South Asia. Kenya, Tanzania, and Morocco taught her unique color juxtapositions. Suzanne is now casting such sun filled worlds into paintings of cosmic realms and unknown worlds.
All About Color Artist Statement
In this ninth decade of life, and as a working artist for nearly 70 years, I’d become interested in the concept of Late Style as described by the literary theorist Edward Said. “Each of us can supply evidence of late works, which crown a lifetime of aesthetic endeavor.” Matisse had it with his renowned paper cuts. While nearly blind, Monet created water lily paintings as his final legacy to the history of art.
My Late Style arrived as a surprise during the Covid pandemic. Sheltering in place ushered in an uncanny level of solitude that only painting could voice. Reaching for the purist of colors, I entered a world of Neo-Transcendentalpaintings large and small that I call All About Color.
The disappeared narrative came as a surprise. The imbedded image had been a mainstay in decades of monoprints and paintings. My welded steel and bronze masks and mask tale performances rely on character and story to amaze an audience. This time, I’m speaking of the inner life from a time of stillness that’s since stayed on.
I’d been well educated in color by John Ferren, the abstract expressionist painter who’d taught the year’s color study at Queen College. That sensitivity developed further through four art-working journeys in India: 1976-1977, 1992-1993, 1995, and 2011, and during the Bangladesh residencies of 1995 and 2011. Countries in Africa also gave my work unique juxtapositions of colors never found in Connecticut seasons.
All About Color began in Florida on the hopeful day of President Biden’s safe inauguration. Florida is also where walks along the beach, its sun on the water, flora and fauna, and even its cooing doves remind me South Asia and Africa. Here’s a long-ago memory from December 1976 when daughter Janet and I were in Puri on the Bay of Bengal. Staying at a hotel from the Raj period that was situated atop a hill from the beach, we took a mid-morning walk along the beach, and then rested in a bamboo hut where the sun came through its weave and cast warm shadows on Janet’s face. The next month took us to Varanasi where we hired a boat and boatman to take us along the Ganges River. It was noon. The heat and extreme contrast of the sun on the water was surreal, as much was, especially during that first time in India. Being in the presence of total poverty, uncanny splendor, and fantastical ancient sites gave an otherworldly strangeness that completely upended any previous sense of reality.
While each of the 32 countries where I’ve worked and traveled has given immeasurable impetus and richness to my art, there was something ineffable about India that drew me back. During the second journey, this time on a Fulbright, I recounted to friends what the guide book said, “Nothing prepares you for India, even if you’ve been there before.” Nevertheless, India became a country I knew to return, but never knew why. I now know that I’d gone again and again to finally arrive at All About Color, the painting series that’s freshening the ninth decade of my life.
Edward Said had added that difficult works also come late in artistic careers, works that “reopen questions”. To this, I’m thinking it’s not only the silence from the time of Covid that’s led to these recent works, or even what India had given me. There are the reflections that come with age, that bring in the weave of a lifetime’s journey and the whispering voice of mortality.
Join us for a reception featuring Showtime!, selections collected from the Westport Public Art Collections (WestPAC), with a gallery overview by Ive Covaci, WestPAC chair and professor of art history at Fairfield University.
Please register HERE.
Pictured (L to R): Yanone C by Hiromitsu Takahashi and Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca, Your Show of Shows by Victor Keppler, courtesy WestPAC.
The Library is pleased to be able to offer free programs and events through the generous donations of patrons like you. Please consider giving to the Library so that we can continue to offer events like this one. Your donation is tax deductible. Donate Now!
Westport Public Art Collections
Westport's Artistic Legacy
Westport Local Artists
Join us on in the Trefz Forum for a reception (6-7 pm) and conversation (7-8 pm) with Suzanne Benton as she discusses her new exhibit, All About Color, with Miggs Burroughs.
In case you missed the event, you may watch the recorded program here.
All About Color is exhibiting in the Sheffer Gallery from October 27, 2023, through January 8, 2024.
The Library is pleased to be able to offer free programs and events through the generous donations of patrons like you. Please consider giving to the Library so that we can continue to offer events like this one. Your donation is tax deductible. Donate Now!
