For Immediate Release Contact: Pamela Siemon, 203.263.3449

Woodbury, CT - Fenn Gallery kicks off its Spring Season with Pattern Play, running from March 31st - May 13th, and features porcelain sculpture by Diana Chamberlain and oil paintings by Anne Hebebrand. The public is invited to the Artist Reception on Saturday, March 31st from 4-6 pm.

Chamberlain’s clear-glazed porcelain sculptures relate to either dress, and what it communicates about us, or architecture, and the idea of shelter. Clothing and architecture are variations on shapes that enclose and protect the body. Porcelain can mimic the softness of fabric and the hardness of building material. Clothing can resemble architecture, as in 18th century French court dress, armor and Japanese kimonos. Likewise, architecture may resemble clothing, as in molded and tented structures; in the organic folds of Frank Gehry’s buildings and in lavish Rococo architectural detail.

Among the dress forms on display is the shift, from which all dresses derive. It is the garment of christenings and confirmations, of young girls and weddings. It was worn under medieval robes and by Anne Boleyn and Marie Antoinette at their execution, and is finally the shroud. Houses denote stability, make us less vulnerable and infer respectability. With global instability, from war or natural disaster, comes homelessness. When buildings are destroyed, more than structures fall. Chamberlain’s broken house series depict buildings that have been breached by calamity, as well as the makeshift replacement “homes”.

Hebebrand’s work is respected by many due to her mastery of softly modulated abstract compositions which at times may include a land/seascape reference. Her observations of subtle light and color changes find their way into her paintings in unplanned ways. The content of her work is part conscious construct and part intuitive expression, and goes beyond capturing the beauty in the everyday to search for something more ineffable. Blue predominates in her recent work. For Jung, blue symbolized tranquility; for Goethe, deep understanding, and in various religous traditions, eternity. To achieve her richly textured surfaces, Hebebrand begins with canvas or gessoed paper, sometimes toned with graphite powder, and paints, scrapes, overlays and reapplies color, often employing tools from the hardware store.

Hebebrand’s work has been selected for juried exhibitions in the New Britain Museum of Art and the Mattatuck Museum, and received First Place in the CT Women Artists Juried Exhibition at the Slater Memorial Museum of Art. She is on the adjunct faculty at two CT colleges, and teaches at the Wadsworth Athenuem. ###