Department of Art

Gallery Opening

Meticulous

Methodical Approaches to Making Art 

On view Oct 24–Dec 8, 2024

Opening Reception:
Thurs, Oct 24, 2024, 6:00–8:00 pm


THE GALLERY at the Visual & Performing Arts Center
Western Connecticut State University
Westside Campus, 43 Lake Ave Extension, Danbury, CT 06811
Gallery Hours: Tues–Fri, 12–4, Sat–Sun, 1–4

This exhibit gathers artists who have a methodical approach to creating art as an aspect of their practice, employing specific systematic procedures, processes, and techniques in the act of creation. These approaches may lead the artist to utilize distinctive media or introduce distinct parameters to their practice, whether in the initial conception of an artwork or in the physical act of making. The methodology may or may not be conscious or by design; in either case it contributes to a compulsory, organic process that is unique to the artist. Participating artists work in a variety of media including assemblage, drawing, printmaking, painting, textiles, sculpture, and ceramics.

Darlene Charneco has developed a ritual process to create her pieces using hammered nails that create a tactile carpet of “hopes, wishes, and aspirations.” Kathy Greenwood works with salvaged textiles from her home and family life, painstakingly knotting and weaving scraps into new, fortified structures that harken to their previous domestic existence. Inspired by nature, Michiyo Ihara’s abstract pen and ink drawings metaphorically explore the dynamic yet transient nature of existence itself. Nathan Meltz uses experimental printmaking techniques that depict industrial and mechanical imagery in his multi-media works, highlighting technology’s ever-encroaching role in society. Aliyah Salmon has embraced the “slow craft” technique of hand tufted rug hooking, where she combines culturally relevant symbols from the Black/Caribbean community that reframe simplistic narratives of Black American femininity. Christopher Werner mines his own collection of studio, workshop, household, and other objects to create a personal nomenclature that he catalogues and categorizes in assemblage and sculpture.

An opening reception is scheduled for 6 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 24. at The Gallery at the Visual & Performing Arts Center, WCSU, 43 Lake Ave. Extension in Danbury. Regular gallery hours are Tuesday through Thursday 12-4 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday 1- 4 p.m. Admission to the reception and exhibition is free and open to the public; donations to support the programs of the Department of Art will be accepted. Reservations to attend the opening reception should be made online at www.wcsuvpac.eventbrite.com.

Darlene Charneco

Born in New York City, Darlene Charneco is a contemporary LatinX artist whose mixed-media artworks explore people, networks, homes, and communities as part of a larger organism’s growth stage. Her work has been exhibited throughout the United States at venues including the Katonah Museum, the Hunterdon Museum, The Islip Art Museum, and the Parrish Art Museum and is featured in the book ‘The Map as Art: Contemporary Artists Explore Cartography’ by Katherine Harmon.  She was awarded the 2017 Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant and is represented by PRAXIS, NYC. Charneco lives and works on the East End of Long Island. Her art is part of the Guild Hall and Parrish Museums permanent collections and she has created several large-scale commissions for private and national collections in Washington DC.

Kathy Greenwood

Kathy Greenwood is an artist and curator. Since 2016, she has served as the Director of Exhibitions and Programs at Albany International Airport – a public art program recognized nationally for the quality and scope of its presentations. Greenwood curates exhibitions for the Airport’s dedicated galleries, guides the selection and installation of numerous large-scale site-specific projects throughout the terminal, and coordinates multiple satellite museum exhibitions. She has been a guest speaker, juror, co-curator and contributor to many exhibitions and events in the Northeast region and throughout the US. Greenwood earned an MFA in textiles from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and a BS in Studio Art from the College of Saint Rose. Her paintings and sculptures are based in the structure and character of domestic textiles and the associations they invoke.

Michiyo Ihara

Japanese-born artist Michiyo Ihara uses only paper and pencil or pen and ink to create artwork that expresses the complexity of the universe, inviting viewers into a world where a plant's delicate beauty intertwines with the human spirit's ever-changing nature. Through meticulously crafted drawings, she creates a visual narrative that explores the profound connection between the fleeting moments of blossoming flowers and the evolving essence of the soul. Ihara lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.

Nathan Meltz

Nathan Meltz is the founder and curator of the Screenprint Biennial, celebrating its 10th anniversary with an exhibition at the Janet Turner Print Museum in Chico, CA through Dec. 13. He is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences, at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in Troy, NY. Meltz earned his MFA at the University of Albany in 2010 and uses collage, printmaking, animation and other graphic arts to comment on the ubiquitous presence of technology in contemporary life.

Aliyah Salmon

Aliyah Salmon earned her BFA in textile design from Savannah College of Art and Design in 2018 and currently resides and works in Brooklyn, NY. Her artistic focus investigates the intricate crossroads of black femininity and the Afro-Caribbean diaspora in contemporary America. Through textiles and collage, her work challenges and reframes simplistic narratives surrounding Black identity, while delving into themes like isolation, childhood, and the subconscious. Utilizing traditional textile methods like hand tufting with an Oxford punch needle and bead embroidery alongside modern materials and collage techniques, Salmon embraces “slow craft” to construct dream-like compositions featuring tufted depictions of symbols, products, and culturally significant items from the Black/Caribbean community, serving as shorthand for broader discussions on black femininity, hair politics, and diasporic experiences.

Christopher Werner

Christopher Werner grew up in Columbia County New York, where being in nature and working in his father’s construction business imbued him with a profound, experiential love for materials and process. He holds a BFA in Sculpture and Drawing from SUNY Purchase, and a BS in Chemical and Biological Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where he earned the Coonley Prize. Werner utilizes the synergistic benefits of these two disciplines in his studio practice, and as the Director of Engineering at Ecovative (Green Island NY), a mushroom mycelium technology company. He has been artist in residence at Rural Projects (Gallatin NY), GREEN Projects (New Orleans LA), SOLAQUA (Chatham NY), and Arts, Letters, & Numbers (Averill Park NY), and exhibits regionally.