Please join us on in the Trefz Forum for a reception (6-7 pm) and conversation (7-8 pm) with Suzanne Benton as she discusses her new exhibit, All About Color, with Miggs Burroughs.
All About Color is exhibiting in the Sheffer Gallery from October 27, 2023, through January 8, 2024.
The exhibit reflects the artist rejoicing in color, creating a series of neo-transcendental paintings, large and small. Benton, now in her ninth decade of life, has been a working artist for nearly 70 years, employing the embedded image as a mainstay in decades of monoprints and paintings. Her welded steel and bronze masks and mask tale performances rely on character and story to amaze an audiences.
All About Color follows decades of intertwining color, shape, and imagery in distinctive monoprints with Chine collé. Lengthy visits to India and Bangladesh brought in the palette of South Asia. Kenya, Tanzania, and Morocco teaching her unique color juxtapositions. Benton is now casting such sun-filled worlds into paintings of cosmic realms and unknown worlds. Now, she explores the inner life from a time of stillness experienced during the pandemic, that’s since stayed on.
Benton’s exhibitions include more than 200 solo shows, and her artwork is represented in museum and private collections worldwide. The mask tale performances that began at Lincoln Center in 1971, subsequently brought her to theaters across the U.S. and around the world. Author of The Art of Welded Sculpture and numerous articles, Benton is and has been listed in Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in American Art, and Feminists Who Changed America 1963-1975. In April 2023, she received a Lifetime Recognition Award from the Women’s Caucus of Art, Florida.
(Featured is her work 31-First Day, oil on linen canvas 30x24 inches, 2022)
For more information: www.suzannebentonartist.com
The Library is pleased to be able to offer free programs and events through the generous donations of patrons like you. Please consider giving to the Library so that we can continue to offer events like this one. Your donation is tax deductible. Donate Now!
Join us on in the Trefz Forum for a reception (6-7 pm in the South Gallery) and conversation (7-8 pm in the Trefz Forum) with Norm Siegel to discuss his new exhibit, Visual Curiosities, running in the South Gallery from October 27, 2023, through January 8, 2024.
Please register HERE
In case you missed the event, you may watch the recorded program here.
The Library is pleased to be able to offer free programs and events through the generous donations of patrons like you. Please consider giving to the Library so that we can continue to offer events like this one. Your donation is tax deductible. Donate Now!
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Pictured (L to R): The Scream (2020) and Crumpled (2016)
In celebration of Verso University's exploration of the CT Art Trail, join us on December 5, at 11 am, for a presentation about The Art Museum at University of Saint Joseph, located in West Hartford, Connecticut.
This event will take place in the Brooks Place program room on the Library's main level. Please register for this free event HERE.
The collection of the Art Museum at University of Saint Joseph was founded in 1937 with an initial gift of American art from a Hartford parish priest, including paintings by Georgia O’Keeffe, Thomas Hart Benton, and Milton Avery. Ann Sievers, director and curator of the Art Museum, will discuss the history and development of the collection as well as the many ways it is used to advance teaching and learning at the University, train K-12 educators, and provide programming for the wider community. A longtime member of the Connecticut Art Trail, the Art Museum at the University of Saint Joseph is accredited by the American Alliance of Museums.
Ann Sievers has been director and curator of the Art Museum at the University of Saint Joseph since 2002. A specialist in works of art on paper, her previous curatorial post was at the Smith College Museum of Art, where she was in charge of prints, drawings, and photographs. She has organized nationally and internationally touring exhibitions, including a show of master drawings presented at the Uffizi Gallery (Florence, Italy) and the Fondacion La Caixa (Madrid, Spain). Her exhibitions at University of Saint Joseph include In Memoriam (2018), which examined commemorative works by an international roster of contemporary artists, Tajima in Relief (2021), featuring one of Japan’s most prominent 20th century abstract printmakers, and the upcoming Evolution and Revolution: Identity and Power in Puerto Rican and Diasporican Art (Spring 2024). She holds degrees in art history from Wellesley College and Boston University.
