One of Wilton’s most iconic homes is the double-barn home at 276 Ridgefield Rd., at the three-way stop intersection at Drum Hill Rd.. Few people know that ensconced in this home is an art gallery, called browngrotta arts. For 30 years, browngrotta arts has represented museum-quality contemporary artworks from the US and abroad, primarily by artists working for the most part in fiber.
Periodically, browngrotta arts opens an exhibit to the public, in its Art in the Barn exhibition. For 10 days only, browngrotta arts will exhibit its 2018 Art in the Barn exhibition, “Blue/Green: color/code/context,” a multi-media group art exhibition, this April 28 to May 6.
Blue and green, as colors they are elemental…sky, sea, blades of grass, leaves of trees, infinite in hue, tone, intensity and variation…indigo, azure, cerulean, celadon. As metaphor, they serve as code, signaling a mood, a musical genre, naiveté, fertility, rebirth, prosperity, an affinity for nature. For browngrotta arts’ exhibition, more than 50 artists will offer blue and green in context. The artists participating in “Blue/Green: color/code/context” will interpret these colors and what they symbolize in myriad ways — as paintings, sculpture and tapestry.
One artist, Michael Radyk, inspired by research he did in the Netherlands in Amsterdam’s Vondel Parks Nature Center, created handwoven works of recycled vinyl-coated polyester and feathers before making “forgeries” of them, as industrial jacquard woven pieces. The result, “Green Screen, Jacquard” and “Blue Heron, Jacquard,” reference nature and recycling in their use of blue and green. Another artist, Ferne Jacobs‘ finely detailed linen sculpture, “Open Globe,” mixes greens and brown with other colors. The title, Jacobs says, “came from experiencing the piece as I was making it, in my mind, it was the earth. The colors–green, brown, bluish-grey–are the elements on our planet. Open is because the work has no bottom or top. So can we see the earth as a globe/ball, open/unending.” Blue is also the essence of artist Chiyoko Tanaka’s work, “Mud-Dyed Cloth (Blue),” an abstract weaving, that recalls the night sky.
The exhibition, “Blue/Green: color/code/context,” will run for just 10 days, from April 28 to May 6, at browngrotta arts, 276 Ridgefield Rd.. The Artists Preview and Opening will be on Saturday, April 28 from 1-6 p.m.. Gallery hours are Sunday, April 29-Sunday, May 6, 10 a.m.-5 p.m., or earlier or later on those days by appointment.
For more information call 203.834.0623 or email the gallery.