2025 ELY CENTER EXHIBITS
THE ELY CENTER IS STARTING 2025 OFF WITH A BANG AND A VARIETY OF NEW EXHIBITS & EVENTS.
Graphics Courtesy of ECOCA
The ELY Center opened its doors and the new year to a new group of budding artists, offering their space for solo exhibitions and events through the winter season. An open call for 2025 exhibits is also in the works, curated by ECOCA’s Jared Quinton, submissions will be accepted through March 16th, offering new artists an opportunity to be featured in the gallery. The gallery-featured exhibitions, running from January 19th to February 23rd, are as follows-
Graphics Courtesy of ECOCA
Florenciendo en La Obscuridad:
“The culminating exhibition of our Fall ‘24 Keyhole Workspace Artists in Residence: Scott Azevedo, Miguel Mendoza & Odette Chavez-Mayo. Serendipity emerged throughout the residency, as the artists found unexpected moments of overlap in their work and life, especially through their shared heritage. Mendoza was born and raised in Mexico, only moving to the States in adulthood; Chavez-Mayo was born in Mexico and raised in Texas, and Azevedo is American-born and has been chipping away at the mysteries of his Mexican grandparents. Despite working with very different aesthetics, the three found connections in their stories and iconography. Florenciendo en La Obscuridad presents their search for family connections - new, old, and imagined.”
“Krystyna Printup (Tuscarora Nation, Turtle Clan with European ancestry) is a Brooklyn-based artist and educator. She has a land acknowledgement installation in our Entryway Project Room as well as a series of 12 gouache portraits on view. Printup takes historical facts and personal family histories to create these 19th century style portraits.”
Graphics Courtesy of ECOCA
“Perla Mabel (they/them) is an Afro-Caribbean interdisciplinary artist born in Boston, but grew up both there and in the Dominican Republic. Channeling themes of survival and recalling historical events and figures from their culture, their practice reclaims their Blackness by incorporating satin fabrics used in Santeria rituals. Along with beads, cowries, and various objects in their paintings and installations to incorporate generationally passed down ways of adornment. If you look for her, Santa Marta appears through snakes and hues of the water. Mabel cultivates safe spaces for their sitters and hosts free creative wellness workshops since 2019. They imbue portraiture with empowerment by documenting and caring for the narratives of light.”
Graphics Courtesy of ECOCA
“This exhibition of 5 large photographs by Hartford-based artist Peter Brown was curated by David Borawski, who is a member of our Curatorial Advisory Committee. This year we have started a new series of 3 exhibitions that are put on specifically by this committee. This committee is made up of artists and curators who voluntarily meet monthly and dedicate their time to sharing ideas and support behind the scenes here at Ely. Brown's photographs in Through a Glass Darkly start off as seemingly bold, abstract color patterns, but after you spend some time looking, you realize you recognize moments and objects and the work draws you in.”
Graphics Courtesy of ECOCA
In September the Ely transformed one of its gallery spaces into a Flat File Gallery and Reading Room. The third of these new exhibitions is a solo for printmaker Kristi Arnold. She works in woodcuts and as part of an education component to this space, also shared the wooden plates used to create one of these prints that viewers are allowed to pick up and touch in order to understand more about how prints are made. This exhibition is curated by Hartford-based artist/educator John O’Donnell.
Art by Kristi Arnold
Take time to check out each exhibit, ECOCA never disappoints, and keep an eye out for updates on their open call and their closing receptions for an opportunity to hear the artists and curators speak.