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Each month, Verso University will bring individual curators and/or museum directors, from the CT Art Trail membership to the Library for a deeper dive into that museum’s particular mission and exhibits — past and present. Participants will have an opportunity for deeper learning and gain an insider’s view of the museums, their collections and history, along with an invitation for an on-site visit. The Connecticut Art Trail is a nationally recognized partnership between 23 world-class museums and historic sites, created to promote Connecticut’s rich cultural assets.
Verso University is the Library’s lifelong learning and education initiative, serving up year-round offerings of classes, workshops, and lectures designed to further education and learning. Offerings run the gamut of educational opportunities, ranging from one-time lectures to ongoing courses to classes that meet weekly or perhaps monthly.
Verso University programs are made possible by the generous support of the Nancy J. Beard Lifelong Learning and Education Fund.
Museum Passes
Virtual Museum Tours
This fall, comic art, deconstructed case-bound book boards, and visual mixed media all grace the walls of The Westport Library gallery spaces, collecting the unique works of local artists with national attention including Marc Zaref, Niki Ketchman, Rowan MacColl, and Connor McCann.
Connor McCann's instructive exhibition panel
Coinciding with the Neil Gaiman StoryFest Keynote Conversation and Fall 2023 Malloy Lecture in the Arts lecture (Friday, October 20) is the visual companion in the Sheffer Gallery, Panels & Gutters: The Comic Art of Rowan MacColl and Connor McCann.
The exhibition celebrates the form storytelling in comic art featuring MacColl's and McCann’s illustrations with added panels demonstrating their conceptual and technical process. MacColl and McCann are both recent graduates of Staples High School and the Rhode Island School of Design, navigating the art scene with great success.
Rowan MacColl's process panel for Panels & Gutters: The Comic Art of Rowan MacColl and Connor McCann
MacColl is a comic artist and illustrator whose work has been published in various anthologies and art fairs. MacColl’s latest graphic novel, Who Was Accused in the Salem Witch Trials?: Tituba will be published in September 2023 by Penguin Random House.
McCann is a cartoonist and designer. His critically acclaimed graphic novel God Bless The Machine was published and distributed internationally by Strangers Publishing in 2021, and the highly anticipated follow-up will be released this fall.
The opening reception and artist talk (Thursday, October 19, reception 6-7 pm, artist talk 7-8 pm) will have MacColl and McCann reuniting with their former art teacher, fellow artist, and Westport Artists Collective member Katherine Ross. The conversation will focus on MacColl and McCann’s transition from college to the art world, freelance commissions, the role of social media in art promotion, and their upcoming graphic novels.
Cascade 2023, by multidisciplinary artist Zaref, features a Jesup Gallery site-specific designed installation of recycled, deconstructed case-bound book boards.
“Cascade, along with its description of falling water, is a term in music referencing a progression of notes,” said Zaref. “I took advantage of an unusual feature—a partially open ceiling, a place to begin a cascade, the illusion of an unknown source of the piece—not unlike an underground stream or the mind of a musician.”
The South Gallery hosts Ketchman’s Resinations with mixed media resin 12" x 12" visual works. Over the years, Ketchman has exhibited extensively, including one-person museum exhibitions at the Katonah Museum, the New Britain Museum of American Art, and the DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park. Reviews of her work have appeared in The New York Times, Art in America, Sculpture Magazine, and The Boston Globe, among others.
"I start each piece with a 12" x 12" stretched canvas. Then I either paint on the surface of the canvas or adhere a digital print of one of my photos that has often been manipulated in Photoshop,” said Ketchman.
“Once I have the initial image, I spread out many of my materials on a worktable in my studio: fabrics, beads, string, wire, metal ornaments, lace, etc. This is my palette. Once I am satisfied, I pour resin over the whole piece. The resin coating makes the whole piece feel more like an object than a painting or collage. With its shiny and indestructible surface, it is now a Resination."
The two former exhibitions celebrated with an opening reception and artist talk on August 29 moderated by Westport Artist Collective co-founder Miggs Burroughs.
All three exhibitions run through October 25.
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Rounding out the art activity at The Westport Library is The Westport Artists Collective “Affordable Art Trunk Show and Sale” on Sunday, October 1, from 11 am to 4 pm in the lower parking lot adjacent to the Library and Jesup Green (Taylor Lot).
