Frank Stella’s sculptures Jasper’s Split Star, from 2017, and Frank’s Wooden Star, from 2014 at the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Ridgefield, CT
By PAUL LASTER, October 30, 2020
For the third travelogue in a series of roving reports into regional culture, Renée Riccardo and I headed to Connecticut, where we stayed at an Airbnb in the centrally located city of Danbury and made daily journeys to Ridgefield, Sharon, Kent and New Canaan, while soaking up dazzling fall colors when traveling winding country roads.
Arriving at the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Ridgefield, we headed straight for Frank Stella’s star sculptures, which were sited around the museum’s grounds. Once inside the galleries, we continued viewing his show, Frank Stella’s Stars, A Survey, which features a striking selection of paintings, sculptures and maquettes for public projects. Heading upstairs, we caught Genesis Belanger’s first major solo museum show, Through the Eye of a Needle, a playful installation of surreal ceramic sculptures that feminize household objects and food, and Twenty Twenty, a group exhibition of artists working from photographic imagery. Before leaving the museum, we stopped to see one more not-to-be-missed show, Rudy Shepherd’s Somebody’s Child, presenting the artist’s compelling portraits of victims of police violence.
Frank Stella’s 2017 sculpture Nessus and Dejanira at the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Ridgefield, CT
Spending the remainder of the day driving from one small town to the next to take in the local architecture and magnificent changing colors of the trees, we awoke early the next morning to visit the studio of John-Paul Philippe, whom Renée planned to interview on Instagram, on the outskirts of Sharon. Touring his rustic cabin and barn, where his studio is located, and other charming sections of his secluded land, we saw some recent paintings and a number of promising works in progress. Traveling into the town of Sharon, we stopped at Standard Space, where artist and Wassaic Project’s artistic programming director Will Hutnick walked us through SNACKS, the colorful food-related group exhibition that he’s curated there.
The next stop was South Kent, where we visited gallerist James Barron and artist Jeannette Montgomery-Barron. While Renée conducted an Instagram interview with Jeannette in her studio, I toured James Barron Art with James, who is celebrating 40 years of art dealing with a series of notable exhibitions housed in a variety of intimate galleries on their expansive property. The main gallery featured paintings and drawings by Peter Halley in the exhibition Networks, while the space below offered minimalist drawings by Sol Lewitt. My main interest, however, was seeing new paintings by the Italian self-taught artists Vera Girivi, Elisabetta Maestro and Elisabetta Zangrandi.
Frank Stella’s 1963 painting Port Tampa City at the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Ridgefield, CT
In The Cabin, Laura de Santillana's sublime glass sculptures were marvelously paired with Sidival Fila's monochromatic paintings; The Meditation Hut displayed a singular small piece, Anthony Caro's 1967 dynamic bronze Table Piece XXXVIII; and Beverly Pepper’s powerful 2018 bronze Clodia Medea sculpture, which we had passed on the driveway, was installed on a new exhibition space, known as The Ledge. Stopping in Kent on the way back to our lodging, we popped into Kenise Barnes Fine Art to view Poptics and Paintings: New Works by Mary Judge, which offered a lively array of her geometric abstractions.
We had just one stop on our final day, the Eliot Noyes House in New Canaan, where we saw the engaging exhibition At The Noyes House: Blum & Poe, Mendes Wood DM and Object & Thing, which mixed artworks with design objects and family heirlooms. With new paintings by Tomoo Gokita, Mark Grotjahn and Antônio Obá; fresh sculptures from Alma Allen and Arlene Schechet; recent drawings by Yoshitomo Nara; and a selection of cool ceramics by Lynda Benglis, Kazunori Hamana, Jim McDowell, Frances Palmer and Masaomi Yasunaga, the delightful show of contemporary art and design jazzed up Noyes’ already groovy abode, which made us feel right at home. WM
Frank Stella’s 2013 sculpture K.159 at the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Ridgefield, CT
Frank Stella’s 2018 sculptural maquette Truss with Stars II at the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Ridgefield, CT
Genesis Belanger’s sculptural installation Manifest Destiny, from 2020, at the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Ridgefield, CT
Genesis Belanger’s ceramic pieces Party's Over, Snuffed Out and Cheer Up, all three from 2020, at the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Ridgefield, CT
