Forms of Connection

The Flinn Gallery is pleased to present Forms of Connection, the first show of the 2023-2024 season – our 95th season. The exhibition features the work of multimedia artists Jeila Gueramian and Tom Nussbaum, who invite viewers to immerse themselves in a world where surreal fantasy melds with cozy familiarity. Their fantastical pieces explore the imaginative interplay between the strange and the familiar through the use of color, texture, structure and immersive environments. With bright colors, simple forms and storybook imagery, their creations welcome us into a magical world, a playground for the imagination meant to evoke a sense of childlike wonder and awe. Forms of Connection runs for seven weeks from September 14th to November 1st and is curated by Leslee Asch, Maggie Dimock, and Dianne Niklaus.

Jeila Gueramian is a Brooklyn-based artist best known for her large-scale installations in which she connects and combines handmade or repurposed textiles including afghans and other stuffed objects. Through these installations she seeks to instill in the viewer a sense of immediacy, of being present in the moment, reminding us of how we experienced the world as a child. Her work is characterized by lush textures, bright colors and playful motifs. Gueramian began her career constructing props and costumes for film and theater. On the side, she collected vintage quilts, knits, stitched and crocheted artifacts out of which she fabricated inventive stuffed creatures. Her fantastical stuffed creations soon grew in size, eventually morphing into the elaborate, hand-crafted environments that now constitute her full-time artistic practice. She says, “I like to inspire exploration. I create alternate worlds and invite people to lose themselves in them: awaken their senses, feel like a kid, be in the moment, laugh or be a little scared, stop and ask a question, get involved in a fantasy, believe in the magical…The found materials I use… have a sense of comfort and help us recognize things that may have been a part of our childhood or past. This helps the viewer transport back to a time and place and feel those feelings all over again.”

Tom Nussbaum
Tom Nussbaum who lives and works in East Orange, New Jersey, is known for a large variety of works including sculpture, drawings, children’s books, functional design objects and large-scale public art projects. This exhibition showcases a selection of the artist’s more recent small and medium sized sculptural works. Nussbaum’s sculptural vocabulary is rooted in a methodological approach to architecture and objects. He says, “My main concern is to create forms that are personally meaningful and sculpturally inventive. The forms often reflect my keen interest in the architectural structures of buildings and towers, the container forms of ceramic vessels and baskets, the human figure, and the patterns and assemblages of quilts, fabrics and other textiles from around the world.” His free-standing sculptures are delicate in appearance, but made of sturdy materials: welded steel rods and wire, sometimes combined with wood, clay, epoxy, or paper. Predominantly linear, they evoke three-dimensional line doodles, or molecular wireframes. Nussbaum builds his pieces intuitively, using color and pattern in direct response to the forms he constructs, instilling a sense of rhythm, syncopation and variation in his works, similar to that found in music.

Events:
Opening reception: Thursday, September 14th from 6-8pm

Friends Friday Film
September 22 Hugo
5:30 - 6:45pm: Art Lounge in the Gallery
7:00 pm: Screening in the Berkley Theater

ARTIST TALKS:

Tom Nussbaum: October 15th at 2:00pm

Jeila Gueramian: October 22nd at 2:00pm

The Flinn Gallery is funded and sponsored by Friends of Greenwich Library. It is located on the second floor of the library at 101 West Putnam Avenue, Greenwich, CT. Gallery hours are Monday-Saturday 10am-5pm, Thursday 10am-8pm, and Sunday 1-5pm.

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