Around 40 members of the Artists Collective of Westport will be displaying their artwork out of the trunk of their cars — all for sale at affordable prices. The Artists Collective of Westport is a vibrant group of 150 creative individuals who have joined forces to discuss, create, and develop dynamic experiences for the Fairfield County community. The collective is open to all active artists in pursuit of expanding their careers and in developing a strong, diverse arts community.
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Artists pictured at top of page, clockwise from top left: Niki Ketchman, Connor McCann, Rowan MacColl (self portrait), and Marc Zaref
Please join us on October 19 in the Trefz Forum for a reception (6-7 pm) and conversation (7-8 pm) with Katherine Ross in conversation with the artists Rowan MacColl and Connor McCann about their exhibit, Panels & Gutters: The Comic Art of Rowan MacColl and Connor McCann. The exhibit was conceived as the visual arts companion to Storyfest, bringing the celebration of the story and all its forms to the Sheffer Gallery with a dual exhibition showcasing the art of the comic.
In case you missed the event, you may watch the recorded program here.
The Library is pleased to be able to offer free programs and events through the generous donations of patrons like you. Please consider giving to the Library so that we can continue to offer events like this one. Your donation is tax deductible. Donate Now!
Panels & Gutters: The Comic Art of Rowan MacColl and Connor McCann was conceived as the visual arts companion to StoryFest 2023, bringing the celebration of the story and all its forms to the Sheffer Gallery with a dual exhibition showcasing the art of the comic. The exhibit is on view in the Library's Sheffer Gallery from August 12 to October 25.
About the Artists:
MacColl is a comic artist and illustrator based in a tiny studio apartment in Queens, New York. She was born and raised in Westport, graduating Staples High School in 2014 and the Rhode Island School of Design in 2018. Since then, Rowan has been involved in various anthologies, art fairs, and publishing graphic novels. Her latest graphic novel, Who Was Accused in the Salem Witch Trials?: Tituba, e will be published September 2023. Rowan loves cats, fairy tales, and drawing voluminous historical outfits.
McCann is a cartoonist and designer based in Brooklyn, New York. A Westport native, he graduated from Staples High School in 2014. He received his BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2018. His critically acclaimed graphic novel, God Bless The Machine, was published and distributed internationally by Strangers Publishing in 2021, and the highly anticipated follow up will be released this fall. He loves Pieter Bruegel paintings, vinyl toys, and falling asleep standing up.
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The Library is pleased to be able to offer free programs and events through the generous donations of patrons like you. Please consider giving to the Library so that we can continue to offer events like this one. Your donation is tax deductible. Donate Now!
Art of Comics
Westport Local Artists
On view in the South Gallery, August 12 to October 25, is an exhibit by artist Niki Ketchman: RESINATIONS.
Ketchman will also take part in an artist conversation on August 29 from 6-8 pm with fellow exhibitor Marc Zaref (Marc's work is on view in Jesup Gallery) and Miggs Burroughs.
About RESINATIONS:
"I start each piece with a 12" x 12" stretched canvas. Then I either paint on the surface of the canvas or adhere a digital print of one of my photos that has often been manipulated in Photoshop. I photograph anything that happens to catch my eye, such as a reflection in a window, tar spread on the road, or light on the water at the beach. As you can see, they are things one might see while going through a normal day.
"Once I have the initial image, I spread out many of my materials on a worktable in my studio: fabrics, beads, string, wire, metal ornaments, lace, etc. This is my palette. I work intuitively trying out different additions to my original image. Sometimes I cut the canvas leaving an opening through which one can see. Then whatever I add is attached behind the opening. This process is, in part, an investigation of actual depth verses perceived depth.
"Once I am satisfied, I pour resin over the whole piece. The resin takes 24 hours to cure. The resin coating makes the whole piece feel more like an object than a painting or collage. With its shiny and indestructible surface, it is now a Resination."
About the Artist:
Ketchman has been a working artist for more than 40 years, creating paintings, digital photographs, drawings, collages, resin-coated pieces, and sculptures. In recent years her primary work has been sculpture although she has continued to make 2D work, which often serves as a thinking process for her.
