Events and Exhibtions
The Artists Ignition
A curated photographic exhibition that explores the moment of start that all creative pursuits are born from. View the intimate call to purpose, the relationship to people, audience, love, and legacy that is the genesis of music. Through the lens of selected photographers between Bridgeport & Berlin.
"Musicians often struggle with finding inspiration. Some turn to religion, traveling, and other works of art in an attempt to compose a piece of music that resonates with another person's experiences. At some point in their lives, however, all artists discover the oldest, most constant, and most mysterious source of creativity: love. They find a muse, be it a real person or a ghost from the past, who whispers words and music notes to them, turning them into melody." - Sascha Bystrova
Welcome to The Artist's Ignition: Curated Gallery Show with Live Music! Join us for a night of creativity and music at 305 Knowlton St Bridgeport, CT in the Armstrong Gallery located on the first floor. A curated photographic exhibition that explores the moment of start that all creative pursuits are born from with a focus on the music industry and forces that drive it.
View the intimate call to purpose, the relationship to people, audience, love, and legacy that is the genesis of music. Through the lens of selected photographers Sascha Bystrova, Eve Schiano, (+More!) between Bridgeport & Berlin.
Immerse yourself in a diverse collection of artworks while enjoying live music & refreshments that will ignite your senses. This event is a unique opportunity to experience the fusion of visual arts and music in one vibrant space. Don't miss out on this exciting showcase of creativity and talent!
More info at Eventbrite
Iterations: A Dialogue of Scale
Iterations: A Dialogue of Scale
This exhibition, Iterations: A Dialogue of Scale, celebrates artists' explorations of repetition, refinement, and growth by inviting the viewer into their creative processes. By juxtaposing large-scale works with smaller iterations, artists will reveal the intricate web of ideas, sketches, and experiments that inform their more substantial pieces. Through this exploration of scale, we aim to highlight the interconnectedness between seemingly disparate elements. Whether it's a series of preparatory sketches, a collection of miniatures, or a thematic exploration across different sizes, each work offers a unique perspective on the iterative nature of artistic creation. By examining the relationship between large and small works, artists consider answers to the complex questions of scale, composition, and meaning.
How does the scale of a piece influence its impact or interpretation? Do smaller iterations serve as building blocks for larger works, or do they stand as independent entities with their own significance? How do we decide what should be large and what should be small? We pose these questions to encourage understanding of the energy behind what it takes to create one piece: take a look at everything that occurs between the failures and the triumphs.
CURATORIAL STATEMENT BY: BIANCA VALENCIA CRISCUOLO
PARTICIPATING ARTISTS :
Ina Anderson | Nicole Cantore Koester | Bianca Valencia Criscuolo | Tony DeZinno | DownTimeTV | Jason Hisrch | Julia iSABEL | Kate Lashin | Mike Reinwald | Eve Schiano | Chase Simon | Katie Southworth | Emily Swift | Zaibel Torres | Sarah "Era" Visina
Curated by: Bianca Valencia Criscuolo and Katie Southworth
MANIFESTATIONS OF THE SELF
MANIFESTATIONS
OF THE SELF
This exhibition delves into the multifaceted ways artists explore the concept of the self. Through a diverse range of media and artistic approaches, the featured works delve into the complexities of human identity, questioning its formation, expression, and constant evolution.
The self is not a singular entity, but rather a dynamic interplay of experiences, memories, desires, and external influences. This exhibition invites viewers to engage with various manifestations of the self, from introspective self-portraits to fragmented narratives that explore the self in relation to society, culture, and the environment all beautifully expressing in some way, how the artist moves through the world they experience.
Some artists utilize traditional portraiture, yet push its boundaries by employing unconventional techniques or symbolic elements that reveal the internal landscapes of their subjects and the self. Others explore the self through the lens of abstraction, or photography, and the surreal, offering fragmented glimpses of identity through visual movement, objects, or works that emphasize the delicacy of the “process”.
By juxtaposing diverse artistic perspectives, this exhibition encourages a deeper reflection on the fluidity and complexity of the self. It challenges the notion of a fixed and static identity, highlighting the constant flux of experiences that shape who we are and then manifest uniquely.
CURATORIAL STATEMENT BY: BIANCA VALENCIA CRISCUOLO
PARTICIPATING ARTISTS:
BIANCA VALENCIA CRISCUOLO \ NICOLE CANTORE KOESTER \ IAN MAGUIRE \ BRAD NOBLE \ GEORGE PERHAM \ MICHAEL REINWALD \ KATIE SOUTHWORTH \ EMILY SWIFT \ KAYE WEBER
Curated by Katie Southworth and Bianca Valencia Criscuolo
BEYOND THE VEIL: Exploring the Tensions Between
Beyond the Veil: Exploring the Tensions Between
It's perhaps most interesting, the possibilities that exist in the spaces between. Between thoughts, between questions, between reality and the things beyond. In that suspended place of tension is the beginning of “newness”, the birth of novel thought and perhaps a kind of resilient peace given form by hope and a curious calling to explore.