A detail of Genesis Belanger’s Abundantly Empty the Ceaseless Void ceramic sculpture at the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Ridgefield, CT
Diana Shpungin’s drawings for her 2020 film animation Still Life Triptych at the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Ridgefield, CT
William Powhida’s watercolors Joe Biden (Democratic Presidential Nominee) and Kamala Harris (Democrat), both from 2020, at the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Ridgefield, CT
Marti Cormand’s drawings They Might Be Giants and altered Polaroid from his Archive Building series, all from 2020, at the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Ridgefield, CT
Rudy Shepherd’s watercolors from his 2007-2020 series Somebody's Child at the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Ridgefield, CT
A seasonal display at John-Paul Philippe's cabin in Sharon, CT
A work in progress on the grounds of John-Paul Philippe's cabin and studio in Sharon, CT
Some of John-Paul Philippe's Nut paintings in his studio in Sharon, CT
A work in progress at John-Paul Philippe's studio in Sharon, CT
Renee Riccardo photographing John-Paul Philippe with one of his sculptures at the entrance to his cabin and studio in Sharon, CT
Alison Kuo’s 2018-2019 sculpture Rooster Falls; Nicole Dyer, 2019 sculptures La Croix (Cran-Raspberry), La Croix (Mango) and Vintage Seltzer (Lemon Lime), and her 2020 installation I Remember You; and Eric Hibit’s 2020 painting Bowl of Bananas at Standard Space in Sharon, CT
Eric Hibit’s 2018 painting Death by Chocolate and Nicole Dyer’s 2020 installation Edible Arrangement (Happy Birthday 29) at Standard Space in Sharon, CT
Nicole Dyer’s 2020 sculptures Cookies and Devils Food Cake and her 2019 painting Dinner and Alison Kuo’s 2019 wall sculpture Stoplight Party at Standard Space in Sharon, CT
Beverly Pepper’s 2018 bronze Clodia Medea installed on the The Ledge at James Barron Art, South Kent, CT
Peter Halley's paintings Sanctum, from 2011, and his 2013 canvas Common Ground at James Barron Art, South Kent, CT
Brian Rochefort's 2018 ceramic sculpture with Peter Halley’s paintings at James Barron Art, South Kent, CT
Elisabetta Maestro's untitled 2019 painting at James Barron Art, South Kent, CT
Two untitled paintings by Vera Girivi, from 2020, at James Barron Art, South Kent, CT
A selection of Laura de Santillana's monochromatic glass sculptures, from the 2000s, at James Barron Art, South Kent, CT
Sidival Fila's monochromatic paintings, from 2019, and Laura de Santillana 2018 glass sculpture at James Barron Art, South Kent, CT
Elisabetta Zangrandi's 2019 painting Landscape with Dancing Nature at James Barron Art, South Kent, CT
The Meditation Hut at James Barron Art, South Kent, CT
Anthony Caro's 1967 bronze Table Piece XXXVIII in the Meditation Hut at James Barron Art, South Kent, CT
A selection of photographs by Jeannette Montgomery-Barron in her studio in South Kent, CT
A 2020 work on paper by Mary Judge, from her Poptic series, at Kenise Barnes Fine Art in Kent, CT
Mary Judge's 2019 Astro Square painting at Kenise Barnes Fine Art in Kent, CT
Mary Judge's 2011 painting Pale Blue + Green Star at Kenise Barnes Fine Art in Kent, CT
An untitled sculpture from 2020 by Alma Allen, Daniel Steegmann Mangrané's 2020 aluminum curtain, Green River Project 2020 pine-board deck chairs, and Kazunori Hamana 2019 untitled ceramic sculpture at The Eliot Noyes House in New Canaan, CT
Jim McDowell's recent ceramic jugs, Mark Grotjahn's untitled painting, from 2020, and a 2013 ceramic sculpture by Lynda Benglis at The Eliot Noyes House in New Canaan, CT
Sergio Camargo's 1970 painted wood construction and Lynda Benglis' 2013 glazed ceramic sculpture at The Eliot Noyes House in New Canaan, CT
A 2020 mixed-media sculpture by Arlene Schechet at The Eliot Noyes House in New Canaan, CT
A selection of recent ceramic vessels by Masaomi Yasunaga, Paolo Nazareth's 2010 photograph, and an undated wood sculpture by Rubem Valentim at The Eliot Noyes House in New Canaan, CT
A group of Yoshitomo Nara's works on paper, from 2019, at The Eliot Noyes House in New Canaan, CT
Two pigmented polyurethane resin vases, from 2020, by Gaetano Pesce at The Eliot Noyes House in New Canaan, CT
An untitled bronze sculpture, from 2020, by Alma Allen, a 2020 painting by Antônio Obá, and Megumi Arai's textile bedspread, from 2020, at The Eliot Noyes House in New Canaan, CT
A recent Daniel Valero / Mestiz chair, Tomoo Gokita's 2020 painting Looking for a Lover, and Frances Palmer's stoneware vases, all from 2020, at The Eliot Noyes House in New Canaan, CT
Daniel Steegmann Mangrané, untitled aluminum curtain, from 2020, at The Eliot Noyes House in New Canaan, CT