Over the years Ketchman has exhibited extensively, including one-person museum exhibitions at the Katonah Museum, the New Britain Museum of American Art, and the DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park. Her work has been included in group shows at the Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, The Bruce Museum, Grounds for Sculpture, The Hammond Museum, The Fairfield University Art Museum, and the Neuberger Museum of Art.
In addition, Ketchman has exhibited at the Kouros Gallery in New York City, the Cortland Jessup Gallery in Provincetown, the Mona Berman Gallery in New Haven and the Gallery New World in Dusseldorf, Germany. Reviews of her work have appeared in The New York Times, Art in America, Sculpture Magazine, and The Boston Globe, among others.
Ketchman's work can be found in the permanent collections of the New Britain Museum of American Art, Picker Art Gallery (Colgate University), Grounds for Sculpture, DeCordova Museum, The National Museum of Women in the Arts, Housatonic Museum of Art, CUNY at Staten Island, Westport School System, and the Westport Historical Society, plus several corporate and private collections.
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The Library is pleased to be able to offer free programs and events through the generous donations of patrons like you. Please consider giving to the Library so that we can continue to offer events like this one. Your donation is tax deductible. Donate Now!
Visual Arts Collection
Westport Local Artists
Please join us on August 29 from 6 to 8 pm for a reception (6-7 pm) and conversation (7-8 pm) between Miggs Burroughs exhibiting artists Marc Zaref and Niki Ketchman, in the Trefz Forum.
In case you missed the event, you may watch the recorded program here.
On view in the Jesup Gallery, August 12 to October 25, is an exhibit by Zaref entitled CASCADE, 2023. In the South Gallery is Ketchman's work, RESINATIONS.
The Library is pleased to be able to offer free programs and events through the generous donations of patrons like you. Please consider giving to the Library so that we can continue to offer events like this one. Your donation is tax deductible. Donate Now!
On view in the Jesup Gallery, August 12 - October 25, 2023: An exhibit by artist Marc Zaref: CASCADE, 2023. This is a site-specific installation of deconstructed case-bound book boards.
Zaref will also take part in an artist conversation on August 29 from 6-8 pm with fellow exhibitor Niki Ketchman (Niki's work is on view in South Gallery) and Miggs Burroughs.
From the Artist:
“My book board installations begin with the deconstruction of case-bound books — all destined for recycling. I then reassemble the materials of linen and/or paper wrap covers to form dimensional panels. Each site-specific installation is unique however a musical theme is common. Cascade, along with its description of falling water, is a term in music referencing a progression of notes.
“Color, like music, is often described with words such as rhythm, harmony, and melody. The artist/musician has limitless choices in creating contrasts, harmonies, contradictions, and patterns. Assembled in a free and improvisational manner, color associations may draw the viewer into an area of the piece, perhaps triggering memories, emotions, or simply personal tastes.
“For the Library, the Jesup Gallery offered a unique and challenging environment to create within. Limited to a wall installation and in a popular seating area, I took advantage of an unusual feature– a partially open ceiling. A place to begin a cascade. The illusion of an unknown source of the piece–not unlike an underground stream or the mind
of a musician.”
More about Marc Zaref:
A multidisciplinary artist, Zaref is known to some as a sculptor, others as a painter, and many as a designer. Drawing is the foundation of his processes, and is apparent in his work on paper, through playful assemblages of forged and welded steel. His broad range of skills are paired with a comfort and knowledge of working with an extensive palette of methods and materials. This enables him to freely articulate his ideas and expressions in two and three dimensions.
Zaref’s design background, concentrated in the world of museums and galleries, gives him an understanding of partnership and collaboration. His role in the curatorial planning and execution of major exhibitions, from creating monographic, thematic, and period specific books, to designing exhibition spaces, exposed him to limitless visual influences. In this capacity he worked closely with artists, curators, museum board members and staff. While Marc continues to consult with institutions and provides design services on a per project basis, he transitioned to dedicating his time to his fine artwork in his studio and shop.
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The Library is pleased to be able to offer free programs and events through the generous donations of patrons like you. Please consider giving to the Library so that we can continue to offer events like this one. Your donation is tax deductible. Donate Now!
