Gallery

Exhibits at Jorgensen

Jorgensen Gallery, located on the lower level of Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts, features exhibits by a wide variety of international and local artists. Jorgensen Gallery is open Monday through Friday from 11 am to 4 pm. The Gallery is open prior to and during most events.

Blake Shirley

Purple and Blender

Tues, Sept 8 – Thurs, Oct 15
Closing reception, Thurs, Oct 15, 6 pm

Prior to recital by

Alexei Volodin, piano
7:30 pm | Concert Talk 6:45 pm

The large-scale paintings in Blake Shirley’s exhibition Purple and Blender straddle that curious space between figuration’s story telling and abstraction’s emphasis on paint. Most of the imagery used such as vacuums, sofas, toasters, and clothes are grounded in, and engaged with everyday existence. They function as a meditation on our relationships to these objects that populate the world in which we live. In conjunction with the abstract use of paint and his process of application, erasure, layering, and ensuing obfuscation Shirley creates visual complexity as a parallel to our own infinitely layered existence. Blake Shirley grew up in New Mexico and received his BFA from the University of Utah and his MFA from the University of Connecticut in 2007. He currently teaches painting and drawing here at the University of Connecticut.

Brad Guarino

Man to Man

Thurs, Oct 29 – Fri, Dec 11
Opening Reception, Thurs, Oct 29, 6 pm

Imprecise Center of Gravity

Brad Guarino’s paintings and drawings confront issues of masculinity. They are narratives aimed at exploring the struggles that men face when trying to understand their own maleness and while attempting to connect with one another. Guarino is interested in the ways in which our cultural constructs of masculinity operate to both enhance and thwart bonds between men. His visual narratives employ humor and an implied sense of threat to emphasize the sometimes absurd preconceptions and behaviors that influence relationships between men. As an accomplished artist, Guarino has received many awards including: a Fulbright Fellowship, two Griffis and Orpheus Foundation fellowships and an Artist Fellowship program grant from the Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism. He has also won awards from the Society of American Graphic Artists and at Connecticut State Artist’s Exhibitions. Guarino holds an MFA from the University of Connecticut and a BFA from Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts. Guarino teaches painting and drawing at the University of Connecticut’s Storrs campus and lives and works in New London, Connecticut.