NEW CANAAN, CT, April 10, 2024—Silvermine Galleries will celebrate the opening of the Instructors Salon, Slipstream, and Sergio Gonzalez Tornero-1927-2020 on April 13. This year’s installment of the annual Salon features new work by Silvermine’s esteemed instructors and reflects the broad range of styles, mediums, and conceptual approaches being taught at the Silvermine School of Art. Slipstream is Elizabeth Gilfilen’s solo exhibition of her acclaimed abstract paintings and Sergio Gonzalez Tornero is a solo exhibition of a collection of extraordinary works from his estate. Silvermine invites the public to the opening reception on Sat., April 13, 2–4 p.m. Both exhibitions run through May 16.
“Since the first class taught in 1924, education has been an important part of our mission. Our instructors include artists who are represented in the permanent collections of museums, corporations, and other private collections,” said Barbara Linarducci, CEO of Silvermine.
The Instructors Salon shows a wide range of innovative approaches to painting, drawing, ceramics, sculpture, mixed media, and printmaking. Heidi Harrington’s portraits in oil on canvas show her skill with subtly rendered faces and expressions. Paola Page’s works in pastel feature ribbon-like forms that combine a sense of spatial dynamics with meditative movement. For her atmospheric paintings of sky and clouds, Jill Nichols uses an aluminum substrate to enhance the complex play of color and light. 
Sculptor Justin Perlman continues his exquisite explorations into the gestural language of human form. The show is a visual feast—and for those interested in classes and workshops, an excellent introduction to the School of Art and its more than 1,100 offerings.
Featured artists include Martha Bloom, Gail Bradshaw, Timothy Cronin, Andrew Davis, Bruce Dunbar, Zach Dunn, Frances Eber, Dean Fisher, C.J. Guerin, Heidi Harrington, Evelyn Harvey, Maureen Henriques, Nash Hyon, Maj Kalfus, Natasha Karpinskia, Eric Jiaju Lee, Wendy MacCordy, Alex McFarlane, Andrew Murdoch, Julia Murphy, Jill Nichols, Paola Page, Bridget Pavalov, Justin Perlman, Shizue Pleasanton, Jon Puzzuoli, Josephine Robinson, Karen Siegel, Nomi Silverman, Eric Urquhart, Justin Wiest, and Dmitri Wright.
Slipstream, a solo exhibition of works by Elizabeth Gilfilen
Winner of the Board Chair Grand Prize from the 72nd A•ONE Exhibition, Elizabeth Gilfilen has been included in group shows at Morgan Lehman Gallery, Kathryn Markel Fine Arts, The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, and the Bronx Museum, among others. Her solo exhibition at Silvermine, Slipstream, opens on Sat., April 13 and runs through May 16.
An artist who works on paper and canvas, Gilfilen sees painting as “a spontaneous activity in which the material properties of paint—its slipperiness, opacity and viscosity—are put into an uneasy tension with legibility.” She begins with “a layering of mottled color that creates a light or staging.” She creates structure and hints at recognizable forms, leaving a trace of her presence as she moves “with and behind my brush.” Gilfilen takes full advantage of her medium and gives it full rein. “I think of these paintings as both mineral and pigment,” she writes, “rich, yet connected to the sopping liquidity of paint.”
Gilfilen, who is based in New York, received her B.F.A from the College of D.A.A.P. at the University of Cincinnati and her M.F.A in Painting & Printmaking at Virginia Commonwealth University. Reviews of her work have appeared in ArtSpiel, Two Coats of Paint, The New Criterion, The Boston Globe, The Newark Star-Ledger and The New York Times.
Sergio Gonzalez -Tornero, 1927-2020, a solo exhibition of 13 extraordinary works.
In the 1975 exhibit catalog at the Gruenebaum Gallery, Ltd. NYC. Thomas Gruenebaum wrote: “In these elegant, powerful oils one can appreciate his masterful technique. His transition from the the printed medium to the painted one gives a new dimension to a vision which grows in strength and originality with each canvas. His world is a surrealistic one with strong roots in the past, evoking thoughts of Hieronymus Bosch and Francisco Goya as they might have viewed our modern world. His paintings intrigue and fascinate, composing strangely beautiful and mysterious images never before seen.”
Gonzalez-Tornero’s original etchings and aquatints have been the subject of over 53 solo exhibitions in Chile, the United States, Canada, Italy, Germany, and France. His art is represented in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Bronx and Brooklyn Museums, the New York Public Library, and the Museum of Modern Art. His contributions to the art world have been acknowledged with a fellowship from the New York State Foundation for the Arts in 1987 and a grant from the Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation in 1990. He was a respected member of the Society of American Graphic Artists, Boston Printmakers, Philadelphia Print Club, and Silvermine Guild of Artists.
View online by clicking here and visit in person. This exhibition is on view April 13-May 16. Galleries are open Tuesday – Saturday, 10am-4pm.
