2024 New Members and Rhythm and Mood, a solo exhibition of Donna Forma’s sculpture
Just Gotta Roll with It, left, from Donna Forma’s Rhythm and Mood. From the New Members Exhibition, Snowfield by Paul Balmer, and Old Red Barn by Bess French.
NEW CANAAN, CT, Jan. 12, 2024—Silvermine Arts Center welcomes 38 new members into its historic Guild of Artists, with an exhibition presenting innovative work in a variety of mediums and styles. Opening with the New Members Exhibition is Donna Forma’s Rhythm and Mood, which features her evocative sculptures made of natural materials. Both exhibitions will run from Jan. 13 through Feb. 15. The public is invited to the opening reception on Sat., Jan. 20, from 2 to 4 p.m. in the Silvermine Galleries.
The New Members Exhibition features striking new takes on landscape and still life, a lush melding of geometric form and painterly color, and compelling new directions in figure painting. Paul Balmer, a New Canaan artist whose work has been shown internationally, explores still life and cityscapes. His finely wrought abstract painting on view at Silvermine reveals the influences of his roots in South Africa and Australia. Also from New Canaan is Constance Keller, who makes use of multiple exposures, abstract concepts, and materials at hand to add structure and layers to her photographic images. Carol Greenan Bouyoucos of Mt. Kisco, New York, draws on early American and European landscape painting for her lush and eerie scenes, but the added element of digital art, in her words, “conveys an uncertainty about our environmental future.” Sculptor Bess French of Springfield, Vermont, sculpts miniature New England landscapes on concrete forms, which are hand-mixed with local aggregates. Her work is imbued with a sense of place and a reverence for the stories that everyday objects can tell.
Alicia Gonzalez of Mahopac, New York, is a second-generation Silvermine artist, 
the daughter of two Guild members, Adrienne Cullom and the late Sergio Gonzalez-Tornero. She created a collage and then painted the image of the collage onto canvas. Its radial structure is full of animals and figures, and the result is a detailed, playful, and choreographed movement of balance and order.
Silvermine has been a place for artists to gather since 1906 when sculptor Solon Borglum moved to the area and held weekly critiques and annual exhibitions in his studio. Since that time, Guild membership has grown to over 300 nationally and internationally exhibiting artists. The Silvermine Guild has included such renowned artists as Abe Ajay, James Daugherty, Carlus Dyer, James Flora, James Grashow, Robert Kaupelis, Alice Neel, Gabor Peterdi, Charles Reiffel, James Rosenquist, and honorary member Faith Ringgold.
Since its inception, Guild membership has been a selective peer jurying process. As a result, the Guild has held its membership to high standards. Many members have work represented in permanent collections of some of the world’s most prestigious museums, as well as prominent private and corporate collections. This exhibition offers visitors an opportunity to engage with the newest members of this dynamic community of professional artists and learn about their works.
Donna Forma: Rhythm and Mood
Donna Forma’s organic forms, shaped by the artist’s hands, represent, in her words, “life or aspects of it, thousands of fragile parts woven, melding, overlapping layer upon layer upon layer.” A list of her materials—roots, resin, wood, gold mica, and glass—evokes the abundance of the natural world. Her pieces, both large and small scale, can seem ominous or full of exaltation and wonder. “Nest, cocoon, shelter, it is as if I am the insect,” she writes, “doing my part in creating that form that contains and surrounds, allowing my works and me to be grafted.” The title Rhythm and Mood represents her desire with her sculptures to engage the viewer to feel the flow, movement, and beauty of nature. She hopes this will lead to an appreciation and love of nature, as well as an understanding of the vital importance of nature’s protection. Forma is an acclaimed Connecticut artist who taught sculpture at the Hartford Art School during the 1990s and 2000s.
Both the New Members Exhibition and Donna Forma’s Rhythm and Mood will be open through Feb. 15, and the Silvermine Galleries are open Tues. through Sat. 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
2024 New Members to the Silvermine Guild of Artists
Aysha Akhtar, Gaithersburg, MD
Paul Balmer, New Canaan, CT
Dunia Barrera, Munich, Germany
Pernel Berkeley, Danbury, CT
Stacy Bogdonoff, New York, NY
Carol Greenan Bouyoucos, Mt. Kisco, NY
Debra Burger, Danbury, CT
Joan Cox, Baltimore, MD
Gary Cruz, New York, NY
Frances Eber, Norwalk, CT
Jane Ehrlich, Hudson, NY
Howard el-Yasin, Hamden, CT
Katherine Evans, Norwalk, CT
Lisa Lee Freeman, Valhalla, NY
Bess French, Springfield, VT
Alicia Gonzalez, Mahopac, NY
Inness Hancock, Bedford, NY
Debbie Hesse, Branford, CT
William Holub, Old Lyme, CT
Blinn Jacobs, Branford, CT
Christopher Jones, Norwalk, CT
Constance Keller, New Canaan, CT
Brigid Kennedy, Wethersfield, CT
Corinne Lapin-Cohen, Katonah, NY
Winston Lee Mascarenhas, Mountain Park, NM
Paola Page, West Redding, CT
Kevin Quiles Bonilla, New York, NY
Michele Riche, Ridgefield, CT
Michael Rohde, Thousand Oaks, CA
Jack Rosenberg, Washington Depot, CT
Alicia Rothman, Brooklyn, NY
Marybeth Rothman, Closter, NJ
K. Sarrantonio, Jackson Heights, NY
Susan Siegel, Woodstock, NY
Susan Stang, Norwalk, CT
Jodi Steifel, Newtown, CT
Lawre Stone, Ghent, NY
Ryan Van Der Hout, Queens, NY
