"I see things not as they are, but as they could be, mutable and available for transformation." - Joel Carreiro, artist

An artist's vision is unique, always provocative and often revelatory. It is the reason that Dr. Diana Mille, director of the Thomas J. Walsh Art Gallery at Fairfield University, sought out an unusual artist like Joel Carreiro. His exhibition, "Seeing Things," opens on Thursday, Sept. 23 and runs through Dec. 5. There will be an opening reception at which the artist will appear and to which the public is invited in the Gallery on Friday, Sept. 24 from 6-8 p.m. at the Quick Center for the Arts. The exhibition is part of the Arts & Minds season of events.

In this mid-career survey of the work of New York-based Carreiro, Mille finds a visual expression of her definition of the creative process: "it is ongoing, with art as a continuous dialogue between generations." She continues, "Joel Carreiro is a genius in the post-modern dialogue. While appropriating realistic fragments culled from his study of western art history - specifically the Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque periods - this artist transcribes these images into a kaleidoscopic tapestry informed by his skilled and abstract painting language."

Carreiro describes his work as an evolution, "from a close reading of cultural artifacts; paintings, drawings, decorative objects, from various times and cultures. The result is a slow emergence of other possible configurations hidden in these sources. I tease an image out of its original identity and coax it into a new one. Far from being an aggressive act or hostile take-over, I believe this process celebrates its sources and reveals hidden talents and the potential for new hybrid life."

Mille describes the effect of Carreiro's work as "being someplace you know, but don't know; he takes you to a place that is at once, familiar yet mysteriously unfamiliar."

In the exhibition's catalogue essay, Elinor M. Richter, associate professor in the art department of Hunter College, likens the artist to a Byzantine mosaicist, as he creates a grid that provides the underlying geometric structure so that he may "play off against the organic shapes that he prefers." The artist takes the images, copies them onto transfer paper to which heat is applied, thus releasing the wax coating and allowing the image to be absorbed into a porous panel support made of birch plywood, an updated process from that used to create tempera and panel paintings during the Renaissance. Richter supports the enchanting effect Carreiro's paintings achieve with a nod to the respect for his sources that is inherent in his work, "He always leaves enough of the original image in order to retain its associations."

Admission to the gallery is free. The hours are: Tuesday-Saturday 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sunday: Noon to 4 p.m. Closed Monday. The gallery is always open when performances occur at the Quick Center for the Arts.

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Directions: Fairfield University is located off I-95, exit 22 at 1073 North Benson Road, Fairfield, CT 06824. The Quick Center for the Arts and the Thomas J. Walsh Art Gallery is easily accessible through the 200 Barlow Road gate to the University.

Posted On: 08-12-2010 10:08 AM

Volume: 43 Number: 20