New Haven – The City Gallery at 994 State Street is opening its doors to a city‑wide celebration of visual art. From now until Oct. 25, the gallery’s Open Studios @ City exhibition will display pieces by all 15 of its member artists, offering residents a rare chance to experience the full range of creative voices that call the gallery home.
Rita Hannafin’s three‑dimensional poppy
Hannafin’s quilted poppy floats above a background of seed motifs, giving the work a striking sense of depth. The vivid colors echo the historic use of poppies in Impressionist paintings and even the technicolor world of The Wizard of Oz. By using quilting as her medium, Hannafin turns a familiar floral subject into a tactile celebration of both flower and seed.
Meg Bloom’s “Arrhythmia”
Bloom’s piece hovers between painting and sculpture, its swirling forms suggesting disruption and fragmentation. In her artist statement she writes, “I experience contemporary life … as having continuity and fragmentation – things relating, being experienced but not always finding a common thread.” The work’s jagged edges and broken shapes convey a mixture of horror, beauty, terror and affirmation, reflecting the turbulent rhythm of modern life.
Beatriz Olson’s color‑rich canvases
Olson unites the palettes of Hannafin and Bloom, using blues, greens and grays that echo the poppy’s background while bringing her own figures to the foreground. She describes her work as moving “between magical realism and vibrant abstraction,” and says it “bridges abstraction, memory, and feminine expression.” Her paintings explore themes of migration, medicine, resilience and spiritual inquiry, turning lived experience into immersive spaces of healing and freedom.
Jennifer Davies’s fiber‑oriented wall hangings
Davies, trained as a painter and illustrator, now creates large wall hangings using hand‑made paper, indigo dyeing and traditional papermaking techniques from both Eastern and Western traditions. Her piece, titled “Phragmites,” offers a serene counterpoint to the more chaotic works on view, while still echoing the natural forms and textural interest that run through the exhibition.
Why the exhibition matters
Open Studios @ City runs alongside the city‑wide Open Studios New Haven celebration, a month‑long series of studio visits and events that span neighborhoods from Westville to Fair Haven. By featuring every member artist at once, the gallery gives New Haven residents a chance to see how individual perspectives intersect, converse and sometimes challenge one another. The exhibition underscores the importance of local arts as a unifying cultural thread in a city known for its academic institutions and historic neighborhoods.
Visitor information
The exhibition is free and open to the public daily through Oct. 25. Gallery hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., with additional evening hours on Thursdays. For those interested in meeting the artists, a series of studio‑talks and guided tours will be scheduled throughout the month; details can be found on the City Gallery website.
City Gallery continues its tradition of supporting local creators, providing a platform where art, community and conversation intersect.
Original reporting: New Haven Independent — read the source article.
