the phoenix

WARP & WEFT

JANUARY 5TH-MARCH 29TH

WATERBURY STUDIOS

athena tasiopoulos: saunter

february 2nd-april 26th

steve budington: call shore

OCTOBER 6TH-DECEMBER 29TH, 2023

The Hesterly Black (upstairs gallery at Waterbury Studios above The Phoenix in Waterbury, Vt)

Opening reception was Friday, October 6th, 2023.

Curator’s Statement

“I want all of the rich historical colorations to be manifest in talking about our finitude.” The philosopher Cornel West speaks these words in the back of a taxi cab being driven around Manhattan for Astra Taylor’s “philosophy-in-the-street” documentary Examined Life. As the yellow checkered cab weaves it way past a U-Haul truck unloading yet to be clothed mannequins for a window display, West goes on to distinguish between the too abstract concept of “death” favored by Martin Heidegger in favor of John Donne’s “corpses.” “That’s what Bluesmen do. That’s what Jazz men do. They start with catastrophe, the wreckage of history, the funk of life!” West intones, jaw up, eyes smiling-wide, perched erect on the edge of the back seat.

Steve Budington’s paintings sit similarly on the wall: angular, elbows-out shapes and colors draw and discomfit the eye, while the no less stunning folds of nautical warning flags—a visual theme in most of these works—hold and hide the peril lurking here; our finitude and the catastrophe inherent in our late modern verge-of-apocalypse-feeling world. But to focus only on the peril is to miss the hope that equally rears its head here—these works, our land, the thrill of existing at all, all of it is so goddamned beautiful. And so we are left to wonder alongside these paintings, without answers, warning flag in hand, vigilantly searching the wild horizon for a bobbing light coming from the shore. 

—Joseph Pensak

Artist Statement

I make work in and about landscapes. Maritime signal flags in recent paintings of mine indicate messages like “man overboard,” “call shore,” or “I am trying to communicate with you.” These flags, resembling twentieth-century abstractions in primary colors, were used to communicate emergency, uncertainty at sea, or navigational intention. Like wind maps, elevation charts, and other informational signage, they suggest ongoing or predictive experiences in the natural world, including its beauty and precarity.

My work emphasizes the physical, symbolic, and optical qualities of paintings; stacked canvases in relief, framing elements, window-like forms, cultural and experiential use of color, signage, and changes in facture and surface. These forms constitute an abstract aesthetic framework that embodies analogs to contemporary visual communication; what is physically real and what is illusion? What reveals and what obscures? What’s fixed and what’s in flux? I work to locate an experience of the natural world within these representational and symbolic systems. 

Bio

STEVE BUDINGTON received an MFA in painting and printmaking from the Yale School of Art and a BFA in painting and art history from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, with additional studies at the New York Studio School of Drawing, Painting, and Sculpture. Budington has shared his work nationally and internationally, including exhibitions in Vienna, Austria, at the ClubClub Wien; in New York, at Dorsky Gallery Curatorial Programs, Fordham University, and Exit Art; San Francisco, at the Mirus Gallery; Los Angeles, at Whittier College; and in Italy, at the Fondazione Ambrosetti Arte Contemporanea. Closer to his Vermont home the artist has shared work at the Hall Art Foundation in Reading Vermont, the BCA Center, and the Phoenix Gallery in Waterbury. Budington received a Vermont Arts Council Creation Grant in 2019-20 and has been awarded residencies at the Hotel Pupik in Schrattenberg, Austria, the Monhegan Island Artist in Residence, in Maine, and a full fellowship to the Vermont Studio Center. The artist has taught as an Assistant Professor at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, The Herron School of Art and Design in Indianapolis, and currently at the University of Vermont, where he is Associate Professor of Painting and Drawing. Outside of his teaching and studio work, Budington creates improvised music with a Middlebury-based collective, volunteers as an extension master gardener, and designs landscapes and gardens. The artist lives with his family in Shelburne, Vermont.   

TRYSTAN BATES: THE STARLING SYMPHONY

september 8th-november 17th, 2023

Opening reception was Friday, September 8th, 2023

About the artist

Trystan Bates is a graduate of Parsons University and the Gerrit Rietveld Acadamie in Amsterdam NL. Following his education, Trystan worked for several years in New York City as an Editorial Illustrator before accepting a position at Felissimo Design House and Museum in NY where he was the Curator and General Manager of the four floor exhibition space. In the early 2000’s Trystan relocated to Buenos Aires where he focused on the development of his studio practice. His work was included in numerous publications, crossover collaborations with large companies such as Coca Cola, Adidas and streetwear brand PURO and in international exhibitions throughout South America, the United States, Australia and Europe. 

