Julia Weber
Staff writer
Chautauqua Visual Arts opens a busy season with not one, not two, but five new exhibitions this opening weekend.
From 3 to 5 p.m. Sunday in Strohl Art Center and Fowler-Kellogg Art Center, CVA will host opening receptions for the exhibitions housed in both buildings. Approximately 30 exhibiting artists will be in attendance at their respective receptions, a record number for the galleries.
Judy Barie, Susan and John Turben Director of CVA Galleries, said when exhibiting artists visit Chautauqua, it’s a “win-win for everybody” — “the artists get to experience Chautauqua, they get to spend a day here, and then they get to meet the public and the public gets to meet them,” she said.
“It’s (the artists) entering (the public’s) lives, but I think it’s even more the fact that they get to talk to them about their processes and their techniques,” she said. “When they explain that work, then people understand it.”
In the Melvin Johnson Sculpture Garden behind Strohl, passersby can enjoy the installed outdoor sculptures, which bring texture, form and color to the grounds of the Institution. The sculpture garden’s artworks are on view through the end of the 2025 Summer Assembly, built to endure the outdoor conditions that summer may bring.
Meanwhile, the first floor of Strohl hosts “Fields of Color,” curated by Barie. The collection boasts colorful, abstract artworks that span an array of media and techniques. Through this diversity of methods, the artists explore the parameters of abstraction and representation through color and formal technique. The exhibition is on view through July 20.
Walk up the stairs to the second floor to find Canadian artist Peter Hoffer’s solo exhibition “Tree Portraits,” also curated by Barie, on view through July 17. Recalling classical, painterly techniques of the Romanticism movement through a contemporary lens of conceptual sculpture, his paintings are serene and still from afar but shine in the details. Through Hoffer’s application of layers upon layers of reflective varnish, the surfaces eventually show variation, bringing the viewer nearly into the painting to see its most subtle level of individuality through materiality, texture and process.
On the same floor in the Gallo Family Gallery, the portraiture-focused exhibition “Likeness” brings together artists across mediums to explore the power of portrayal. Despite taking on different formal qualities, each portrait aims to uplift its subject. Curated by Associate Director of CVA Galleries Erika Diamond, “Likeness” is on view through Aug. 19.
Across the street in Fowler-Kellogg, “Crafting Home” sheds a light on contemporary homeware and investigates the relationship between house and home. Featuring more than 30 artists, including some within the Chautauqua community, the exhibition foregrounds inanimate objects that surround our daily lives while highlighting their capacity for artfulness and craftsmanship. The exhibition, also curated by Diamond, is on view through Aug. 3 in the first floor galleries and Angela Fowler Memorial Gallery in Fowler-Kellogg.
With five exhibitions set to open this weekend, there is no shortage of visual art on the grounds of the Institution. While the content and themes of the exhibitions are expansive and diverse, each sheds light on conversations in contemporary art and asks viewers to engage and reflect on where they find art in their own lives.
