“We are living in a time that requires inventiveness and imagination,” Leatrice Eiseman, PANTONE Color Institute.
Zeitgeist is descending to downtown New Canaan this season with “18-3838”, a group exhibition featuring works by Charles Arnoldi, John Clement, Leah Durner, Matthew Heller, Madeleine Keesing, Martin Kline and Jill Moser. These artists have been gracing Heather Gaudio Fine Art’s roster with their personal styles and individual processes. Now, for the first time, they will be brought together to showcase a visually rich installation that is as dynamic as it is au courant. The exhibition will open with a public reception at 4-6pm on Saturday, March 24th and will run through May 5th.
Last December, PANTONE declared 18-3838 Ultra Violet as the official color of 2018. The blue-based purple pigment shade is known to evoke spiritual and meditative reflection, as well as elicit cosmic and futuristic outlooks. Culturally, it has also been associated with individuality and acts of rebelliousness. Never stagnant, Ultra Violet is original, enigmatic and it is only natural that it draws the creative mind. It is therefore no accident that the artists in this show have gravitated to this color over the course of their careers. Works in this exhibition date from the last two decades, the most recent completed before 18-3838 became the official color of 2018.
The artists in this exhibition have achieved a defined style through a skilled understanding and use of the material and its properties, their subject matter emerging from the gesture. Whether as painters using encaustic, enamel or other pigments in liquid form, or as printmakers or sculptors, they share an exploration of abstraction and ideas. Starting with contemplation and meditating on their processes, these artists then allow for chance to play an integral part in the overall compositional structure. One outlier in the group may not fully conform to this description, however, his work manages to find an entry point to the show thematically. These artists invoke a confluence of the current spirit unified by the thought-provoking purple shade.