While in Buenos Aires Trystan worked towards building opportunities for local artists and the creative community who were struggling to recover following a national economic collapse. Through these efforts he founded a large artist collective called Honeycomb Arts. Honeycomb became a local incubator for creativity and enabled him to manage and grow the careers of highly talented artists, build cultural bridges between Latin America, Europe and the US and create accessible programming for the local community. 

In 2008 Trystan opened Honeycomb Showroom in Buenos Aires where he curated and presented exhibitions of highly acclaimed young artists hailing from Argentina and Latin America. He built a residency program that took groups of artists into rural locations, such as the comarca of Guna Yala to learn from ancient and indigenous culture. He also built residencies that would bring American artists to Buenos Aires to collaborate with local creators and present their work for the first time in Latin America. In 2013 Honeycomb expanded into Honeycomb Gallery. 

With increased space came increased potential and the ability to expand his artist stable to include more artists from abroad. The space allowed Trystan to connect people from across the world and encourage creative bonds while also programming more activities, artist lectures, studio visits, workshops and collaborations in which the local community could become directly involved with the artists whom were showcased. 

In 2018 Trystan returned to the United States and settled in Vermont. He has over the past few years been focused on continuing to develop his studio practice. He is busy creating work for upcoming exhibitions, acting as collections manager at the Londonderry Arts and Historic Society and running Double Vision Editions, A small bespoke art publishing / printing company that works with artists to print exciting and accessible collections. 

Trystan currently lives and works in Southern Vermont.

EXHIBITION CONCEPT 

The Starling is a most curious creature. The small bird is part collector and part madcap composer. With a highly developed echoic memory, the Starling spends its day exploring its environment and taking sonic snapshots of sounds it encounters. It then takes these snippets and combines it into a birdsong that is truly unique and magical. Each Starlings song is completely their own and is an audial record of their entire life. Often times the result is an eclectic mash up where one can note in addition to other birds signature songs, human words, electronic sounds, musical samples, or car alarms.

We as humans are very much like the Starling. We travel through our lives encountering other people, facing challenges, enjoying beautiful moments, learning and evolving. We take mental notes of the things that are of personal significance and carry those memories with us. The echos of these experiences are crucial to our growth and development. They help us develop mentally and emotionally, inform us of our likes and dislikes, teach us how to build relationships and define our individual personalities. Our memories, and that what we hold on to is a major part of what makes us special. 

"The Starling Symphony" is inspired by the behavior and creativity of the Starling, it is an abstract examination of the way in which we process, assimilate and store information. The show is presented in five movements: "Icons". "Jawbreakers". "Crystallization" "Convergence", and "Birdsong". Each of these features a series that focuses on a different aspect of this process and invites viewers to consider how they gather, transform and utilize information collected from their environments and experiences.

THE MOVEMENTS

Movement 01 / ICONS

A series of collages that showcase individual elements in a simplified, raw form. Basic shapes that become the basis for all the other work in the exhibit are highlighted and honored in this group. To the artist, the shapes which are referred to as icons have individual meanings and symbolic significance to singular experiences, moments or emotions.

Movement 02 / JAWBREAKERS

A group of monotone, layered, papercut sculptures where viewers can see the information presented in Movement 01 in another context. Depth, dimension and obstruction are the theme of this work. The pieces are representative of moments in which the full value of an experience is not seen upfront or at first glance. Instead, one must dig to find the wisdom and meaning.

Movement 03 / CRYSTALLIZATION

Atriptych of acrylic sculptures. These pieces like those in Movement 02 are also layered, but in this case they are transluscent thus allowing one to see through the entire piece at first glance without any obstruction. The translucent layers work together, changing the color values of overlapping areas while also reflecting a two dimensional rendering of the composition on the wall surface. Pieces in this series represent moments in which we find clarity and enlightenment. They are symbolic of instances where all of the pieces we have gathered fit together perfectly with a clear purpose.

