Wilton Library will present the dramatic and colorful works of “The Art of Firing Circuits Studios” in its September art exhibition, opening on Friday, Sept. 9 with a reception from 6-7:30 p.m. Firing Circuits Studios is a collective of diverse, well-known working artists with studios located in a brick century-old factory building in Norwalk. Nine artists from the group will be exhibiting their works in an array of styles, media choices, and subject matter.
“Firing Circuits Studios is an exciting group of talented artists, and we are thrilled to welcome them back to the library after the pandemic. This will be the group’s third exhibit here, and we know that there will be some very large and colorful works on the walls. We can’t wait to share their latest work with our community,” Ed MacEwen, Art Chairman of Wilton Library, said.
The artists are Cecilia Moy Fradet (Norwalk), Mari Gyorgyey (Stamford), Elisa Keogh (Norwalk), Cate Leach (Darien), Pamela Lindberg (Darien), Mary Manning (Darien), Mark Schiff (Norwalk), Nancy C. Woodward (Norwalk), and Karen Vogel (Darien). The reception is free and open to the public.
Cecilia Moy Fradet is constantly creating and curating ideas for her projects to come. Born in Hong Kong and raised in lower Manhattan, Fradet was fascinated by the differences in what people perceived as interesting, beautiful, and even what’s good or worthy. Art has always been in Fradet’s life. She was drawn to art at an early age, as her grandfather was a painter of Chinese landscapes and her father was a calligrapher. She graduated with a fine arts degree, then had a second career as a fashion designer. Fradet is currently a mixed media artist and has a studio at Firing Circuits in Norwalk. She is a member of the Silvermine Guild Arts Center, a member of the Artist Collective of Westport, and an educator at the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum.
Mari Gyorgyey is best known for her nonlinear narrative art, which flows into book arts, pen and ink drawings, paintings, computer imagery, and fine art etchings. She is not afraid to mix any of the techniques to communicate her theme. Her quirky and satirical drawings have been compared to Philip Evergood, William Kentridge, and the pre-war drawings of George Grosz. Since earning her BFA from Rhode Island School of Design, and MFA from the University of Pennsylvania, Gyorgyey has shown her work domestically and internationally with solo shows in Tapio Gyorgy and Budapest, Hungary, as well as Stamford. She has won printmaking awards from the University of Pennsylvania, Dharma Silk Company, and the Center for Contemporary Printmaking, where she is a longtime member. Gyorgyey investigates the conflicts and harmonies of Hungárián communities and she explores what it is like to have two identities vying for dominance. Gyorgyey’s work integrates her fine art and textile design background. Her content is strongly influenced by living in communist Hungary and suburban America.
Elisa Keogh grew up in the UK and arrived in the United States at age 19 to follow her
dream of working at a New York City advertising agency. After studying graphic design
at the School of Visual Arts and Parsons School of Design in New York City, she
enjoyed a successful career as a commercial artist (advertising and later in the music
industry) and formed her own studio, SeeHear Design. She moved to Connecticut and
shifted her focus to fine art photography. For almost two decades, Keogh has exhibited
her experimental photographs throughout the United States and abroad and has been
honored with significant recognition for her work. During the pandemic, she began
devoting more time to painting in acrylic paint, mostly on canvas.
Cate Leach is an award-winning artist whose style is distinguished by a love of line, a sensitive appreciation for composition, and the awareness that resolution often comes by eliminating the nonessential. Having spent many years as a dancer with George Balanchine and the New York City Ballet, Leach finds inspiration and meaning in subtle gestures and an economy of form. Leach’s paintings, prints, and assemblages have been exhibited at museums and galleries throughout New York and Connecticut, including Lyman Allyn Art Museum, Housatonic Museum, Sacred Heart University, the Flinn Gallery in Greenwich, LaGuardia Airport and the Prince Street Gallery. She is a member of the Silvermine Guild of Artists, the Concepts Group (Darien), the Center for Contemporary Printmaking (Norwalk), and Connecticut Women Artists.
Pamela Lindberg was trained as a surface pattern designer and has, for the last 35 years, pursued her interests in painting, printmaking, photography, and most recently, encaustics. She has exhibited in numerous juried shows and has won a number of awards. A love of nature is a recurring theme in her art. She also has a love of textures and unique materials and techniques.
Mary Manning is a visual artist who works with diverse media and processes, always experimenting with new materials. She has evolved her practice to include expressive and organic abstract ink paintings, alongside colorful collaged pieces. She describes her work as an ongoing exploration without rules and conventions, continually generating new forms, patterns, themes, and textures. She is represented by the online gallery cynthiabyrnes.com of CBCA Westport. She maintains a studio at Firing Circuits in Norwalk and prints in Brooklyn.
Mark Schiff uses painting to express his love for nature. He enjoys the spontaneity and unpredictability in his artwork. His process uses mixed media and altered brushes to achieve a unique viewer experience. Schiff is an award-winning artist having his third exhibit at the Wilton Library. He has exhibited extensively in Connecticut, New York City, Miami, and the Hamptons.
Nancy C. Woodward is an award-winning photographer and mixed media artist. Her shadow portraits, colorful trees, and ethereal landscapes depict unique views of the natural world. She experiments with different color palettes, papers, fibers, mediums, and surfaces to bring new realms into view. Woodward is a lifelong resident of Norwalk. She was an Artist in Residence at Silver Lake Conference Center in Sharon, CT for 10 years. She is a member of the Ridgefield Guild of Artists, the Rowayton Arts Center, the Katonah Museum Artists’ Association, and the New Canaan Society of the Arts. Woodward has a BA in Psychology from Franklin Pierce University in Rindge, NH. She studied photography, encaustic painting, and digital editing at the Silvermine School of Art, and she studied privately with photographer Sandi Haber Fifield and encaustic artists Leslie Giuliani and Nash Hyon. Recent awards include Best in Show in the Autumn Juried Exhibition at the Rowayton Arts Center in October 2019; Best in Show, the Betty Barker Award, in the fall 2018 Member Show at the Carriage Barn Arts Center. Woodward was the featured artist in the 2018 spring edition of Wayfarer Magazine.
Karen Vogel is a printmaker and painter who lives in Darien. Her work melds the influences of visual form, narrative, and nature. The language of print, typography, architecture and organic forms emerge from multiple layers of a variety of printmaking and painting techniques. She is interested in the parallels between art-making and landscape design, her two passions.
The exhibition runs through Saturday, Oct. 1, at Wilton Library (137 Old Ridgefield Rd.). A majority of the works are available for purchase with a portion of the proceeds benefiting the library. For more information, visit the library’s website or call 203.762.3950.