Beyond the Veil: Exploring the tensions between is a solo exhibition with artist Bianca Valencia Criscuolo that envisions a thread between her diverse body of works founded on the idea that each series in some way explores a tension between, a place of juxtaposition and inquiry.
Origins is one of Criscuolo’s most developed series and finds foothold in the tension between future and present cosmology; expanding on the idea that our ancestors asked very different questions about the universe then contemporary humanity. While we are burdened with the exact question of HOW humans and the universe were made. The central cosmological question for ancient humans was nearly always “WHY were we made?” The Origins series therefore, finds its tension and play in Bianca Valencia Criscuolo's desire to explore these contrasting questions as they push back on her personal belief; spirituality and concept of reality.
The tension between the physical and the spiritual.
It is in the dark where consciousness dissolves, and one dances most intimately with dream and spirit. Black lines bleed forth, weaving truths of the unseen. Criscuolo’s illustrative work explores beneath the veil of waking life, where symbols whisper, landscapes shift, and figures flit up from the subconscious. Ink stroke’s give physicality to the depths of the mind, where verity, discovered truth and forgotten memories intertwine with archetypal forms and echoed prophecies from the divine.
The Muse's body of work traverses the question of ethics in artistry as it relates to idolatry and objectification in contrast with love, appreciation and the existence of a muse. Can you have a muse without objectifying and idolizing the subject? Where is the line between appreciation of beauty and objectification?
Bianca Valencia Criscuolo’s series titled Observations of Silence is most simply observing what is birthed within the space between intentional silence and the self. What is found in conscious meditative quiet?
Elohim is Criscuolo’s first series that followed a period of not painting for 3 years. The piece "Inevitable Redemption” began the Elohim series and then expanded concurrently with the Origins series. Elohim takes a theological approach to depicting the essence of heavenly beings. The work is meant to spark conversation around historical interpretations of angelic/heavenly beings; contrasted by scriptural accuracy sited through her studies of Ezikiel.
An apropos theme for Bianca Valencia Criscuolo’s first solo exhibition, Beyond the Veil; Exploring the Tensions Between, follows the energy that starts every grand adventure. As a young artist with dreams of wonder, play, pain and questions, we see Bianca Valencia Criscuolo on the start of her journey; only just beginning to pull on the threads that manifest the curious calling to explore.
Homecoming
Homecoming
Her first Solo Show since moving back to her home state of Connecticut,
"Homecoming" is Katie Southworth's celebration of so much more than a move.
Themes of independence, openness, transition, softness, and the sublime have made their way from Katie's newfound lifestyle into this new series, in which she explores what it means to return to the self in a way that yields true holistic health and wellness.
Inspired by the self-love of early rising, habitual living, natural dopamine, peaceful solitude, new connections, and vulnerability,
"Homecoming" captures what it feels like to be both in power and at peace with unprecedented independence."
Katie Southworth is an award-winning, internationally collected abstract artist, author, advocate, and public speaker currently based in Bridgeport, CT. Originally from Darien Connecticut, she graduated from Colby College in Waterville Maine with Bachelor’s degrees in Studio Art and Psychology. Katie discovered her signature style her senior year of college, the same year she unfortunately grieved the sudden loss of her mother. She was the recipient of the Charles Hovey Pepper Prize for her body of work featured in the 2016 Senior Capstone Exhibition. She went on to receive her Masters in Teaching at the Tufts School of the Museum of Fine Arts in May 2018. In August of 2021, after three years of teaching elementary art for Boston Public Schools, she began pursuing her fine art career full-time.
She moved her practice to Connecticut in July 2023.
Over 300 of her original works are in private and public collections across 50+ cities around the nation and abroad. Katie’s work has been exhibited at international art fairs including Aqua Art Miami (Art Basel Week), and featured in international, local, and fine art publications including Vanity Fair London, Colby Magazine, and Create! Magazine. Katie has delivered Keynote Speeches about her life and work at Gradutation Ceremonies and Mental Health Organization fundraisers, including Wave Strong's inaugural event in September 2024.
In April 2024 Katie published her first book, Dr. Roy G. Biv; Healing One Colorful Painting at a Time, An Artist's Journey to Hope and Joy. It is currently available on Amazon in hardcover and paperback.
Katie shows her work in her studio, online, in exhibitions, and at art fairs across the country, and donates a percentage of sales to The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention annually.
Looking Forward
LOOKING FORWARD
The human capacity to look forward is what sets us apart from other creatures. It is the engine that drives progress, innovation, and creativity. It is the wellspring of hope that allows us to overcome adversity and build a better future…..Consider the following as you take in the work.
“Great men plant trees the shade of which they know they will never sit under”
PARTICIPATING ARTISTS:
KATIE SOUTHWORTH \ BIANCA VALENCIA CRISICOLO \ EMILY SWIFT \ NICOLE CANTORE KOESTER