Movement 04 / CONVERGENCE

A series of mixed media collages and wooden assemblages. Movement 04 is the most active of the exhibition. Artwork is non symmetrical and full of implied motion with some pieces falling into place seamlessly and others still struggling to find their spot. This group of work is symbolic of the final moments of the assimilation of information, where we have just discarded that which is not useful and are incorporating that what is into our final "song"

Movement 05 / BIRDSONG

A suite of five hand pulled prints that incorporate the themes of the other four movements and play with the idea of repetition and rhythm. The prints are available in a limited edition of 25 copies.

ART IS CANDY | June 23rd-August 18th, 2023

WILL PATLOVE

STEVE BUDINGTON

ATHENA TASIOPOULOS

WILL GEBHARD

FRANK TAMASI

Opening reception for ART IS CANDY at The Phoenix was on Friday, June 23rd, 5-8pm. This reception coincided with the first “Music In the Alley” concert of the summer, Freeway Clyde [Michael Chorney], presented by TURNmusic, 6-9pm.

Curator’s Statement

ART IS CANDY for the child within us. It’s just that some candy is licorice, which is objectively horrible, as everyone with good sense knows. Sometimes though, life is objectively horrible, and all candy can’t be Pop Rocks. The sourness that puckers the lips and turns the face inside out, if you stick with it, can take you on quite a ride and open you up to a few new things if you let it (sour people can sometimes do the same). We’re all terrible wonders/wonderful terrors anyway—the best of us have fatal flaws and the worst of us can’t avoid stumbling into some tenderness. Gorgeous art, challenging art, sour art, even licorice art are all desperately needed for our souls to have a shot at making it through this sometimes terrible, sometimes wonderful human experience. And art is for everyone, it’s just that somewhere down the line we forgot that kid inside us and started saying ignorant things like “my kid could draw that.” Yes your kid could draw that, if you would let them. 

This group show brings together five artists using color, line, and architectural elements to bend and stretch the canvas (and the viewer with it) toward an otherness of dimensionality through a delightful play with forms. Cutouts are common in these pieces, and we are called to wander where the colors are and are not. In each picture there are rooms to ruminate in, doors to open, envelopes to lick shut, buttons to press, and portals to jump through or ponder (we’re using our imaginations, not our fingers or tongues, but the tactile desire these paintings elicit is real). There are balances and symmetries, but also slants, tilts, tripwires and trapdoors. Notice the emotions that the colors surface and sit with them—there is transcendent warm joy here, cold unease, and wild leaping abandon. Feel how the shapes push out and off the wall and seem to float in their own little worlds. If art is candy for the child within, these artists invite us to taste and imagine another world of possibilities.

-Joseph Pensak

the artists of ART IS CANDY

Will Patlove @willpatlove.art

Steve Budington @stevebudingtonstudio

Athena Tasiopoulos @athenapetra

Will Gebhard @will_gebhard

Frank Tamasi @franktpsyche

WATERBURY STUDIOS PRESENTS

CYANOTYPICAL: BLUEPRINT PORTRAITS BENJAMIN ALESHIRE

June 16th-August 17th, 2023

opening reception with open studios

Friday, June 16th, 2023, 5-8pm

Poetry reading by Benjamin Aleshire and Skye Jackson, 7pm at the receptioN

Artist talk with Benjamin Aleshire

June 23rd, 7pm

Image Credit: This portrait of the artist and activist Molly Crabapple in her studio in Brooklyn was shot this April on medium format 120 film and printed in the sunlight from enlarged negatives as cyanotypes, at 24x24", onto cotton fabric.

To create these striking photographs, Benjamin employs the same basic chemistry formula that was invented in 1842 by Sir John Herschel, which was used primarily to create architectural blueprints. An emulsion of ferric ammonium citrate and potassium ferricyanide, when mixed together, becomes sensitive to ultraviolet light. After exposure in sunlight, the prints are washed in water, leaving only the ferric ferrocyanide (Prussian Blue pigment) behind.

LEARN MORE ABOUT THE ARTIST AND HIS WORK AT:

WWW.CYANOPORTRAITURE.COM

IG @BENJAMIN_ALESHIRE

Viewings by appointment (email us) and open during events at The Phoenix Gallery & Music Hall (downstairs)

WATERBURY STUDIOS PRESENTS

SIDE BY SIDE

COLLABORATIVE PRINTS

GREGG BLASDEL AND JENNIFER KOCH

MARCH 24TH-APRIL 1ST, 2023

Opening reception was Friday, March 24th, 2023